Another Attempt: Success (Mostly)

Figure 6: The new front cover. A bit less impressive. [Click image above for a larger photo]

On the front cover I moved my image over to the right, away from the spine, so there was a healthy margin of black - my hope was that it wouldn't be printed on the spine at all. As you can see, it wasn't; but it looks a bit less impressive now. I really liked the way the original cover looked, printed all the way across the page.

Figure 7: The spine - all spine, no cover, just the way it should be. [Click image above for a larger photo]

I didn't change anything on the spine, but you can see that by changing my approach on the front and back cover images, I was able to get a pure black spine, free of any of the front or back photos. Score!

Figure 8: The back cover...still not quite right. [Click image above for a larger photo]

For my repeat of the back cover design, I opted to shrink the image so that there was a black border on all four sides of it. I thought for sure this would solve the problem; it sort of did. The image wasn't pushed into the spine area, but it wasn't aligned accurately; you can see there's a thin black border on the bottom, but not on the top. The image is slightly wrapped around the top. The back cover doesn't look awful, but it doesn't look great either - which is a real shame, because the inside looks fantastic.

The video above gives you another look at some of the problems, but also the stunning quality of the paper and printing. To view it full screen, click on the video and go to the YouTube page - you'll see the full-screen option there.

What Does a Customer Have to Do Here?

I asked my contact again about the issue of accuracy, and she said that because the books are hand-made, it's impossible for them to get a 100% match to the software. That may be, but here's the problem: because Photobook Canada has such high-quality printing and paper, when someone picks up the book, it feels professional. It feels like an expensive coffee-table photography book. The fact is that even when the customer puts effort into coming up with a compelling design, they can't match it on paper - that's disappointing.

I'm sure there are numerous technical challenges when it comes to printing and aligning the front and back covers, but Photobook Canada either needs to somehow overcome these challenges and match the design the customer is submitting, or alter their software so the types of layouts I created aren't possible. Sure, I'd be disappointed not to be able to have a full-cover image on the front and back - but I'd rather work creatively inside the confines of a limited design that can be achieved with 100% accuracy, than think I can do anything I want and be disappointed when the final product doesn't match up to my vision. Photobook Canada shouldn't be offering customers the ability to create photo book covers that they can't make a reality. For $127, I expect to see on paper what I saw on the screen.

Ultimately, I'm proud of the book I created and am thrilled with the quality of the inside pages and cover - I display it proudly on my bookshelf in our family room, cover out. The flaws on the back cover irk me, but I know most people aren't as detail-oriented as I am, and probably won't notice it. I plan on using Photobook Canada for my next project, but will be going with an even less ambitious design than this one in an attempt to find some layout that they can execute flawlessly.

Jason Dunn owns and operates Thoughts Media Inc., a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys photography, mobile devices, blogging, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, his wonderful son Logan, and his sometimes obedient dog. He likes making photo books, but wishes everyone had the same eye for detail that he does.

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