hello lulu

I've just had my first go with proper, grown-up print-on-demand, courtesy of Lulu. This is an area of print production which will become increasingly important in the years ahead, and I wanted to find out first-hand just what the possibilities are. And I must say that I'm not at all disappointed. It took a while for the right project to come along: one that provided an opportunity, but without a high degree of risk if the end result was somewhat lacking.

I'd been working on the exhibition 'Makers & Movers' (on now until 13 December at the Crafts Study Centre, Farnham), and one of the outcomes was the production of two catalogues which accompany the exhibition (these are basically the texts from the exhibition, plus the individual object labels). And this gave us a 'no risk' opportunity to try a print-on-demand solution: the content had already been 'designed' (in as much as all the artwork was there in the form of either text panels or object labels); and we had a contingency of being able to assemble the content in loose-binders as an alternative.

So I looked around to see who we could use and shortlisted Lulu and Blurb. Both sites are aimed at the 'amateur' self-publisher, so what I really wanted to know is whether they can provide a service suitable for a 'professional'. From this point of view, Blurb lost out because artwork has to be prepared with their own publishing software. Whereas Lulu can accept regular press-optimised PDF files. If there is a stumbling block, it's that one has to 'unlearn' some of the things that are taken for granted in the usual preparation of artwork. For instance, Lulu does have a very good online help facility, but when I asked a question about including bleeds, trim marks and colour bars, the very helpful person at the other end quite clearly didn't know what I was talking about.

But I persevered, albeit without being entirely certain whether the final printed output would match the artwork that I was supplying. And, all in all, it works. One thing I couldn't achieve, though, were bleeds on the text pages. Lulu does explain what bleeds are, and how to set them up, but you have to supply the PDF file at the exact size that you've selected as your format (and, no, you don't include trim marks and colour bars). So my page size was 8.25" x 10.75", but if you upload a PDF file which includes bleeds the Lulu software thinks that you're sending them oversize artwork and automatically reduces it to fit within the trim size. Having bleeds on this occasion wasn't a major issue, so in the end I gave up.

So the artwork went off and a week later I got an email telling me that my order had been despatched. Unfortunately, it then took longer for the delivery to arrive than it did for the production. So next time I'll certainly want to look into overnight delivery. (It's not so much that it takes a long time - the whole process did, after all, take just over two weeks - it's simply that you've no idea when you're delivery is going to turn up. If you're reading this Lulu: maybe you need to add a tracking facility.)

But, do you know what? The end results are pretty impressive. Admitted, if you take a very close look, you can see that it's digital printing. But the paper stock is good quality and the standard of the case binding is superb. And, for our our purpose, the end result couldn't really be better.

And here's the rub. Two hardback, casebound books, printed full colour throughout - and the total cost, including delivery, is £24.56. And that's a very compelling reason why print-on-demand will become a major challenge to conventional print.

Comments

[Ben]

Brilliant, thanks. I'm glad someone I know has tried this out. I've been dying to do it for ages.

It looks good from your post.

Are you saying you can't have images bleeding off? Does it put a white border around everything?

[davidthedesigner]

Good question, Ben. Let me explain what I was originally after: I'd lifted and adapted other artwork and all of this had fitted within the text area that I'd defined for the book. However, I'd also added a title page and I wanted the reverse of this to have an overall pale tint background. And this is where I hit the problem with the bleed and the Lulu software resizing the artwork.

There must, I'm sure, be a way around it - but it wasn't immediately obvious (conversely, you upload the cover artwork separately, and this does cater for, and specify, the bleed area). But it wasn't really worth my while spending the time trying to get to the bottom of it - it was simply easier to take out what was simply going to be a pale grey page.

It's not really a question of the software putting a white border around everything: for instance, if you supplied artwork with a picture that extended to all four edges, it should print exactly as that. But then you run the risk of having a 1mm white border if the trimming isn't exactly spot on (which is what the bleed is for: to take account of any such intolerance).

The project, though, has been successful and has achieved what I set out to do. Enough to know that I'll be doing another one soon - and this time I will want to include bleeds, I'm sure. And I'll put in the effort to find out exactly how to achieve it. It has to be possible: after all, just take a look at the recipe book on the home page of the Lulu website.

[john cooper]

Did you try Blurb? I've been watching their progress for about a year and half but always put off by the overseas shipping.
Another option that I have used is photobox although not for type - I guess you could upload large JPG's (or a better format) as your text. Image reproduction was okay, again it's digital printing. Binding wasn't too bad

[Wil Freeborn]

Thats great to know, I'm currently setting up a book in Blurb. The software is good if you just want a book of pictures. If I was to layout a book I'd go for Lulu too.

I still think this is pretty amazing, send file get good quality book to how many you need.

[Jordan]

The option for bleed is really well hidden in one of the wizards. I've done a couple of different projects with lulu, and every time it takes me forever to find the page size I need. Its a hassle to have to set your full page size (including bleed) and then imagine the page edge as you are designing, but if use the exact dimension the wizard gives you, the converter recognises you are using bleed. It has worked perfectly for me each time.

The print quality is reasonable, although it struggles with definition in dark patches (as does any digital print.

All up though, its hard to beat.