The editions
Softbound, hardbound, lay-flat, heirloom
Five build qualities. Each one bundles its cover material, paper stock and binding, so you choose a tier and a size instead of assembling a book from twenty dropdowns. Prices shown are the cheapest size at the fewest pages.
Softcover
Real press printing at the price of a photo order.
The Softcover exists so price is never the reason a book stays on a hard drive. Same press, same inks and same colour management as every tier above it; the difference is a laminated card cover instead of a board case, and a glued spine instead of a sewn one. It lies reasonably flat, survives a coffee table, and costs about what a set of prints used to.
- Premium colour printing on coated photo paper; the stock for each size is named when you pick it
- Perfect-bound spine, printed and titled
- Full-bleed pages: photos run to the trim edge
- Cheap enough to order five and hand them out
Paper
80# White, Coated (other sizes differ)
Cover
Matte laminated card cover
Printing
Digital press, 300 dpi
$31.24
from, at 8.5 × 8.5 in · 32 pages
Classic Hardcover
The book most people mean when they say "photo book".
A proper case-bound hardback: board covers wrapped in your own photograph, a bound page block, and a printed spine so the book is findable on a shelf ten years from now. If you are making one book a year for the family, this is the one.
- Rigid case-bound board covers, photo-wrapped edge to edge
- Printed dust jacket by enquiry
- Coated photo pages, bound into a rigid case
- Spine printed with your title: it reads on a shelf
Paper
80# White, Coated (other sizes differ)
Cover
Photo-wrapped board
Printing
Digital press, 300 dpi
$48.40
from, at 8.5 × 8.5 in · 24 pages
Linen Hardcover
Woven linen and foil, for the book you do not want to look printed.
Uncoated 60# white stock has a quiet, papery surface that reads as a book rather than a print job, no glare under a lamp, no fingerprints on a dark page. The linen is real book cloth, wrapped by hand around the boards, with your title pressed into it in foil. It is the tier people keep buying twice because the first one got given away.
- Book-cloth linen cover; linen colour options by enquiry
- Title foil-debossed into the cover; foil colour options by enquiry
- 60# White, Uncoated pages: no glare under a lamp
Paper
60# White, Uncoated
Cover
Natural woven linen with foil deboss
Printing
Digital press, 300 dpi
$90.00
from, at 8.5 × 11 in · 24 pages
Lay-Flat Premium
Mounted spreads with no gutter. A photo can cross the middle.
A lay-flat book is built the opposite way round: each spread is printed as one flat sheet, mounted to board, then hinged to its neighbours. Nothing is lost in the middle, so a single image genuinely can span two pages: the reason wedding and landscape work belongs here and nowhere else. The pages are stiff enough to turn with one hand.
- Each spread printed as one sheet, mounted and hinged: opens at 180°
- No gutter: a face can sit in the centre of a spread and stay whole
- Rigid pages that hold their shape after a hundred openings
- Panorama trim sizes open to a full 26 inches
Paper
Mounted board pages, specification by enquiry
Cover
Photo wrap or linen, by enquiry
Printing
Digital press, 300 dpi
$69.44
from, at 6 × 6 in · 20 pages
Photographic Lay-Flat
Real photographic paper, developed in chemistry. No ink, no dots.
Every other tier is printed: ink placed on paper. This one is developed. The photographic paper is exposed to red, green and blue light and taken through the same chemistry as a darkroom print, so the image is continuous tone: there is no dot pattern to find under a loupe, and nothing for a gradient to band against. It is the difference people notice in faces first: a cheek or a forehead moves from light to shadow in one unbroken sweep. If your book is mostly portraits, this is the one to hold.
- True silver-halide photographic paper: exposed to light and developed
- Continuous tone: no halftone dot structure anywhere in the image
- Gradients, skin and shadow detail resolve smoother than any press can
- Mounted lay-flat spreads that open completely at 180°
Paper
WHCC Photo Lustre photographic paper
Cover
Book cloth or photo wrap, by enquiry
Printing
True photographic (silver-halide), 400 dpi
$98.58
from, at 6 × 6 in · 20 pages
Archival Heirloom
Cotton rag, pigment inks, leather and a slipcase. Made by enquiry.
