Hardcover Book Print Quality = Very Poor!

In the past with iPhoto 4 & 5, I have ordered and recieved hardcover books of very high print quality. I have just recieved my first hardcover book using iPhoto 6.01, and the print quality is down right poor and unacceptable. My high resolution shots all look extremely grainy and "poster-ized". The contrast on most shots is all out of sorts. I have read other posts regarding local printing of books (using your home printer, etc.) and people are sayint the same things. It looks like v.6 has some output problems which Apple must resolve. Until then, no more books for me (But how will we know when this issue is fixed?? Wait a while, take our chances, and order another one?).
STEVE

I'm pushing Apple to provide full printing specs on the books, using some enterprise-level contacts to try to get around the lack of response from the official consumer support channel. I have an open ticket with the print services support people as well. I'll post info here in the "Photo book quality" topic:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=313677&tstart=15
if and when I get answers.
Meanwhile, you might want to consider asking for a refund. Others have had success doing so.

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Print quality very poor

Estimated print levels are OK - black is getting low but no warning. Diagnostic page prints OK except for black. On any print black is very faint. This is the most recent of a string of problems with this printer. I have used HP for years but am losing faith. This printer is just not good.

The troubleshooting steps in the document here may help resolve black not printing properly on your Photosmart 6520.
I have also asked to have one of the HP support folks take a look at this thread, they may have additional suggestions.
Bob Headrick, HP Expert
I am not an employee of HP, I am a volunteer posting here on my own time.
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Photo book print quality: large vs. medium (both softcover)

hello all,
I just wanted to share my experience about the difference in print quality between the medium softcover and large (in my case, softcover) books from iPhoto, something I wondered about before I took the plunge and ordered them.
I recently received copies of both, ordered a week apart, both using the 300 dpi hack, but unfortunately of diff't photos in each, so the comparison won't be too scientific.
First impressions: the photos in the large softcover seemed to me better than the medium. You can detect some very fine dots with the naked eye, in the places where a color shades into white. Overall, not objectionable at all, especially at a reasonable viewing distance. Akin to a decent/average inkjet photo. Meanwhile, the medium format struck me as having a worse print resolution, like a photo in a newspaper or cheaply printed magazine. The halftone pattern seemed more noticeable.
However, on closer inspection, side by side, I can see the halftone dots in each, and I wonder if they're actually printed at the same resolution. I think it was partly the bigger size of the average photo in the large book that convinced me it had a better resolution, and the smaller photos in a medium book can make the whole thing look bad. Also, I can definitely detect banding from the halftone pattern in the medium book that I don't notice in the large; but could this be due to the subject matter in the medium (blurred washes of muted color) more than a print resolution difference? Perhaps.
My conclusion: while it could be that the print resolution on the large is slightly better, I suspect my perception of the quality difference is based more on photo size and subject matter (sharp focus w/patterns, texture, moderate detail rather than empty color looks best). Still, despite my suspicion that the print resolution is the same, I can't shake the sense the large looks a little better.
Which is too bad in a way, as I think the medium has a lot going for it: it's cheaper than the large, and I actually much prefer to have a series of single, full-bleed images at 6x8 than two or three or more cluttered together on a bigger page for the same price. Plus I find the peek-a-boo cutout on the cover of the large book a bit cheesy.
So if you're going to go medium, I would definitely stay away from those six-photos-a-page layouts, especially if you have people in your small photos: their features will be degraded enough they start to look a little funny/unrecognizable. Bigger is better.
And if anyone has the same photo at the same size in two differently sized books to compare, that would settle things.
Also, I had a number of grayscale scans that I converted to rgb before adding to iPhoto, and the b&w photos printed in the book look great. While I would describe them as 'cool', I don't detect a noticeable color cast, and the blacks are decent.
Overall, as an amateur whose expectations were aimed a bit low, I'm pleased with both for the price, and will look to large for special occasions, medium for everyday photosets.

You're confusing two similar though technically different things.
You have the dpi (dot's per inch in the raster file) resolution of the images (assuming the image will not be reduced or enlarged) of 300 dpi - that is a static resolution and it one of two resolution settings that affect the quality of a printed image.
I was told the books are printed cmyk with screening so the other resolution that you have no control over is the "LPI" or "Lines per Inch" of the printing process. The CMYK separations are each printed at a different angle to achieve the full color effect.
The soft cover books appear to be printed at a lesser lpi than the hard cover books which would give the images a courser look to them.
I have not compared the books under a loop so this is going on what I was told.

