If you want your book to have a printed cover (litho cover in the business), then the printer usually has standard paper they use for these covers — they will want to know whether to use gloss or matte lamination on the cover.

If you choose a cloth cover, then there are decisions about what type and color of cloth to use (ask for samples) and what type of decoration to use (foil stamp, emboss, silk screen, etc.).

Once you have decided what type of book you want to print, get an initial quote from a printer before beginning any design work. You want to know what all of your costs are up front — don’t wait until the job is designed. Ask your printer if anything about your book is driving up your cost unnecessarily. For example, going over a certain size book can dramatically increase your cost.

There are a lot of different types of printers out there: small, meaning digital or small offset printers; print on demand; offset; and web, meaning a type of press, not the internet. For this type of printing and product, you want to look for a medium-to-large sheet-fed offset printer. Without going into different printing technologies, suffice it to say this is where your best price point and quality lines converge. If you are fortunate enough to know someone who regularly works with printers, ask their advice about choosing one. You might also contact a design agency for referrals.

With that said, know that if you obtain prices from several different companies, do not be surprised if the pricing varies widely. It is just the nature of the beast. A couple of things to think about before calling and asking for a quote:
• Have as much information about what you want as possible.
• It is OK to ask for options. For example, if you are not sure you can afford a case-bound book, then also ask for an option with a soft cover (perfect bound) so you can see the price difference.
• Do you want to use varnish on a book? Matte paper with gloss varnish on the photos makes your art pop but also increases your cost.
• Large coffee table books drive your cost up substantially. Not only are more materials used in the production process, but there are only a few companies that have equipment which binds over-sized books, and they charge a premium.
• If you do not know or are confused about any of the information they need, ask for a meeting with a sales representative. There he can show you paper samples, book samples, cloth samples for your cover. I also used to give customers tours of the plant to help explain the process, which helped many of my clients.

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By now you know, generally speaking, what you want your book to look like, and you’re ready to begin assembling the pages. You can do this on your own if you have some advanced proficiency in MS Word® or a page layout program. Again, your printer is your friend to help you set margins and know the file types and specifications needed to produce your book.

However… This is one of those times when spending the extra money is worthwhile. Splurge. Find a graphic designer or graphic artist whom you like and can trust, and put yourself in his or her hands. The finished product (your book) will still be yours, but having expert knowledge will produce a much better book, and save you many frustrating hours of revisions because you didn’t know about some aspect of page composition. A careful graphic artist also provides another “eye” to proof pages.

If you are planning to include a lot of text in your book, go ahead and compose it now on your own. Typing it into a word processing program will save you money in the long run.

Here are some things you should keep in mind when getting a quote:

The more complete information you can give your artist, the easier it will be for him or her and the less they are likely to charge you. You should know by now the finished page size of your book; that’s a great beginning. If you do not know how many pages, images, or how much type, you may need to start with an educated guess. A good rule of thumb is that a full page of typed text in any word processing program will be a full page of text once the page is composed. Images can be full page, or multiple images on a page, or spread across two pages.

Will you have a table of contents? These can be automatically generated, but it’s helpful to know up front how detailed it should be. Additionally, any information for title pages, copyright pages, and any other copy besides the main text of the book should be described now. Everything that you have complete to the artist will help reduce your cost in the long run.

Once the whole book is composed, the artist will show it to you for corrections or revisions; this is called a proof. Ask your artist about how they will proof the book and how many proofs are included in the quoted price. I prefer paper proofs for a large book because I like to hold the pages and write my notes on them; some people are comfortable viewing and marking up electronically.

Once again, I cannot stress enough, your copy (text) should be finished enough that your designer will only have to make minor corrections in proofing rounds. The goal is to only be making corrections to the design and elements on the page. If you began with a clear concept for your artist to follow, these corrections should also be minor.

Also, ask your artist about how they charge for revisions outside of regular proof corrections. Many times a certain amount of revisions are included in the price.

