Kirtas is a maker of automatic book imaging systems. They also have a POD service that is open to the general public. I poked around their book site after getting an email from them and here’s what I found.
Take, for example, the book A catalogue of English and foreign bookbindings offered for sale by Bernard Quaritch Ltd.. I can download it for free, get a softcover version for $8 or a hardcover version for $18. I can also preview how the POD cover will look (pictured above). They have books from the Rochester Institute of Technology (654), Kirtas Classics (99,799), University of Pennsylvania (224,199), McGill University (37,921), New York Public Library (317,934) and others.
You might want to poke around. The only problem is that the digitized copies are in PDF format, which means that I certainly will never download one. I don’t like reading on the computer and there isn’t a good portable alternative for PDF reading yet. However, the prices are pretty reasonable I can certainly see ordering a hard cover book or maybe finding an unusual book and having it printed to use as a Christmas gift.
[Please delete (or ignore) the previous comment – I don’t know how, I submitted it before finishing to write it – thanks!]
I’ve tried their service, asking them to digitize for me “Cyclopedia of wonders and curiosities of nature and art, science” (on Oct 8, 2009) – they took the money, and I had very little feedback since then.
The order status page (which shows an improved interface since last time I checked) tells me the order has been “accepted”, yet it’s still not been digitized, printed or shipped.
On the other hand, a pdf version of the book has appeared on the book page:
I’m not sure it’s complete yet – the book looks cool anyway. Anyway, it seems the digitization request worked.
I’ll let you know when/if I receive the printed copy (note: while digitization and printing are quite cheap, shipping costs to Italy were pretty steep – I paid more for those than for the book.)
I will be the first to admit that PDF conversion to the Kindle format is not perfect, but to say it is no good is to understate it. For simple in line text only novels, it is fine. I cannot tell the difference. On the other hand a book with columns, tables, etc is an unmitigated disaster. So I rank PDF as good but not great and good but not unusable, sort of in the middle.
Hello Enrico,
Sorry about my earlier posting in an inappropriate place.
I ordered two books (soft bound) from Kirtas several weeks ago. Their order status page has not shifted beyond “accepted” even though the books had already been digitised a long time before I placed my order.
One thing that slightly puzzles me is that no charges for shipping have appeared on my bill, and I live in the UK. I have queried this three times but no-one has replied.
Now that you have the book I would be interested to know what you think of the quality of their digitisation, the printing and binding, and whether you would order from them again.
I’m not sure how I can help you. I did get the book eventually, as I told you elsewhere. The quality is very decent, printing looks like a good laser print job, the binding it’s simple but seems solid (the book stays open on a table – but my book was quite big, printed on A4, so for smaller format mileage may vary I guess). The book came from the eighteenth century, so the characters were a bit gnawed, but perfectly readable. The page are bright white, there’s little sign of stained paper or other defects such old books may have; they probably bumped up the contrast, which surely led to loss in detail both in the text and the illustrations, but again I feel it was all very readable. I think it was good value for the money – if I’d download a similar book from Google Books and go and print it in some copyshop I’d pay more for much less.
Yet, I wouldn’t order again right now because the shipping cost are such steep – I paid more than three time the price of the book just for the shipment. So I guess they should partner with Amazon or with someone that can offer cheaper shipping options.
I can’t figure why you’ve not been billed for the shipping cost yet. They sure are disorganized, and I had to wait a long time before getting the books. Honestly I can’t remember when the status of my order changed, but it took months for sure. Yet my books was not already digitized. Apart for the shipping costs, did they bill you for something at all?
Let us know how it all turns out, good luck,
Enrico
They billed me 20 US dollars for each book; one of them is quite a big book. This price includes the PDf copies to download. There was no mention of shipping charges, nor was anything added to the $40 bill.
I’ll let you know what happens in the end. If your experience and mine are typical, they don’t seem to put customer service very high on their list of priorities. Maybe one day they will see that offering a desirable product is not the only essential thing in a successful business.
To follow up my earlier posting:
The books eventually arrived. They had been sent in very flimsy packaging, which had burst open in transit. The books had had to be packaged again by customs and a note inside recorded the damage as having happened before the books even left the States. There was fortunately only superficial damage to the contents.