Book Printing Quality

I just finished a photo book in Aperture and thinking of getting it printed through Apple (Kodak).
Before sending, I would like to get some input on the book quality. Is it professional quality or .... ? ? ?
Any comments will help me make a decision whether go the Apple route.

That's good info to know because I was considering Blurb as well...
So I guess the only unanswered part of the question is: is there a difference in print quality betwee Aperture and iPhoto Books?
I would assume they are the same being printed via Apple's company (or hired printers)...
However since iPhoto is billed as a "Photo App for everyone", and Aperture is billed as "The Professional Photo App", maybe there is a difference in printers and thus print quality?
The Books seem to be more expensive in Aperture vs iPhoto... at least at first glance...

Hardcover book printing from iPhoto 6

I'm using iPhoto 6 and getting ready to print a hardcover book. Everything looks pretty good so far except for the cover. I want the photo on the cover to be a full bleed print instead of what I see in the preview on my screen. On my screen it appears that there is a large border surrounding the photo which looks like the material of the cover itself. It seems that in iLife '08 that there are full bleed print options on the cover. I'm only basing that statement by what I see on the website for the iLife '08 page under "iPhoto Print Products". I'd hate to put all this effort and money into a book that isn't represented by an attractive cover. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hello, herbyd,
I am afraid that if you want a different cover, you will have to select a different theme for your book. The one you are seeing is indeed a pic which is essentially a picture stuck onto the front cover of the hardback book. However, the end result is nowhere near as bad as that sounds, as that is the version I ordered as a Christmas present. I think it looks great, but the nature of the material of the chosen hardback book would make it impossible to have a full-bleed image, as the photo is not printed directly onto the cover.
HTH

Book print quality, resolution, presets, etc...

I just ordered my first book from Apple and was overall disappointed by the quality. Colors and contrast a bit cheap, apparent loss of resolution, some banding in the sky, etc... Nothing like what i get with my home printer (canon 9900).
So i looked a bit more into the issue and wondered whether, among other things, there was not an issue with the Output PDF file. I tried comparing a picture at full magnification between aperture (from the original Raw file) and preview (from the Output PDF file) and i could indeed notice a huge difference in resolution, which was much lower on the PDF.
Then i asked myself whereas there could be something to tune with the export presets. On the preset list (on the right of the export preset window), the "JPEG - Fit within 1024x1024" was indeed highlighted, with a DPI of 72 and quality of 8... So i created a "PDF Book" preset, with Jpeg - Original size, max quality (12) and set DPI at 300. And "selected" it...
I recreated the PDF file, and much to my excitement, size moved from 150 Megs to 250 Megs. But deception quickly took over as a close look at a picture within the new PDF showed a similar loss of resolution, with color and micro-contrast having slightly shifted compared to first PDF.
Final test, to be sure that i was not comparing tomatoes and, well.. apples, i created a jpeg file from the raw file with that same "PDF book" preset. And in Preview it looked just like the Raw in aperture, much better apparent resolution when viewed at full size than what i got from the PDF.
Sorry for having been a bit longish, hope ur still with me
Here are my comments/questions :
- As for the comments, i concur with other previous posts on the erratic character of the apple book output. I would not at that stage recommend it to anyone who has a need beyond sharing vacation or party pics with friends or family. For reference, this book was ordered in Japan.
- Now my test leaves me with as many questions as answers. Something i found out (maybe i was not the first one but i could not find previous post on the topic) is that Export preset settings do have an influence over the Output PDF. But still i could not get where i wanted to...
- So my dearest wish today would be to have someone to tell me how i can have the same quality (apparent resolution, etc...) in the pics embedded in the PDF as the one i get when i export a file from aperture into a full size/full quality jpeg.
Otherwise, you can't even use the cool book edition tool of Aperture, and you are just back to going into Adobe illustrator directly...
Thanks for your comments and answers.
YM

I've only printed "mini" books from Apple, and was actually pretty pleased at overall look, the res...the color and tonal matching, was surprisingly accurate as it was on screen in the book preview. But the mini books are really tiny, so resolution flaws, I would think, would be masked. I don't think I yet trust printing in a bigger size with Apple. Actually, I can't figure out how to, in Aperture, get a paper back, like the mini, at a larger page size. It doesn't seem to have that option. I won't buy iphoto 8 just to do that. I'll just go to Asuka or some other printer. But was wondering if I'm missing settings in Aperture.

