LF Photo Group Book ROUND TWO OPEN CALL

[Richard M. Coda]

I was looking at this thread and just went to lulu.com to see what it's all about. They print on a Docutech. I used to work for a legal printer and they had these there. They are nothing more than gigantic, glorified copiers. I don't know if I'd trust my work to something like that. Just my 2 cents.

[timbo10ca]

Well SUBMIT

that's about all there is to say....

I guess the Lulu books have been OK, and there is another vendor that I am checking out as an alternative.

I don't see that many new submissions but you still have two more weeks. Even if we don't get a lot of new work, this next version will be further refined.

Maybe I was abit too harsh in my first post. It is really quite simple... scan, edit, title a picture and email it in.

Thanks,
Frank

Frank- Did you receive my submission on the weekend?

Tim

[Matus Kalisky]

The last hit to the dead thread. I jsut submitedmy repacement photo - I hope it will go through.

Thanks a lot guys. Once you are sailing the Caribbean Sea - send me a postcard

[Frank Petronio]

OK I have retrieved 30 submissions and it is CLOSED. I'm impressed, like 28 of you actually followed the instructions, that must be a world record for compliance of anything -- this really is a special forum that attracts people of higher than average intelligence and skills, yadadayada ;-)

I really don't want to answer 30 emails that everything is all OK. Instead...

I will prepare a new PDF. Once I upload it I will start a new thread where every contributor can download the low res version and advise me of my mistakes in public in on a new thread (I like things in writing and by keeping it public nobody will ask for special treatment). Once we get the PDF right then I will resubmit it to Lulu and everyone can purchase a $30 "acceptable" copy and be done with it.

However, I am thinking that I would like to try viovio.com as well, which uses the same toner-based printer as lulu. The difference w VioVio is that they are reputed to have higher quality control and they suggest printing grey scale images using only the black toner... in my past experience I fear the images will look weak, but perhaps they have something tweaked gamma-wise so their repro looks stronger than lulu's black only repro?

It will at least help people decide if these print on demand printers meet their expectations.

The other development is that a kindly printer took the initiative to print some tests on their Xerox iGen (toner) system (like Lulu and VioVio) and they promise to have very high quality control. The proofs he sent look excellent -- mind you this is still a toner-based system and it will not look as nice as ink on paper -- but it is the best toner repro I've seen and he held a nice clean sepia in the faux greyscale images.

The downside is that he isn't set up to distribute 100 books to 100 individuals, and somehow he needs to get paid, 50% upfront, 50% on delivery. His pricing is competive, About $1800 for 100 books based on the previus design, so with 25 new pages maybe low $20 range per book, $2500 or so up front? For 200 books the price drops into the mid-teens per book, around $3300 total. We'd have to do a proper estimate for the final book of course.

But... somebody other than me would have to front the money and take delivery of the books. And then collect funds (plus shipping far and wide) and mail the 100 or 200 books out themselves. I WILL NOT UNDERTAKE THIS AS IT IS FRAUT WITH DANGER AND HEADACHE.

But if some sucker - err - kind soul wants to do it, then contact me. No dithering or BS, either commit or not, I do not want to be financially responsible for anything. Really I only want to give the printer the PDF and walk away...

I'm just laying that out as an option in case there is somebody crazy enough to do it. Some retired money to burn guy who likes to answer emails and visit the post office...

The printer seems like a helluva nice guy so here is a plug:

Gregg Baxter
President
Color Tech Commercial Printing
P 951.788.1500 F 951.788.2328

And I will probably use him to print some of my stuff eventually... when I want to do a couple of hundred books. He definitely has to have better quality control than the online places. Thanks to Greg (?) for hooking us up.

As for those of you who want to print it at one of the $150 plus per copy ink on paper places, like Blurb, well more power to you. You can take the hi-res PDF and download it and roll your own ;-) Seriously, just take the PDF, it is "open source" so to speak. Then you can modify it and print it however you want. I just don't think that everybody wants to spend that much money per book. It is a nice book, but it is not a great one. Aperture isn't going to pick it up guys ;-)

So look for the new PDF in a few days -- thanks, Frank

[Raketemensch]

Thanks for all the hard work, Frank! Looking fwd to the pdf.

[Matus Kalisky]

Hello Frank - I do not want to be an "anal-retentive prima donna " - but - is there any update on the book?
thanks