Fontaine Publishing Group — Books Made to Endure

What we do

Consider us your
book architect.

You are the expert in your field. We are the experts in ours. A substantial book can involve hundreds of editorial, creative, technical and practical decisions. You should not have to become an expert in book production as well. We help determine the most appropriate, elegant and viable way forward.

Coffee-table + special editions

Photography, art, food, architecture, histories, commemorative books, institutional publications and significant personal projects — books where paper, binding, colour, materials and finish are part of the experience.

Publishing + book development

Editing, proofreading, cover design, typography, interior design, image preparation, ISBNs, eBook publishing, print-on-demand and distribution. Some clients need the full pathway; others only the parts where our experience adds value.

Printing + production

From finely produced paperbacks, huggable flexicase, to complex full-colour hefty hardcover editions, working with specialist manufacturers in Australia and internationally. You deal with Fontaine. We deal with the complexity behind it.

Selected work

Twenty years of
making content physical.

A small selection from the archive

01 The (Almost) Complete Works of E. W. Cole Limited edition · four volumes · 2,152 pages 500 sets

Project story

The (Almost) Complete Works of E. W. Cole

Compiled and edited by Tony Rudd, this ambitious project brought together the remarkably wide-ranging writings of E. W. Cole — the eccentric Australian bookseller and publisher behind Cole’s Book Arcade and Cole’s Funny Picture Book. The finished collection runs to 2,152 pages across four volumes and was limited to 500 sets. The production treated the work as an object in its own right: four substantial hardcovers, gold leafing, rounded page edges and a custom slipcase designed to give archival material real physical presence.

Fontaine rolePublishing + specialist production

Format4 hardcovers + custom slipcase · 2,152pp

Notable detailsLimited to 500 sets · gold leafing · rounded page edges

02 The Nature of the Jarrah Forest Natural history · photography · hardcover 550+ images

Project story

The Nature of the Jarrah Forest

A lifetime of observation became a substantial photographic record of one of Western Australia’s defining ecosystems. Naturalist, educator and photographer Eric McCrum worked with his daughter Janine to bring together decades of accumulated knowledge and more than 550 colour images covering the plants, animals and intricate relationships of the jarrah forest. Published in 2023, the book fulfilled Eric’s long-held ambition to pass that knowledge on to future generations. Its launch at Boya Community Centre became a celebration not just of a book, but of a lifetime spent looking closely at the natural world.

Fontaine rolePublishing + production

FormatFull-colour photographic hardcover

AfterlifeLaunched 2023 · more than 550 colour images · ongoing local natural-history reference

03 Making Marks: Australia and Afghanistan Art · cultural exchange · full-colour hardcover AWM collection

Project story

Making Marks: Australia and Afghanistan

This 112-page full-colour hardcover documents the second stage of Unfolding Projects, an arts exchange between women artists in Australia and women studying literacy and vocational skills with OPAWC in Kabul. Australian artists began works on handkerchiefs; Afghan women responded with embroidery, writing and additional imagery, creating deeply personal shared objects across distance, culture and conflict. Forty-three of the completed handkerchiefs later entered the Australian War Memorial collection — giving the project an extraordinary life beyond publication and preserving its messages of connection, hope and solidarity.

Fontaine rolePublishing + full-colour production

FormatHardcover · 112pp · full colour

Afterlife43 collaborative artworks acquired by the Australian War Memorial

04 MLC — 125 Years Institutional history · fifth-colour gold · custom slipcase 994mm gatefold

Project story

MLC — 125 Years

Created to commemorate MLC’s 125-year anniversary, this publication used the physical specification to make the milestone feel appropriately significant. The 128-page photographic hardcover traces the history of the College through its people, achievements and changing life across generations. Production details were deliberately ambitious: a fifth colour gold ink runs through the interior, an eight-page gatefold opens to almost a metre wide, and the finished book sits in a custom thumb-cut slipcase with a grained covering, varnish and gold blocking. A strong example of an anniversary becoming an object worth keeping.

