On Thu Feb 28 12:26:15 2013, Tim Doty <thoromyr@mac.com> wrote:

> I'm finishing up a book for printing at Lulu. Actually, the book is
> old (last revised 1999), but I'm adding illustrations to it. And
> herein lies my problem. The art is grey scale and, searching lulu
> for information, it appears that they are using something like 60-80
> lpi, but certainly not much more than 100 lpi -- which is simply
> not enough to capture detail. Even my personal printer can manage
> 180 lpi so I'm not sure what gives.

Hi, Tim ...

Unless you're irrevocably committed to Lulu, I'd suggest CreateSpace.
Went through a comparison a couple of years ago, and CS was much more
responsive - additionally, the website is very detailed on what they
need ... eg, re .pdf images "Images may be CMYK or RGB color. All images
should be sized at 100%, flattened to one layer and placed in your
document at a minimum resolution of 300 DPI."

Print quality is exceptional, delivery is fast, and they're cheaper
than Lulu. Free ISDN too. Owned by Amazon so you get Amazon placement,
plus bookstores. Kindle, too. Here's our Amazon listing:

<http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Let-Out-Magic-Smoke/dp/1442179813>
<http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Let-Out-Magic-Smoke/dp/1468133330>
<http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Let-Out-Magic-Smoke/dp/1480047708>

regards, Jim

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll check that out.

Tim Doty

On Mar 1, 2013, at 10:46 PM, video@got.net wrote:

> On Thu Feb 28 12:26:15 2013, Tim Doty thoromyr@mac.com> wrote:
>
> > I'm finishing up a book for printing at Lulu. Actually, the book is
> > old (last revised 1999), but I'm adding illustrations to it. And
> > herein lies my problem. The art is grey scale and, searching lulu
> > for information, it appears that they are using something like 60-80
> > lpi, but certainly not much more than 100 lpi -- which is simply
> > not enough to capture detail. Even my personal printer can manage
> > 180 lpi so I'm not sure what gives.
>
> Hi, Tim ...
>
> Unless you're irrevocably committed to Lulu, I'd suggest CreateSpace.
> Went through a comparison a couple of years ago, and CS was much more
> responsive - additionally, the website is very detailed on what they
> need ... eg, re .pdf images "Images may be CMYK or RGB color. All images
> should be sized at 100%, flattened to one layer and placed in your
> document at a minimum resolution of 300 DPI."
>
> Print quality is exceptional, delivery is fast, and they're cheaper
> than Lulu. Free ISDN too. Owned by Amazon so you get Amazon placement,
> plus bookstores. Kindle, too. Here's our Amazon listing:
>
>http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Let-Out-Magic-Smoke/dp/1442179813>
>http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Let-Out-Magic-Smoke/dp/1468133330>
>http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Let-Out-Magic-Smoke/dp/1480047708>
>
> regards, Jim
>

Create Space didn't say what LPI settings they use that I could find, but it was readily discoverable in the forums. 170 LPI for color and 106 LPI for black and white. For black and white that's pretty low -- basically a quality newsprint. They got called out on it where I found it, too, so I'm not the only one that thinks the quality should be better.

One thing about the differential caught my eye: perhaps that is why Lulu suggested saving gray scale as RGB -- if they are using a higher LPI it'll have better detail (very likely at the expense of muddiness and require pricier color printing to take advantage of, which wasn't mentioned).

Indications are that the printing industry as a whole (excluding newspapers) uses about 200 +/-30 LPI for black and white printing. I suppose the reason CS and Lulu don't is they are able to print more cheaply this way.

Tim Doty

On Mar 2, 2013, at 7:08 AM, Tim Doty <thoromyr@mac.com> wrote:

> Thanks for the suggestion, I'll check that out.
>
> Tim Doty
>
> On Mar 1, 2013, at 10:46 PM, video@got.net wrote:
>
>> On Thu Feb 28 12:26:15 2013, Tim Doty thoromyr@mac.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I'm finishing up a book for printing at Lulu. Actually, the book is
>>> old (last revised 1999), but I'm adding illustrations to it. And
>>> herein lies my problem. The art is grey scale and, searching lulu
>>> for information, it appears that they are using something like 60-80
>>> lpi, but certainly not much more than 100 lpi -- which is simply
>>> not enough to capture detail. Even my personal printer can manage
>>> 180 lpi so I'm not sure what gives.
>>
>> Hi, Tim ...
>>
>> Unless you're irrevocably committed to Lulu, I'd suggest CreateSpace.
>> Went through a comparison a couple of years ago, and CS was much more
>> responsive - additionally, the website is very detailed on what they
>> need ... eg, re .pdf images "Images may be CMYK or RGB color. All images
>> should be sized at 100%, flattened to one layer and placed in your
>> document at a minimum resolution of 300 DPI."
>>
>> Print quality is exceptional, delivery is fast, and they're cheaper
>> than Lulu. Free ISDN too. Owned by Amazon so you get Amazon placement,
>> plus bookstores. Kindle, too. Here's our Amazon listing:
>>
>>http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Let-Out-Magic-Smoke/dp/1442179813>
>>http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Let-Out-Magic-Smoke/dp/1468133330>
>>http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Let-Out-Magic-Smoke/dp/1480047708>
>>
>> regards, Jim
>>
>
>
>
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