I've been tempted for awhile. Digital photography has its advantages, and a huge one is the ability to only pay to print those photographs that you deem worthy. A majority of the time, that's a good thing.

But not always.

The side effect for me has been many of my photographs staying in the digital world. I can certainly look at them on the monitor whenever I desire, and I publish some on the web site you're reading right now. I miss the physical connection to prints, however. There's something about holding a print in your hands and turning it to see it in different light that makes a stronger connection. The fact that digital photographs don't have to be printed often means that they aren't. And some want to be.

I'm fortunate to have a printer that makes excellent archival prints, and I will use it on occasion. This affords me the ability to hold those prints. I should do this more often. Because I tend to make prints off the cuff, they tend to scatter. A few here, a few there, and many sitting somewhere by themselves.

Over the past few years, the number and assumedly the quality of companies available to print collections of photographs and bind them in book form has risen, and there are several that are gaining a strong reputation. As I've noted earlier, I've been tempted to bite. If I was going to try it, I wanted to find a service with potential to make a quality product, but the prices can be difficult to justify.

A coupon or two from MyPublisher had been sitting in my mailbox for quite some time. If I purchased one book, I could get another copy of the same book at no extra charge, except for the additional shipping costs. Two books... I could eventually hand one off to each of my two daughters.

Software is easily downloaded for free from the MyPublisher web site. I am a Mac user; apparently both platforms use a similar interface, although there are slight differences. (The customization of printed book jackets is limited at this point on Apple's platform, although MyPublisher states that an update is in the works.)

Photograph Preparation

Potential photographs are imported into the software program quite easily. Files must be saved as JPEGs, which should be easy to take care of for most users. The images should use the sRGB or RGB color space, which again is probably something that will not impact usability. While I did not see any information that strictly limits what resolution (dpi) must be used, the web site suggests that users set the resolution between 180 and 200 dpi. My files were not at this resolution, but instead, at a higher level. Assuming that significantly larger files may negatively impact uploading the finished work, I set out to make copies of my intended photographs at 180 dpi.

By using the "Export" function in Lightroom, I was able to make copies at the resolution I desired and have them saved automatically in a new folder. The only photographs that required extra work were those that I intended to use as a full page or on the cover jacket. These would need to meet specific dimensions, which can be found on the MyPublisher site. Not surprisingly, some of these were not in the necessary proportions, so I had some cropping to do. With the ability to save crop sizes in Photoshop, this was a fairly straightforward process.

Organization

While there can be some last minute decisions on layout, the software program is much easier to utilize in the layout stage if the photographs are organized into at least a rough order of use. This is done quite easily in the software program through a standard drag and drop process. No big deal.

Layout

This is the most creatively important area of the process. A few decisions need to be made early. Size of the book must be determined, choosing from a 7.75" x 5.75" paperback, a 11.25" x 8.75" "classic hardcover" book, or my choice of the "deluxe hardcover" at a pretty impressive 15" x 11.5" dimension. If I was going to get a free copy, I might as well go all the way.

The cover for the hardbacks can be in linen or the significantly more expensive leather. Each has a cut-out to show a photograph from the front page. I went a different route, choosing a laminated printed book jacket for an additional $8.95. This style does not have a cutout, which would obviously not be visible.

The next decision was to choose which book "style" I desired. Each offered distinct templates that impacted how the photographs and text would be arranged. Although my web site utilizes text somewhat related to each photograph, I wanted go the opposite direction with the book and go text-free. (I did include the optional page numbers.) While there is a "Just Photos" style, it appeared too symmetrical for my taste, and didn't include much white space.

A related decision was to decide if I wanted to go with 10 pages printed on both sides, or 20 single-sided pages. Sticking with the white space thought, I went with 20 pages. Additional pages may be added for $.99 each for the Classic sized book and $2.99 for my Deluxe Hardcover book.

While there is an "autobuild" option that chooses the layout, I wanted to control each page and photo sizes, using some photos at a full-page size. For each page, the user chooses from numerous templates that control placement of photos. Images are easily dragged from an image well to the spot on the page template where the photo is to be placed. The templates do impact photograph order somewhat, as both landscape and portrait orientations are determined by the template choice. Text can be added if desired.

Templates may be repeated or switched as desired, and the process was rather fast and easily accomplished. The only times where I had to rethink the layout were when the templates required a cropping aspect different than what worked best for a particular photograph. Simple order changes or choosing a different template easily resolved the matter.

A nice feature of the software is an automated system of letting the user know when resolution may be too low for the image size desired. In this case, the border of the photo turns red to notify the user of potential problems. I only ran into this issue once, on a photograph that I knew might be problematic. I simply chose a page template where a smaller photograph could be used successfully. (And upon viewing the actual printed product, the quality of this photograph turned out quite nicely.)

Preview

When a draft is completed, the user can view the product as if viewing a book. This is a good way to check flow from one page to the next and to see if a reasonable cohesiveness is established.

Purchase and Upload

If the preview offers an acceptable result, the user goes through a purchase process familiar to anyone who has purchased anything over the internet. This is fairly painless, as most of the decisions were already made by this point. The system accepted my coupon code properly and the upload went well using my cable modem. I don't recall how long it took, but it was very reasonable.

Waiting...

My book was uploaded and purchased on December 30th, obviously before a holiday. MyPublisher offered notification of progress at several points: purchase verification, when it was available for viewing online as a virtual book, when it was ready for assembly and when it shipped. Progress is not available online, but with the steady rate of email notifications, that really wasn't necessary.

One Glitch

After receiving my assembly notification, I received an email noting that the product did not pass quality control and would be reprinted.

While this raised some concern, it also showed that they do inspect their products, and amazingly the product shipped the next day. Even though I chose standard shipping, it was delivered one day after that. Even after the need for the reprint and a holiday, I received the finished books eight days after upload.

The Proof is in the Pudding

The product arrived packaged safely, with each book individually placed in a strong, reusable plastic sleeve with a flap. The box is even reusable for storage purposes or carrying the books with extra protection.

The full-bleed laminated book jacket was printed accurately and seems quite sturdy. The book title is printed on the spine and front.

A really nice touch is right inside the cover, where the first "page" is a translucent vellum-like material. (I assume this would not be in place for users ordering a cutout cover.) This provides a very professional first appearance.

Sharpness of images was quite good in all except a very few photographs, and even in the worst case, was still by all means acceptable.

What really struck me immediately was the quality and feel of the book and paper. The MyPublisher web site lists the paper for the Deluxe Hardcovers as "80# archival, acid-free, heavyweight cover stock." It is a joy to hold and turn pages.

Finally, and possibly most importantly, color matching seems to be excellent throughout. My photograph choices included color, black and white and tritone prints, and color and tone was consistently excellent.

Conclusion

The MyPublisher product that I received was not inexpensive by any means. Even with the coupon, two copies of my 24 page book and shipping came to $95.69. The reality is that I would not be in a position to purchase such a book without the coupon pricing.

Having said that, I ordered products at the high end of the pricing range, receiving books that are very impressive in size, quality of printing, excellent color accuracy and paper quality that is obvious upon first touch. This is a professional quality product that anyone would be quite pleased with. If you're looking for a publishing option when price is not the overriding factor, MyPublisher deserves serious consideration.

If you know me personally and are local, feel free to ask me to see the book. If not, you can view the virtual book to get a feel for the layout possibilities online:

http://www.mypublisher.com/bookshelf/bookviewer.py?d=tq%3Ey-cppl%60je%3E3615916

The site utilizes Flash to visual the book in a realistic page by page fashion.

Questions? Feel free to email or leave a comment below.