I've been very pleased. The results depend on how much you pay. If you're looking for something to use professionally you're going to be more picky than I am. My advice would be, do one just for fun - they make wonderful presents - and you'll learn what you need to improve to produce one as a portfolio.

I've used Kodak for my parents, they were very happy, and I've seen a friend's iPhoto one which was also very good.

for a book of holiday photos as a present for my parents, and was quite pleased with it. Next time, I'll change the layout so there is more of a border at the spine instead of filling the whole page, but apart from that it was ok.

...were very good

It was a freebie - I was given a voucher when I bought a big camera and had nothing to lose.

I have seen comparisons of the services in magazines and Jessops never scored quite as highly as the others. I haven't used any others so can't do a comparison, but if Jessops is supposed to be not-so-good then they must all be OK because I was quite pleased with the result.

I found it easy to use and the results looked good too.

One tip though - go for one of the cheap options first (soft cover, smaller size, not too many pages) to get an idea of what will work and what won't. Although i was happy with the result I would do it differently next time now that I can see how it translates to paper.

Great software to put the books together, and gorgeous results. I've done a few books with them now and I've been thrilled with everything; I've also used photobox and qoop in the past, but feel blurb are the best, I won't use anyone else now!

Their books are beautiful quality. I suspect they'd be right up your street. AND they're currently doing 20% off and free shipping. I'm not on commission, honest! I just happen to think they're great.

http://www.blurb.com/

Are my recommendation, I've tried a couple of others but none even come close to the quality or the sheer amount of flexibility. Haven't heard of Blurb, mind - they sound good...

Pixmania are pretty reliable. We use them for family presents etc.

it was cheap and tacky, but then I chose the cheapest options, so maybe their pricier ones are better.

I used them for a wedding album. Excellent quality of paper and product. Easy to load up and design. Picked out details in the photos that I hadn't seen before. About £60 for A4 size hardback 40-page book.

I've used Apple's iPhoto to generate photo books and have been very happy with the results - did one of photos of the kids growing up and they gave to mummy for Mother's Day which went down brilliantly. Incredibly easy to generate and order (especially if you already have an Apple account).

I was impressed with the Photo quality, but then I'm not a professional. Its not your professional coffee table photo books quality, but it's great for what I would class as normal use. If I remember correctly, quite reasonable priced too.

Bob's Books.........used it a couple of years ago and was extremely happy with the end result.

Didn't look cheap and nasty but wasn't particularly cheap either. I guess it depends on what you consider to be "affordable".

I am a Mac user so I assumed the iPhoto would be the only stylish option but the Blurb site looks good.

and there's a whole range of them - I've done some of the large format hardbacks as well as calendars and softbacks. The quality of both binding and printing was wonderful. If you're as visually 'non-artistic' as I am, the fact that iPhoto does a first crack at the design is useful as well.

Not cheap, but well worth it.

Snapfish is Hewlett Packard's photo service and I've been happy with the few books they've done for me, and from price comparisons I did a few years ago they were among the cheapest. The layout programme wasn't quite as flexible as I'd have liked, but may have improved in the year since I last used it.