Small book run: printer suggestions

I can definitely recommend that you do NOT use Lulu, as I found their print quality to be horrible. You can order hard cover books at mypublisher.com, it’s a little expensive but I did one for a wedding gift and the photos look as good as if I had printed them myself.

Ida, i have not used this, but it has good reviews http://www.mypublisher.com/
Good luck!

I have looked into both these options and was leaning toward Lulu. I have seen decent print quality come out of Lulu. Can you talk more about your experience with them, Rachel? MyPublisher is too expensive. The initial price for a 20 page book is okay, but what I am working on is closer to 80 pages. It ends being about $50 a book. Lulu is closer to $12 a book. I realize quality will drop. You get what you pay for. I should probably call MyPublisher to see if they do discounts on higher quantity.

There are a few more options and that is via Macintosh and from blurb.com, LS Michael Daniel recommends them and his online books look amazing. Unfortunately I cannot find his post. :0(
Lets stay in touch via this one because sooner or later, I too, would like to put a book or two together. Many thanks for the post!

I just ordered an 80 page book from Blurb last week, I will let you know how it looks when it gets here. As for Lulu, I ordered a 60 page book and it looks horrible. All of the black and white images have a blue tint to them and ironically all of the images that are real film look worse than the digital ones (the files are enormous so it’s not the scan quality.) I must admit that I was incredibly disappointed. If the book I ordered from Blurb doesn’t measure up, I will probably go back to mypublisher…

Rachel, was your project on Lulu all back and white? I would imagine that these online printing operations can’t do good black and white images. Do let me know what your book from Blurb looks like when you get it. I just submitted a quote request with them. I think Apple’s printing service is set up similarly to MyPublisher where they charge per page over the minimum. Adds up fast!

I’ve been really happy with Blurb. The pictures are what I expected in terms of quality and color. The software is easy. All in all, excellent value.

Here’s a wedding book:

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/88301

do inkjets at kinkos, its not so bad actually

Preston, thanks for your feedback on Blurb. I hadn’t been aware of their services before asking here. We’ll see what they come back with as a quote.

Rian, like from the copier? Wouldn’t I still have to bind them?

Ida-

My project on Lulu was not all black and white, a lot of it was color, but the quality of the paper itself just doesn’t pass. I just recieved my book from Blurb and it looks 100% better. I did notice that it seems to print on the dark side, so if you work with subtle shadows it’s probably a good idea to lighten them up a tiny bit.