What printing methods and quality can I expect of POD companies?

Due to the growing popularity of POD, many small companies are coming to the market, and makes this business very competitive. However, I hardly see comments on the quality of printing (paper, binding, color, etc).

These companies print even one copy upon order. Although modern printers are different from classical printing apparatus, printing low quantity is always costy.

I'm afraid these companies might compete with professional printing companies and traditional publisher by lowering the print quality (paper, color, etc). Am I wrong?

Is the quality of POD books comparable with that of books published by major publishers? Is this a major concern I should take into account when choosing a POD service - and how can I check?

UPDATE: As I investigated further by comparing several companies, I believe the difference is in B&W printing. The price for color printing is almost the same. It seems printing companies use color printers even for printing B&W documents. This is the reseason that B&W print with printing companies is only 10-20% cheaper than color print; but B&W book by POD companies is 300% cheaper than color book.

posted over 12 years ago

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