For several months you have been asking when we’d re-introduce a non-gloss page finish for our popular PhotoBook and PhotoBook Plus product lines. We appreciate your patience and want to update you on our progress.

Printing quality digital press books is not as simple as just running paper through a press. There are a variety of paper characteristics that may make a paper stock good for one use but not for our books. What we are looking for when making a high quality book is paper that can do the following:

• Has the proper weight to give our books their distinctive heavy pages

• Holds ink well and will not scratch or discolor without being coated or laminated

• Will fold cleanly and not “crack” in the center

• Accepts our glues and holds together over time

• Lays flat in varying temperatures and humidity levels so that whether we’re shipping an album to South Florida, Arizona or Alaska, it will continue to look beautiful

Since December we’ve tested literally dozens of different papers. Some papers didn’t accept the glues we use to hold the pages together. Several papers wouldn’t properly accept the press inks and would easily scratch or discolor at the crease. Some would curl over time. We have recently found a paper we believe will work. It has a gorgeous, non-gloss finish and so far has been meeting all of our quality specifications. We still have further testing to do along with working out delivery arrangements through the paper mill. If all goes well, this new, non-gloss paper option should be available by June and offer a book that we know will hold up in the long run. We thank you again for your patience and look forward to sharing this new paper with you.