It can be tough to find a printer that does justice to your images. Not only do you need to make sure the full depth of tones is honored in the transition from screen to print, but then there’s the issue of consistency from one print run to another. WhiteWall is a name you might not be familiar with, but this photo lab has been around for 19 years and ships to over 60 countries. In a world of global sales, you won’t be limited by their scope of delivery. WhiteWall’s Coffee Table Book line has undergone some big improvements recently that allow you to produce an even better product. 

For this review, I was tasked with creating a fine art coffee table book to check out the improvements WhiteWall has made to their line. There are a couple things worth noting: new endpaper color options and flatter lay-flats. Instead of just being limited to white or black, as with many printers, WhiteWall now has 36 different color choices. I spent some time trying different endpaper color options in the online design interface and ended up with a selection that I felt really made the images in my book sing. These colors are produced slightly differently on inkjet paper (printed on open-pored natural paper) compared to photographic paper (color-exposed print). Additionally, when you select a photographic paper book, your endpaper color will be on the inside cover rather than a separate bound sheet, whereas for the inkjet paper book, your endpaper will be on the inside cover and also a turnable bound page of that color. 

Coffee table albums that open with a full-spread image are commonplace these days, and a flat lay is to be expected when ordering. But while this is true for photobooks printed on photopaper, typically press-printed books containing inkjet or other non-photographic paper are bound with a traditional book binding that doesn’t lay exactly flat. Whitewall has released a new method of binding their books with inkjet pages so that the pages (including the endpaper) do not form as severe of an upward bow when opened. These books are printed on a single sheet of paper, folded in the middle. Each spread is printed on its own separate sheet of paper, is folded, and then the backsides are accordion-glued together, back-to-back. 

In designing my book for WhiteWall, I really enjoyed using their online design interface. It was intuitive and simple, and the final result was accurate to what I previewed on my screen. I’m a sucker for old-school photographic pages, so it’s hard for me to deviate from that to inkjet pages in a coffee table book, but from what I have seen, WhiteWall can deliver either. Do you want photographic silver halide, or inkjet? There’s no right answer, though either way, you can now boast of books that lay flat.

SPACE

The WhiteWall Coffee Table Book line includes both photographic and inkjet paper with sizes beginning at 8.1x8.1 inches with 28 pages for both Inkjet ($69.95, inkjet glossy), and photographic ($89.90, Fuji Crystal Archive Luster) page options. A variety of size options are available, culminating with the Portfolio A3 Landscape at 15x11.4 inches ($139 inkjet, $169 photographic) for 28 pages. For more information, to start designing your album, or to order a sample set for color matching options, visit whitewall.com.

Betsy Finn is a fine art portrait photographer based in Dexter, Michigan.