Apple book printing service quality [Archive] - Canon Digital Photography Forums

TheHoff

2nd of December 2008 (Tue), 08:59

I received my first book from Apple's printing service yesterday. I'm very satisfied with the quality, especially considering it was under $40 shipped. Strike that, I'm satisfied with it at nearly any price. I can't find any real fault with it.

The print quality on the full page images looks as good or better as what I put out with my consumer level Canon photo printer. The paper quality (important to me) is good. Not amazing, but good, and the ordinary reader would think it is just like any other slightly glossy commercial book.

The colors are rich, vivid, and the balance matches my calibrated displays. The shadow detail is good. I made the book with iPhoto since I am a Lightroom user; supposedly you have more control if you use Aperture but since my photos came out as finished images, no editing was needed. I did not try and size my images to the frames, I simply exported the DNG/TIFFs to the full-size 99% JPEGs and imported them into iPhoto and the book layout.

The full page images look brilliant -- I didn't stress about getting the exact dimensions and dpi since I assumed they'd be changed in the end by the printer and I gave them as much un-resized data to work with as possible.

I wish I had another service's book to compare but I doubt I'll try any one else as Apple made it quick and easy and with a high quality product.

TheHoff

2nd of December 2008 (Tue), 09:15

http://i35.tinypic.com/2u9mhbd.jpg

http://i38.tinypic.com/2ewjwg1.jpg

http://i37.tinypic.com/2jcwt5f.jpg

http://i36.tinypic.com/28sx8pd.jpg

http://i37.tinypic.com/33tr1hz.jpg

http://i37.tinypic.com/20i85yx.jpg

TAZorich

5th of December 2008 (Fri), 14:10

Does Apple put their logo somewhere on/in the book? Do you have the ability to prevent them from doing so? IMO, it would be bad practice to sell a book that had the bookmaker's branding on it...

TAZorich

5th of December 2008 (Fri), 14:11

Oh, I meant to add that your book looks good! Photos look to be very nice. I especially like the tennis shots. I may have to steal that! ;)

TheHoff

5th of December 2008 (Fri), 17:42

Does Apple put their logo somewhere on/in the book? Do you have the ability to prevent them from doing so? IMO, it would be bad practice to sell a book that had the bookmaker's branding on it...

I believe I read that one of the original complaints about their printing service was the Apple logo on the back inside flap, but I might be wrong. Now there is certainly an option to put it on or leave it off. It comes in the standard high-quality Apple packaging, and that does have a logo on it, but of course you don't have to use the box.

And about the tennis shot, thanks! I'm sure you'll have better luck with your models. That was the "one" lucky frame... the one frame out of hundreds from the day where she wasn't smiling. She is such a happy, fun person that she can't help smiling in front of the camera. I literally could not get a serious look out of her all day... one frame.

Alvination

6th of December 2008 (Sat), 20:12

Nice looking book! Didn't know Apple did that...the price isn't bad and your photos look great. I guess I found a new gift idea for the holidays...

Yogue

7th of December 2008 (Sun), 21:42

I have been using Apple book printing services for wedding albums, too. I am also very satisfied with the print quality.

Stealthy Ninja

7th of December 2008 (Sun), 21:53

I got one done for my mum's birthday this year. Really good actually, she was pretty pleased.

I think the order was sent to the U.S. then sent to a printer here in Hong Kong, then shipped to me... then I sent it to my mum back in Australia.

Anyway, they have a variety of styles and the quality is good.

sf1

8th of December 2008 (Mon), 11:30

Glad your happy with the book. I've been meaning to print one from Aperture, but just haven't gotten around to it. Guess I need to start using it.

golfecho

9th of December 2008 (Tue), 13:42

I received my first book from Apple's printing service yesterday. I'm very satisfied with the quality, especially considering it was under $40 shipped. Strike that, I'm satisfied with it at nearly any price. I can't find any real fault with it.

Hoffster,

I went to Apple's site, and it did seem impressive. My sister has had a few books done with them too. My question is, do you need to have/use an Apple Mac in order to use the service, or can a PC user (like me) take advantage of their services? I looked around their site, and didn't see anything obvious regarding PC user support . . .