Have your images ready to hand to your artist. They should be labeled with the name and also have any copy you wish to use as a caption. You should let them know what copy goes with which image. If you provide a Word document, you can insert the image where you want it to go or at least the name of the art; the artist will still need digital images in separate files. (More about images in a minute.)

At the end of the process you should have an agreement with the artist that they will supply you with final files, and also a set of final corrected proofs which most printers will request you to supply with the files.

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Once you’ve agreed on price, the next step is to establish a design, or “look” for your book. Usually this involves choosing font(s), text column widths, text justification, and any other graphic elements that establish the design. Ask for a preliminary set of proofs consisting of 3 or 4 pages to make sure you are both in agreement with the design before the whole book is composed.

ALL IMPORTANT: IMAGES
So how do you get the image of your painting into a book? Again, you have a couple of options:

PHOTOGRAPHY Preferably using a high quality digital camera with someone who knows what they are doing behind the camera. Your images will then be analyzed and tweaked if necessary in an image editing program like Photoshop.

FILM TRANSPARENCIES The more traditional way of photographing artwork was to shoot with a special film camera, and the photographer would provide you with a film transparency. A transparency is like a 35mm slide except larger. I have worked with transparencies as large as 8½” x 11” but a 4” x 5” transparency is fine and has always been the standard for this type of work. This method is still used by many, and some artists prefer it, but increasingly the image is captured directly to digital.

If you do have transparencies, they still have to be digitized. You can either scan your own images, have a prepress company scan your images, or have the printing company scan your images.

My first recommendation is to have the printing company that is going to print your project also do your scans. The reason for this is that their scanner should be color-calibrated to their presses. Understand that the same image will print somewhat differently from printing company to printing company depending on the color profiles their prepress department uses, the type of plates and plate processor they use, the type of press, inks, fountain solutions, and even how the press operator sees color (we all see color differently). The end purpose of production is to match the high resolution color proofs as closely (and reasonably) as possible. There will always be some difference from the press sheet to the proof but you are trying to make the variation as small as possible.

My second recommendation is to have a qualified prepress company scan your images. Usually this is a fine alternative and many times they also can be less expensive than printing companies.

No matter which route you decide on, once your images are scanned, you will be given high resolution proofs to approve. You want the proofs to match the original as closely as possible. Most companies will give you one or two revisions free of cost as long as your requests are reasonable (once they feel they have matched as close as possible they may begin charging you for further alterations). Once you approve the proofs, you will be given the actual files for your designer to work with.

DIRECT SCAN If your image is thin (artwork on paper for instance) and small enough (you would need to ask your provider for their maximum size limitations) then you can have your artwork scanned from the original. One of the advantages in going this route is you are getting your image directly from the original which can make for more accurate color. However, I never feel comfortable with this method. No matter how careful the printing company is, they will likely never be as careful as you are with your art. And some work (watercolor or anything water-based on paper for example) is so easily damaged, even when you are careful. With today’s advanced digital cameras, this is really not necessary.

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Many times, it is the special touches a book has that creates a buy decision from a customer. Of course, you can go as far as you wish and spend as much as you want on your book. And yes, those special touches add to the cost of your book. Ask your printer what special options they offer concerning materials and production capabilities. Some possibilities include:

cover decorations include foil stamping, blind embossing, combination embossed foil stamping, silk screening, die cutting or laser cutting, graining, quarter binding (using one type of cover material on the spine and another on the front and back cover, etc.).

CLOTH OPTIONS for case bound covers are extensive. There are a wide variety of cloths, cloth finishes, emboss patterns on the cloth, or other materials like leather covers, etc.

THE SPINE on a case bound cover can be round-back or square-back (hard spine). A square-back spine is made with a spine board; that is, it is made using the same type of cover board that is used to make the front and back cover. You especially see this type of spine on children’s books. Most case bound books have round-back spines — square-back spines are more expensive.

