Print on Demand Services

ahayford · Apr 17, 2012

Hey guys,

As much as I love the variety of RPG material I can get in PDF form, for some things, I really enjoy having a physical copy of the book. I have tried out DriveThruRPG's print on demand service, and was very happy with the results.

I recenetly looked at getting something from Lulu.com, but I've heard tons of bad things about their service relating to the print quality of the books in question. Has anyone used their service? Would you do it again? Do you know of any other print on demand sites that have a better track record? Honestly, for all I know, DriveThruRPG's actual orders go through the same actual printers as Lulu and these problems I've read about are just part of the print-on-demand process.

S'mon · Apr 17, 2012

Ordering from Lulu in the UK I've never had any trouble. I believe that for the UK they dispatch from Spain & last I heard could not do hardbacks, but all the paperbacks I've bought (BFRPG, Labyrinth Lord, Mutant Future, a Fight On! issue, and The Spider God's Bride edit: and OSRIC!) were great in terms of print quality.

Morrus · Apr 17, 2012

Lulu and RPGNow pretty much identical in quality as far as I can tell.

gamerprinter · Apr 17, 2012

ahayford said:
Hey guys,

As much as I love the variety of RPG material I can get in PDF form, for some things, I really enjoy having a physical copy of the book. I have tried out DriveThruRPG's print on demand service, and was very happy with the results.

I recenetly looked at getting something from Lulu.com, but I've heard tons of bad things about their service relating to the print quality of the books in question. Has anyone used their service? Would you do it again? Do you know of any other print on demand sites that have a better track record? Honestly, for all I know, DriveThruRPG's actual orders go through the same actual printers as Lulu and these problems I've read about are just part of the print-on-demand process.

I'm not pointing out other POD resources for RPG material, just responding to your consideration that Lulu and RPGNow uses the same printer. Any community in the US with 100K population or more has one of these kinds of printers, so there are dozens (even hundreds) of small print companies that have access to these kinds of systems. I know communities of less than 10,000 people that have a local service available. So the idea that two large companies use the same POD printer service is kind of nonsense.

While I can't justify it, if I had the money and market, I would offer this service myself, from Gamer Printshop - I would print it inhouse, and never rely on some outside service.

Mark CMG · Apr 17, 2012

ahayford said:
I recenetly looked at getting something from Lulu.com, but I've heard tons of bad things about their service relating to the print quality of the books in question.

Where? Over the past decade (approx) since lulu has been around, I've only ever seen two or three comments of problematic books which I understand were handled by lulu very quickly.

FWIW, last I heard rpg now/dt rpg uses Lightning Source in TN (USA) and the UK.

ahayford · Apr 17, 2012

I just did a search for lulu print quality and came up with a lot of negative hits. I'm not trying to bad mouth the place, I just wanted to know if anyone here had good results with them.

Mark CMG · Apr 17, 2012

ahayford said:
I just did a search for lulu print quality and came up with a lot of negative hits. I'm not trying to bad mouth the place, I just wanted to know if anyone here had good results with them.

Naw, I get it. I've just not done a search and hadn't been seeing that same feedback round the places I surf so I was curious if you ran into it at specific sites. Thanks. Maybe check out Lightning Source?

mach1.9pants · Apr 17, 2012

Never had a problem with 25 or so purchases

HeavenShallBurn · Apr 18, 2012

I've used Lulu since about 2005 and despite numerous orders I've yet to see a single print-quality issue. If anything my experience is that their quality often exceeds what you find in chain bookstores as far as paper quality and trim goes.

Kris · Apr 20, 2012

ahayford said:
I have tried out DriveThruRPG's print on demand service, and was very happy with the results.

I recenetly looked at getting something from Lulu.com, but I've heard tons of bad things about their service relating to the print quality of the books in question. Has anyone used their service?

Not long ago I got copies of one of my own books from both lulu and DriveThruRPG, and they are both pretty similar.

However, if I were to be picky I'd say that that the binding on the lulu book looks and feels a little better than the DTRPG one (the latter looks/feels more rounded, whereas the former has much sharper folded corners).

As for the (black & white) interior, I'd have to say that the DTRPG book has better contrast on all the greyscale images - though the paper is possibly a tiny bit thinner.

In addition I did have a slight problem with a copy of another book that I got from lulu ...but they just asked me to e-mail them a photograph of the defect, and then (a day or so later) asked if I would like a refund or a replacement.

So, I don't really have any complaints with either service at this time

Print on Demand Services

ahayford

First Post

S'mon

Legend

Morrus

Well, that was fun

gamerprinter

Mapper/Publisher

Mark CMG

Creative Mountain Games

ahayford

First Post

Mark CMG

Creative Mountain Games

mach1.9pants

Hero

HeavenShallBurn

First Post

Kris

Adventurer

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