Saal Digital recently gave the team here at v1images the opportunity to test one of their Photobook products. We opted for a 26 Page Photobook for this product review.
Design Software
We were very impressed with the design software Saal Digital enables its customers to download and use to create the design and layout of the Photobook from the comfort of their own home. You can use it to manually design your own page layouts or you can use the extensive catalogue of pre-configured page layouts to suit your own needs. What we found great was the variation in different page layouts and numbers of images per page, including the ability to add your own text anywhere you wished.
The very user-friendly interface of the Saal Digital software.
Bleed markers in the application came in handy to ensure no clipping of the images selected to be in the Photobook meaning we could be very precise on where the image would sit on the page as it would be edge to edge printed. We opted for a single image in a 3:2 aspect ration per double-page spread with the remaining area filled with text details about the aircraft in the image.
Once you finalise your design you can then continue to use the Saal Digital application to process and submit your order to them, ensuring a smooth and seamless experience. Shipping via DHL to the UK was also only £4.95 which is very reasonable. It also took less than a week to receive the final product from Germany after submitting the order which is incredibly quick.
The Photobook Product
First impressions of the Photobook certainly gave us the WOW factor. It is always great to see your own images in print form but in book form, it really was the next level. We didn’t utilise the Saal Digital ICC print profile which they do offer to download from their website however even considering this the colour and vibrancy from the High-Res JPEG we supplied was directly replicated in the Photobook just as we intended with the edit of each image. The page thickness felt very nice, and I didn’t notice any fingerprints on the pages after quite a few uses.
We chose a glossy photo finish, which is fantastic for a full-page image as it really gives a photo album feel, in book form. I would have been interested to also see how a Matt finish would look across the same product so maybe next time this is what we will try. Despite the images spread over 2 pages the seam in the centre is barely noticeable, certainly, no detail is missing or cut from the image.
We opted for 2/3 of the spread covered by a 3:2 image and 1/3 of the spread with image information.
We shared the Photobook around a few of our close clients as well as friends and overall feedback from everybody was very very positive about the product. Certainly, everybody commented on how high the product quality standards were as well as how precise the print job on each page was.
Verdict
Considering all aspects of the creation/order process as well as the overall quality of the product we would not hesitate to recommend Saal Digital for Photobook needs in the future. It is great for us here at v1images Aviation Media Group to add new suppliers of products for our own clients and I am certain that we should see a lot more products supplied by Saal Digital sold through our store very soon!