If not, what is generally considered the best and most flexible producer of similar books for the generic crowd (we PC folks) . . .

Thanks.

Gordie

TheHoff

9th of December 2008 (Tue), 13:52

I believe it is Apple only. They support uploading through Aperture or iPhoto.

I was also a PC user when I started looking at them. I was considering using my wife's older iBook to put them together in iPhoto and it probably would've worked fine, just a bit slow. I don't think there is a PC option so maybe you have a friend that has a mac you can borrow, or your sister? If all of your photos are ready-to-go, it should only take 30 minutes to an hour to lay out the book and send the order in.

I did some research about other print services but Apple had the best reviews (lately). My second choice would've been MyPublisher.com and then Blurb -- but that is only based on what other people have said (and a few demo photos posted on Flickr).

TAZorich

9th of December 2008 (Tue), 14:46

I did some research about other print services but Apple had the best reviews (lately). My second choice would've been MyPublisher.com and then Blurb -- but that is only based on what other people have said (and a few demo photos posted on Flickr).

I have ordered books through MyPublisher. I am not happy with the thickness of the paper; on a page with light or white areas, you can see the printing on the opposite side of the page, and the paper feels thin and somewhat cheap.

I have also ordered coffee-table books through H&H Color Lab, and while a notch better than MyPublisher, they suffer the same see-through and thin-paper issues.

My favorite coffee-table books are from AsukaBook, and specifically their books with the glossy, laminated pages. These are certainly a lot more expensive than their Apple counterparts, but to me they are worth the difference. For reference, a 40-page book costs around $180, plus shipping. I get these books with printed covers and printed dust jackets, and they come with a slip-in case as well. And there's no branding, although there are a couple barcodes to contend with.

Another good option are the "VerdeBook" coffee-table books, available from efotolab.com. These are very similar to AsukaBooks. I have seen these - and been impressed - but I've never ordered one myself. I think the price may be a little higher, but I believe there's faster turnaround.

I will try one of the Apple books soon; I wouldn't mind using them if the pages are of better quality than some of the other books in the same price range.

TheHoff

9th of December 2008 (Tue), 14:52

Thank you for the comments! I have heard of Asuka but the price is in a different league than the others mentioned. I also believe MyPublisher now offers a thick paper option, so you may want to check that out if that was your main complaint. They say the deluxe MP book is now on 216 gsm glossy cover stock.

I myself see no reason to veer from Apple with this quality; I'm ordering another one soon. If I offered it as a pro service, though, I would certainly check out Asuka.

golfecho

9th of December 2008 (Tue), 14:56

Thanks both of you!

samoan_ridah

11th of December 2008 (Thu), 20:30

Your book came out great but that doesn't surprise me with the Apple books. I've been using them for vacation albums for years. I like it better than the regular photo albums.

PixOLated

11th of December 2008 (Thu), 23:10

I've had several of the apple books done, and very satisfied with the results - and potential clients very impressed.

There are several other similar suppliers I've seen, so far none have matched the quality - generally more pixelated and poor blacks. I've seen a pretty good product from Creative Memories which has decent printing and a better binding than anything else I've seen (including apple) - if you don't mind dealing with an MLM company it seems to be a pretty good product - but PC only.

TheHoff

16th of December 2008 (Tue), 07:43

rupek

16th of December 2008 (Tue), 15:12

Has anyone tried the print ordering? i have had a book ordered from aperture, very impressed.

Yogue

16th of December 2008 (Tue), 19:05

sf1

16th of December 2008 (Tue), 21:03

I ordered two more for the holidays... one of my sister's wedding and one of my son's birth.

Has anyone done them using Aperture? At only $99 it might be worth the install just for doing books if it gives you a lot more page options than iPhoto. So far I've only found one or two book themes in iPhoto that I like; it would be nice if they added more page options for each one -- like only one theme has a choice of a full page image or a full page image but not bled to the edge.

