Adorama and Blurb Books

[Alan Klein]

I'm planning a book in BW and another in color.  Adorama and Blurb sent me samples of their papers they use on their books.  Adorama seems to use better paper selection.  Also there books don't leave fold marks in the center of the spread.  Has anyone used these companies?  what are your impressions?  Any recommendations of which paper to use? 

[Mark D Segal]

Alan, Check out other recent threads on this topic - some useful information there.

[Peter McLennan]

For my first attempt at a book, I used the highest quality paper Blurb offered at the time.  More than satisfied in all respects with Blurb and my book.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

For my first attempt at a book, I used the highest quality paper Blurb offered at the time.  More than satisfied in all respects with Blurb and my book.

That is also my impression so far. I haven't tried Adorama yet, but the lie-flat feature could be good.

A friend of mine has done books in the past on Blurb but used BookBaby for his latest book. The paper he chose is very glossy, cover as well as interior pages, and I don't like it as well as Blurb's best paper.

[david loble]

I had a terrible experience when Blurb printed a b&w book for me last year. I used the Blurb module in LR. Don't remember which paper but think it was the most expensive low lustre. Biggest issue was metamerism in the prints. Next biggest was the complete lack of help from Blurb and the three customer reps who were trying to help me solve the problem who, by their own admission, didn't know much about LR.

Had the book printed successfully by Puritan Press, Hollis, NH.

[Mark D Segal]

Had the book printed successfully by Puritan Press, Hollis, NH.

This is quite a cut above P-o-D services such as Blurb. Can you say anything about how they compare price-wise for the volume you had printed?

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

This is quite a cut above P-o-D services such as Blurb. Can you say anything about how they compare price-wise for the volume you had printed?

I'm very much hearing something about that as well.

[david loble]

Mark and Eric,

The books probably cost about twice as much as Blurb's would have. For that money I got excellent paper (Mohawk Superfine Ultrawhite Smooth 100lb.), tritone inks, laminated covers, hardcover binding w/cloth spine. There were 36 pages of tritone images and 28 in 1 color (text). Also 4 sets of proofs. The book is approx. 12"w x 11"h. Images on front and back covers.

Puritan uses an HP Indigo printer and I can't remember, or find, the model number, but it was the ability to print in tritones that sold me. I made one trip to meet with the VP, Operations Manager and had excellent communications with him and the production manager. Hollis, NH is about 3 hours from my home and I incorporated a visit there with one to a book designer in Newburyport, MA. I think I would always want to have at least one personal visit with the people doing the separations and such.

The book was the result of a project I had worked on for about 3 years and was strictly done for personal reasons. I printed 30, gifted approx. 20 and sold the balance below cost.
If I ever print an "important" book again I would seriously consider Puritan, but if I do a more informal project would reconsider Blurb, especially for color and with fingers crossed for b&w. My Publisher totally botched the job when I tried them after the first attempt with Blurb.

Happy to try to answer any other questions.

David

[Mark D Segal]

Very informative. Thanks David.

[david loble]

Another item that increased the cost was that Puritan does not do the binding. They send it out and charge their cost plus an unknown mark-up. I knew this pretty much from the beginning and did talk to two other binderys, which if I had given them the job would have resulted in a nice saving. I stayed with Puritan because this was my first venture with a "real" book, I was inexperienced about the whole process and thought it better to have everything done by them so if the binding went wrong (it didn't) I knew who to talk with.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Thanks for that info, David.

I'm going with Blurb for my current book, soft cover, all black-and-white, with their best paper, photos on front and back covers.

My first two sample books looked quite good, but I found changes I needed to make. My newest sample should arrive in a day or two. If it is as good as I am hoping, I will put in my order for a bigger bunch, since they have just announced a 40% discount that expires in a couple of days.

[Mark D Segal]

Another item that increased the cost was that Puritan does not do the binding. They send it out and charge their cost plus an unknown mark-up. I knew this pretty much from the beginning and did talk to two other binderys, which if I had given them the job would have resulted in a nice saving. I stayed with Puritan because this was my first venture with a "real" book, I was inexperienced about the whole process and thought it better to have everything done by them so if the binding went wrong (it didn't) I knew who to talk with.

Would they have allowed you to confine their job to printing folios ready for the binder of your own choosing? 

[Jeremy Roussak]

My first two sample books looked quite good, but I found changes I needed to make. My newest sample should arrive in a day or two. If it is as good as I am hoping, I will put in my order for a bigger bunch, since they have just announced a 40% discount that expires in a couple of days.

I wouldn't fuss too much about the discount, Eric. Blurb discounts are like buses: if you miss one, there'll be another one along in a minute.

Jeremy

[deanwork]

That is fantastic. I've been praying SOMEONE would use the tritone process on great paper for an affordable price and this is it :

http://www.puritanpress.com/category/work/duotones-tritones/

Let's give them some business!
 
The HP indigo has the capability, workflow, and inks capable of excellent neutral bw but companies like Blurb won't use it because you have to change out the cmyk inks for the monochrome inks. I always asked if someone in the world specialized in this, bw on demand books and this if the very first I've heard of someone offering it. Excellent. I can't wait to try it. You can not to decent neutral or even warm neutral book with Blurb and cmyk inks. The color shift will kill you, green under daylight or red under tungsten. Twice as much as Blurb is infinitely cheaper than tritones for any decent offset publisher.

This is the same principle why we used to do duotones or tritones on the Heidelburg Offset presses with gray and black ink only and have to do separate run for the color content for artists books. There is no free lunch with great bw. Hp has offered this technology for at least 5 years and no one has been offering it for artists books.


john

s
Mark and Eric,

The books probably cost about twice as much as Blurb's would have. For that money I got excellent paper (Mohawk Superfine Ultrawhite Smooth 100lb.), tritone inks, laminated covers, hardcover binding w/cloth spine. There were 36 pages of tritone images and 28 in 1 color (text). Also 4 sets of proofs. The book is approx. 12"w x 11"h. Images on front and back covers.

Puritan uses an HP Indigo printer and I can't remember, or find, the model number, but it was the ability to print in tritones that sold me. I made one trip to meet with the VP, Operations Manager and had excellent communications with him and the production manager. Hollis, NH is about 3 hours from my home and I incorporated a visit there with one to a book designer in Newburyport, MA. I think I would always want to have at least one personal visit with the people doing the separations and such.

The book was the result of a project I had worked on for about 3 years and was strictly done for personal reasons. I printed 30, gifted approx. 20 and sold the balance below cost.
If I ever print an "important" book again I would seriously consider Puritan, but if I do a more informal project would reconsider Blurb, especially for color and with fingers crossed for b&w. My Publisher totally botched the job when I tried them after the first attempt with Blurb.

Happy to try to answer any other questions.

David

[david loble]

Mark,

I do not know what the definition of folio is in your question, but there would have been no objection or problem on the Puritan end if I had decided to outsource the binding myself. True to my optimistic nature I thought of what all could go wrong if I did that and decided to make Puritan responsible if problems arose.

David

[Mark D Segal]

Oh - a folio is an arrangement of sheets, with one or more folds, for purposes of binding into a book. Useful to know they offer the flexibility of outsourcing the binding. Thanks.