Fontaine roleSpecialist hardcover production

FormatA4 hardcover + slipcase · 128pp · 157gsm matt art

Notable details5th-colour gold · 8pp gatefold to 994mm · grained slipcase · gold blocking

05 The Cars of Mighty Car Mods Digital audience · collectible hardcover Multiple editions

Project story

The Cars of Mighty Car Mods

Mighty Car Mods built one of the world’s largest DIY automotive audiences online — then chose a substantial hardcover book to give its first decade a physical form. The original 128-page edition brought together illustrated project cars, specifications, history and behind-the-scenes material. Demand produced multiple reprints and increasingly expanded editions: the later Modified Edition grew to 195 pages, while the Ultimate Edition exceeded 250 pages and linked individual cars back to video through QR codes. It is a particularly good example of digital content gaining new value when it becomes a collectible object.

Fontaine roleSpecialist hardcover production

Original formatHardcover · 128pp · 293 × 227mm · 157gsm silk art

OutcomeSell-out demand · multiple reprints · expanded 195pp and 250+pp editions

06 Horikashi Japanese tattoo art · cloth · gold foil Limited edition

Project story

Horikashi

A large-format collector’s book devoted to the work of Horikashi, a master of traditional Japanese tebori hand tattooing based in Gifu. After a 13-year apprenticeship learning both the tattooing tradition and the making of its hand tools, Horikashi developed a body of large-scale irezumi work and painting. The book brings together selected finished works with their corresponding outlines as a reference and record of the craft. At 340 × 240mm, with a cloth cover and gold foil, the physical treatment was designed to feel as deliberate and enduring as the work it documents.

Fontaine rolePublishing + specialist production

FormatHardcover · 168pp · 340 × 240mm

Notable detailsCloth cover · gold foil · limited collector edition · launched at Australian Tattoo Expo

07 Cacao Addict Cookbook · premium hardcover · food styling John Croft

Cacao Addict by John Croft hardcover book render

Project story

A lush cacao cookbook designed to feel nourishing, desirable and keep-worthy.

Cacao Addict by John Croft brings together 50 cacao-infused recipes in a premium full-colour hardcover that sits comfortably between cookbook and lifestyle object. The project balanced recipe functionality with strong visual appetite appeal — pairing a clean, contemporary cover, styled food photography and wellness-focused content to create a book that feels giftable, tactile and substantial.

Fontaine rolePublishing · design · production

FormatHardcover, 195 × 270 mm, 128 pages, full colour

Notable detail50 recipes · premium coffee-table hardcover · styled photography · Thermomix instructions throughout · companion eBook edition

08 Fontaine Press titles with lasting impact Traditional publishing · true crime · public conversation 2 paperbacks

Horrible Man and Filthy Rat paperback books

Project story

Two Fontaine Press books that had lasting ramifications well beyond publication.

Horrible Man

Published by Fontaine Press, Horrible Man brought Leonie Wallace’s long-standing investigation into the 1991 Portland hair-salon murders of Claire Acocks and Margaret Penny into the public record, attracting significant mainstream media. The book brought together years of reporting, interviews, testimony and unresolved questions, connecting details that had previously sat apart and drawing links between people, events and lines of inquiry surrounding one of regional Victoria’s most disturbing unsolved crimes. In doing so, it helped give shape and coherence to a complex cold case and became an important catalyst for renewed scrutiny, bringing forward new information and returning the murders to the investigative and public spotlight. Result: arrest of the alleged perpetrator.

FocusInvestigative true crime · unresolved murder case

Filthy Rat

Simon Illingworth’s bestselling Filthy Rat was a compelling first-person account of police corruption, intimidation and Melbourne’s gangland underworld. A former Victoria Police detective sergeant and anti-corruption investigator, Illingworth wrote from direct experience of confronting corrupt officers, organised crime and the personal consequences of speaking out. Fontaine Press gave permanence, depth and wider recognition to a difficult and confronting story, taking it beyond its earlier exposure through television and news coverage and establishing it as an enduring work of Australian true-crime and whistleblower non-fiction. The book demonstrated Fontaine Press not simply as a producer of books, but as a publisher prepared to back consequential non-fiction — stories with public significance, strong authorship and something important at stake.