Just sent my first 2 off last night - 40 pages each. The process is incredible simple to customize pages. I created half the pages I needed in seconds - these pages are not found in the drop down menu. It would only take the average person an hour at the most to become very familiar with the process. The second book took half the time the first book did.

The only problem I had was that I needed multiple pics from different Albums. In that case I just created a new Album called APERTURE BOOK and copied all the pics I need to into that new Album then simple used it to populate the photo book. And you don't have to worry about converting to jpeg and exporting from Aperture to print to other places - the upload automatically converts the RAW file to what it needs.

Another slight problem is that I was only allowed to use standard shipping - but I live in Canada and this might have to do with that alone.

TheHoff

17th of December 2008 (Wed), 00:13

PhotosGuy

17th of December 2008 (Wed), 12:10

So with the page customizations you're talking about within Aperture; I will have to download the trial, thanks. For anyone not happy with the templates, I had no problems designing my pages in PS & printing with Blurb.

sf1

22nd of December 2008 (Mon), 19:03

Right, I hope you get yours for Christmas. I ordered yesterday morning and I'm not sure I will based on the previous book.

So with the page customizations you're talking about within Aperture; I will have to download the trial, thanks.

OK, I ordered my book on Tuesday night at 12 and it was printed and should have been delivered by Friday but there was a big snow storm here and thus it did not get delivered till today.

As for the quality, it is very good. Much better then snapfish, shutterfly and costco. I am very happy. The whole process was a breeze with Aperture and customization was childs play. I would definitely order from them again and recommend it for anyone who wants a middle of the range photobook.

TheHoff

22nd of December 2008 (Mon), 19:17

Thumbs up on my 2nd book as well. My third hasn't arrived yet, even though I ordered them the same morning. The cover fold is about 3/8ths of an inch off though; not sure if it is worth complaining about. The overall book and page quality is excellent; this time in all B/W.

p360

22nd of December 2008 (Mon), 23:28

This is good to know. I was a little reluctant ordering my first from Apple, but I did any way. It won't be here before Christmas, but soon after.

Brandonsfocus

22nd of December 2008 (Mon), 23:40

That tennis photo is pretty rad. The style of it, with her facial expression, the way she is holding that racket and her husband in the background getting ready to serve it up...the color and the fact that they both are wearing all white clothing makes me think of movies like Life Aquatic, The Royal Tenenbaums, and Rushmore.

Great photo!

TheHoff

22nd of December 2008 (Mon), 23:47

Thank you!

Bernoulli

22nd of December 2008 (Mon), 23:52

They are great, but I wish they would offer a bulk discount if you order multiple copies of the same book.

TheHoff

23rd of December 2008 (Tue), 00:12

They are great, but I wish they would offer a bulk discount if you order multiple copies of the same book.

Or allow you to combine multiple books into one shipping order. Like I said, I ordered two books on the same morning; one arrived for Christmas and one has not.

bps

23rd of December 2008 (Tue), 17:42

Hoff and everyone else,

Thanks for posting on this. Looks like I need to set aside some time in January and make my first photo book!

Bryan

shoryuken

24th of December 2008 (Wed), 05:55

anyone with experience with Apple photobooks and Blurb able to comment on the comparison of the two?

gordoon

24th of December 2008 (Wed), 17:39

IncredibleI uploaded a 34 page hardcover Aperture book on Thursday, Dec. 18. Following the tracking from Apple, it was printed in California, delivered (cleared Canadian customs!) to my Toronto door at 3:30 pm Dec. 24. Thank you Santa/Fedex/Apple.

BTW, the images printed exactly as I hoped!

sf1

24th of December 2008 (Wed), 18:25

Bernoulli

24th of December 2008 (Wed), 18:40

The quality is just excellent. No complaints there. When you assemble the book on the iPhoto program, it warns you if the image is being enlarged too much for the book's resolution. Color is maybe a little saturated, but very pleasing. I plan to do more, maybe just for photo collections.

ooo

24th of December 2008 (Wed), 18:58

Maybe, with the recent software update, the books have gotten better. I heard that the apple books in the past were pretty bad, yours looks pretty good. The software update changed it so it uploads your original image instead of a resized one.

artra

24th of December 2008 (Wed), 19:11

I've used apple as well with excellent results. Just be careful if a yellow triangle shows up on your picture that means that most likely the picture isn't big enough to cover the space on the book. If you ignore it (like I've done in the past) the result will be a distorted image and no right to complaint.

gordoon

24th of December 2008 (Wed), 20:31

Are you happy with the quality?

