What is the state of the art in self published photo books?

BradS · Mar 29, 2021

Like the title says...

what is the process?
what are the 'good' companies ?
How good (or bad) are the results?
anything else that you can think of...

I'm thinking small run or publish on demand. Not trying to sell on Amazon or anything just want to make some book or zine type of thing to share my photos with family and friends. I really don't know much and after looking a bit am confused, skeptical, overwhelmed, etc...

laingsoft · Jun 22, 2021

If you just want to share it with some friends, why not just go grab some nice printable paper and a good inkjet?

Horatio · Jun 22, 2021

I’d start with YouTube tutorials for the different platforms (Blurb, Shutterfly, etc.) I tried Shutterfly to play with an idea, but the website interface kept crashing. But it could have been my iPad at fault. Never tried it with my “real” computers. I think most apps allow drag and drop once you have prepared the image. With Blurb you can create your book/zine in Lightroom, then send to Blurb for printing. The prices for zines seemed reasonable when I checked.

fgorga · Jun 22, 2021

I have been satisfied with MagCloud (which is owned by Blurb).

They have templates for common software but the templates are very flexible so you can layout the pages as you see fit and are not locked into a generic design. One then uploads a pdf file to their server.

Their products are press printed and therefore the choice of paper is limited. They also only do soft covers. They do have a choice of bindings at lease for some priducts.

Prices are reasonable and the quality is great.

removed account4 · Jun 22, 2021

a friend loves chatbooks ..
I can't recommend anything personally
(have never done POD books ).

guangong · Jun 22, 2021

I use Adobe’s InDesign, which offers smooth integration with Photoshop and Illustrator. A wide selection of fonts, etc. Smith-Parker is a reliable print on demand printer. In today’s world you don’t want to print books, but use print on demand.
Keep in mind that photos that are reproduced for print media must be adjusted to resemble originals. Also, every step of design, fonts, kerning, proofreading, etc that you farm out will add significant costs. Not to mention choice of bindings, etc.
However, while time consuming, the whole process of self publishing is fascinating. Before beginnng I would invest in reading several books on self publishing that are available on Amazon. At least you will get some idea whether you want to embark of such a venture.
On the other hand, if you are loaded with lots of ready cash you could hire designers, editor, proofreaders, etc and give to a printer that can print high quality photos.

runswithsizzers · Jun 22, 2021

I have used Blurb's "BookWright" software to create half a dozen photo books in the past few years. I asked them to reprint one book because of a noticeable blue/cyan cast to the black and white photos, but otherwise, I thought the quality of the finished books was very good. The problem book was reprinted at no charge.

I can't say I love their BookWright software. It does provide a good set of tools that allow the images and text to be laid out pretty much any way you want. Aside from the earliest versions, years ago, the software seems to be stable, that is, no crashes in recent versions (Mac user). The biggest frustration for me was the way BookWright handles text. Usually, I want a different font for body text and captions, and I may use other fonts for Table of Contents, Chapter headings, etc. But no matter what font I used last time, every time I create a new text box, the software defaults to some random font and I have to scroll down the list to select the one I want. If your book is mostly text, there is some way to import preformatted text written in a word processor, but that is no help for someone for who needs many small blocks of unrelated text like captions and titles. BookWright will flow large blocks of text from one linked text box to another across multiple pages.

If you are a Lightroom user, it is also possible to lay out a book in Lightroom and then send it to Blurb for printing. The user interface is more elegant in Lightroom, and switching between fonts is easier - but - Lightroom does not allow you to flow larger blocks of text from one page to another. Not a problem if you have only short captions, but a real pain for books with more text.

I haven't tried any other book printing services, so I have nothing to compare to Blurb, but I can say you will get a very nice book from Blurb if you can endure their software. If you opt for a nice hardbound cover and premium paper, they can get pricy, but Blurb periodically runs discounts, sometimes up to 30-40% off. There is also a discount for 10 or more copies.

A nice photo book is an excellent way to present your photos and a very nice viewing experience for your audience. Good luck with your project.

