Is it just me, or does it seem weird that Moleskine is going to be adding a line of photo books to their already mega popular notebook line. Available in 20 pages and a Moleskine Photo Book Plus version that has 60 pages, they are teaming up with MILK photo books. Buyers can customize these hard cover Moleskine-esque books with their own photos include the cover image. The photo books mimic Moleskine notebooks by providing the well known elastic band and pocket attached to the back cover. These print on demand photo books will be available soon and can be pre-ordered now for $37.50 – $74.95. A bonus notebook is included with each pre-order.
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This service is absolutely terrible. I used it and it’s basically a scam if you’re concerned with value and quality.
It has the gorgeous Moleskine notebook thing going for it, but the actual prints themselves are grainy and distorted. The paper is nice; the presentation is great. But you pay $110 for shit quality images. To get a sense of just how bad it is, I shot with a DSLR and these prints look like cellphone pictures. Mind you, this is far above the market price of $30. In other services, you get much larger sizes, more photos, better quality, for 1/3 of the price.
I tried to have my concerns addressed by customer service and they sidelined me for two weeks, saying that they would “get someone as soon as possible”. I e-mailed them for a follow-up and I was basically ignored. To make matters worse, I used their “in browser” building system, ran into trouble, and had absolutely no help. I had to buy a photo book in the best interests of time for the Holiday season and the thought that I would at least get some sort of help. Now I’m out $110 and customer service is just leaving me out to dry. I’m patient, but I’m not a jackass.
FedEx tracking says these things originate from China, which suggests that their process isn’t even concerned with quality in the first place. It’s nowhere near as they claim to market it to be.
Buyer beware. Stay as far away from this as you can.
To put my comments into context: I’m a huge fan of Moleskine products and I chose this over the competition because I wanted to have the best quality for this photo book as it was a gift. This experience has not only completely disappointed me in that regard, but it has seriously soured my perception of the brand.
Moleskine Fan,
Thank you for your review. You saved me a lot of heartache, as I was seriously pondering a purchase of Moleskine-Milk photo book, with the aim if getting not only one of the best quality bound books, but also good quality printing. But after reading your review it’s clear that the printing stinks, so I’ll pass.
I’ve heard that Apple offers about the highest quality printing available for its photo books. Have you tried them?
Just received my first two moleskine classic printed books in the post – two copies of the same book. Utterly disappointed.
1) Colour calibration was perfect on one, horrendous on the other with a cyan tint making black and white images look green (I know it was not my fault because one of the books was fine!)
2) Binding was bad. One of the books wasn’t even straight. Both of them had at least one page where the binding came too far into the page, showing the threads and glue spots in a very untidy way.
3) Page creases – including the front cover (also the sticker on the front cover looks lame and I don’t see it remaining intact). Sadly 3 pages on the correctly colour calibrated book were creased diagonally across the pages.
4) The edges of the pages looked and felt like they had been cut with a blunt saw.
5) Black ink smudges on two corners – where is the quality control?
6) Poor finish of the bookmark (not cut with a heated implement as the regular moleskine notebooks are, so the photobook bookmark is already showing signs of fray).
Holding a normal moleskin in your hand, the quality does feel inferior in the photobooks. I love moleskine and have used them for years. I love the idea of moleskine photobooks but they have not produced it well, the actual product you feel in your hands is certainly not the moleskine quality I was expecting.
For the price I certainly won’t be ordering any more until the quality improves.