Glossy Printing

[CatB]

I am appealing to the collective wisdom of YD

I am writing my thesis at the moment (just in case anyone had managed to miss me moaning about it!) and I have to figure out how to get it printed. The text and line drawings I should be able to do in Uni but I also have about 30 plates (not the china kind, the photographic kind!). Ideally I want these to be high quality and glossy to show off the photos (think coffee table photography book) but I'm not sure how to achieve this. The majority of these plates are black and white but approx 5 or so are in colour.

I can't use a photo printer and photo paper because it is just too thick - given that there will be 30 of them going into a 200ish page document I don't want them to be much thicker than the rest of the pages (prob 90gsm) or it will be totally unwieldy.

I am happy to get them done commercially but it doesn't seem to be a service offered by the standard copy shops - or I am willing to invest in a printer and the paper and do it myself if that is a better way.

Ultimately I will have to print 6 copies of this thing (8 if I have to make substantial changes to the ones I first submit) so I don't know what will be most cost effective.

Help please!

[NotDeadYet]

Try a branch of Hobs or Servicepoint, they do more services than a regular copy shop but they aren't cheap.

Not sure what the quality is like for colour but you could PDF it and send it to an online publisher like Lulu then order 6 copies.

[PeeBee]

Jo You can get quite thin photo paper, why not drop an email to the very nice peeps at PhotoBox - Digital photo prints and gifts, free online photo albums & digital photo sharing I'm sure they will have some suggestions as they really do offer a very good range of papers, finishes and services. Their service is first rate and they aren't that expensive either.

[CatB]

Thanks guys - I've e-mailed photobox and I'll have a look at LuLu too. I might end up having to have them made into a book then taking it apart with a craft knife when it arrives!

The 30p ish a page in the books is just about do-able, it will make the plates for each copy about £10 but I can't afford much more (it will cost me £5 - £10 in paper and ink for each copy and about £30 to get it bound too!). The £1 or so each for actual A4 photos on photobox is way beyond me so I'll see what they say.

I guess I also ought to finish writing it too!!