Cover prints out darker than source image

Hello Evan,

Thanks for reaching out! I'll go over some of your comments/concerns below:

It is best to start off with a basic understanding of color as well as an understanding of the limitations of digital printing. The cover and the interior pages both print on separate machines, as well as on separate papers. This will inevitably cause a variation in printing results. Typically this is nominal, though to individuals more sensitive to differences (such as photographers or design professionals) they may be noticeable to a small degree.

Unlike the human eye, printers are unable to perceive shadows in the way that we do and interpret them instead as a color black. This results in images that look brighter on a backlit computer monitor printing a bit darker than anticipated. If you find that the cover image prints more muted on the cover than you prefer, a simple fix might also be to simply increase the saturation/vibrance and/or contrast of the image on the cover only, and see if that yields satisfactory results.

New books can indeed make a bit of noise when opened/closed. This is quite normal and is a part of the "breaking in" process for books. Just like a new pair of shoes, books need to be used a few times to "loosen up" the stiffened binding and in this process it can make some sounds. The sounds do not indicate any issue with the binding, so you should be all good!

We do not offer any spot gloss or foiling for our products, unfortunately.

If you have questions on your specific project, please reach out to directly at support@prestophoto.com or via Live Chat (hours are Monday-Friday from 9am to 5pm EST)

I hope this information helps but if you have any questions, please let us know!

Warm Regards,
PrestoPhoto Support

I've noticed that the front cover of the book I had printed came out much darker than the image I had uploaded and almost even looks a bit washed out. The interior images were serviceable but also seemed to suffer from slight darkening and loss of quality, even looking a bit pixellated at times. I most definitely did NOT use low quality images so that is a bit disheartening. The page numbers were cut off, though that was due to my own error. The binding also makes noise when I open and close the book almost like its loose in some places. No pages have fallen out, but I can't say for sure that I'm overly confident about the longevity of use of this book. I LOVE the paper. It's thick and feels of quality. I never have trouble with pages sticking when I turn them and because the text-heavy nature of my print, the matte paper is easier on the eyes. I would be very interested if there was an option for certain elements of the cover to be matte finish while other elements could be gloss. I would also like if this service offered foil printing for book covers. I figured my first book would be sort of a prototype. I'll be giving the service one more try for the next test print. Hopefully I can make some adjustments on my end to compensate for the shortcomings of the print quality, and correct some of my own oversights but I'm still nervous about the binding and the image quality of the pages themselves.