Snapfish

£39 www.snapfish.co.uk

We had high hopes for this book, as the design process was one of the most painless we tried. The online Snapfish book creator is fast, intuitive, and a pleasure to use, with plenty of useful page layout templates and none of the gimmicky looks flaunted by some. Delivery was quick, too, taking four working days.

Sadly, the book the postman delivered wasn’t worth the wait. Our hardback gloss cover image, though vibrant, is far too dark, completely obscuring any shadow detail. To add insult to injury, the image is misaligned, leaving an unsightly tapering white border along the top and right edges of the cover.

Delve inside and things don’t get much better. The matte lay-flat paper is very nice, but the dark, underexposed print quality affects every image, obliterating shadows and causing skin tones to appear sunburnt. Monochrome photos are murky and show a slight cyan cast, while our test pattern exhibited signs of gradient banding and other strange artefacts. We could go on!

VERDICT

Pros: Class-leading online designer software; swift delivery; decent paper Cons: Dreadful quality; mistakes show lack of quality control We say: Steer clear for right now