FocusPolice corruption · memoir · investigative non-fiction

Fontaine roleTraditional publishing through Fontaine Press

Why it mattersBooks that extended public conversations beyond broadcast and headline cycles

Start with
the content.

You do not need to arrive knowing paper stocks, binding terminology or the finished specification. Show us what you have, where the project is up to and what the finished book needs to achieve.

Assess

We look at the content, stage, audience, quantity, budget and purpose.

Shape

We determine the editorial, design and production pathway that makes sense.

Make

We coordinate the specialist work, proofing and production decisions.

Deliver

Finished books arrive ready for sale, presentation, distribution — or simply keeping.

About Fontaine

Experience
counts.

Fontaine Publishing Group was established in 2005. Since then we have worked across more than 1,500 publishing projects — from first books and straightforward paperbacks to substantial photographic works, institutional histories and specialist collector editions.

Publishing Director Jason Swiney remains personally involved in determining the approach to projects and the decisions that materially affect the finished book. After decades in publishing, the value is often not knowing everything that can be done. It is knowing what should be done.

Established
2005

More than two decades navigating major changes in publishing, printing and distribution.

1,500+
projects

From first-time authors to major organisations and highly complex specialist editions.

70 million+
pages printed

Printed across paperback, hardcover, flexicase, full-colour and specialist formats in Australia and internationally.

150+
hardcovers

Coffee-table, photographic, institutional and collector editions where materials and construction are part of the experience.

We have sat on both sides of the publishing desk.

Through Fontaine Press, we have also operated as an independent traditional publisher — acquiring books, developing manuscripts, investing in publication and taking titles to market ourselves. Some generated significant media attention; some became part of larger public conversations; others attracted international and screen interest.

Traditional publishing is a much smaller part of what we do today, but that experience still shapes the way we approach books. Vivid Publishing developed alongside Fontaine as another professional pathway for independent authors, organisations and businesses.

Selected organisations + commissions

Some of the organisations we’ve had the privilege to work with.

Reviews

Our clients
say it better.

★★★★★ 5.0 / 5

Australia’s most highly independently rated book publishing and printing services provider.

181 ProductReview reviews

“Thank you very much for all your hard work with publishing our coffee table year book. We are all very happy with it — fantastic result!”
— I.M. Ingham, HMAS Toowoomba Year Book

“The entire process of getting our book, START Parenting, up and running has been so well supported… the advice along the way has been extremely good, and we’re delighted with the end result.”
— Sue and Doug, START Parenting

“The finished product is outstanding. The team at Vivid are true publishing professionals who know the book business back to front and I can recommend them without hesitation.”
— Trevor Fearnley AM, Midnight at Oasis

“Rapt in your excellent work in the publication of MISTER RAINBOW… you ensured we got what we wanted.”
— Charles Boag, Mister Rainbow

“I selected Fontaine after an extensive evaluation of alternative suppliers… same-day responses, prompt action, accurate advice, cost-effective service, integrity — under promised and over delivered.”
— John Bryant, Money, Sex and Eternal Life

“When I opened the first box I burst into tears… I don’t think I have ever seen a more beautifully produced book. It is just gorgeous.”
— Elizabeth Fleetwood, Merriwoola St

“Thank you to everybody there for the excellent job… I was impressed with the speed and ease of the process from start to finish.”
— G. Campbell, My Best Poems

“Making Marks: Australia and Afghanistan is a book largely comprised of artwork, and looks absolutely beautiful… communication was clear, friendly, helpful and timely.”
— Gali W., Making Marks: Australia and Afghanistan

