I am looking to have a coffee table book made of photos from a recent trip I did. I’d only want one to four copies with no intent to publish and sell. I was wondering what the best way to do this would be
Blurb do a great selection of options for these types of projects. Not the cheapest but good quality.
Also check out their magazine print options. They’re a lot cheaper and I actually find the quality better than a normal hardcover photobook.
Blurb are popular but, as others have said, quite pricey.
If you are comfortable using Adobe InDesign look up digital printers in your area and have a chat with them. My local place can do five copies of an A4, 64 page saddle stitched booklet for the equivalent of about US$50 but they have a much wider range of options.
I also do postcards, greetings cards and posters with them.
I really like this company:
They have deals all the time, so never pay full price (as with most printing services). The printing is done in China, just in case that bothers you, but shipping is usually 1-2 days so in that respect the distance doesn’t matter (assuming you’re in North America).
The books I like from them are the Flush Mount albums which allow for a seamless panorama to be printed across 2 pages, and all photos are mounted to foam core which makes a really premium feeling book. The downside of the foamcore is that number of pages are limited if you were hoping for a lot. They have other options as well and offer free sample books if you want to do a test.
The reasons why I don’t like the really cheap books other than lower quality “magazine style” press printing is that most of the ones I’ve ordered have warped. There is often a humidity difference between where you live and where the printing is done and that can cause issues. I usually order fairly large coffee table style books though, so warping is a bigger problem with those than it is for smaller books. Quality wise, as long as the photos are going on good quality paper and being done by an actual printer (not a press), you should be fine.
Anyway, just another option to look at.