Yes! I haven't had a chance to examine the binding and such, but I am quite pleased with the images and the paper. Much better than what I was led to believe.

zincozinco

26th of December 2008 (Fri), 06:15

anyone with experience with Apple photobooks and Blurb able to comment on the comparison of the two?

Id love to see that, I ordered a book from apple and I was not happy with the blacks in the Photos, then 2 weeks later they released an update to better the process.... but for me that was to late, got one done at Blurb with all the extras "marked" paper quality etc and it looks a lot better. however since I use aperture in my workflow i would prefer to print using it.

tunin

26th of December 2008 (Fri), 07:57

Did anyone use mpix and how to they compare with apple? I live in Europe and I wanna give this a try.

sf1

26th of December 2008 (Fri), 08:03

Id love to see that, I ordered a book from apple and I was not happy with the blacks in the Photos, then 2 weeks later they released an update to better the process.... but for me that was to late, got one done at Blurb with all the extras "marked" paper quality etc and it looks a lot better. however since I use aperture in my workflow i would prefer to print using it.

Well the update was supposed to make the printing process much better. I can't say how much better because I never produced a book before the update. I can say that todays book quality is very good. Consider trying it again?

jrm27

26th of December 2008 (Fri), 12:31

What resoltuion does Apple suggest you upload for their books?

TheHoff

26th of December 2008 (Fri), 14:35

What resoltuion does Apple suggest you upload for their books?

I send the full res that I have since they'll get ripped by the printer's drivers anyway. iPhoto displays a warning if it is below 120 or 150 ppi.

I ignored the warning on a page or two in my last book as I didn't have high quality scans of the negs; a 1024 file printed to half page size gave a warning but the printing was still acceptable. A photographer would notice the lack of res but I don't think most readers would.

TheHoff

26th of December 2008 (Fri), 14:38

Id love to see that, I ordered a book from apple and I was not happy with the blacks in the Photos, then 2 weeks later they released an update to better the process.... but for me that was to late, got one done at Blurb with all the extras "marked" paper quality etc and it looks a lot better. however since I use aperture in my workflow i would prefer to print using it.

The shadows and blacks are quite good, IMO. Not sure how they were before, though.

jrm27

26th of December 2008 (Fri), 14:48

Thanks Hoff. I'm just wondering about some pics I took before I had figured out my work flow. I edited them and then saved them for web, so they are at a bit lower res. Probably ain't gonna work to well!

I need to keep:
1.The original raw files
2. Edited full res Tiff
3.Edited low-res/web print

... so I can do stuff like this!

TheHoff

26th of December 2008 (Fri), 14:52

True! I wipe my web exports once in a while, but originals exist on 4 hard drives in 2 locations.

p360

2nd of January 2009 (Fri), 16:19

Just got my first Apple book - I am very happy with it.
Pics and pages are exactly as they looked on my monitor when I was designing them.

Tunneruk

15th of January 2009 (Thu), 13:47

I have had a couple of their books and I have to say that the pages were of very poor print quality, Washed out patchy colours and sketchy contrast.:(

bps

15th of January 2009 (Thu), 22:36

I have had a couple of their books and I have to say that the pages were of very poor print quality, Washed out patchy colours and sketchy contrast.:(

But was that before the recent update?

evdh

6th of February 2009 (Fri), 07:01

I myself see no reason to veer from Apple with this quality; I'm ordering another one soon. If I offered it as a pro service, though, I would certainly check out Asuka.

I don't veer Apple, but the book and calender I've received are too dark and too red.
Did you tested a AsukaBook yet...

