Recommendation of a professional online photo book other than Blurb.com

[A miller]

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My printer rep was here this morning, so I had a chat with him about this. He says digital presses can only print CMYK, and it's very hard to balance the colors to get clean black & white. Offset printers can print in black only and give you a much nicer photo, BUT you need the economy of scale to make it cost effective. He says they usually never run orders of less than 500 on the offset presses.

 

Very good of you to inquire and report back. I guess the upshot of this is that it is probably difficult to get "clean" B&W photos just about wherever you go assuming low volume. I believe the Blurb has spotty quality control, but when they get it right it's probably sufficient in light of what you are saying.

 

Thanks again for your valuable contribution.

[algrove]

I have had AdoramaPix do two different books for me with the last one running over 80 pages in color. The first book I had 2 copies made and this last one copy. Very pleased with the results.

 

I used their highest quality paper and selected 10x12 size book.

[bab]

I just re-read this article it seems to answer not only your question but many others, from what I gather your 1st problem was supplying sRGB files and giving control to blurb. Reminds me of the film days where one would use a certain lab or printer because that lab knew your work and style and what you liked and didn't just develop and print.

 

http://www.adobe.com/digitalimag/pdfs/phscs2ip_reproprep.pdf

[A miller]

Sincere thanks, BAB, for being so considerate and sharing this. I will keep it bookmarked and study it over time. The workflow is endless! Thanks again, Adam

[ronaldh]

A friend uses My Publisher. The results I have seen were pretty impressive.

[Bill W]

I just reread this again and when I set up my book with Blurb the color space was probably just my default in Photoshop, I did not use sRGB and that was part of my issue. If I were to use them again, is it necessary to change to sRGB when inserting the files? I do not recall that Blurb even said to do this. Of course I may have missed something.

[A miller]

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Yes, Bill. If you use PS youhave the advantage of using a color profile that can be downloaded from Blurb's site. I only use LR, which isn't compatible with the profiles.

[Bill W]

I guess my poor results were using the cheapest paper.

[dave_d]

Booksmart Studio Booksmart Studio | Fine Edition Book & Print Specialist

[leicatraveller]

I, too, have not been impressed with Blurb. I have made two books--one color and one monochrome. The monochrome was the better of the two. I found the layout interface to be kludgy.

 

With that in mind, I have searched for alternatives. These folks (Fine Art Books ) look like they meet your desires from a quality standpoint. I priced out a 60-page book out of curiosity. You are in the $300 neighborhood, depending on how you "pimp your book." That obviously is cost prohibitive if you are hoping to sell the books unless you are a big-name photographer.

Dane Creek Folio Covers - Home

 

they are totally crazy to ask such price my family had a business in printing and this price are crazy....to be truth all this prices look really crazy...even Blurb...at this point i found much more interesting to print by yourself and after to bring all to this artisan who do a book from your papers ....much cheaper

[A miller]

Thanks for the comment. Can you point me to such an "artisan"?

[leicatraveller]

Thanks for the comment. Can you point me to such an "artisan"?

 

well i dont know about US , but in europe we have many of this small business called "bookbinding" ( i hope i translated well )

they do even a single piece, i was always thinking that they are not cheap..well but after i saw the prices of this online service (and for big photographic books ....price reach hundreds of euro, especially when you add shipping and VAT in europe ...)

[algrove]

Another idea that I am researching is doing a folio instead of a book. Portfolio cases are available which then can lead to a project which includes about a dozen images with descriptive phrases under each image plus an artists's statement describing his personal style and vision.

 

I just saw one that a fellow Leica photographer did and it was very nice. He will end of with 6 editions. Each edition can have a different subject or region or specific emphasis.

[jankap]

they are totally crazy to ask such price my family had a business in printing and this price are crazy....to be truth all this prices look really crazy...even Blurb...at this point i found much more interesting to print by yourself and after to bring all to this artisan who do a book from your papers ....much cheaper

 

What do you think would be a fair price in this case?

One should not forget the costs of the printing and the crap a non expert in printing produces.

 

Is a price of 300$ for a 60 page (=60 prints) with a lot of 1 (one) high or reasonable?

Jan

[RPS]

I wanted to bump this tread back to life to see what might have changed on this topic in the past 2-1/2 years.

 

I recently came across this review of photobook sites (http://www.toptenreviews.com/services/multimedia/best-photo-books/) where they rate the best three options (presumably in the US) as:

1. MixBook;
2. Shutterfly
3. AdoramaPix

Given how rapidly technologies advance, would anybody here care to speak about the validity of these results ?

[Guest]

My understanding is that Blurb and similar print-on-demand companies use Fujifilm Indigo digital printers or the equivalent, which don't allow for page-by-page image control and easily fall out of calibration during a print run. As these printers simply don't provide the "professional" quality of offset printers they are best for printing personal books or book dummies. In contrast, offset printers rival photo prints in quality but require minimum runs of 250-500 books. That obviously requires a substantial upfront printing cost as well as distribution and marketing issues, if you don't have a publisher.

 

For printing only a few copies one could get good quality on inkjet printers like the Epson SCP800 or SCP5000, though that would involve dealing with "imposition" (arrangement of the printed product's pages on the printer's sheet or roll) and with binding and covers. 

 

I've been thinking about printing a book project on an inkjet printer and breaking it up into three issues of a "zine". Instead of binding, the zine could be stapled. Also, I thought that the third issue could be sold with the option of buying a plastic slip cover with the title on the spine. But these are only thoughts...

_______________

Alone in Bangkok essay on BURN Magazine

[biglouis]

I've got three books on the go through Blurb and apart from the cost - which is not cheap - the results have always been very good. 

 

I'm just looking through my oldest one - printed in 2009 - and the pages and colours are still very good. I only do colour work, btw,

 

Just my two cents

 

Louis Berk