So, I've now tried several print on demand publishers for my book project. I've done LuLu and Qoop so far. I've just ordered a sample copy from CafePress as well, so I am waiting to see how their greyscale prints..
The book is a collection of my photographs, from 1999 to the present. Total pages at the moment is 208, but it will be edited down. Images are black and white, toned, and color.
I am toying with the idea of doing just a black and white book, as it would be much cheaper to produce, so the price after markup would not be very high. But some of the images are only good in color, so it's possible that I may do two books.
What I've found so far:
LuLu is keen, as far as convenience goes; you get a storefront, a personal file managers, they have a keen interface set up to create your books, offer press release templates and promotional links. The cost is resonable as well.
Qoop is still in the initial stages of their launch, and developing along nicely. While not near as feature rich as LuLu, I've been led to believe that eventually they will be, and will have a couple other options available that LuLu does not. I am pretty excited to see what they come up with, as their customer support/contact was above excellent. I hope they come through like they plan to...
The print quality from both is about the same, I am guessing they use the same industry standard print hardware/software. While not tack sharp, like you'd see in a mass produced photo mag, the color images look nice. For the price that one would sell a book at, I cannot really complain about the quality too much, but here's what I find:
Black and white images print very nice, assuming one has a decent file, that has not been over processed too much. The print pretty sharp detail wise, but loose some contrast/detail in shadow areas. I would rate it at 'very good', but not excellent. The color images are more a hit and miss. If you have a highly detailed image, it seems to print wel. If an images contains large areas of flat color, then they sometimes get a little funky. By funky, I mean that fields of color get a bit blotchy, and tonal gradations loose some of their smoothness. If you look very close, you can see the screen pattern/slight banding in these areas, but it's not obvious, you have to look for it. However, each image behaves a little different.
I guessed, and was advised that this is product of the print process, which I understad. So, I don't mean to say that either place has 'bad' print quality - just understand the process, and then you know what to expect. For smaller images, say a book of prints sized 4x6 to 5x7, it works very good. For larger images, say a full page or a spread, it does not work so great, unless you have a shot with a lot of details (landscape) or highly textured closeups like something with fabric details (or a very large file).
That said, overall I am pleased with the output by both that I've tried. I am anxious to see what CafePress's quality is like, as they only print in greyscale. For an amateur releasing their own photobook, I think this is a great opportunity. I can't wait to see what QOOP comes up with over the next couple months, as I'd like to work through them....
waiting....