Everything in this tier is chosen against one test: will it still look like this when someone who has not been born yet opens it? Cotton rag paper has no acid to yellow and no optical brighteners to burn off. Pigment inks sit on the surface as ground mineral rather than soaking in as dye. It is made by enquiry: tell us about the book and we will quote the materials and the price.
- 100% cotton rag, acid-free and lignin-free
- Pigment inks, not dye
- Full-grain leather case, foil-stamped, in a matching slipcase
- Hand-inspected spread by spread before it ships
Paper
100% cotton rag, specification by enquiry
Cover
Full-grain leather with foil, in a slipcase
Printing
Digital press, 300 dpi
$148.18
from, at 6 × 6 in · 20 pages
Giclée Atelier
Twelve pigment inks at 1200 dpi on Hahnemühle rag, hand-bound in a clamshell.
This is the process galleries and print-makers use, applied to a book. Twelve pigment inks, including three greys and two dedicated blacks, are sprayed at 1200 dpi onto Hahnemühle cotton rag. The extra greys are what stop monochrome work going flat or picking up a colour cast, and the gamut reaches saturated reds and deep blues that a four-colour press simply cannot reproduce. It is bound by hand in goatskin and housed in a clamshell box. It is made to commission: tell us about the book and we will quote it.
- Twelve-ink pigment giclée at 1200 dpi: three greys and two blacks
- Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 100% cotton, acid-free, no optical brighteners
- The widest colour gamut and deepest blacks we can produce
- Goatskin binding sewn by hand, in a cloth-covered clamshell box
- Every spread proofed and inspected individually before binding
Paper
Hahnemühle Photo Rag, 100% cotton
Cover
Hand-bound goatskin in a cloth clamshell box
Printing
Giclée, 12-ink pigment, 1200 dpi
$265.98
from, at 6 × 6 in · 20 pages
Side by side
All seven, on one line each
| Edition | Printing | Binding | Cover | Paper | Lay-flat | Pages | Per extra page | From |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Softcover | Press 300 dpi |
Perfect bound (softcover) | Matte laminated card cover | 80# White, Coated (other sizes differ) | 32 to 120 | $0.55 | $31.24 8.5 × 8.5 in · 32 pages |
|
| Classic Hardcover | Press 300 dpi |
Case bound (hardcover) | Photo-wrapped board | 80# White, Coated (other sizes differ) | 24 to 180 | $0.75 | $48.40 8.5 × 8.5 in · 24 pages |
|
| Linen Hardcover | Press 300 dpi |
Case bound (hardcover) | Natural woven linen with foil deboss | 60# White, Uncoated | 24 to 180 | $0.95 | $90.00 8.5 × 11 in · 24 pages |
|
| Lay-Flat Premium | Press 300 dpi |
Lay-flat (mounted spreads) | Photo wrap or linen, by enquiry | Mounted board pages, specification by enquiry | ✓ | 20 to 120 | $2.40 | $69.44 6 × 6 in · 20 pages |
| Photographic Lay-Flat | Photographic 400 dpi |
Lay-flat (mounted spreads) | Book cloth or photo wrap, by enquiry | WHCC Photo Lustre photographic paper | ✓ | 20 to 100 | $3.40 | $98.58 6 × 6 in · 20 pages |
| Archival Heirloom | Press 300 dpi |
Lay-flat (mounted spreads) | Full-grain leather with foil, in a slipcase | 100% cotton rag, specification by enquiry | ✓ | 20 to 100 | $4.50 | $148.18 6 × 6 in · 20 pages |
| Giclée Atelier | Giclée 1200 dpi |
Lay-flat (mounted spreads) | Hand-bound goatskin in a cloth clamshell box | Hahnemühle Photo Rag, 100% cotton | ✓ | 20 to 80 | $8.50 | $265.98 6 × 6 in · 20 pages |
“From” is the cheapest size each edition is made in, at its fewest pages, and the size is named beside it. Larger sizes multiply the whole price. See the size grid.
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Order a sample kit: cover material samples and a printed swatch of each paper stock, posted free anywhere in the world.