17 Comments

Well written and well said. As this is my first time publishing a book, the knowledge gained will make my end product a success.

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Very well written, and yes, you had me with the OM-1n, OM-2s and Zuiko glass! Having been a partner in a printing firm, a professional photographer since 1976 (and even did pre-press after doing commercial blanket shoots!), I have always found it pretty amazing that things turn out as well as they do, with so many opportunities for things to fall apart along the way. Now if I would only take the time to get my own personal projects sorted and get some books made...

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This is a nice teaser...let’s hear more!

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I was intrigued to receive your email today about self-publishing. For years I have struggled with poor quality offerings from places like Photobook Canada or with very high prices from fabulous company's like Blurb, and so now that I am retired from the practice of specialty sleep medicine, I decided to reinvented myself as a publisher (with a digital printing press) and a bookbinder. I chose the wonderful tabloid size XEROX C9000 Versalink digital printer, educated myself with all the different types of coated and uncoated paper out there, and set up a complete bookbindery based on the Finnish FASTBind technology ecosystem to prepare softcover (perfect bound) and hardcover (casebound) books. I am a color perfectionist and this printer allows me to create a custom profiles for each paper type with XRITE hardware and software.

I use Pixellu SmartAlbums to actually create the core of the Photobook, and as needed Photoshop to do things like the cover, the title pages, the colophons and the endpapers. Everything is reassembled in Adobe Acrobat.

You can certainly keep cost down by using imposition software which allows you to place two leaves on a single page.

And of course doing all the binding yourself for the keeps the costs down.

I am able to produce coffee table/library/book store quality photobooks in my own home and am hoping over the next few years that this small run publishing business will provide some ongoing income during my so-called retirement years.

The only problem is producing multiple copies of the same book but to date, none of my clients have asked for more than 50 copies of anything. If somebody wanted thousand copies, I would direct them to IngramSpark.

Do not ask about pricing yet. It is like asking a fisherman who just bought an nice boat how much each salmon costs. I figure I will have everything paid off within a year the way things are going right now.

I must say I am very happy to be producing my own photobooks.

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I spent the whole day working within a book printing service's templates to lay out a book. Could your post have been more timely?

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I, too, am guilty of proofing a job to death. It's fun! And it's expensive!

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Preface: I am a retired professor of graphic communication (printing and publishing).

This is an interesting introduction to printing technologies. I applaud your work.

I would argue that "digital offset" printing is not a common phrase to describe digital printing. It is true that the HP Indigo presses use an offset blanket which is similar to the blanket cylinder on a conventional offset press. That blanket, and the smaller particle size of their toner (which they call "electroink" because it's toner suspended in a light hydrocarbon liquid) are the major reasons why the Indigo presses produce such extraordinary images.

Other digital presses like Konica-Minolta, Xerox, Ricoh, and others don't have an offset blanket. Instead, they use an accumulator belt to collect the toner from several drums inside the machine, and then transfer that toner to the paper electrostatically.

You are correct to assert that the cost of producing a small number of books or magazines digitally is more reasonable than the cost of producing a small number of books printed by offset lithography. And, you are also correct to assert that the cost of production drops with offset lithography after a number of sheets are printed. That cost comes down after set-up, but it plateaus and remains constant after the first 1,000 or so impressions.

The ease with which digital presses can produce printing is addictive. It's tantalizingly easy to push the "big green button" and make a book or a magazine. The thing I told my students about digital printing is that the cost per unit is constant. Printing more copies does not deliver economy of scale. After approval of the proof (which is one copy printed in advance of the production run), the cost is the same.

But, even at its high price, digital printing is incredibly good. And, as technology improves, these machines deliver better and better printing. It's very difficult to see the difference between a book printed by offset lithography and one printed on an excellent digital press.

I recently got a quote to produce 500 64-page books from a printer using a Xerox digital machine, and another quote from a printer running a 4-color Heidelberg press with UV inks. The offset printing quote was about half the price of the digital printing quote.

Even with a short press run of 500 copies, the price difference was significant.

I chose to go with the offset printer for two reasons: price, and quality. There is a subtle difference in quality in the photographs on the Heidelberg press. That is a result of better image resolution (finer halftone frequency) and finer detail in the highlights of images (a result of using a hybrid stochastic/conventional halftone pattern).

When I need one – or 25 copies – of a book, I will always go with digital. When I need hundreds, I will get a quote from an offset printing company. I am amazed by the economics of printed in the modern world.

Best wishes,

Brian P. Lawler

Emeritus Professor

California Polytechnic State University

San Luis Obispo, California

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