Alan Edward Klein · Jun 22, 2021

runswithsizzers said:
I have used Blurb's "BookWright" software to create half a dozen photo books in the past few years. I asked them to reprint one book because of a noticeable blue/cyan cast to the black and white photos, but otherwise, I thought the quality of the finished books was very good. The problem book was reprinted at no charge.

I can't say I love their BookWright software. It does provide a good set of tools that allow the images and text to be laid out pretty much any way you want. Aside from the earliest versions, years ago, the software seems to be stable, that is, no crashes in recent versions (Mac user). The biggest frustration for me was the way BookWright handles text. Usually, I want a different font for body text and captions, and I may use other fonts for Table of Contents, Chapter headings, etc. But no matter what font I used last time, every time I create a new text box, the software defaults to some random font and I have to scroll down the list to select the one I want. If your book is mostly text, there is some way to import preformatted text written in a word processor, but that is no help for someone for who needs many small blocks of unrelated text like captions and titles. BookWright will flow large blocks of text from one linked text box to another across multiple pages.

If you are a Lightroom user, it is also possible to lay out a book in Lightroom and then send it to Blurb for printing. The user interface is more elegant in Lightroom, and switching between fonts is easier - but - Lightroom does not allow you to flow larger blocks of text from one page to another. Not a problem if you have only short captions, but a real pain for books with more text.

I haven't tried any other book printing services, so I have nothing to compare to Blurb, but I can say you will get a very nice book from Blurb if you can endure their software. If you opt for a nice hardbound cover and premium paper, they can get pricy, but Blurb periodically runs discounts, sometimes up to 30-40% off. There is also a discount for 10 or more copies.

A nice photo book is an excellent way to present your photos and a very nice viewing experience for your audience. Good luck with your project.

What "soft proofing" printing adjustments do you have to do so it prints well at Blurb? (Not too light; not too dark, etc.)

runswithsizzers · Jun 22, 2021

Alan Edward Klein said:
What "soft proofing" printing adjustments do you have to do so it prints well at Blurb? (Not too light; not too dark, etc.)

Maybe dumb luck on my part, but my normal Lightroom/Photoshop adjustments seem to translate to Blurb's printing with fair accuracy. In the past, most of my editing was done on an old iMac (2011) that was calibrated only by software and by eye. (More recently, I've replaced that with a 2020 iMac, hardware calibrated with x-rite - but I haven't printed any books with the new kit to see if it makes any difference.)

The BookWright software does have a preferences box that allows you to enable/disable softproofing, as described <here> but they don't go into much detail about what it does or how it works. I usually leave that enabled. Blurb also provides an ICC Profile that can be used for softproofing in Photoshop. More info <here> Personally, I haven't bothered with softproofing my images in Photoshop. Most of my digital images are never opened in Photoshop, because Lightroom does almost everything I need to do. I believe I am above-average sensitive to subtle color shifts and I spend a fair amount of time getting the colors shadows and highlights on my screen the way I like them. Whatever I'm doing seems to work, because I have not noticed any significant color or dark/light issues in the printed books.

The BookWright software also has a checkbox to "Auto-enhance images added to project" which is described <here>. The way I understand it, this is more for people who don't spend much time in postprocessing. I usually do not use Auto-enhance, but I did for one project. My wife's parents had a lot of old slides from when they were in the Peace Corps, and many were underexposed. I did the best I could with the scans in Photoshop, but many were still dark. Enabling Auto-enhance did brighten them up a little, but to my eye the colors got more saturation than I like. My Mother-in-law loved the book.
EDIT: It used to be that either all images in the project would be auto-enhanced, or none of them. More recent versions of BookWright allow you apply auto-enhance to individual images.

Obviously, it would be a good idea to print a small book as a test before ordering 40 copies!

Alan Edward Klein · Jun 22, 2021

runswithsizzers said:
Maybe dumb luck on my part, but my normal Lightroom/Photoshop adjustments seem to translate to Blurb's printing with fair accuracy. In the past, most of my editing was done on an old iMac (2011) that was calibrated only by software and by eye. (More recently, I've replaced that with a 2020 iMac, hardware calibrated with x-rite - but I haven't printed any books with the new kit to see if it makes any difference.)

