Book Printing

[_larky]

Hello.

I'm wanting to get a small book printed, mainly as a test to see if my digital workflow prints well. I was going to use Apple's service, but wondered if anybody had any opinions before I splash the cash (all £15 of it).

A.

 

[jesse1dog]

You could always try 'Blurb' - quite a few RFF members have.

jesse

 

[sepiareverb]

ubyu is in the UK, from the literature they seem excellent. I'm trying to decide if I want to try them instead of blurb on my current project.

 

[L David Tomei]

I followed Jesse's link a few days ago to Blurb. It looks good and I'm working on a that now, but I am curious about what experiences and opinions there are out there.

 

[Lilserenity]

I'd definitely recommend Blurb and they have a new 'Pro Line' which if you want will apparently give you superior paper, and those all important interior cover sheets (I think they are) The only things missing now from Blurb so far as I can see is more pages on the better quality paper and gold/silver leaf book titles on the hardback linen covers.

Anyway, the real bonus of Blurb is the colour profiling, you can calibrate your screen, then save all your images on your calibrated screen with that profile, use InDesign and then submit your book knowing that what you get back will be within a hair or thereabouts of what you sent to them rather than the pot shot you take with RGB based submissions (too dark, too light, changes to colour saturation etc.) which admittedly Blurb's software will also suffer from.

Anyway, I've heard nothing bad about Apple's books, but if they are still doing it, I never liked their "Made on a Mac" thing at the back, I'd rather they didn't have to advertise on a product I bought, you can say the same for Blurb at the back of their books unless you choose the option to remove the logo, but at least that can be passed off as almost being a publisher's logo.

Also Blurb will as the pages increase work out cheaper if my recollection of iPhoto book prices are remembered correctly!

Vicky

 

[Leigh Youdale]

I haven't tried the very latest version of iPhoto but I have used Apple's book printing in the past and found the layout wasn't as flexible as Blurb. The quality was OK but I think Blurb's was better.

 

[_larky]

OK, I will look into Blurb also. This is a simple test project with only about 35 images as a once off, so I need to think about time investment also. 🙂

 

[Haigh]

I have made several Apple books in b&w and also colour. The layour is a bit restricted but then these are just to show people what I do and for that purpose I am happy with them. I hear good things about Blurb.

 

[SciAggie]

Anyway, the real bonus of Blurb is the colour profiling, you can calibrate your screen, then save all your images on your calibrated screen with that profile, use InDesign and then submit your book knowing that what you get back will be within a hair or thereabouts of what you sent to them rather than the pot shot you take with RGB based submissions (too dark, too light, changes to colour saturation etc.) which admittedly Blurb's software will also suffer from.


Vicky

Can you point to a tutorial or explain the process for color profiling? I just ordered a book (160 pages) without doing that and I was disappointed in the results. I ordered the pro paper and I was happy with the quality of the book itself, just not with my color reproduction - like you said to dark, color saturation off, etc. I am willing to rework the book but I need a little instruction in how to set up the profile.

 

[Piewacket]

I just did a new portfolio using Blurb which has only gotten better every time I use them. I went with the pro paper and linen cover and it is absolutely beautiful. I posted pics and more details on my blog today.

I am off to L.A. next week to meet with reps, as I plan to move back there in the fall. The response from people I have shown it to here has been great. I think it is extremely reasonable too and I whipped this one up in a day and had it less than two weeks.

Before I discovered blurb, I spent close to 3 grand on handmade books that took me months to prepare and print. Then the bookmaker scratched several of the prints while mounting them in the book! She did compensate me but I could not replace them without sending all the books back! Nightmare!

 

[Piewacket]

Can you point to a tutorial or explain the process for color profiling? I just ordered a book (160 pages) without doing that and I was disappointed in the results. I ordered the pro paper and I was happy with the quality of the book itself, just not with my color reproduction - like you said to dark, color saturation off, etc. I am willing to rework the book but I need a little instruction in how to set up the profile.

I did it like you, not like Vicky suggested and did not have a problem at all. Though a while back I had done one that I was unhappy with printing wise and they reprinted it for me. Did you try contacting them?