well, I've got one ordered through iPhoto (I feel it is expensive) and another in creation with Blurb (bigger book, lower cost). I'm really looking forward to comparing the two. As Brit-007 pointed out, MyPublisher's software seems to be Win2000/XP/Vista, so I plan on getting on to my wife's machine and trying them out too. Once I have finished books in my hands, I'll let you all know what I think.
Apple sent me a shipping notice today. 68 page book was submitted to them on the 12th late at night, and early in the morning on the 15th I'm getting tracking info? I'm surprised and impressed. I hope the quality is as good as the shipping.
I will be completing and ordering the Blurb book tonight.
I ordered 6 x 120 pg books (each one different) from Blurb last Saturday, and received them yesterday (Friday) and I'm in Australia - and they look great, too!
I looked over the Apple book last night. I am pleased, but I'm not blown away. In general, I think the images look a bit darker than they do I on my Apple Cinema displays. The images that were already dark to begin with look "more darker-er" than the images that were more toward the lighter side.
I don't know what the "technical" name is for it, but the slip jacket images have that "stack of ink" look to them, whereby when you look at the image from a side angle you can see the edges of each color layer.
The hardcover itself is nice, and the pages themselves are nice too, but I am betting that Blurb's premier paper is going to have a more luxurious, thicker feel to it. We'll see.
For the money, I was expecting more from Apple.
I'll update again when I get the blurb book (on the 25th)
Steve, thanks for sharing your impressions, so far from checking their website and reading comments here it looks like Blurb is offering great service at a decent price. I'm looking forward to your review!
Shane, I just got the Blurb book, and just finished looking through it. I am truly impressed. I think the quality is fantastic. The paper has a nice feel to it. The images are reproduced marvelously for the most part, though a couple of my darker images, again, might be slightly darker than I would have expected. The great majority of the images are perfectly reproduced. I ordered the printed cover - love it. Although I will try other book printing services (MyPublisher for one), I am sure that I will be ordering from Blurb again.
Here are the stats:
Apple book - 8.5" x 11", 68 pages, text-stamped hard cover with printed slip jacket - $77.51 + $5.99 tax + $7.99 shipping ($91.49 total). Ordered January 12th. Delivered January 20th. Very good... not excellent.
Blurb book - 8x10", 112 pages, hardcover with wrapped image - $51.95+$11.47 shipping ($63.42 total). Ordered Jan 15. Promised for Jan 26. Delivered on Jan 23. Excellent.
Also, to account for the difference in sizes (Apples book was larger), I checked Blurb for an 80-120 page 13"x11" book (significantly larger than Apple's). That book would cost $92.95 with the same options (premium paper and image-wrap cover). Without premium paper it would be $79.95.
Apple doesn't give an option on paper quality and doesn't offer image wrap covers, unless I missed these options.
All in all, I prefer Blurb to Apple. Thanks to all for helping me pick.
I am glad you like Blurb and thanks for the review. Looks like the next order for me will be Blurb. I am very surprised on the price difference (does not surprise me that Apple is more expensive) and that Blurb does not offer a standard 8.5 x 11 option.
Apple does not give an option for paper quality, hopefully they will in the next Aperture update. You can get complete imaged rapped dust covers - its called the 'dust jacket spread cover' and can be added to all hard cover books.
Short reply from iPhone...blurb image wrap refers to a printed image on the actual hardcover, not a printed dust jacket (paper) wrap over Apple's hardcover. Sorry if I wasn't clear on that.
I have used Blurb for a few books and have been pleased. The last one, I did order the wrapped cover as the dust jackets on are not a great fit on my other books. The images have slight tonal differences and I believe they print directly from the files they receive without any color correction. I believe Asuka does color correction but their prices are prohibitive for all but the most wealthy of clients. Is there a publisher who does minor color correction to better fit their printers without paying Asuka prices?
In reply to the last post by sskoutas on page one.
For short runs at a low price you can bet that digital presses are being used. That means CMYK toner based systems. Generically put... Toner particles (beads) versus wet ink are much larger and will yield a smaller gamut of reproducible color than wet ink (offset presses) for CMYK printing. Many of the color hues will overlap and be in gamut for both offset (wet) and digital (toner), but some will not. That's just the nature of the beast. I'm not at all saying the quality is poor, just different and if managed properly it can be quite good.
sskoutas wrote:
I looked over the Apple book last night. I am pleased, but I'm not blown away. In general, I think the images look a bit darker than they do I on my Apple Cinema displays.
Comparing what you see on a monitor is not going to be necessarily accurately representative of what you see on a printed substrate. Remember your monitor emitting RGB pixels to display your image while printed photographic work is put to substrate in CMYK (subtractive color). Most associate monitors with additive color and it's easy to think in those terms, but it's not true additive color unless the RGB mixes which is not the case with monitor display pixels. I digress though. My point is this... When you take a image which you capture in RGB and print it in CMYK there has to be a conversion. Since we're dealing with two different color models you can bet that some colors of the RGB image may not be reproducible in the CMYK gamut. This is coupled with the particular CMYK gamut of the device (printer) and technology used (offset, digital, etc...) If you hope to have any level of accuracy with coming close to soft proofing on you monitor you need to take a few crucial steps. First, your monitor must be calibrated. Best done with a quality paring of hardware (spectrophotometer) and software (various) from a company such as Gretag Macbeth. If you don't want to spend the cash and understand you will give up accuracy you can use the free Adobe Gamma utility (PC) or for Mac, run the Calibrate utility, located on the System Preferences/Displays/Color tab. Monitor calibration isn't a one time occurrence either because it will change or degrade in performance over time. Next you will need an icc profile for the particular printer device your piece will be printed on. This describes the reproducible color the printer can output (it's gamut). A canned generic one is better than none, but one which was created for same paper/substrate you will be using is better. That is because the white point of the paper plays a role in how the ink or toner looks when put down on top of it. Any print provider worth using will have these for you. You will load this icc (or icm for PC) onto you system. For PC's XP or better it's as easy as right clicking and selecting Install Profile. For Mac copy profiles into the /Library/ColorSync/Profiles folder or the /Users/[username]/Library/ColorSync/Profiles folder. Now you need to invoke the soft proofing tools of your photo editing SW...I'll assume Photoshop. From PS go to the View menu and select Proof Setup > Custom (this is the same for Illustrator and InDesign btw). From here you can chose any icc profile you have loaded to soft proof to. When you turn on Proof colors you will see an on monitor shift in color which will be closer to your printed piece for that device the profile was based on. Further more you can also turn the Gamut Warning option (photoshop only) on from the same View menu. When on you will see any colors which are out of gamut turn to grey/gray while any the are in gamut remain in color. Remember, this is a soft proof only and will not perform any conversion to your image. Full color management is a much deeper topic. What it will do is give you a much closer approximation of what a printed version of you image will look like.
sskoutas wrote:
I don't know what the "technical" name is for it, but the slip jacket images have that "stack of ink" look to them, whereby when you look at the image from a side angle you can see the edges of each color layer.
What you're likely seeing here is called toner pile. On digital presses toner is placed on the paper and fused to it (on top of it) as opposed to wet ink which is absorbed. This pile height will vary depending on the toner properties, the printer used, the paper and how much toner coverage is required for that image.