The product itself is very good, but as for customer service I cannot even say that it is bad as it is non-existent. I must have emailed them six times, but no reply was received. Sorry Kirtas, but all the technical know-how in the world is useless for long-term success if you treat your customers with such evident contempt.
"I suspect the effect only applies if hard-to-read fonts are the exception. Put everything your read in those fonts, and you'll be making your reading ..."
Kirtas is a maker of automatic book imaging systems. They also have a POD service that is open to the general public. I poked around their book site after getting an email from them and here’s what I found.
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[Please delete (or ignore) the previous comment – I don’t know how, I submitted it before finishing to write it – thanks!]
I’ve tried their service, asking them to digitize for me “Cyclopedia of wonders and curiosities of nature and art, science” (on Oct 8, 2009) – they took the money, and I had very little feedback since then.
The order status page (which shows an improved interface since last time I checked) tells me the order has been “accepted”, yet it’s still not been digitized, printed or shipped.
On the other hand, a pdf version of the book has appeared on the book page:
http://kirtasbooks.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&product_id=645846&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=3&redirected=1&Itemid=3
I’m not sure it’s complete yet – the book looks cool anyway. Anyway, it seems the digitization request worked.
I’ll let you know when/if I receive the printed copy (note: while digitization and printing are quite cheap, shipping costs to Italy were pretty steep – I paid more for those than for the book.)
I will be the first to admit that PDF conversion to the Kindle format is not perfect, but to say it is no good is to understate it. For simple in line text only novels, it is fine. I cannot tell the difference. On the other hand a book with columns, tables, etc is an unmitigated disaster. So I rank PDF as good but not great and good but not unusable, sort of in the middle.
Hello Enrico,
Sorry about my earlier posting in an inappropriate place.
I ordered two books (soft bound) from Kirtas several weeks ago. Their order status page has not shifted beyond “accepted” even though the books had already been digitised a long time before I placed my order.
One thing that slightly puzzles me is that no charges for shipping have appeared on my bill, and I live in the UK. I have queried this three times but no-one has replied.
Now that you have the book I would be interested to know what you think of the quality of their digitisation, the printing and binding, and whether you would order from them again.
Hi Mark,
I’m not sure how I can help you. I did get the book eventually, as I told you elsewhere. The quality is very decent, printing looks like a good laser print job, the binding it’s simple but seems solid (the book stays open on a table – but my book was quite big, printed on A4, so for smaller format mileage may vary I guess). The book came from the eighteenth century, so the characters were a bit gnawed, but perfectly readable. The page are bright white, there’s little sign of stained paper or other defects such old books may have; they probably bumped up the contrast, which surely led to loss in detail both in the text and the illustrations, but again I feel it was all very readable. I think it was good value for the money – if I’d download a similar book from Google Books and go and print it in some copyshop I’d pay more for much less.
Yet, I wouldn’t order again right now because the shipping cost are such steep – I paid more than three time the price of the book just for the shipment. So I guess they should partner with Amazon or with someone that can offer cheaper shipping options.
I can’t figure why you’ve not been billed for the shipping cost yet. They sure are disorganized, and I had to wait a long time before getting the books. Honestly I can’t remember when the status of my order changed, but it took months for sure. Yet my books was not already digitized. Apart for the shipping costs, did they bill you for something at all?
Let us know how it all turns out, good luck,
Enrico
Hi Enrico,
They billed me 20 US dollars for each book; one of them is quite a big book. This price includes the PDf copies to download. There was no mention of shipping charges, nor was anything added to the $40 bill.
I’ll let you know what happens in the end. If your experience and mine are typical, they don’t seem to put customer service very high on their list of priorities. Maybe one day they will see that offering a desirable product is not the only essential thing in a successful business.
Thanks again.
Mark.
To follow up my earlier posting:
The books eventually arrived. They had been sent in very flimsy packaging, which had burst open in transit. The books had had to be packaged again by customs and a note inside recorded the damage as having happened before the books even left the States. There was fortunately only superficial damage to the contents.
The product itself is very good, but as for customer service I cannot even say that it is bad as it is non-existent. I must have emailed them six times, but no reply was received. Sorry Kirtas, but all the technical know-how in the world is useless for long-term success if you treat your customers with such evident contempt.