Print on Demand, State of the Art Nov 2007

[PViapiano]

If anyone is interested, you can download an ICC profile for the HP Indigo, used by several of the self-publishers including Blurb, at:

http://www.bonsai-photography.com/

[vinny]

A&I here in Los Angeles uses the HP Indigo. Its an option for those of us to do a book locally. They say they'll have an online ordering set up soon. aandi.com

[David Karp]

Vinny, that's interesting news. Thanks.

Last week I saw a book done by My Publisher. It contained both color and black and white photos. I was surprised by the quality of the black and white photographs. Certainly, I did not look at them and think "why would anyone show their work in this format." To the contrary. It was obviously not up to the quality of the best photos I have seen, but it was surprisingly good.

[Photomax]

I am going to try Shared Ink. Signed up for the 45 day trial for the "Photographers Service" etc. The sizes are different so I need to figure the easiest method of making the pages shrink slightly for my existing 86 page Indesign document...

Max

[Photomax]

Chris, the president of Shared Ink, has been great with email responses to my questions...

[vinny]

Last week I saw a book done by My Publisher. It contained both color and black and white photos. I was surprised by the quality of the black and white photographs. Certainly, I did not look at them and think "why would anyone show their work in this format." To the contrary. It was obviously not up to the quality of the best photos I have seen, but it was surprisingly good.[/QUOTE]

I also made a short book of b+w photos with My Publisher. I scanned prints and uploaded jpg's. You have to use their software for pc or mac. By the way it only works with the latest mac os. There are some quarks to the software that i had issues with like centering the title. It looked centered in the preview but wasn't in the final product. They had me change it and send another book for free with two day shipping but the defect was the same. Customer service is/was good for emails. The quality is decent. There is a slight color cast and there's no profile to download. Cost is decent.
The color book i saw last christmas looked great for family snapshots.

[aphexafx]

I think that the low volume book production industry is kind of a cool thing. :")