But after the papers were slipped into their holders in the album - I got more ambitious. I have these books in me - and it is so expensive to produce a short offset run of good quality - it just seemed crazy that you couldn't produce a good quality inkjet-based book.
I don't mean where you ftp your photos and someone else does the printing - probably in 4-color, but a process where I can assemble my own hardcover inkjet book with say 40 photographs.
And these do exist - with different methods for the binding. In general, they seem too expensive to do in any sort of real quantity - but for gifts or maybe for a few special people - it can be done.
Light Impressions, for example - has a hard cover, post-bound system where you print on hinged paper (luster or matte) which can then be assembled with a nice cover, and if you want translucent interleaving tissue. To do an 8 x 8 inch book with 25 photographs is going to cost something like $50 for the sheets + $25 for the cover. So you're in the $75 range, not to mention the paper you'll botch for one reason or another.
Inexpensive hinged paper is the easiest way to approach this. But I've yet to find it. I'm tempted to hole punch and crimp my own.
Then I came across an adhesive based system where you use your own letter-sized paper, by DigifilmLabs and so I ordered one. I ordered one where I'd use my own paper and now the cost is down to $25 without counting the cost of paper.
Lyson even has something called Stone Hinge books - but I couldn't find much about them - such as pricing on their site.
So there you have it. I really am in publishing mode right now and one way or another I'm determined to get a high quality book done - even if I have to do the whole thing myself.
Oh - and this page (InkJetArt.com) is the best resource I've found so far on the various ways of going about this stuff.
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Innova makes the Opus Presentation Album and I think this is just what I'm looking for.
