What is your export process for printing custom-sized books?

Question

I will be printing my first custom-sized book created in Aperture.
Anyone have much experience doing this?
I am assuming that exporting to pdf and then sending that file to print is the process, but I'm wondering if the compression will affect the image quality enough to be concerned for a 9''x9'' book?

Answer 1

Lots of experience here.
I outsource albums either as single page or double spread. Unfortunately Aperture only allows single page export, not as a full spread (required by some printers).
Unfortunately the Export options are a little limited, so read on
If you click on the Print button for your custom sized book, you'll get a dialog. Choose the PDF button at the bottom and a bunch of options will appear.
If you just want to export a proof for a client to review, you can select Save PDF to Aperture. The files will import as 200dpi JPEGs / TIFFs depending upon the option you choose. You can then export to a sharing service / web album etc.
If you want to export at a different dpi then DON'T choose the Save PDF to folder as JPEG option... again you'll get just 200dpi images. So what you can do is choose the Save as PDF option. When you choose that it will export the whole book as single pages in a PDF, with the embedded JPEGs (fully quality jpeg 12) at 350dpi (I know as I've checked this)....
You can then do 2 things:
1. For services that require a single pages, run an automator action to run through the PDF and export the images at your desired DPI and change the colour profile (eg sRGB). Your images are then exported to the same folder. Here's the action: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/117989/Save%20PDF%20to%20Folder%20as%20JPEG.zip
2. For services that require a double page spread instead, run an automator action to run through the PDF, change the colour profile and DPI and then import to Aperture.
What I do is have an entirely separate project called Album Proofs and import all images into there. When the action runs, it will ask where to put the images - place them in Album Proofs. I then have a custom book size that is twice the width of the album you are creating (e.g. if making a 12x9, the size is 24x9) with no margins or spacing. Then create a template album (you can reuse by right clicking and selecting Duplicate Book) that has two images per page, each image taking up EXACTLY half of the page (again no margins or spacing). I then drag the images I imported into this template, then auto-fill unplaced images. Your images are then layed out as spreads... So now what you do is re-export using the Save as PDF print option. Then run the action described in 1 above.
Here's the action: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/117989/Save%20PDF%20to%20Aperture%20as%20JPEG.zip . If it doesn't work use the other action above and just import manually.
Hope this helps