Benefits of physical printed proofs

I received the printed unbound proofs of the Chair Shibari art book today. It's really exciting to hold the physical copy of a project that has been primarily digital to this point. It's also a really good lesson in the benefits of physical printed proofs. I'm navigating a lot of this fairly blind, since this is my first experiement with self-publishing. I'm doing my best to take each step and misstep of the process as a learning moment.

The printer had the option for digital proofs, but I opted to have physical prints mailed to me, even though there's an increased cost in printing and shipping. This was the right choice for a couple of reasons.

First, it gives me a chance to see what the final prints look like on the paper weight and finish I ordered. I have to say I am pleased with the print and paper quality, which is a good thing. Having touched the print I'm confident with moving forward into full production with my selections.

Second, physical proofs let me see how the book layout, fonts, margins, etc. work with the print dimensions of the book. There are definitely things I would change now that I've seen the layout on the paper it will be printed on. The main things I will need to change are things like font and margin sizes. I'm finding that those elements may look fine on a screen, but just not work in print.

I'm also rethinking and adjusting some of the photos I'm including in the book. Similar to typography, seeing the photos at their full printed size and experiencing them as a book rather than as images scrolling across my screen helps me see what works and what doesn't. It's pushed me to tighten up the collections in the book both in their sequencing and in the specific photos I'm including in the book.

The next step in this process is now to send my corrected files back to the printer. As with any art, there is the impulse to just say it's good enough and drive on, but I want this book to be as good as it can be within the time constraints I have. The extra time and cost of having the print files run again are worth it, it my opinion.

With any luck, though, I should be able to have these updated files back to the printer in a day or two and have a final timeline for my production print run!