TheHoff

6th of February 2009 (Fri), 09:07

I don't veer Apple, but the book and calender I've received are too dark and too red.
Did you tested a AsukaBook yet...

Hi, no, I have not tested AsukaBook. As these are just for me and my family and friends as gifts, Asuka is too dear in cost to use. If I had them for sale as professional products, I certainly would check Asuka out.

Sorry for the obvious question, but you're sure it is the printing that is off -- your monitor is calibrated and other prints come back as you expect?

The books I have might appear to be on the dark side but only if you compare them to a backlit monitor screen of the same image.

evdh

6th of February 2009 (Fri), 09:59

[QUOTE=TheHoff;7266518]Sorry for the obvious question, but you're sure it is the printing that is off -- your monitor is calibrated and other prints come back as you expect?/QUOTE]

Yep, monitor calibrated (MacBook Pro and PowerBook G4 LCD and CRT calibrated with Spyder) and other prints (15x10cm) with iPhoto or Aperture are just fine. Maybe a litle bit to dark. Printed by my local photographer and all is just fine. He's also a colorfreak...

TheHoff

6th of February 2009 (Fri), 10:03

My last book was black and white and had no colour cast and the others I have given away, so I can't take a closer look at any magenta tones. I would agree that the images are about 1/3 to 1/2 stop darker than what I might see on the screen but then it depends on what light I look at the book in. If I go to bright room light, the book looks spot on, just not compared to the glowing monitor.

The good news is that you also get Apple customer service with the book -- if you make any sort of complaint with them, they will replace it at no cost. Maybe if you do a global adjustment and brighten up the images before putting them in the book, you'll get a product you're happy with.

I just can't compare Apple to Asuka with the price difference; I would expect Asuka to be much better.

NicD

16th of August 2009 (Sun), 00:27

HKdave

17th of August 2009 (Mon), 03:44

I've been using Blurb for the past year and am impressed. I've ordered four different books through them and all have been excellent. I'm in Hong Kong and have ordered for delivery both here and to the UK. One order for 10 x 8" hardback premium paper, 60 pages, which cost US$40 + priority shipping to UK or HK US$20 to 25. Latest order 10" x 8" hardback, premium paper, 102 pages, US$48 + shipping. I can only compare it to Photobox which is UK based. Blurb books are better quality and cheaper if you have more pages.

TheHoff

9th of October 2009 (Fri), 10:30

I know this is a old thread but i had to ask.

What file size is best to upload into the book?

I'm going to be getting some printed off soon and need to know what is the best size, at the moment i just have them as full size. Ranging anyway from 5mb to 9mb.

Also for any international buyers, how much did shipping cost roughly and how long did it take to deliver?

I upload full res and let them rip it down. Might as well send everything you've got instead of resizing since their rip driver is going to do it anyway; no need for it to be the second time.

To Canada it always depends on customs but it has taken 7 to 20 days on average. I forget the shipping but it wasn't exorbitant.

caj92

12th of October 2009 (Mon), 21:51

Thinking of printing my first book (just for family) and trying to decide what company to use. It sounds like Apple has good quality and price however I use a PC. Is the Apple service compatible with a PC or does it only work with Mac's. If not who would be the next choice blurb?? saw Adorama does it also ....etc. Looking for any info ... THX

dmccabe

14th of October 2009 (Wed), 01:38

FWIW...

I have printed over 40+ books... some well over 250+ pages. I am a trained prepress retoucher and require critical color. I have used just about every self-publishing service out there, and by far the best is Blurb.com

Consistent color with a new option of premium paper. They have a "pro" workflow and have color profiles for soft proofing in PhotoShop.

And many tutorials for color management for beginners on their forums.

Costs more than most other services... but you get what you pay for.

canuck88

21st of October 2009 (Wed), 15:39

I've ordered books from Mypublisher (12 books), apple (3 books), and blurb (2 books); and without regard to workflow or anything else, the Mypublisher large format (11x15 or whatever) had the best quality (paper and printing) in my opinion.

I'll be trying pikto.ca next (based in Toronto), and maybe Embassy Pro Books (also in Ontario).