my favorite is still magcloud bang for buck end of things, only thing i wish it had was a hardcover option for better longterm life and storage but i guess that defeats its purpose. After looking at most of the books we had i noticed that it is very important to have an image on the front and ideally printing on the spine to make it more identifiable once its on a bookshelf. We got some great feedback at the event but please post more here so we can all learn from this!

Great event Steve, and the blog looks terrific.

Stella, I can't find A&I listed anywhere. Could you post links for these companies?

Thanks. and congrats!

Stella's article is really a bit rubbish... it misses the point and is a cheap sell at her consulting services..

here's why... yes we need to make our presented work flow and to have unity etc.... but what has that got to do with POD...? nothing, it's a completely seperate issue about editing your work.

Yes we bitch about print quality and paper and colour matching because it's the same no matter what medium we choose to show our work, an old monster 11x14 or a POD, it all needs to be 'just so' or why are we bothering...? again a totally irrelevant point to make when the article is about POD and NOT photo editing...

I asked two very very prminent photo editors their views generally about portfolio's and in particular POD's. They both said that some POD's the paper is too thin and POD's are a great way to show your range by giving art buyers and editors a small book on a personal project. However the mantra is still the same, whatever way you present your work do it very well.

If you have worked with a POD company like I have, chances are you will have seen them make temendous avances in colour management in the last two years, several POD's do allow you to use a better paper.

Stella could have mentioned these relevant facts instead of turning it into a personal plug to get her to edit your work..

Great event as people have said... pity about this silly blog part..

Great blog, and impressive results for Adorama; the only book publisher to beat us for quality (by just 0.4) was also by far the most expensive.
I think that your survey showed that for competitive pricing combined with high quality, AdoramaPix is hard to beat!
BTW, we are always open to customer suggestions as to how we can improve the service we offer - at AdoramaPix, and Adorama Camera - so do get in touch with me if you have an idea; we'd love to hear from you.

Sincerely

Helen Oster
Adorama Camera Customer Service Ambassador

helen.oster@adoramacamera.com
www.adorama.com

For those of us who were not present, can you reveal the question(s) asked of the participants who scored the products? Was there a single question (such as Rate this POD book on the 1-10 scale, where 1 is 'ugly' and 10 is 'amazingly beautiful')? Or were there several dimensions to the rating? And did you print the same book at all the printers - comparing "apples to apples"? Or did you choose a variety of different books printed by the various companies? (If we wanted to replicate the event in another locale, we'd hope a similar group of professional and advanced photographers would rank similarly, but only if they had the same or similar books to view and the same ranking criteria.)

I understand and appreciate the comment about editing. For those of us who come to this exercise as intermediate amateur photographers creating "leave behind"s for special occasions or family events, it's an apt reminder.

Still, it would still help to interpret the ratings if we know how the ratings were determined.

This event has just been confirmed as one of the events at Photo Plus at the Javits center in oct- if you missed us in june please join us then. Please be advised this is not a free event and unfortunately we don't have the ability to discount asmp members. We are looking into getting vender coupons if you come to the event- stay tuned! If you have any requests please post them here!

I've been printing a book of mine through Blurb -- which didn't get a particularly high rating in this test, I see -- and I have to say I am EXTREMELY pleased with the results. I didn't even choose the highest quality paper, and the results are still absolutely stellar. I checked out A&I and Adorama, your two top winners: A*I doesn't even have an 8 x 10 size, and their 8.5 x 11 only comes in hardback, so it's VERY pricey. Adorama doesn't say, at least immediately, whether they're offering a softback or a hardback 8 x 10, but whatever they're offering is $8 a copy more than blurb. So I'm not sure what people were judging on, or if they were fully taking price into consideration.

Having been through a few rounds of this, I have to say your remarks about the importance of editing are spot on: though some of the challenges I've encountered have to do with the software Blurb provides (it's extremely hard to tell where the final paper cuts will fall) it has definitely been my editing, not their production, that has proven to be the biggest problem -- and I have some 20 years of editing experience in my background. You just have to be very very attentive to the work, and that's not always easy when you're working under deadline.

AdoramaPix 8 x 10 books are indeed hardcover, and are printed on Fujifilm Crystal Archive Album photo paper, so they are not press printed, and as you are aware, this makes them very, very different from all the press books.

We took this decision as we discovered that with press books, there were frequently issues with color variations, which we wanted to avoid.
AdoramaPix books are basically digital c-prints bound in a book, with 100% lay-flat bindings.

These factors could very well be the reason why our books are not as cheap as other books of a similar kind.
However, we do feel that we are giving our customers an exceptionally high-quality book for the additional $8.

