| Shared
Ink - Making your own Photo Book
by Marsel van Oosten
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The Book
When
the book arrived, I was impressed by how thorough the packaging
was done. The book was sealed in a clear plastic cover and
fitted perfectly in a stylish black box. The black box was
packed in another box by the courier service, so no worries
about getting your book all bend and damaged.
1.
The Cover
The
cover had quality written all over it. The red cover label
just looked great on the black linen. Each cover features
a recessed area where the cover label is affixed on top of
the linen material. This means that the label lies flush with
the rest of the book and is not raised. This really gives
a professional feel to the cover and is unique to SharedInk.
For my next book I'm going with leather because I think that
will look even better.
2. The End Sheets
Part
of the Photographer Program is the optional choice of three
premium end sheets. I chose the Satin Black Moiré,
and I'm happy I did. It looks even better than I hoped it
would, although photographing it presented some interesting
moiré problems...
3.
The Binding
This
is a crucial part of any good book. If it's not done
right, your pages will eventually come loose. SharedInk
uses standard hard cover book binding techniques. The
book blocks are bound using a wire stitch technique,
resulting in a very tight, high quality binding. The
book blocks are cased into the cover using full end
sheets and are adhered with glue. The finished product
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4.
The Pages
For
my book I chose the premium cover stock with a matte
finish. I bet the gloss finish looks great as well,
but the matt finish looks more like the pages from a
regular coffee table book and that was the look I was
after. If there is one thing I regret about the pages,
it's that I should have chosen to have more than 20.
Although the book really feels like a solid book, I
would have liked it to have more body. The maximum number
of pages in your book depends on whether you print single-sided
or double-sided, and also on what type of paper stock
you select. For the paper weight of my book I could
have up to 40 sheets, 80 pages.
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5.
The Printing
If
you expect your pages to look like a high quality Epson
prints, they won't. No book can ever offer the clarity,
color saturation and sharpness of a high end inkjet
print. SharedInk uses a HP/Indigo Ultrastream 3000 digital
offset press for all hardcover books. This is a true-ink
4-color digital offset press with excellent color reproduction,
comparable to a coffee table style book you might purchase
at the book store.
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