Comments on: On demand publishing evolves … a chance to win!

By: Dalton

Dalton — Tue, 06 May 2008 11:02:21 +0000

Miguel, thanks for the information. Yes, I am worried about color casts and also a lack of separation in tones, especially in the darker areas of the image. I’ve found that even when soft-proofing, the end results can quite unpredictable.

I print black and white inkjet and tend to prefer a warm tone print. At home I work in grayscale and handle the toning in the printer driver, but to replicate this effect in a book, I will need to send the files in RGB. That would be OK as long as the soft-proofing process is accurate, but I’ve heard a lot of stories like Aaron’s and I am wary.

Dave Beckerman has been working on a series of posts about Print On Demand and has some interesting results: http://beckermanphoto.com/category/pod-books/

Cheers,
Dalton

By: the cinemascapist

the cinemascapist — Mon, 05 May 2008 14:53:38 +0000

Update: Got the mini-books/catalogs. Ugh! with a side of Ugh. A few of the images are only slightly acceptable, and a couple are just downright awful! All of the details in the darkest portions that show up in my exhibition prints is completely gone to black muck and even some of the midrange detail is completely muddy.

I’m not even sure I’d mail these as a thank you/follow up gift. Although I will mail you one to show you what I mean.

I guess I’ll hold out until a high-end publisher contacts me to do a “real” book.

Although I assumed this would be the outcome, it is still dissapointing.

By: Miguel

Miguel — Sun, 04 May 2008 15:02:06 +0000

Hi Dalton,

If you have problems printing in B&W and you are referring to the presence of color casts in the prints (lack of neutrality) I recommend two options that work better:

1.- You can add toning to the images, and in that way at least you will get the tonality you like rather than the one the printer generates

2.- If you like neutral B&W, one option is to convert the files to gray scale before sending them to blurb. In that way the printer will not use color, although perhaps may lose some dynamic range.

Best

Miguel

By: Dalton

Dalton — Sun, 04 May 2008 12:43:54 +0000

Thanks for this information. I wonder what the quality will be like for black and white work? I’ve found that, even though I use a color-managed workflow for B&W, nobody can seem to get my prints right except me. I’m sure if I worked with a high-end publisher that problem could be quickly solved, but I’m not sure any of the Print on Demand places can handle it yet. I’m looking forward to trying out this new system to see if it works.

By: Miguel

Miguel — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:50:45 +0000

Hi Aaron,

Nice to hear from you. I did not know about viovio.com but after reading your comment I visited their website. They have products that perhaps will work well … will be interesting to hear from your experience when you get the mini-book … they appear to use Xerox iGen3 printers … never saw the output of those … maybe I should try them myself.

Best regards,

Miguel

By: the cinemascapist

the cinemascapist — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 16:43:10 +0000

I would love to see a color management system. I just designed my first 20 page “mini-book” teaser (via viovio.com) for a fun & free handout to folks I like. It has been produced and is on it’s way via post as I type.

I’m not holding my breath on it’s quality, because I don’t plan on using it to promote my work. It will be more of a thank you card that I will send to publishers that have written about me, collectors who have bought my work, or bloggers who have written lovely reviews (yes, that means you Miguel). So, if it’s of reasonable/acceptable quality, I will start mass producing them soon.