We do appreciate that this is a relatively new medium, and we are learning more effective methods all the time; however, the only other book in the test that scored higher than AdoramaPix overall was nearly triple the price and took 2 weeks to produce.

We are careful to ensure that we have no issues of color shift with books printed at different times on different machines. We also have ICC profiles available for download on our website (at no extra charge!) for the maximum control over your images and finished book.

There are undoubtedly improvements that we could make and we are always keen to learn from our customers where there are issues or problems that we need to resolve.

Please don't hesitate to contact me directly, if we can provide any additional help, advice or support.

Sincerely

Helen Oster
Adorama Camera Customer Service Ambassador

helen.oster@adoramacamera.com
www.adorama.com

I agree with Helen from Adorama that their books are very very different. I know some of my colleagues at the event did not like that but I was very impressed with the image quality plus the fact that virtually no other company produced a neutral black and white image anywhere close to Adorama's (which I thought was spot-on).

I agree with Stephen, MagCloud is the best I have tried. But I think it is mainly because it is not a hardcover book. A magcloud is a great promo, but a blurb book is kind of a cheap book. All in all, the information here is very helpful. Thanks Stella!

Stella, is there a way to break the results out further? The overall rating is interesting but I would love to know the results of the specifics like "Color Accuracy," "Detail," "Paper Quality," "Binding" etc since it can be difficult to know WHY Apple and Adorama are only 0/1 pt apart even though the products are so different.

We at Great Circle Books are very pleased that the outcome of this test shows A&I in Los Angeles at the top of the heap -- but not surprised. As publishers of fine art photography books for the past few years, we have used A&I exclusively as our print services provider.

What sets them apart is the fact that A&I has a long history as a high-end photographic lab (as opposed to simply a printshop), with a reputation for meeting the most demanding requirements for such artists as the late Herb Ritts and Helmut Newton, among many others.

Because A&I applies the same high standards in photographic imaging to digital book printing, using HP Indigo technology, the artists we have published have all been very happy with the results.

But once you have your book, then what? For more information on how we help photographers move beyond the printing stage of the book publishing process, to market and publicize their work, please see visit us at:
www.greatcirclebooks.net

I've been using A&I for all of my promotional material, film & digital services, AND book publishing. Hands down, best quality, and best customer service. I love that if I have a question, I get a real live person to answer me, not some generic email response. This may have something to do with A&I also being a custom lab. A&I is used to delivering a quality product, and customer service, as demanded by me, and other industry professionals that they cater to. A&I does offer soft cover for 8.5x11, check their site, or just call them. A&I is also consistent with their high quality. You can take a chance elsewhere hoping to be "EXTREMELY pleased," but chances are they can't match it a second time around, I'm not taking a chance on my reputation to save $2. Some of these companies actually outsource jobs, losing all control of their product. Questions not covered in the test are: Who does their books in house? Who outsources? Who can you call, and speak to a person with answers? Who only has email, with generic answers? I want a leg up on my competition when printing promotional material, I want to make an impression for the right reasons, I only want the best, and the best is A&I. Thank you ASMP.

Astor Morgan
www.AstorMorgan.com

I've been using A&I for all of my promotional material, film & digital services, AND book publishing. Hands down, best quality, and best customer service. I love that if I have a question, I get a real live person to answer me, not some generic email response. This may have something to do with A&I also being a custom lab. A&I is used to delivering a quality product, and customer service, as demanded by me, and other industry professionals that they cater to. A&I does offer soft cover for 8.5x11, check their site, or just call them. A&I is also consistent with their high quality. You can take a chance elsewhere hoping to be "EXTREMELY pleased," but chances are they can't match it a second time around, I'm not taking a chance on my reputation to save $2. Some of these companies actually outsource jobs, losing all control of their product. Questions not covered in the test are: Who does their books in house? Who outsources? Who can you call, and speak to a person with answers? Who only has email, with generic answers? I want a leg up on my competition when printing promotional material, I want to make an impression for the right reasons, I only want the best, and the best is A&I. Thank you ASMP.

www.AstorMorgan.com

"Stella, is there a way to break the results out further? The overall rating is interesting but I would love to know the results of the specifics"

YES!

I'm helping a friend make her art portfolio, and seeing as she may weigh things more subjectively, I'm interested to know how each is rated.

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Thank you for the review and thank you to all the additional commenters. You have all been very helpful.

How about a more current review since POD has made huge leaps in quality and price in the last few years? How about a company that does wholesale pricing?

It seems that the editorial and the marketing departments have been cut out of the publishing equation but the prices have not dropped. The author is left with no support and four times the work.

These companies should at least be paying the authors a marketing fee (or dropping their prices) because the author is doing all the work AND generating revenue for the printing company.

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