The BookWright software does have a preferences box that allows you to enable/disable softproofing, as described <here> but they don't go into much detail about what it does or how it works. I usually leave that enabled. Blurb also provides an ICC Profile that can be used for softproofing in Photoshop. More info <here> Personally, I haven't bothered with softproofing my images in Photoshop. Most of my digital images are never opened in Photoshop, because Lightroom does almost everything I need to do. I believe I am above-average sensitive to subtle color shifts and I spend a fair amount of time getting the colors shadows and highlights on my screen the way I like them. Whatever I'm doing seems to work, because I have not noticed any significant color or dark/light issues in the printed books.

The BookWright software also has a checkbox to "Auto-enhance images added to project" which is described <here>. The way I understand it, this is more for people who don't spend much time in postprocessing. I usually do not use Auto-enhance, but I did for one project. My wife's parents had a lot of old slides from when they were in the Peace Corps, and many were underexposed. I did the best I could with the scans in Photoshop, but many were still dark. Enabling Auto-enhance did brighten them up a little, but to my eye the colors got more saturation than I like. My Mother-in-law loved the book.

Obviously, it would be a good idea to print a small book as a test before ordering 40 copies!

Thanks that was helpful. reminds me when I first got a digital camera and printer. I didn't have a calibratable monitor like now and used PS Elements to edit instead of my current Lightroom. I just checked, "Let Printer Decide Settings " and all my prints seemed fine. It was only after I learned about soft proofing and calibratable monitors like I have now that the process became difficult. KISS. Keep It Simple.

AgX · Jun 22, 2021

BradS said:
Like the title says...

anything else that you can think of...

https://www.thephotobookmuseum.com/en/

BradS · Jun 22, 2021

AgX said:
https://www.thephotobookmuseum.com/en/

Interesting. Thanks.

RalphLambrecht · Jun 22, 2021

BradS said:
Like the title says...

what is the process?

what are the 'good' companies ?

How good (or bad) are the results?

anything else that you can think of...

I'm thinking small run or publish on demand. Not trying to sell on Amazon or anything just want to make some book or zine type of thing to share my photos with family and friends. I really don't know much and after looking a bit am confused, skeptical, overwhelmed, etc...

Ican, without hesitation recommend 'wir machen-druck.de'; excellent prices and quality1 but you have to be able to provide a print-ready, igh-quality pdf to them; so, mething like Adobe InDesign is must.

Pieter12 · Jun 22, 2021

I will address print quality, since design is a different kettle of fish.

I have used both print on demand and more conventional offset printers. For print on demand, I have used Blurb and MagCloud (as someone mentioned, now owned by Blurb). I printed one book (about 75 copies) in color with Blurb and was satisfied with the results. Not art book top-quality, but about 85% there. You must use their photoshop profiles and adjust the color of the files to get what you want. Of course, a calibrated monitor is pretty much essential. Black and white is a different story. Blurb prints B&W using 4-color CMYK process and even the slightest variation on press will produce a color cast that can (and will) vary from the front of the book to the back, depending on the number of pages and signatures. Depending on how picky you are (I worked as an art director and can be pretty unforgiving) this can be a deal-breaker. The first job I printed with MagCloud came out fine in black and white, but a subsequent printing with more pages but most of the exact same files was faded and disappointing. Be aware that MagCloud/Blurb uses presses in different locations and they do not always match. MagCloud had to reprint the book (actually a zine) and even though I made adjustments to the files to compensate for the second printing, it was still sub-par. I do not know if they have changed anything in their production process lately, so your results may vary.

