Mag Cloud: The Other Big Name

Self-publishing for photographers: Part 4

A redesign of the layout. One-offs are great for evaluating various layouts or editorial choices, especially when getting feedback from others.

By: R W Boyer

The other well-known on-demand print service for producing magazine-like objects is MagCloud. MagCloud is part of Blurb books. I’ll be reviewing Blurb at a point down the road as more of a baseline for hardcover books rather than lump them in with magazine-type publishing options. The division is arbitrary as Blurb has soft covers but as I mentioned in the overview of Amazon KDP, all of these services are primarily delineated by choices in format, paper, cover options, pricing model, and support.

In many ways, MagCloud is compatible with Amazon KDP. The target market is slightly skewed towards customers that want a color magazine, brochures, posters, and similar products rather than black and white trade format text-heavy books. While there are minor differences, the primary deciding factor between the two is the format.

If one offered the format I needed that would point me one way or another. An example would be a color poster, KDP doesn’t have that. Interestingly enough, KDP doesn’t offer landscape-oriented books in a large size. The only way to get a horizontal book from KDP is use a custom size with a maximum width of 8.5in. MagCloud doesn’t offer any format that has a trim size of 8.5in x 11in. The total size is 8.5 x 11 but the trim size is smaller. In my tests, this forced me to reformat the layouts in my test publication.

The Upsides Of MagCloud

• Low enough cost to order a single copy

• The capability of selling and fulfilling copies without ordering any directly from MagCloud (like KDP but with a smaller reach)

• Reasonable quantity pricing tiers but never a truly low unit cost for huge volumes (similar to KDP)

• Color profiles of the PDF are respected

As you can see, MagCloud and Amazon KDP are similar and either may be exactly what you need. If you would like a single source to print and fulfill online order, both are great. If you choose a custom print shop you’d need to arrange for sales and fulfillment on your own. Many print services and third parties will handle this but not at a low volume.

These color patches are specific Pantone colors. I use these to evaluate color from soft-proof through to actual publication. A few people that saw my test copies loved the color palette extracted from images. Who would have guessed? I’ll keep it in the final version.

The Downsides Of MagCloud

• Quality is so-so, especially the cover. The KDP cover stock is superior.

• A complete failure on my banding torture test.

• Color was within acceptable tolerance of the generic CMYK SWOP profile I used to proof but shadow density was darker than what I expected and darker than the other on-demand services I tested. I’d have to account for this if I used MagCloud which I’d rather not do

• Customer support is accessible but lousy

• High cost given the quality at moderate volumes

When testing on-demand services I include a couple of pages on the interior as well as the cover that are a solid dark color. This is my banding torture test. I’m sure you’ve seen what a color inkjet printer looks like when on fast mode on crappy paper or the nozzles are clogged. Yep, that’s the banding I refer to. As shown in my review of KDP one copy showed none while another was obvious and ugly. MagCloud was universally horrible in my test run.

Ugly banding and digital artifacts of my torture test.

I am not experienced in the operation of any of the digital press equipment used by these services. I don’t know all the factors that contribute to this particular fault but I can say without a doubt that some services using the same hardware have vastly different performance and quality when it comes to this ugly digital artifact.

The unusually dark shadow density and the starkly visible banding allowed an opportunity to test MagCloud’s customer support and service. Bottom line; epic failure from my perspective. I didn’t follow through until the end to ultimate resolution. I didn’t have to. My initial inquiry and the response were enough to know it wasn’t worth the trouble.

I wrote a detailed explanation of the problems with my order. I included all the details of my workflow and submission (which they can see themselves). I asked specific close-ended questions. The response was typical for a company that’s customer service is designed to find “user errors” first and foremost without understanding the problem described. You’ve experienced that, it’s the norm.

No matter how detailed the information you provide, no matter how you narrow down the specific problem, the process grinder will insist on giving no answers and shove you down a path of jumping through nonsensical, irrelevant hoops before answering any question or acknowledging any issue. Is your computer plugged in? What version of windows are you using... “Goddamit, the frigging router is dead, what do you care what software my device is running”. Those were not the hoops (these are the cable/internet company’s) but similar illogical steps and useless activities designed to put the ball back in my court.

I didn’t need to waste a week with an endless series of irrelevant activities to arrive at no answers to my specific questions. I have the answer. I also had the advantage of another photographer that had recently used MagCloud and Blurb that went through the entire process to resolve an obvious issue with the cover image.

After using every possible reason it was his fault and his image causing the problem (which it wasn’t) customer service finally offered to print it again. A dozen interactions, a dozen “prove it’s not you” exercises. Is that time worth it? Funny enough the problem was similar to the banding issue I experienced. Worse is the refusal to answer a simple and direct question of mine. Hey, shadows are noticeably darker with less detail than the 3 other services I tested and soft proofed using a specific profile. Should I use something different than I did? What would that be?

I’m familiar with KDP. They are explicit in setting expectations regarding color; Don’t have expectations. If I complained hard enough about a single banding issue they’d probably just reprint it rather than waste customer service time, it’s cheaper and a better strategy. I may or may not get anything better, luck of the draw as I saw in my test order.

Don’t interpret my critique as saying MagCloud is bad or useless. As long as you understand what they provide don’t expect perfection or super high quality MagCloud can be useful for specific projects and price points. I do have a favorite on-demand service and a recommendation for lower cost, low volume, softcover on-demand printing. I’ll cover that in the next installment. I would and do use KDP and would use MagCloud appropriately.

One example would be to get one or two hard proofs of a brand new project. This isn’t a hard proof representing what is the final product but it’s great for evaluating layout, sequencing, and all the other needing feedback and consideration. At $10 to $20 for a single proof, it’s hard to beat.

Stay tuned, for anything magazine-like and a run of ten or more copies, my recommendation is coming next.

What is your experience with MagCloud or Blurb? Have a one-off or a project you think is might be right for either KDP or MagCloud? Want an opinion? just ask.