Printer - Big Decision

[kevinbiestra]

I have been planning to print maybe 5 copies of a full-sized (8x10) book of maybe 500 double-sided pages, color and lots of photographs.

I also wanted maybe 5 copies of a similar book of 120 double sided pages.

When I started talking to printers and pricing this out...I was getting estimates like $3,500 to print the books.

Well, I was going to forget the whole thing, but then decided that I should probably try just getting my own good printer and printing out all the pages myself, then just going to someone for binding.

But I am no expert in printers at all. Given all these pages, I need to ensure:
1. low cost per page (color and images)
2. image quality is important

I welcome any advice or recommendations with respect to appropriate options.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Big Mike]

I'd suggest that you continue looking around for someplace that can do this for you. Doing it yourself will probably create a handful of new problems.

 

[spacefuzz]

But I am no expert in printers at all. Given all these pages, I need to ensure:
1. low cost per page (color and images)
2. image quality is important

These are going to be hard to find together........

Are you looking for fine art quality images or just inkjet quality.....
Can you plan your layout to minimize the number of photo pages...

Or are you rich?

 

[kevinbiestra]

But I am no expert in printers at all. Given all these pages, I need to ensure:
1. low cost per page (color and images)
2. image quality is important

These are going to be hard to find together........

Are you looking for fine art quality images or just inkjet quality.....
Can you plan your layout to minimize the number of photo pages...

Or are you rich?

I am not rich.

By low cost per page, I don't mean it has to be 2 cents. I am just going to be printing thousands of pages. Print shops want to charge about $1 per two-sided color page for the printing alone. I was figuring that by investing the capital of the printer, the variable costs (printing pages) would drop by more than enough to justify buying the printer.

But I defer to the expertise of others.

The number of photo pages is fixed.

It doesn't have to be "fine art" quality. But it can't look like a crappy old home printer. I'd like to shoot for magazine quality or something close.

 

[Big Mike]

Printers are cheap. Good quality paper is expensive. Ink is expensive.

 

[kevinbiestra]

I just figured that getting a good printer, and buying good paper and ink, couldn't possibly add up to $3500.

Perhaps someone can suggest a specific printing service that would be more reasonable? I was really surprised at the estimates I was getting.

Someone suggested I will run into problems printing it myself. What problems?

Perhaps I was a bit naive at the beginning but I'd like to learn where the expenses are adding up that makes the total figure so outrageous...

 

[Tony S]

Well, for one thign 500 pages is a lot of printing to do. And the papers you print on are going to make that one really thick book. I've found that in almost all instances it is much less expensive to have the printing done somewhere else than what I can do on the printer here at home, just the time alone to do it will be a huge investment.

There are so many companies out that now print photo books, take some more time to research and price things more. Get more specific as to what you are wanting to print and then shop that around so you get good comparisons.

 

[kevinbiestra]

Appreciate the feedback...

But I have gone to a handful of places around town and this is a fairly consistent estimate.

I don't mind that the book is really thick. It's a one-time thing. A relative who was a photographer passed away and I am putting all his collected works in one book and printing a handful of copies for a few family members. I've already put well over 150 hours into the design of the pages.

I never imagined it would be this expensive to print, so I didn't even look into that portion until I was nearly done the design.

I am just now looking at some online book printing places but so far, they don't seem to do more than 400 pages or so in a book...and I also don't really want to send everything he ever photographed out in an e-mail...although that isn't my top priority.

 

[thereyougo!]

Are you really sure you need 120 pages? That's much longer than most coffee table books. Is it a local printer that has quoted you, or is it one of the online photobook companies? Also it isn't just the printing of the photo pages that will be the issue. The binding is all important as is the first and last cover sheet. It's no good having top notch printing paper if the binding is rubbish. This is even the more case with a 120 page (60 sheets of paper at say 170gsm isn't gonna come either light or cheap) photobook. You are going to need good binding and it won't be a DIY job I fear, and a print house who haven't given the printing job to isn't going to do it on the cheap. Part of the pricing issue will be the small print run

 

[kevinbiestra]

I am positive about the number of pages. And 120 pages is the small book.

It's not a coffee table book. It's like a visual encyclopedia. There really is no way to pare it down, and that would also defeat the purpose and concept of the book...

I agree the binding isn't DIY. If I printed the pages myself, I was then going to take them to a professional for binding. It shouldn't be too expensive for copies of the 120-pager but I expect something a little pricier with the 500-pager since it will probably require stitched binding.

The ridiculously high quotes are from multiple local printers. I have been perusing online companies...with a couple issues mentioned in my post above.

 

[thereyougo!]

I wouldn't be surprised if the 120 page will need stitched binding especially if you want it to last. Put 120 sheets of photo paper together to see the thickness. If you are using photo paper cheap binding will fall apart very quickly.It's not necessarily the size of the paper that will make the most difference, be it A4/A5 etc, but the weight of the paper. It's your life, but I wouldn;t want to be printing that many pages even on my Canon 9000 pro (although I have printed hundreds of individual shots.) For photos to look good it will need to be at least 170gsm.

 

[kevinbiestra]

I wouldn't be surprised if the 120 page will need stitched binding especially if you want it to last. Put 120 sheets of photo paper together to see the thickness. If you are using photo paper cheap binding will fall apart very quickly.It's not necessarily the size of the paper that will make the most difference, be it A4/A5 etc, but the weight of the paper. It's your life, but I wouldn;t want to be printing that many pages even on my Canon 9000 pro (although I have printed hundreds of individual shots.) For photos to look good it will need to be at least 170gsm.

Is the reason you wouldn't want to print the pages on your Canon 9000 the time involved?

If so, you've seen the dollar figure I was quoted. If I even cut it in half, I will spend from here to eternity hunched over a printer.

I could buy a new computer and 2 good camera lenses with those savings. And I still think $1700 is outrageous for getting these printed...

If you have other reasons, I'd be interested in hearing what else I'm overlooking...

I printed out pages on a relatively thick matte paper for another project that looked pretty good. About 100 pages was just over an inch if I recall... I paid a printer through the nose for that as well...

 

[CCericola]

Binding can be more expensive than printing. With 500 pages, perfect bound, you will need to make sure your gutter is extremely large or you will loose part of the page. 500 pages is too large for spiral binding. 500 pages of copy paper is an entire ream of paper. Paper + Printer + Ink > $3500 Magazines are printed on an offset printer on 60-80# book with aqueous coating. This cannot be done with a home printer.

I think you want something like this: Professional, High Quality Book Printers | Edition One Books For a quantity of 5 books (that is the minimum), 500 color pages, hardcover book with a dust jacket is $604.00

 

[CCericola]

Actually, 500 double sided pages would be 1000 pages in printing terms (500 sheets), so you are at 866.50, and 5 of the small books is $467.50

 

[kevinbiestra]

Thanks for digging up those figures.

I am fairly confident that a good inkjet could produce sufficient quality printing for my needs - though I will defer to your knowledge if you are certain it would not.

But if it would, it still seems way way cheaper for me to buy the right printer, print everything, and then pay for binding. Plus I would have a good printer at the end of it...

The figures you dug up are even higher than the estimates that local printers were giving me, so if a home printer CAN do the job, that would make the case even stronger for going that way, it seems... ?