State of the art high quality on demand books printer

[BernardLanguillier]

Team,

Having been repeatedely disapointed by the print quality delivered by Blurb ( although I like everything else about the service), I am looking for higher quality options.

Would anyone have a good recommendation?

Cheers,
Bernard

[Mark D Segal]

Bernard, there are umpteen threads about this on this Forum - have you looked? That asked, I don't know how useful, you'll find as many opinions as there are posters. To repeat one I know and have used: Pikto here in Toronto; very high quality - but not sure how well that works for overseas customers; perhaps worth checking.

[digitaldog]

Would anyone have a good recommendation?

I too found Blurb's output to be less than stellar. When I ran identical images through Blurb or Apple (Aperture) the later was significantly superior, the images contained images and synergetic's designed to uncover issues with reproduction of these kinds of digital presses. IF you are on a Mac, you might give Aperture a try.

[deanwork]

When is someone going to specialize in multi-gray black and white books? The technology is there but no one I've seen is doing it. You know quad tones etc.

john

[howardm]

you may want to look at digitalsilverimaging.com     dunno if they do what you want

[digitaldog]

When is someone going to specialize in multi-gray black and white books? The technology is there but no one I've seen is doing it. You know quad tones etc.

For on demand presses like Indigo?

[graeme]

When is someone going to specialize in multi-gray black and white books? The technology is there but no one I've seen is doing it. You know quad tones etc.

john

Decent quality on demand book printing would interest me too.

[deanwork]

Yes, exactly. Hp Indigo already makes the gray inks from what I've heard and the technology is available to use them. But no one specializes in it because you would have to devote a printer to bw. Then they wouldn't be able to send the books to multiple presses around the country.

But if someone specialized in just that, I think they would do well. People all over the world want to make high-quality limited edition bw books. What is available now is just dreadful in regard to tonal range and especially the metameric failure from daylight to fluorescent to tungsten.

[digitaldog]

Yes, exactly. Hp Indigo already makes the gray inks from what I've heard and the technology is available to use them.

Yes they do, but the have multiple grays and a way to print with them without the other colors?
One big issue with Indigo, and I don't think a gray/black ink set alone will fix, is their screening algorithm. It's fun to see when you print a full page that's say 50% gray (and by full page, ideally the entire press sheet). Not pretty.

[louoates]

I've used Magcloud twice with very good results at very low prices. Their paper quality is excellent, cover and inside pages. I'll be using them again soon for a landscape 8 1/2 x 11 book. Here you can see my two books to give you an idea of the content:  http://www.magcloud.com/browse/search?q=lou%20oates

I'd recommend trying them with one copy so you can see for yourself -- it's the cheapest test you can find. That's what I did before ordering 20 at a time. The larger run was exactly the same as the first sample. The Superior book I had reprinted 5 or 6 times at the 20 quantity price with the same consistent results.

I didn't use any of their on-line editing tools. I found that composing each page in Photoshop was the easiest for me and gave me total control.

[deanwork]

Magcloud was bought out by Blurb recently. Too bad.

http://www.magcloud.com

[Peter McLennan]

I guess I'm just not as picky as others.  I loved my Blurb book in all respects, and so has everyone who's seen it. When it arrived, I viewed the book next to the original images on my NEC PA 271W monitor and could see very little to complain about.  The process itself was satisfying, painless and cost-effective.  I'll be doing more Blurb books.

FWIW: now retired, I earned my living with cameras for over three decades. 

[digitaldog]

I guess I'm just not as picky as others.  I loved my Blurb book in all respects, and so has everyone who's seen it. When it arrived, I viewed the book next to the original images on my NEC PA 271W monitor and could see very little to complain about.  The process itself was satisfying, painless and cost-effective.  I'll be doing more Blurb books.

For fun next time, print the cover and inside book with the same image. One's not going to match your display because they grossly don't match each other. At least in the two tests I did with Blurb. It's a different printing process. They should ideally match.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

For fun next time, print the cover and inside book with the same image. One's not going to match your display because they grossly don't match each other. At least in the two tests I did with Blurb. It's a different printing process. They should ideally match.

If that's the only problem, why not just leave the photo off the cover?

I recently received a book of black and white photos by a long-time friend who is one of the very best print-makers I know of. After more than fifty years he still uses a view camera and film, but he now scans his negatives and prints digitally, and I cannot tell his digital prints from his gelatin-silver ones. His book is a large format one by Blurb, and the reproductions are stunning. I believe it took him four iterations to get it to this point. His cover has only the title and his name, no photo.

I was astonished that Blurb could do this good a job.

Color might be a different story. And YMMV.

[digitaldog]

If that's the only problem, why not just leave the photo off the cover?

It's not the only problem. And illustrates a lack of color management and consistency as well.

[rvamos]

If that's the only problem, why not just leave the photo off the cover?

I recently received a book of black and white photos by a long-time friend who is one of the very best print-makers I know of. After more than fifty years he still uses a view camera and film, but he now scans his negatives and prints digitally, and I cannot tell his digital prints from his gelatin-silver ones. His book is a large format one by Blurb, and the reproductions are stunning. I believe it took him four iterations to get it to this point. His cover has only the title and his name, no photo.

I was astonished that Blurb could do this good a job.

Color might be a different story. And YMMV.

Erik, I'm quite surprised to hear this!  I did a B&W book with Blurb and had real issues with metamerism.  I wonder if they changed their printing methods, but doubt it.  Can you point me to your friend's book?

[deanwork]

There is NO way you can produce elegant neutral black and white on demand or offset books using only  a cmyk process. It's not possible. That is why a lot of people try to tone them to cool, warm or sepia, and that looks just as bad as trying to print them neutral.

However, I did a Blurb book a couple of months ago that had over 100 full page images in it and I was very happy. The size was like 8.5x11 and we did about 15 copies, all identical. They were all full color not any monochrome.

But as Andrew suggested the cover was not that well printed. I should have left the pics off the cover and back.

John

[Peter McLennan]

My book was all colour, so I can't comment on the monochrome quality. Agreed, BW would be revealing of failings in the process.

The book was hardcover, so the cover image was printed on the dust cover.

I used the largest size and the highest quality option for every media choice available.

The price for an equivalent size and pagecount from Pikto was over twice the Blurb price.  This may be different now with the recent adjustment to the Canadian dollar.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Erik, I'm quite surprised to hear this!  I did a B&W book with Blurb and had real issues with metamerism.  I wonder if they changed their printing methods, but doubt it.  Can you point me to your friend's book?

My friend's book is hard bound, 12x12" with a slip cover and a little over 200 pages (98 photographs plus some text). He only had a few printed for family and select friends, and it isn't listed in the Blurb catalog, so he isn't selling copies at all. Sorry.

I will probably do a B&W book in the next year or so, and if I like the results, I'll try a smaller color one the following year. Most of my serious work is black and white.

Eric

[BernardLanguillier]

Thanks for the feedbacks.

Colors are overall not that bad with Blurb, but the detail and overall feel of the image is disappointing compared to the ink jets I am getting from my Epson. By a large margin.

My mother is using a cheaper on demand service in Belgium and the print quality is significantly superior.

Regards,
Bernard