Print quality seems poor

I've just printed some sample pictures from iPhoto 6 and am really disappointed by the quality. I have set the print dialogue to Photo Quality and all the settings look right but the printouts appear really grainy. Is there a way of choosing the dithering settings? Even better would be to turn dithering off - can I do this?
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anyone ever get an answser to this?

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Hi all
How about trying this on W530? I am not sure how well would those settings work on W530.
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/W-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/ThinkPad-W520-microphone-troubleshooting/ta-p/...
Have a nice day!
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Dolby Home Theater v4 ; IdeaPad Slate Tablet

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So I did figure it out, after a friend's son who works at the Apple store told me how. You can't upload from your iPad (or any iOS device) without the file compressing, which causes the bad quality. So I had to hook up my iPad to my Mac, and through Image Capture, upload the file. Then I loaded directly from Finder to both Youtube & FB and it worked great.

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Actually, you can get to it from the Print Booklet dialog. I'm on Windows, but it should be similar on Mac.
In the Print Booklet dialog, click the Print Setup button to open the printer dialog (looks just like the regular ID print dialog, because it is). Presumably you've already selectred Adobe PDF as the printer. Click the setup button in this dialog, and then the preferences button in the next one. You'll see the settings for the PDF Printer Driver. Top dropdown is labeled "Default Settings" and is probably set to "Standard," which is what you want to change.
I'd recommend going into the PDF printer properties through the Windows Printers folder, or through the Mac printer utility, and change the default there, too. Pick something you would use most of the time, and then you won't have to reset it every time you print to PDF. "Standard" is a low-res, convert to RGB settings file.
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Hi Brprakash,
Welcome to Lenovo Community Forums!
I’m sorry to hear that the webcam driver is not installing completely in your G510 Laptop, I suggest you to download the driver once again and then while installing the driver right click on the downloaded file and select “Run as administrator” option to get it installed without any error.
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Very Poor Quality of Soft and Hard Cover Books in UK

I recently had 2 soft cover books printed-both originated from Aperture. Both showed severe crinkling on the cover on all areas of BLACK ink. The covers have also curled outwards badly. After speaking with the Apple Print Services helpdesk I was assured it must have been just a 'one off' problem. The replacement was not quite as bad but was still what I would say was of unacceptable quality. The pages inside are printed on very lightweight paper with a poor finish on all printed areas.
I then tried a hard cover book. This had a crinkled dust jacket caused presumably also by over-saturated ink on the paper.
The system of binding looked amateurish.
I would be interested to know whether my experiences are echoed by users on other continents. These books had a Dutch postmark on the package so I guess they were printed there?
These books may be priced attractively, but personally I would rather have a quality product than something I am embarrassed by - or certainly in a professional arena.

Hi, I have also ordered photobook through Aperture. Received with Dutch postmark. Quality is not good, the pages are very thin, use thicker paper than this for everyday printing, looks saturated, colour reproduction is not good in some photos also have some that are blurry. Have reproduced photos at same size on printer at home and they are totally different, do not know if this was a download issue.
As they come from Holland was wondering if it is through KODAK.
Also Aperture update 2.1.2 says that it will improve printing quality of books ordered through the printing services. Does this mean that a problem has been admitted and all photobooks ordered previously using Aperture 2 will have the oportunity to redownload and reprint? Somehow I think not.

Very poor print quality when printing out photos.

I used an IPhone 4S and no matter what quality of paper I used the photo came out indistinct andof very poor quality. I am using brand new HP inks.

Hi,
Just a question: do you know what is the quality (resolution) of the photo on your phone ?
Regards.
BH
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Aperture Book Printing+Poor Print Quality

Hello,
I'm wondering if this is a one off, but i just received a book printed through Aperture, the printed pages look terrible, there's banding through several of the images, the images are grainy, it looks like they have printed it on a lazer printer. the images all print fine on an Epson 7800, so there's no problem with the images.
Has anyone had these problems - or did i just get a bad example ?
Thanks
Darren

It depends.
There do seem to be several reports of pages (on the interior, in particular) printing with washed-out coloring.
You can contact Photo Services and get a credit. They can also review the file and see if there is a problem there; they keep the files for 40 days.

Hardcover Book Print Quality = Very Poor!

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