FLY SHEETS are translucent paper in front of a book that lets a painting or photo show through.

END SHEETS must be on the front and back of a case bound book. Standard end sheets are white, uncoated, cover weight paper. However, the possibilities for end sheets are seemingly endless. You have the choice of endless colors, textures, cloth type materials, etc. You can print your end sheets, emboss or deboss them, diecut them, have them foil stamped, etc.

PAGE EDGES can be gilded with gold or silver.

DIECUTTING Covers or end sheets can be diecut (a hole cut through the cover) to reveal an image inside the book (note there is special consideration when preparing artwork for this so the image and hole lines up — extra bleed). Some manufactures use a laser to cut holes in the cover which dramatically increases the level of complexity you can have in a diecut cover. It also dramatically increases the cost because it substantially slows down the production of the cover.

CD If you have a reason to do so, you could add a CD to your book. CD’s can provide a great incentive to buy your book — for instance, think of adding a short instructional video. The CD’s I have added to books have been attached to the inside cover (usually the back cover) using self-adhesive CD envelopes. You could burn your own and add them as you have need or have a CD manufacturer produce them for you in bulk. They can also print (silk screen) an image on the CD for you which looks very professional.

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There are actually thousands of paper choices. I am going to ignore 99% of the options and just discuss what is normally used. If you would like other options or see something in a book you like, then show it to you printer and see if they can find a match or at least come close to it.

Finish
You can classify most papers as being coated or uncoated. Coated sheets start out their lives uncoated. Then, they are actually coated with a compound and finished by being calendered (buffed so to speak) with large polished steel drums. Depending on the type of coating used and how much they are buffed depends on how matte to glossy the final coating looks.

Coated papers range from matte or dull coated to gloss coated. The coatings can look different depending on the manufacturer of the sheet. Coated sheets have better printing characteristics than uncoated sheets so therefore are used more in books where the image is important. The glossier the surface, the better the printing. Now, don’t take this too far. A “super calendered” sheet is so shiny the reader sees the shine on the page, not the information.

Uncoated papers are just that, uncoated. Don’t confuse uncoated with dull and matte coating. Uncoated papers are used in books where the text is more important than the pictures (if there are any pictures at all). As there is little to no glare from the sheet, it is easy on the eyes and therefore is the choice of paper for novels, textbooks, etc.

If one if concerned with readability and the printing characteristics of images, many times a dull or matte coated stock is used. This is especially effective when adding a gloss varnish on top of images.

Quality
Paper quality ranges from premium sheets to #1, 2, or 3 graded sheets. A good #1 sheet is usually fine for an art book. A premium is better. It depends on how much you care to spend.

Weight
Papers come in text weights (also called book weight and usually used for inside pages) or cover weights (used for covers, tab pages, etc). Most books that are printed use from 50# to 80# text weight papers for the inside pages. Art books tend to use a heavier weight paper. A 100# gloss sheet is what I have seen used the most art books. It gives the page a really substantial feel to it which increases the perception of the quality of the book. However, it is completely fine to use an 80# sheet is that is what you can afford. Ask for samples of both weights if you would like to see the difference.

COVER STOCKS Cover stocks are much heavier then text weight papers and for our purposes are usually used on the end sheets of a case-bound book or the cover of a perfect bound book. I recommend a 65# to 80# cover weight for end sheets. For soft cover books, ask for an 80# to 120# cover weight. Or you can use a classification of stock which is rated by thickness; for example, a 10 point or 12 point cover weight. You can choose the 10 or 12 point paper to be coated one side or coated two sides. When using a coated one side sheet for your cover, the uncoated side would normally be the inside front and back cover. If you wish to print on the inside back and front cover then I would recommend a coated two side stock.

