I’ve been hearing and reading about online book printing on demand for a while. Quite often though, opinions diverge regarding the quality of the books and it is difficult to know the real value of these opinions.

So I decided to design and order books from several online printing companies, see for myself and share my experience and results here on insig.ht. I tried to do so from a photographer’s standpoint.

I picked the three following websites as they seemed to be popular choices among photographers: lulu.com, blurb.com & adorama.com

My goal was to print a nice looking hardcover photo book in color. Ideally the quality would be good enough so that I could feel comfortable selling the book.

I also wanted, as much as possible, to:

- have control over the layout of the book
- have control over the printed colors
- minimize the resizing of the pictures by the printer

I chose 23 of my images and used the same files for all the books. All images were JPEG quality 12 in sRGB profile, resized in Photoshop at 300dpi. Those are specs recommended by all 3 sites. When a profile was available, I soft-proofed the images in Photoshop using a calibrated monitor.

I won’t go into details regarding the pricing as it varies greatly depending on the size of the book and the printing options chosen. But, expect to spend $30/$40 or more for a single book. Note that unlike Adorama, Blurb and Lulu offer the ability to sell your books through their site, and you can choose your price.

Now, let’s get to the comparison. I wrote down the technical stuff and you can see short videos of the book reviews…

ADORAMA

Website: Adoramapix

You will need to create a free Adorama account to login & access the online software. No need to install anything; you design the book online.

Hardcover Sizes: 4″x6″ – 5.5″x8″ – 8″x8″ – 10″x8″ – 12″x8″
(No Softcover available)

Pages: 26 or 50

Cover: ImageWrap Only

Themes: Lots of silly themes (templates for the book) are offered. Choose “no theme” and get a neutral look to start with.

Software & Layout: Navigating the software is pretty straightforward, controls are easy to understand and pictures are laid out on the book with Drag & Drop.
Unfortunately, the pictures won’t insert in the layout keeping their original sizes. You need to resize them manually to match their native pixel dimensions.
Also, in order to center your images the same way on every page, I recommend clicking on the Grid button and selecting the Snap to grid option in Tools –>Preferences .
The software gets the job and offers good freedom with the layout. However, it can be pretty painstaking to resize each picture back to its original size.

Profile: you can download a color profile at the bottom of this page

Book printed: one 8″x8″

+’s: Real photo paper / Profile provided / Accurate colors / Sharp & vibrant prints / Interesting “flat” binding

-’s: Number of pages: only 26 or 50 / Very thick pages give a unusual feel to the book / no PDF upload / Not possible to sell your book through the site

BLURB

Website: Blurb
You’ll first need to download and install the Blurb Bookmark software on your computer and create a free account in order to print your book.

Hardcover Sizes: 7″x7″ – 10″x8″ – 8″x10″ – 13″x11″ – 12″x12″
(Softcover available for smaller sizes)

Pages: from 20 to 440 – Standard & Premium Paper (optional)

Cover: ImageWrap or Dustjacket

Themes: Like Adorama, there are a number of bad looking themes offered. I think the “blank” theme is a good start.

Software & Layout: Easy software to naviguate with Drag and Drop capability.
There are many different pre-formatted page layouts you can choose from. In them, you’ll find fixed sized containers where you can drop your pictures. But if your picture is too big for the container, it will be cropped.
For full control you can now (it’s a new Bookmark feature) create custom-sized containers and personal layouts. To do so, click on Edit Layout in Bookmark. You can then save and re-use your custom layout on any page.
Overall, it’s good and pretty flexible software. But, if you need to use many different personal layouts, it can be a lot of work to build them.
Update: Blurb now also accepts PDF uploads.

Profile: The standard Blurb offering does not provide any profiles.
However, their B3 program offers the download of a profile and a Custom Workflow printing option, meaning that your book should be printed on designated calibrated printers.
This program is still in Beta, so an invitation is needed to get access it; Blurb sent me an invite in a timely manner. You can find more about the program here.

Books printed: one 7″x7″ with the Custom Workflow and one 10″x8″ without it. Both books on Standard Paper.

+’s: Good software / Good & varied book formats offered / Profile available (if B3 member) / Accurate colors even with standard Workflow / PDF upload

-’s: No significant quality increase with Custom Workflow / Flat & unsharp prints / Thin paper / Poor binding / Extra options (Custom Workflow, Blurb logo removal, Premium Paper) increase the price of the book significantly

LULU

Lulu offers 2 types of books: a standard Book and a more expensive Photo Book.

- The standard Book is printed from a PDF file uploaded on the site and printed on standard paper. It seems to be aimed towards written and/or illustration books. Most of the offered book formats are in portrait orientation.
- The Photo Book is designed online with the Lulu Studio software and printed on better paper. Less book format options.

1. Photo Book

Website: Lulu Photo Book
You access the software online. No need to install anything. You will need to create a free Lulu account to print your book.

Themes: Same as competitors; I recommend the theme named “blank”.

Cover: ImageWrap Only

Hardcover Sizes: 8.5″x11″ – 9″x7″ – 8.5″x8.5″
(Softcover also available)

Pages: from 20 to 120

Software & Layout: Software is pretty basic but easy to use. You can choose from different containers to insert your pictures into, but there is no indication of their sizes. So there is a good chance that your pictures will end up being resized by the software when you insert it. The resizing done on my pictures seemed OK though.
So, friendly software but with limited control.

Profile: No color profile is available.

Book Printed: one 9″x7″ Photo Book

+’s: Software very easy to use

-’s: Limited controls in Software / Flat & unsharp prints / Color Cast / Poor binding / No PDF upload

2. Standard Book

Website: Lulu standard Book

Cover/Sizes/Pages: Many options are available, too many to list, but you can find the info here.

Layout: You can design your book and layout using any desktop publishing program before converting it to PDF format. I used inDesign. Unfortunately, there is no inDesign template on the Lulu site, which would be nice!

Profile: No profile is available.

Book Printed: one 6″x9″ standard Book

+’s: PDF upload, hence full control over the layout / Good color accuracy / Many formats and binding options

-’s: Flat & unsharp prints / Thin non-glossy paper / Poor binding

CONCLUSION

Looking at the books I received, I think that none of these printing services really makes the cut in order to be considered a serious option for photographers’ books. Adorama printing is good, but the product seems limited in use. Blurb and Lulu printing quality is simply not good enough. However, I do think they can be used in certain cases; they could be great for mock ups, promo pieces, or even fancy magazines.

I have started researching other options: smaller printers, printing lesser quantities and more focused on quality but haven’t found the task very easy so far. Where are you hiding, dear printers? I would love if you could share (in the comments) your experiences with the sites mentioned here as well as with any other book printing company.

Links:
- An up to date listing of interesting printing companies: Printer Resources for Independent Art Publishers
- The founder of Edition One Studio interviewed here
- Magazine printing on demand: MagCloud

Thanks to Karen Rudd for the video editing.