Anyone ever use Mpix to self publish a book?

[john_.]

I tried Blurb, and was kinda disappointed... was just wondering aside from

Asuka, any other companies you might recommend to self publish

[teeuwen]

> I tried Blurb, and was kinda disappointed

 

Mmmh, Uwe Steimueller from Digital Outback Photo seems pretty content:

http://www.outbackphoto.com/CONTENT_2007_01/section_output_printing/20070718_BlurbExperience/index.html

 

In what way were you disappointed?

[tonybynum]

it would help to know what disappointed you about blurb. I'm not here to defend them, but they all use the same process, until you get into the higher end printing. . .

[teeuwen]

> but they all use the same process

 

Yes, mainly digital presses from HP and Xerox.

 

> higher end printing...

 

BTW, there's a huge PDF (65 MB ! ) on Bill Atkinson's website 'showing' the making of his book "Within the Stone".

See http://homepage.mac.com/billatkinson/FileSharing2.html

[Brad_]

>>> I tried Blurb, and was kinda disappointed...<P>

 

Me too. Quality isn't quite as good as Apple iPhoto books (have done a lot of those).

Quite a lot of black compression. some artifacts, banding (even in solid dark gray areas!),

and pixelation. And that's providing images at their recommended pixel dimensions

(yielding 300 dpi) and at level 12 jpeg. They print great on my 4800. Also, in one book,

the image on one page was skewed downward about 1/4" at the edge.<P>

 

OTOH, $12.95 is pretty good for 40 page softcover book. You just can't be too fussy and

expect coffee table quality at that price. On the Blurb forums, people have commented

the quality of their hardcover books is better - apparently because they're printed at a

different location/printer.<P>

 

<a href= "http://pages.sbcglobal.net/b-evans/Images21/AlcaBlurbBook">Here's my

Blurb book...</a>

[dave_redmann]

As I understand it, all of the print-on-demand self-publishing places use xerographic printing--basically a very fancy laser printer or color laser printer. With such a process, you cannot expect the same quality, durability, or tactile sensation as you would with an ink-printed book. Also, you cannot expect photos to have the same quality, especially shadow detail and probably gamut, grey-scale tonality, and other properties.

 

If you want 'real' printing (ink instead of fused toner), you have to pay for a print run, and whether you're ordering 1 copy or 500 the price is likely to be about the same. Or at least that's what I found when I looked into it for calendars a year or so ago.

[Brad_]

>>> If you want 'real' printing (ink instead of fused toner)

 

It's not fused dry toner (like Lulu).... They're printed on HP Indigo digital presses employing

liquid toner technology. Still, far different than ink used in conventional offset lithography

presses.

[john_.]

Well, at a family gathering I saw a friends blurb book from a trip to greece, thought it looked pretty good, when i go tthis yesterday, I dunno the pages didnt seem uniform in color or stuff like that...