Fisher Press – Books

When archival inkjet printing was invented in the 1990s, it is unlikely that its developers were intending that it should be used to make books. We think of the computer as a push-button convenience rather than as a tool of refined craft; but ironically, applying the tools of modern digital imaging to the ancient trade of fine book production poses technical challenges comparable to those faced by Gutenberg when he made his first bible over 560 years ago: In both these cases, a book can only be made by laboriously running hundreds of sheets of paper through a press designed to make only one print at a time (and very slowly at that). A book made that way is thus the product of immense effort. In our modern case, the manufacture of each of our digitally-made books – from initial file capture and adjustment of the pictures, to typographic design and picture sequencing, the long color proofing process by which we adjust the output from the printer, and finally to the actual manual work of printing, assembling and binding them – represents over 15 hours of painstaking and highly skilled labor. Our editions are limited in size because the cost and effort of production are so high per book that it is completely impractical to make more than a small quantity of any given volume.  

Given that book production in this medium is such a challenge, one might reasonably ask why we bother to do it at all. The reason is that the prints themselves are such exceptionally beautiful, refined objects – far more so than anything made by mass-produced media like offset lithography or print-on-demand. The superior quality and durability of archival ink printing is in fact causing it to gradually replace the darkroom for a growing majority of fine art photographers today. What that means for our business, particularly with respect to photographic editions, is that we are now able to publish small sets of bound books in exactly the same medium, and with the same level of direct artist participation, as that in which the original works were produced. For the collector of a given photographic artist’s work, this is comparable to being able to buy a bound set of their favorite artist's darkroom prints.

Seeing the products of computer imaging as art can be a challenge for some, just as seeing photography in that way was resisted by many appreciators of art when the camera first appeared over a century ago. As was the case then, there is a marked distinction between casual amateur uses of the new technology and the more sophisticated skills and tools of artists and professionals. It’s the difference between a Kodak Instamatic in the hands of a typical consumer in 1960 and a Lieca in the hands of Cartier Bresson in the same era. The intricate subtleties of tone and value that can be captured with the best modern digital cameras can be manipulated in a top-quality inkjet print with layers of subtlety staggering in the breadth of their potentials. It is precisely the scope of that potential that makes a narrowly focused successful outcome so impressive. In other words, the art in digital printing – as has been true in every other medium of art throughout history – is to be found at the balance point between the best available tools and the specialized skill with which the artist and printer limit and control their application.

OUR PROCESS

1. Image–capture and file creation:

The latest generation of professional inkjet printers made by companies like Epson and Canon are amazing tools, capable of producing prints of unprecedented quality. But that end product is only as good as the photographic files from which all our digital prints are derived. The pictures that we print in our books all come from high–resolution photographs and scans made to provide the finest detail and most subtle gradations of printed tone. Once those source files have been made, the next job is to adjust and optimize them for the printing process, to insure that the final work on paper is the best possible representation of the artist's intention. This proofing stage is long and arduous and is carried out in close collaboration with our artist clients in order to be certain that what we are making meets their particular standards and expectations.

2. Print production:

Unlike automated industrial book production where thousands of sheets with multiple pages printed on them can be run-off in an afternoon, our production takes hours for each book. The 100% cotton rag fine art papers we use have highly absorbent coatings that are prone to attract foreign matter in their manufacture and thus often have small cosmetic defects in the sheets that we have to carefully weed out by hand. The companies that send us our custom papers rarely cut the sheets to exact specifications so we also often have to re-adjust our file sizes in order to compensate for possible registration errors. Book sequencing requires that our sheets be printed on both sides of the paper and every B-side print must be run through the printer with an extra backing sheet in place to protect the A-side images. Given all these complications, every one of our books takes between three and four hours to print.

3. Assembly and binding:

After printing, each page is sprayed with a non–toxic and non–yellowing protective lacquer which adds surface and UV protection to the prints and increases their archival stability. The multiple-page sheets that make up each book are then folded into two or three–sheet signatures which are later hand-sewn at the bindery. All our binding is hand done by Priscilla Spitler at Hands On Bookbinding in Southern New Mexico. Ms. Spitler is an exceptional and renowned artisan of her trade and her work is in museums, special collections libraries and private collections throughout the US and abroad.

4.Edition sizing and pricing:

From our point of view the ideal scope and print run for one of our bound volumes is a 20 to 30–image book printed in an edition of between 20 and 40 copies. For folios, we prefer smaller editions of between 12 and 20 sets.

Though there is some variation in cost depending on size, format, type of binding used and edition size, we have found after making 14 editions in various sizes and types, that our bound books have a production cost range between $500 and $800 per volume and retail on a scale of $900 to $2000 per copy. Boxed sets cost between between $400 and $600 per set and retail between $1200 and $3000. Though not exact, these are the approximate ranges within which our costs, though high, are spread out at a recoverable and potentially profitable scale for our clients.

5. Commissioning a book project:

For information on commissioning a specific project, please use the contact information on our home page to make a direct inquiry by phone or email