Poor quality printing [ Edited ]

[morelandjoe]

I've ordered and received over 100 paperback copies of my book, A Place to Lay My Head, which contains more than a dozen black-and-white photos.  Past orders have all been printed with acceptable quality (some more so than others).  I made a few minor editorial changes, resubmitted the revised pdf file, reviewed the processed pdf file (it looked great), and ordered a proof copy.  The proof arrived today and it was horrible.  Outside margins on even numbered pages were less than a quarter of an inch and were less than three sixteenths on odd numbered pages.  Even numbered page top margins were less than half an inch, odd numbered page top margins were less than one sixteenth of an inch.  The photos were extremely grainy and the paper was poorer quality than any of my previous print jobs.  I have been waiting to place another order for 50 more books and planned to place the order this afternoon before the current special expires.  I've filed a complaint with Lulu but probably won't hear back from them before the special expires.  Should I place the order now or wait to hear from them?  I suspect that this print job was an abberation but I don't have enough experience with Lulu to know if the print shop is to blame or if I did something to cause the terrible mess I'm now holding in my hands.

[patmat2350]

Can't advise on your order, but I have had random orders come in with cr@ppy printing... usually like my home laser printer when the toner is low and/or the cartridge is dirty. It might seem ok in all-text areas, but it realy shows in photos.

For this reason, I usually steer buyers to my book on Amazon... I never know what Lulu might deliver.

I also noticed that my B&W draft received today has poorer quality paper than previous books... MUCH nicer paper was found in a color volume I received last week, even though both are "standard" paper.

[morelandjoe]

Thanks Patmat.  I've heard some real horror stories about Lulu's print quality problems.  This is the first I've experienced.  Hope it's just a fluke.

[kevinlomas]

Lulu do not print the books so it may not matter where you buy them from. Just tell Lulu via Help about any printing problems.
It is rare from them to be printed badly. Millions turn out just fine.

[patmat2350]

Hasn't been rare for me. This latest is my fourth time.

But after some wrangling, Lulu does come through with replacements.

[patmat2350]

Another thing that contributes to the impression of low quality- the halftone resoltion.
Any printer needs to apply a halftone screen to continuous tone images... But different resolutions are possible. With a laser, there's no reason to use the coarse screen that I see in my latest Lulu draft... It's like freakin newsprint.
I'm looking at a p-back BW book from Motorbooks Int'l... Image-rich, and it looks WAY better, as it has glossier paper and very
fine halftoning.
End rant.

[kevinlomas]

The printers print what you create. Granted the QC is not always as it should be, but it is rare.
Not sure what you mean about "half tone screen" etc, because as you say, they are laser machines and judging by my own books, they are not set at 'Draft' either.
Newsprint is a type of paper ...
Well I own some very high gloss books also. They are full of very high glass art and photos. They were also expensive when they first came out, even mass-printed.
Lulu, as I am sure you know, use printers who use POD BOD machines, and if you want very very high quality then you are better off getting your books printed the 'old' way.

[thetoonguy]

My problems are not rare at all. Every bulk order I've placed (which are all done at one particular printer as opposed to the other printer whose books are always perfect) as well as some smaller orders have all had to be replaced due to 1/4"+ differences and crooked pages. Even my replacements are not up to par but Lulu has a 1/8" leeway and the replacements usually hit that (though barely). I've even had to have my replacements replaced.

The last issue that was with 20 books, resulting in the printer admitting that the type of printer they use tends to print slightly higher and that it has to be manually adjusted before books are printed. The assured me that they would be adjusting their procedures for press operators to ensure that the proper adjustments are made for future print runs. But guess what? I got 15 books on Wednesday and they were all crooked and off by more than 1/4" again. It gets old though and always makes me wonder if someone buying my book thru Lulu is getting a piece of crap.

Ron

http://www.toon-it-up.com

http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/ronbraun

[David-K]

We are sorry to hear about the issues with your recent order, as well as the continued issues with the larger orders for your books. Lulu takes great pains to ensure consistency in look and feel for our printed products, but please understand that we do try to keep printing errors like this to a minimum, our print-on-demand process doesn't allow us to check each copy in every order for issues like these efficiently on a large scale. As you know, however, we will be glad to replace any merchandise with a manufacturing defect, and this is the case here as well, as we have stated in the reply to the help case you submitted. I understand that you have had a poor experience with print quality thus far, but please understand that these print errors are an exception rather than the rule, and we hope to deliver you consistently high-quality books in future orders. We are currently working with our printers to make sure that the print issues can be avoided in future orders.

Kind Regards,

David K and the Printing Department

[thetoonguy]

Thanks, David, but unfortunately, in my case at least, the print errors are the rule rather than the exception. I've had some 1-2 book orders come through fine but every order higher than that has has issues and have had to be replaced. And once an order had to be replaced TWICE as the second one came through worse than the first.

Ron

http://www.too-it-up.com

http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/ronbraun