sskoutas
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 p.1 #2 · book printing - revisited | |
Here's why I'm starting the topic again... I have had recent experiences with Blurb that leave me looking for a new book printing vendor, and now it is no longer only a personal interest, but for my clients as well.
I needed to get 5 books from Blurb for Christmas... these were personal, and gifts. They shipped on time, but on receipt we noticed that the pages were glued in place to the binding, and were coming out... on all 5 books. Blurb was prompt to agree to reprint, and they gave me a pre-addressed label to return the 5 books.
The reprint almost certainly came from a different print shop. The pages were now firmly bound with a stitch binding, and the books had a beefier feel to them. That said, black was my primary background color throughout the books, and many pages had a white stain (small) on them. It almost looked like a water drop that had lifted the ink off the pages.
I accepted the books as is because I was now out of time for the holidays, and to be honest, the books were almost "good enough" for personal use. I would not have presented them to a client. I did write Blurb to give them feedback, and they again, politely and promptly offered to reprint at no expense to me. I cannot complain about their customer service, but their actual production is a bit of a concern to me now.
It should be noted that my book was 158 pages, premium paper, and image-wrap covers. The blurb limit seems to be 160 pages, so maybe the 158 premium pages were too much, but Blurb should have told me that in advance.
I should also say that although my site is a smugmug site, I did not order these books through the smugmug interface... I had the bones of the book already available to me from a previous purchase directly from Blurb last year.
All this said, I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts and experience with book printers this year. I think I will be trying Asuka or Pikto next.
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