Paper Color
Most of the time we use a white paper for art books. It is not unheard of to use a colored stock such as a light creme-colored paper. One important consideration if you want to use a colored stock: Printing inks are transparent and anything besides white will affect the color of your images. It will also affect your ability to match the images if you want to do a press approval as the high resolution proofs of your images are made using a paper that is white. Also, note that “white” can be different depending on the paper you choose. Some white papers are blue white and some have a warmer hue to them. One is not necessarily better that the other. For artwork, I prefer a white stock that has a slightly warmer tone.

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Handing over your files
When your files are finished and you have a quote from the printing company then you are ready to hand over your files. If you are local, it is always a good idea to set up a meeting with the sales representative or customer service representative and hand over the files. If given the choice, it is always a good idea for a final meeting (or initial meeting if that is the case) to review the quote with them and show them your art work. This gives each of you a last chance to make sure everything agrees with the quoted specifications and there are no further questions before starting production. If any of the specifications changed since you got your first quote (number of pages, etc), get a revised quote before you arrange a meeting to hand over your files. That way you are not surprised by the cost and the representative you meet with will have correct information in case they wish to ask questions.

Proofs
After handing your work over and assuming you do not have other preliminary work that you need the printing company to do for you (scanning images for instance) then the next thing that will happen is you should receive printer’s proofs of your job in one to two weeks. If your job is black only then you will probably only get low resolution proofs. If your job has color images, then you will get low resolution proofs of all pages and also high resolution proofs of any color images.

The printing company will let you know how long you have to keep the proofs. Unless you request more time up front, the schedule usually only gives you 2 or 3 days to finish reviewing the proofs. If you keep them past the due date, your schedule may be affected.

Once again, this is definitely not the time to make major changes. Printing companies expect you to make several changes but not extensive changes. This is not the time to be changing copy except for grammatical errors. All decisions on art placement and other elements should have been final before you brought the job to the printer. Why? First, you will blow your schedule. Second, what many do not know is most printers charge a much higher rate for correction time then they do for initial quoted prepress time. Be smart about this. If there are changes you are not sure you want or can afford to make, you can always ask the printer how much they would charge you for the corrections before they begin them.

Use your low resolution proofs like a note pad. Where you want a correction made, write it on the proof and be doubly sure to write it exactly as you wish it to appear including upper and lower case letters. If you want an element moved, tell the printer or artist (depending who makes the corrections) exactly how much to move it. Do not rely on the printer to make that decision for you. If you are not specific with your correction instructions the printer can charge you for the initial correction and also for fixing it the way you meant to. If you are specific in your instructions and they made a mistake when doing corrections, they will not charge you for their error.

On high resolution proofs of your color, basically they are showing you what should be a fairly close representation of how your color will print when it is on press. If you think something is wrong with your color, there are a couple things that may be happening:

1. No matter who they are or how good they are, everyone has problems with their equipment, software, and the files they produce. Files can and do corrupt. Someone can scan or process an image using the wrong color profiles. Proofing printers have to be regularly calibrated in order to have consistent results. If you have problems with your images, first ask the printer to look at the files and ask if it’s possible that the problem is originating with their equipment or if it is the files you supplied. The reason for doing this first is if they say it is not their problem, and then later it is found out to be their problem, then they will possibly be liable for any outside charges they caused you. Understand that they probably are not trying to be dishonest, but many times it is just hard to determine where the problem has originated.

2. The second scenario is someone other than your printer made the image scans, and you’re now seeing the difference between their software and your printer’s. Your printer’s proofs are calibrated to the presses they print on and their proofs should give a better representation of how the images will look when they print. If you get an outside source to initially scan your images, it is a good idea to make sure they are using the same software color profiles your printer uses. Also, if you know who your printer is going to be, have your printer and your vendor scan one of the same images and compare the proofs to make sure they are similar. The advantage in getting your images scanned by someone other then the printer is that you can often get a much better price. If you have many images, this can quickly add up to a considerable difference.

