I just received the printed proof copy of my first photo book. I am really pleased with it and wanted to share the news as well as ask one question. It is 100 page, full-bleed, soft cover, perfect bound book, trimmed to 7" x 9". The cover is 12 pt Carolina 1CS paper and the interior 100 lb Gusto Gloss Text.
Some of you may recall a post of mine from June 27, 2008 in which I asked for help with pre-flighting in Acrobat. I got a lot of good feedback from people in their follow-ups to that post. One of the main pieces of advice was to forget trying to produce a book with only Photoshop and Acrobat and buy InDesign or Quark for the page layout work. In the end, I didn't go with the proper page layout software and that shows in the form of less than professional looking text. But I can live with that for my first book since it's mostly about the pictures anyway. I wanted to acknowledge though that the advice about buying InDesign or Quark was good and I'd never attempt another book without one of them.
I also have a question about digital printing. The paper quality of the printed proof is great and the colours are fine but I was a bit surprised that the areas covered by ink are somewhat dull. Inked areas do not have the same luster as the raw paper stock. I know that the digital press is Heidelberg equipment but I do not know the model. Is this lack of luster typical of all digital prints or is it ink dependent or what?
For anyone interested, here's a copy of the book's covers:
