Customer Rating: 
Summary: a story worth telling
Comment: I wanted to make a children's book for somebody, using my own artwork, scanned into my computer with my own text. I downloaded the software but was disappointed that it did not leave me the freedom to compose my own layouts, but rather had a strict format that had to be used. You could use your own photos, but with somebody else's layout design. So the software was of absolutely no use to me. The book comes with glossy paper, so you can make 20 photo pages that are blank on the back side. That was useless too. I never used the paper. Also, I couldn't get the printer to accept 8 by 10 rather than 8.5 by 11.5 paper. I ended up buying double-sided matte paper, printing on both sides and having a 40-page book. I couldn't get the cover to print straight either, so I finally printed my cover design on a piece of glossy paper and glued it on. It looks nice, but I essentially paid the money for the book alone. The software and paper were a waste. I wish the company would make software that can be used by us more creative types for a book of our OWN design. I also wish Epson would make a 25-page book, so I could make a 50-page story.
Customer Rating:
Summary: no room for creativity
Comment: The idea of this book is great, but there is no room for creativity whatsoever. If a page has space for 11 photos, you have to put in 11 photos. If you like the layout, but only want to put in 9 photos, it won't adjust itself. If you're supposed to put a date somewhere, there is no room for more characters than a date would require, and it is not adjustable. You want to move a photo up a bit, out of luck. I got so frustrated using their software, that I will be doing most of the layout work (except the cover) in Adobe Illustrator, which is obviously more flexible, but will require more of my time. This is for someone who likes to be told how to design their custom-designed book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Very simple to use, good results
Comment: Storyline can be created easily. Captioning is easy. Took about 3 hrs to put togther a 20 page storyline, caption and print the pages. Ability to zoom and pan photos is useful. The resulting book looks very good and vibrant.
Negative - Software uses a lot of system resources. Wish the sheets were double sided rather than single sided. Would like to see more themes and the ability to have an introduction page primarily based on text. Refill kits (without the s/w) would be great as well.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Easy to use, until you have to print it out!
Comment: I love the idea of this product, and I loved working with it. I created a great layout that looked fabulous on screen. But unless you have an Epson printer, it is very difficult to print out a great copy. My hp deskjet could not handle the supplied photo paper, so a friend printed on his Lexmark for me. It worked better, but still had a few problems. More paper should be included in the package in case of printing problems because after several printing problems, we ran out of paper and I could not find the same photo paper in any store; I ended up buying a second package just to get more of the same paper.
Next time, I will make a book using the ofoto site -- much more professional looking (2-sided) and just as cheap.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great book but could still be better
Comment: I recently purchased and completed my first book using StoryTeller. It was fun to produce, a bit tedious and labor intensive but the result was a beautiful book.
It would be nice if the book could use two-sided paper and thus look more like a real book. That might be difficult to accomplish. On the other hand it would be easy to offer more than one font for captions, titles and such. It would also be nice to have more control with captions such as italizing or underlineing individual words. The buyer should be aware that this produces a very large file and even a fast computer is slowed considerably.
Regardless of minor drawbacks, I think it is a great product and I'll probably buy several to use as very personalized Christmas gifts.
Summary: a story worth telling
Comment: I wanted to make a children's book for somebody, using my own artwork, scanned into my computer with my own text. I downloaded the software but was disappointed that it did not leave me the freedom to compose my own layouts, but rather had a strict format that had to be used. You could use your own photos, but with somebody else's layout design. So the software was of absolutely no use to me. The book comes with glossy paper, so you can make 20 photo pages that are blank on the back side. That was useless too. I never used the paper. Also, I couldn't get the printer to accept 8 by 10 rather than 8.5 by 11.5 paper. I ended up buying double-sided matte paper, printing on both sides and having a 40-page book. I couldn't get the cover to print straight either, so I finally printed my cover design on a piece of glossy paper and glued it on. It looks nice, but I essentially paid the money for the book alone. The software and paper were a waste. I wish the company would make software that can be used by us more creative types for a book of our OWN design. I also wish Epson would make a 25-page book, so I could make a 50-page story.
Customer Rating:
Summary: no room for creativity
Comment: The idea of this book is great, but there is no room for creativity whatsoever. If a page has space for 11 photos, you have to put in 11 photos. If you like the layout, but only want to put in 9 photos, it won't adjust itself. If you're supposed to put a date somewhere, there is no room for more characters than a date would require, and it is not adjustable. You want to move a photo up a bit, out of luck. I got so frustrated using their software, that I will be doing most of the layout work (except the cover) in Adobe Illustrator, which is obviously more flexible, but will require more of my time. This is for someone who likes to be told how to design their custom-designed book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Very simple to use, good results
Comment: Storyline can be created easily. Captioning is easy. Took about 3 hrs to put togther a 20 page storyline, caption and print the pages. Ability to zoom and pan photos is useful. The resulting book looks very good and vibrant.
Negative - Software uses a lot of system resources. Wish the sheets were double sided rather than single sided. Would like to see more themes and the ability to have an introduction page primarily based on text. Refill kits (without the s/w) would be great as well.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Easy to use, until you have to print it out!
Comment: I love the idea of this product, and I loved working with it. I created a great layout that looked fabulous on screen. But unless you have an Epson printer, it is very difficult to print out a great copy. My hp deskjet could not handle the supplied photo paper, so a friend printed on his Lexmark for me. It worked better, but still had a few problems. More paper should be included in the package in case of printing problems because after several printing problems, we ran out of paper and I could not find the same photo paper in any store; I ended up buying a second package just to get more of the same paper.
Next time, I will make a book using the ofoto site -- much more professional looking (2-sided) and just as cheap.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great book but could still be better
Comment: I recently purchased and completed my first book using StoryTeller. It was fun to produce, a bit tedious and labor intensive but the result was a beautiful book.
It would be nice if the book could use two-sided paper and thus look more like a real book. That might be difficult to accomplish. On the other hand it would be easy to offer more than one font for captions, titles and such. It would also be nice to have more control with captions such as italizing or underlineing individual words. The buyer should be aware that this produces a very large file and even a fast computer is slowed considerably.
Regardless of minor drawbacks, I think it is a great product and I'll probably buy several to use as very personalized Christmas gifts.