Probable optimization technique for Aperture + iPhoto Book

[samab]

This is my first post, so I don't know if this information has been discussed before.

Walter Mossberg from the Wall Street Journal wrote an article on MyPublisher.com --- saying that they are the company printing Apple's iPhoto books. It is important to note that Mossberg wrote that using Mypublisher's own software gave him BETTER LOOKING BOOK than Apple's own iPhoto software (even though the iPhoto software itself is better to use).

http://www.mypublisher.com/pressroom_wsj2.php

Go to mypublisher's own help section, you will find that they want jpeg's at 180-200 dpi. Their printing press is 175 lpi, they use something close to Adobe 98 color profile. They also stated that 5 megapixel is THE BEST camera for the print job. Any thing over 7 megapixel --- is BAD --- because the printing company will down-res the pictures.

http://www.mypublisher.com/help_chapter4.php

I think you should try the printer's own setting and see if it will give you better results.

 

[javabear90]

Why would anything over 7 megapixels be "Bad". All that would mean is that there would be no noticeable improvement over a 5 megapixel image. Unless they do some crazy strange down-sampling... A camera over 7 megapixels would make no difference.

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

Not so sure, I was told that Kodak was the engine behind the photo books from Apple.

 

[samab]

Not so sure, I was told that Kodak was the engine behind the photo books from Apple.

Mypublisher.com also offers a mac plug-in so that you can order books directly from them inside iphoto.

http://www.mypublisher.com/iphoto_plugin.php

I am more inclined to say that they are the real printer behind Apple (at the very least in 2005 when Mossberg wrote the article).

Mypublisher.com uses HP Indigo 3000 digital offset.

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache...her.com+HP+digital+offset+&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4

Maybe they have bought newer HP printers now.

Now we know what dpi to use, what color profile to use and what their printer hardware is.

 

[Applespider]

One thing to bear in mind here is that the review is from 2005.

iPhoto 05 used to send books for printing at 150dpi which would explain the difference. That setting could be changed using a little app called Prefsetter and you could change it to 300dpi which led to better books - probably more on a par than those they are discussing here

iPhoto 06 changed the default resolution for books so they should now look that way all the time.

 

[samab]

I know about the prefsetting utility and I also know about the Apple upped the iPhoto 06 dpi setting. It would make some sense that Mossberg saw better books from mypublisher because they used 180-200 dpi themselves vs. iPhoto 05 used 150 dpi.

Maybe Apple switched to a different printing company since Mossberg's July 2005 article. Maybe mypublisher bought new printer hardware just for printing better looking Apple books.

Or maybe not.

I really don't know how it works. The question is that should you make your digital photos at 180-200 dpi vs. iPhoto 06 at 300 dpi. We don't know if printing company is going to down-res it.