When making corrections, the question arises if the artist should make the corrections or if the printing company should. The answer to this question can differ between printing companies. A basic rule of thumb is if there are only a few corrections then it is usually cheaper for the printing company to make the changes. If however, you have not taken my advice and decided you really wish to make extensive corrections at this point, it is usually less expensive to have your artist do the corrections. However, as I said, this differs depending on your printer and artist. You need to speak to both of them and make your best decision.

Press Approval
Most printing companies will give you the option to approve your job on press if you feel the need to. This gives you the opportunity to actually see the color and clarity of your book’s pages as they come off press, and direct adjustments. Of course, you do not have to do a press approval. It is up to you and your comfort level with your printer. Most customers who choose to do this only want to approve one or two press forms.

Some things to keep in mind if you decide to do an approval:

BE THERE ON TIME or they may pull your job and charge you for the time and materials they spent getting ready for your approval. A very expensive mistake on your part!

YOU HAVE TO BE FLEXIBLE as press schedules constantly change. Some press forms take longer to prepare than others and often there are problems with the equipment that have to be addressed which might delay your scheduled time.

If you are expecting an exact color match between the proofs and the printed press sheet, you may be in for a difficult time. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that you can’t get very close. You certainly can and should. But understand when I say you will never get a PERFECT match. There will always be at least a subtle difference somewhere on the press sheet. My point in telling you this is that every good printer will try to get as close as possible to a perfect match but at some point either you are being unreasonable in your expectations or there is a problem with the press, plates, or prepress work. Once again, this can be quite a subjective decision. No matter whether you are being too picky or whether they are not able to match as closely as they should, it will come to the same decision. They will take your job off the press and either send it back to prepress for more corrections or negotiate with you on how to proceed. I certainly cannot address all of the possible scenarios concerning this except to say that a great press approval takes less that 15 minutes. It is fairly normal to take up to 45 minutes. You are probably getting in trouble if you go past this amount of time.

Do not be bullied by the press man or the press supervisor into signing off on a form if you are really not comfortable with it. If you are being reasonable in what you are asking for (color shifts for example) and are not taking unreasonable amounts of time to do your approval, then you should not be bullied into signing a sheet. Some press operators will work with you for as long as it takes. Some press operators will start trying to pressure you to sign a sheet within 5 minutes. People are just different.

To give you an idea as to how many press forms will be on your job, press forms usually have 12 to 16 pages per form (half on front and half on back). Depending on how competent you feel you are at this these are a few of the things you will be checking for:

• Are all the elements on the page and in the correct position? Use the proofs you approved as your guide.
• Are there any spots or holes in the images? Bring a marker with you to circle areas like this — the press man will attempt to clear any problem spots or voids (They’re known as “hickies.” Really. I’m not making that up!)
• Is the color acceptable? Compare the press sheet with the high resolution color proofs you approved. See below for further discussion on approving color. If you feel it is needed, you can ask the press operator to add or subtract one or more of the colors that make up the full color image. If you do not feel especially comfortable doing this, you can tell the operator what you are seeing that bothers you and ask his recommendation how to improve the image. He is (should be) an expert.
• If you feel competent to do so, you can look to see that all of the colors are in register with each other.

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The next time you will see your book is at delivery. This is the champagne-and-caviar moment! But remember, depending on how many you’re paying to have printed, this can be a rather large and incredibly heavy item to add to your personal inventory. Some things to consider:

HOW will the books deliver? Your options are residential or commercial delivery. Residential delivery requires trucks with lift gates which cost more. Commercial delivery to a standard height dock is the cheapest, but means you have to have a loading dock handy. For both options, there is additional cost for inside deliveries. Don’t piss off the driver!

Of course you can pick the books up yourself, especially if you did not order too many or have a truck/trailer that can handle the weight. The printer can tell you the load weight before you attempt this, to avoid damage to your car or truck.

STORAGE Finally, you’re going to need some dry, temperature-controlled space to store all those books. If exposed to extreme heat, especially, the binding glue may break down. Damp obviously has its own set of problems. Protect your investment!

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