If you want the best in photobooks, calendars, and cards, your two choices are Mixbook and Printique.

In our tests of the best photo books, best photo cards, and best photo calendars, Mixbook and Printique tied for the top in every category: software, photo reproduction, and print quality.

The differences between the two companies stem, to some extent, from their origins: Printique is the online print service of Adorama, a New York-based photo store for professional and serious photographers. As such, Printique has a more professional feel to it. For example, the templates are generally elegant and simple, and the print service does not alter the colors of the original photo.

Mixbook started as an online print service for consumers. This is reflected in the variety of template types and styles, photo editing tools, and the way photo colors are handled.

While these generalities may help you choose between the two services, here are the most notable differences (and similarities) between the two to zero in on one whether Mixbook or Printique is right for your personal needs and interests.

Both Mixbook's and Printique's software are versatile, flexible, and powerful. Their extensive tool sets, rich options, and fully editable templates will satisfy a wide range of individuals.

Printique's main advantage over Mixbook (and other similar software I have seen) is its vast library of cropped shapes. These include alphabets, polygons, coat-of-arms shapes, amorphous shapes, and many variations of hearts, ovals, triangles, stars, and other shapes. Mixbook cutouts are limited to one instance each of hearts, ellipses/circles, triangles, and stars.

However, Printique does not have Mixbook's photo editing tools. Also, while not all aspects of Mixbook's handling of calendar/event photo dates were satisfactory, it does have a date management tool (which Printique does not) that allows you to keep track of all your personal events for future projects.

Unlike most vendors, both Printique and Mixbook allow you to edit the calendar date grid pages with backgrounds, clip art, photos, and text, just like the photo pages. This means that you can use personally designed pages throughout your calendar, as opposed to the uninteresting grid pages with mostly white backgrounds of many other vendors.

The only difference is how much you can edit the structure of the grid page (Printique offers more editing) and whether you want more control over the photos and event dates (Mixbook offers some). In our review, we gave high marks for accurate photo reproduction.

In terms of photo reproduction, the choice between Printique and Mixbook is mostly a matter of preference. Both offer crisp, clear, and sharp photos with fine detail. Colors in Mixbook photos tend to be brighter and warmer, while Printique's colors are more accurate and have a wider dynamic range, with deeper, richer tints and shadows.

When I compared Printique and Mixbook photobooks, I was not comparing like with like. This is because Mixbook's basic book option is a standard hardcover, while Printique's is a lay-flat book. Unlike most books, where the open pages bulge up from the center, the facing pages of lay-flat books literally lie flat. And lay-flat books are generally perceived as a higher quality option (although some companies actually don't do any books well, including lay-flat).

Printique books are professionally produced with excellent bindings and luxurious paper. The book received top marks for the quality of the photographs, text, paper, and binding. For standard hardcover books, Mixbook's was top class and the best of the standard hardcovers we examined.

Printique and Mixbook's calendars are very close in quality. However, the Mixbook paper was thicker and had an attractive smooth feel to it, whereas the Printbook paper was a good quality semi-gloss, rather than a heavy weight. And while both were good for text, the Mixbook was a bit cleaner, especially with smaller fonts.

As with the photobooks, Printique's cards default to higher quality paper than Mixbook. However, the texture of Printique's paper resulted in a slight loss in photo and text quality. On the other hand, Mixbook's card paper is pleasantly smooth and has a reasonable weight, but does not have the expensive stationery feel of Printique's.

Photobooks

The choice of photobook depends on what kind of book you want to make. Mixbook offers a nice hardcover standard book for $29.99 (8.5 x 8.5 inches); Printique has a similar standard hardcover book, and all hardcover books are gorgeous lay-flat books.

All vendors, including Mixbook, charge extra for lay-flat books, but Printique's are not only the most beautiful, they are also the least expensive. For example, Printique's 8 x 8-inch lay-flat book costs $49.99, while Mixbook's 8.5 x 8.5-inch lay-flat is $79.99.

Photo Cards

For cards, whether Mixbook or Printique is cheaper depends on what quality paper you want and how many cards you buy. Comparing the two we ordered, for a few cards (say, about 12-15), Printique and Mixbook cards cost about the same: about $1.75 each for a 5x7" card.

The price of Printique is the same no matter which fine paper you choose, and does not change in a typical mass market store; the price of Mixbook goes up with the quality of the paper and down with the quantity. So if you increase the quality of paper and not the quantity, Printique may be less expensive. However, if you increase quantity and not paper quality, Mixbook will be cheaper. The particular card you order will be priced according to other variations on that theme. By the way, any time you order a really large quantity of cards, call the vendor to see if you can negotiate a lower price.

Photo Calendars

Printique and Mixbook calendars are priced almost identically; Printique's 10x10" 12-month calendar is $25.99, while Mixbook's 11x8.5" calendar is $24.99 dollars. The price difference corresponds to a similar format and size difference. In other words, you can choose between these two calendars depending on whether you want square or rectangular sized calendar pages.

Printique is undoubtedly a top-notch professional printer, and its products are well worth the "wow" factor. However, the Mixbook is no match for the Printique.

In terms of photo reproduction, if you are a professional or serious photographer who wants your print service to respect color management and reproduce the colors created by your calibrated monitor, the Printique is your choice. Choose Mixbook if having the print service adjust the color values of your photos tends to result in slightly rosy cheeks, warmer lighting, and overall brighter photos.

For photobooks, the best quality/price combination is Printique's lay-flat book. However, if you want the best of both worlds without spending a fortune and with a standard hardcover, we recommend Mixbook.

For calendars, Mixbook's rating was slightly higher than Printique's. So unless exact color is the most important issue, choose Mixbook.

And for cards, the print quality is about equal for both, but Printique's cards default to a higher quality paper. Also, price is a complicated issue related to how many cards you buy and what paper quality you want.

Whether you choose Mixbook or Printique, you will have the pleasure of creating books, calendars, and cards of the highest quality.