Of the best photo book services, Mimeo's service is a pleasure to use and generally a pleasure to view. Image quality, while not perfect, is solid throughout the book and calendar. Like quality, Mimeo's prices are in the middle of the range, making it a good overall value; Mimeo's software is easy to use and has some very fun features, such as background and text customization options. It is unfortunate, however, that standard features found in other services, such as stickers, are completely absent; read the rest of our Mimeo review to see if this is the best photobook printing service for you.

Mimeo Photobooks 8 x 8" hardcover books with glossy covers and dust jackets start at $32.99 for 20 pages. Other sizes of hardcovers are available in 10 x 10" (starting at $46.99), 8.5 x 11" (starting at $34.99), and 10 x 13" (starting at $54.99). Softcover books start at $13.99 for 8 x 6 inches with 20 pages and $19.99 for 8 x 8 inches.

Mimeo Calendar Mimeo 13 x 10" calendars start at $26.99 for 12 months.

Mimeo offers 38 book templates and 37 calendar designs. (Mimeo's design software has a clean, simple interface that may be less intimidating than professional designer-style designs such as those in the Printique and Shutterfly tools. (However, simplicity has its limits. For example, Mimeo lacks photo image filters, editing features, stickers/clip art, and drop shadows. Also, backgrounds cannot be added to calendar grid pages. Photo borders are also limited to a basic square design, with no zigzag, lace, or other patterned versions. Mimeo, however, offers extensive options for customizing the width and color of these borders.

Mimeo's backgrounds, however, are excellent. The tool offers a huge number of preset colors, organized in color families such as red, red-purple, teal, and green. While it is not possible to create custom colors, the tools for setting them up in other services are too complicated for non-professional designers. Patterned Backgrounds offers a very fun customization option, allowing you to change the color of both the foreground pattern and the background behind it. For example, yellow flowers on a blue background, pink flowers on a tan background, etc.

The text tools are also above average; Mimeo offers an attractive collection of fonts and a good selection of color options (but no customization features). There is also the ability to add outlines, such as outlining purple text in yellow. However, font size must be selected from a predefined list. For example, the font must be 72 or 84 point."

"80" cannot be typed.

The interface and options are very similar between the book and calendar designs. For example, the calendar includes, by default, a long list of holidays, including Christmas, St. Patrick's Day, and June 1. You can also add custom events of your choice, such as Diwali, Day of the Dead, My Birthday, etc. When editing or creating an event, you can add configurable text (although you cannot outline it) and an image that will appear in that square on the calendar.

The overall calendar design interface is a bit confusing, as the preview only shows the top (images) or bottom (calendar grid) page at a time. (Other software, such as Mixbook, offers the option to show one or both pages for a given month.) Also, the preview on the home page does not show what month it is for. In addition to adding a photo, background, and text to the front cover of the calendar, the same can be done to the back cover. (You can also do this on Mixbook.)

If you get stuck, live chat support is available on both the online interface and the app.

The Mimeo Photobook judges placed Mimeo in the middle for overall print quality. The binding is very well made, with sturdy binding, thick endpapers, and thick, high quality pages. These pages have a smooth, matte finish with minimal glare. The book comes with an attractive dust jacket (with images inside the flap) and a protective sleeve for storage. However, like Mixbook, Printique, and Shutterfly, the images cannot be placed on the back cover.

Images are sharp and show good detail. For example, in one photo of two women, one is slightly in shadow, but still bright enough to be clearly visible. In other photos in the collection, she is more difficult to see. In another photo, the woman's jet-black hair retains detail even in the shadowed areas of the image.

Mimeo often gets the colors right. He does not make the pale father too pink or the dark child too bright. It does not make pale fathers too pink or dark children too bright. A pale aerial performer in bright light looks rather red-faced. At the other extreme, the skin of a jet-black-haired woman appears very pale and just slightly greenish. The print process also produces a grainy appearance, especially on darker skin tones. This is also present to some extent in other books (with the exception of Printique's), but is not as pronounced.

Mimeo's Calendar Mimeo's calendar is quite large at 13 x 10 inches (second only to Costco Photo Center). This one was also in the middle of the pack in terms of overall quality, but varied in certain aspects.

The jury was not impressed with the basic paper quality of the covers. However, they gave the highest marks to the skin tones, which were not swept away by the pinks and greens found in the photo book. Overall color quality was third behind Mixbook and Printique products at the top of the list.

Mimeo is middle of the road in both performance and value, which is not a bad thing. So why choose Mimeo over cheaper, higher-performing brands like Costco Photo Center?

It comes down to fun. The software is fairly easy to use, and the highly configurable backgrounds and text open up creative options. However, when it comes to photobook design, Mixbook offers a richer set of tools. Also, in terms of overall quality, Printique stands out from the pack. Still, Mimeo has some great qualities that put it in the company of the best photobooks, including a book dust jacket and an oversized calendar format.