Hi,
A couple of months ago I said that I'd redo another version of the LF Photo group portfolio book that was printed at Lulu. The first version was purchased by almost 50 of you even though you had been warned that it was just a test and that the Lulu printing was horrible.
I mean it really sucked!
In spite of the flaws, we pretty much agreed that Lulu was the way to go for making an easy to purchase, affordable book... or at least I talked you into it ;-)
But honestly I was cringing at the prospect and I procrastinated... I really didn't have the enthusiasm to do another half-assed book because the reproduction was so lousy.
However, in recent months I have been experimenting with books from Blurb. Here's one I did for myself: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/194323
The larger (8x10 and up) books are printed using and HP Indigo (ink on paper) versus Lulu's Xerox iGen (toner based), yet the 8x10 softcover size is still reasonably priced. They also offer a larger size and hardcover options.
But here is the GOOD NEWS: Blurb prints B&Ws as NEUTRALS. Honest to goodness, I can't see a color shift. I submitted greyscale files on the advice of a friend and Blurb automagically converts them to sRGB and prints them neutral. I am thrilled!!!
OK, I saw a little banding in the most delicate transitions and in certain areas I could pick up a subtle coolness but these are really better than any other Print on Demand publisher I've seen to date. And they are a helluvalot less than Asuka or Shared Ink.
BAD NEWS: They require that I use their own software to lay out the book -- I can't submit a PDF like at Lulu. It's laborious. I would require exporting jpgs from every page of the InDesign book that I already did. Or starting over from scratch. However, it is not rocket science.
I don't have 2-3 days to devote to this. Things are getting busy with my photography business and frankly I am hoping that I can pass this off to some willing good hearted soul.
I would send them a disc with all the files and offer to coach them through the process. They should probably know how to use (and own) Adobe InDesign and know their way around printing good inkjets -- I really don't have the time to teach a tyro from the ground up -- but someone with reasonable skills who has a couple of days to devote to this would be ideal.
Or... well we could just let it slide as a fun experiment. Everything has its place.
Or, imho, we probably would do best to start over and make everyone resend new files sized and ready to insert into the Blurb software... that would make the task a heck of a lot easier for the designer, but we'd have to come to agreement as to sizes and probably post a master template for people to download and follow. But it could all be done via email. So that would be something to contemplate. However, last time we had about 100 participants and dealing with all those emails was complicated, so be warned if you volunteer for this hazardous duty.
Anyway, I would help but I don't want to be the point man for round two....
Regardless, try Blurb for your own projects, I am really happy with the results.
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