Book Printing Revisited

[CXC]

I had a one-off of Widelux images Printed On Demand, largely out of curiousity, and to judge the quality for myself. Hardbound, color, about $75. I was disappointed in the results, for a number of reasons, but I found the entire experience very instructive and fruitful (never having done anything like this before). Comparing the results with the original images, as well as with the images in my head, and my preconceptions of what it would look like, and how I would react to the book, and its imperfections -- all these sorts of issues were introduced to me, at a relatively bargain price, and in about a week. So for first-timers like me I would recommend it as a useful first step, to help define your goals and to realize the sorts of ways in which they will and won't be fulfilled, even if your final project may be executed via other means.

[Gordon Moat]

Just a quick mention on colour quality issues with digital presses. One of the biggest differences is that Yellow is much weaker than in traditional offset printing. Of course, with offset Yellow is weaker than the other inks, though there is an opportunity of doing a work-around by substituting one of the Pantone yellows, or even a flourescant ink.

Since the original poster mentioned doing B/W images, and the possibility of a duotone, this is something also not quite the same with a digital press. You can only use Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, or Black. On a digital press, the most interesting and effective combination can be a percentage of Cyan added to the 100% Black. There is a separate superBlack swatch book available through Parsons School of Design, if you think you might do lots of this. If you only anticipate doing a little, then that guide I mentioned earlier will show some quick combinations that might solve what you want.

A duotone done using an offset press could involve two Pantone inks, even metallic inks. Probably the best duotone B/W images book I have seen in print is the Albert Watson book Cyclops. Black ink only does not work well for images on offset; better results can happen through duotone, tritone, or quadtone. You (or your designer) need to work directly with the printing company whenever you go this route; getting the results you want could be difficult.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat

P.S. - I largely agree that most people will not know the difference between digital press and offset, at least when digital presses are operated to the best of their abilities.

[paul stimac]

I'd look into printing it where lenswork is printed in Canada.. .I can't remember the name of the place but if you email the editor of Lenswork I'm sure he'd tell you.

[Frank Petronio]

Besides all the other factors, the choice of a printer depends on the size of the run and the size of their presses. Printing 20,000 issues of Lenswork on a 30x40 sheet is different than printing 1,500 nice duotone monographs using a 18 x 24. Or printing 50,000 copies of a popular coffee table art book. All require different presses and workflows, and I would likely send the jobs to three different printers.

Of course printers will claim they can do it all, just like most photographers. But when you get to know them, you find out which press their best people are on and you aim for their sweetspot.

In Rochester, I would follow a good pressperson to a new printer, rather than the other way around.

[paulr]

I haven't seen what prints from modern digital presses look like, but I want to point out that you can't count on good quality from any kind of press--you're in the hands of the people who run it, for better or worse.

My friend who printed her book in Italy had an epic dealing with printers. The first press she contracted could not come close to matching her silver prints. Their work was poor quality and inconsistent, and they didn't follow her directions. Finally, after a third or fourth round of her rejecting their attempts, they rejected her!

She then found another press, and hired a printing guru from New England--not Richard Benson, but someone with similar skills and passions. He flew with her to Milan to supervise the printing, and the results were beautiful.

But she'll never get that year of her life back. Anything you can do to avoid a situation like her first press run will be worth your while.

[Michael Rosenberg]

I have been looking into publishing a book of my black and white American Tobacco Factory prints for the past 2 months. It is not a trivial undertaking identifying the printers who are capable of printing photographs. There are a lot of questions you have to answer before contacting them to get a quote - and a lot of side considerations.

The cheapest quotes I have received have been from China and Italy. But there is a languague barrier, and if you want a really good job done you have to sit on press at the final proof and printing. It is not trivial to do that overseas. I would recommend identifying photography books that you really admire the quality and seeing where they were printed. I would not recommend considering having less than 300 line screen done, and deciding whether duotone rather than tritone (saves a lot). Hard bound may not save that much over soft bound.

One photographer described like giving birth, agonizing during the pregnancy and when giving birth (I imagine giving birth to a 1000 books), but a relief once it is done.

Regards,

[Michael Rosenberg]

Here is a good resource for book publishing with many tips and suggested questions to ask.

http://www.janealdenstevens.com/

[Frank Petronio]

The 300 plus line screens are a pretty high end subset of the art book market, mostly used to reproduce duo and tritones B&W images. Meriden Stinehour is famous for using really fine screens with nice cotton, uncoated paper. Of course these books are wonderfully tactial and done well they are art objects. But they are also going to cost a multiple X over mainstream methods. So choose wisely...

Most commercial printers shy away from such fine screens because they tend to "plug" and create blocky shadows. Of course having good equipment and a watchful, skilled press person is the key, but that also increases your prices dramatically.

Most commercial, popular coffee table books are printed in color (CMYK) with 175-200 line screens. The proofing and printing workflows are well established and it is easier to predict what you'll get from wide-spread CMYK printing versus the relatively rare "fine-art" doutone type printing. For example, there is no inexpensive or easy way to proof duotones short of doing a proofing run on a real press. $$$.

There is a lot to be said for sticking with the most popular established proven predictable workflow (commas left out on purpose!)

The books I've done in China were proofed on a proofing press, then on my approval printed for real. IMHO, seeing sheets from a proofing press beats seeing digital proofs. The only real problem with overseas printing is the waiting (3-6 mos) and sending our dollars overseas on principal.

At this point it may be cheaper to print CMYK with a varnish than it is to print something in duotone black and grey. And it is certainly more predictable.

Printers that specialize in hardbound books can do them very inexpensively, so if I were doing a short run I'd just get hardbound, offset CMYK with varnish at 175 line screen from a good commercial printer - there is one in every mid-sized city - or go to DaiNippon or some other overseas printer.

Better yet, come to Rochester where there are half a dozen good commercial printers that are IMHO better than most of the country's average printers thanks to having RIT having the best printing school plus a 150 year plus tradition of printing (it's kind of like Switzerland with grime).

You can save a lot more money by paying an experienced designer $5 to 10K to do it right...

[paulr]

(Sorry to keep bringing up my friend's experience as if it's my own ... but i spent enough time hand-holding during the whole ordeal that it feels like i lived it)

She had to make some tough decisions based on price. One of the big ones was acid-free paper. She ended up not using it, because it would have practically doubled her cost per book, and she was paying. 100% cotton paper would have been dramatically more still.

Be prepared for choices like this. Nice art books cost a bundle.

[Martin Miller]

Thanks to all for your thoughtful and helpful comments. I have a better appreciation for the challenges that lay ahead. Print-on-Demand has obvious appeal to a self publisher so I encourage you to post your future experiences with the process. I confess I am still wary of the quality and consistency issues and probably will start by pursuing conventional offset to start with and leave the trailblazing to others. If you are interested, the portfolio I want to publish can be seen at www.worldwarworks.com.

As for distribution, some may already know this, but Amazon will list and distribute your self-published book (after being accepted) in what they call their Advantage program. At the Amazon homepage, click on "Sell Your Stuff", then "Advantage" for the details. They take a hefty 55% of list price and you must pay to ship your books to them, but their market power is awesome. This is obviously not the way to get rich, but, if I can achieve the right mix of quality and price (yet to be demonstrated!), I think the book could be a worthwhile multipurpose marketing tool.

Again, thanks for sharing your experiences, and don't let me cut this thread off if you have more to add.