I printed (although not self-published per se) with Bookmobile and was much happier with the results. They provide a set of unbound proof pages for the job so you or they can make adjustments to the files if you are not happy with the initial results, before the press run. They do have minimums and are not the place to go for one-off or short-runs of less than, say, 100 books. If I recall they have more standard sizes to choose from, too.

wiltw · Jun 22, 2021

I now have used Printerpix four times, across widely separated years, to create 8x12 harcbound 'eeather' photobookx on nice thick paper. Highly satisfied with the results, and the very modest pricing for each.
You control the layout of each page, for photo size and position, the background color and all captons/titles on each page, using online layout tools.

Pieter12 · Jun 22, 2021

Try to find a copy of Publish Your Photography Book, by Darius Hines and Mary Virginia Swanson.

warden · Jun 22, 2021

BradS said:
Like the title says...

what is the process?

what are the 'good' companies ?

How good (or bad) are the results?

anything else that you can think of...

I'm thinking small run or publish on demand. Not trying to sell on Amazon or anything just want to make some book or zine type of thing to share my photos with family and friends. I really don't know much and after looking a bit am confused, skeptical, overwhelmed, etc...

If you're not stressed about professional quality I used AdoramaPix last year to make a book for family members on the occasion of one of my kids graduating. Maybe 50 pictures, hard bound, and it looked surprisingly good.

guangong · Jun 23, 2021

In addition to physical production of book, if printing to sell, you will need to buy ISBN number and bar code.
As for production of book, the effort and tools that you use depends upon you own standards. Putting together
A book is no less craft and art than photography.

RalphLambrecht · Jun 23, 2021

BradS said:
Like the title says...

what is the process?

what are the 'good' companies ?

How good (or bad) are the results?

anything else that you can think of...

I'm thinking small run or publish on demand. Not trying to sell on Amazon or anything just want to make some book or zine type of thing to share my photos with family and friends. I really don't know much and after looking a bit am confused, skeptical, overwhelmed, etc...

RalphLambrecht · Jun 23, 2021

just the right thin for wir - machen - druck.de. With them, You can print 1,5 or 5,000 as you like nd reprint at any time.

laingsoft · Jun 23, 2021

guangong said:
In addition to physical production of book, if printing to sell, you will need to buy ISBN number and bar code.
As for production of book, the effort and tools that you use depends upon you own standards. Putting together
A book is no less craft and art than photography.

That's not true, you don't NEED an isbn if you don't want to distribute to retail stores and libraries.

guangong · Jun 24, 2021

laingsoft said:
That's not true, you don't NEED an isbn if you don't want to distribute to retail stores and libraries.

True enough. But why publish a book and limit distribution? As far as I know, except for older editions and a few facsimiles from China and Taiwan, all books in my library have ISBN. Shooting photos, printing, and preparing prints for reproduction, writing, editing, proofreading, etc are all time consuming labors, so why restrict distribution?
The OP talked about a book. Of course if just a few copies for friends, a simple folio would suffice.

laingsoft · Jun 24, 2021

guangong said:
True enough. But why publish a book and limit distribution? As far as I know, except for older editions and a few facsimiles from China and Taiwan, all books in my library have ISBN. Shooting photos, printing, and preparing prints for reproduction, writing, editing, proofreading, etc are all time consuming labors, so why restrict distribution?
The OP talked about a book. Of course if just a few copies for friends, a simple folio would suffice.

I wouldn't bother simply for the fact that I'm realistic about my work. I'm proud of it, but I'm never going to be a highly published artist. And even if I do start to get there I can buy an isbn when I people start asking me for it

guangong · Jun 25, 2021

laingsoft said:
I wouldn't bother simply for the fact that I'm realistic about my work. I'm proud of it, but I'm never going to be a highly published artist. And even if I do start to get there I can buy an isbn when I people start asking me for it

Good luck on your project. However, don’t sell yourself short!

RalphLambrecht · Jun 25, 2021

laingsoft said:
That's not true, you don't NEED an isbn if you don't want to distribute to retail stores and libraries.

right; I made several books for me and friends without ever getting an ISBN for them. for private use, an ISBN is only useful if you like to order your book from large or small retailers, otherwise, they can get the book from you or sometimes, from the printer directly.

What is the state of the art in self published photo books?

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