“THE PHARAOH was beyond our expectations… the book printing is first-class and a fantastic job — far better than I could ever have hoped for!”
— P. Morrison, The Pharaoh

“I cannot thank all the team at Fontaine enough… the integrity shown during the process was something I have not experienced in a long long time.”
— Maria Bayfield, The Gutter Snipe

“Thank you very much for always being prompt, friendly, helpful and for the great product you have created for me!”
— Justin Hayward, Songs About You

“The attention to detail was superb.”
— Tony Rudd, The (Almost) Complete Works of E. W. Cole

“The quality of the published books they produce is first-class.”
— James Seymour, Turner Series

“We were thrilled with the print quality… a recurring comment is that it is absolutely beautiful.”
— Janine & Eric McCrum, The Nature of the Jarrah Forest

“Publishing my book with Jason and his team at Fontaine was a genuinely positive experience.”
— Leigh Goggin, Reckless in their Statements

“The process was seamless… Jason was very helpful and took the complexity out of publishing a book.”
— Damir K.

“Jason was highly recommended to me… very approachable and nothing was a problem.”
— Virginia Sta Maria, Aspirations: My Adventures with Autism

“A pleasure to work with from beginning to end.”
— Gemma Kirkman, Skilled in Magic

“Fontaine delivered not only what they promised, but more than I expected.”
— Keith W. Lofthouse, 30 Shades of Darkness

“Calm and professional advice… support and professionalism were outstanding.”
— Ian Cameron, Rani’s Sketchbook

“Printing our children’s book with Fontaine Publishing was a delight.”
— Cantonment Hill Friends, Counting on the Hill

“Patiently, professionally… the published novel exceeded expectations in quality and appearance.”
— Bob Maumill, Letters from a Hard Country

“The real selling point was what the buyer bought with their eyes before opening the book.”
— Barry Russ, Under the Wind Shadow

“It’s like belonging to a supportive family.”
— Sandra Krempl, Just Add Spirit

“Saved from self-publishing wilderness.”
— Andrew Thamo

“Great work on publishing my book… it went very smoothly thanks to Jason and his team.”
— Damien Lewis, Nostalgique

“Jason the eagle-eyed; Fontaine the fleet.”
— GAN

“An exceptional experience to work with Jason… highly skilled and experienced in his field.”
— Mirjam, Silent Smile: The Sacred Teachings of Love

“Exceptional service… the final layout is superb.”
— Daniel Jeudy, Sons of Brutality

“This whole experience made me feel valued and that my writing had both merit and great potential.”
— Dawn A.

“The process was smooth and easy in both print and eBook, with first-class communication and excellent creative input.”
— Paula Evans, 99 Building Tips

“A smooth manuscript-to-finished-book process, with excellent editing and timely delivery.”
— Bill K. Koul, We Humans – Our Initial 100 Days During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“Communication was fantastic, attention to detail was on point, and I was thrilled with the finished book.”
— Donna Newlands, Threads

“Nothing was too much trouble. The support and feedback were brilliant, and the cover design was sensational.”
— Karalee Katsambanis, Step Parenting with Purpose

“It genuinely felt like a partnership — I was involved every step of the way and released the book as I intended.”
— J.D. Miller, Morse Code

“Jason guided me through the process with ease. At the launch, everyone commented on the professional finish.”
— Dianne Hodgson, To Challenge Oneself!

“Infinitely patient, responsive and totally professional. The finished product entirely met my hopes and expectations.”
— Edith Ziegler, Dancing for the Marquis

“The advice was readily available, the jacket was stunning, and the printing and binding were top quality.”
— Errol Seymour, The Boy Who Told Stories: The Seymours of Dunsborough

“Fontaine provided exceptional service and a faultless pathway through commercial production. I was delighted with the final product.”
— John Considine, High Street

“Beautifully printed and presented. As a first-time author I was nervous, but the whole process was made very smooth.”
— Wendy Bold, Accountable Marketing

“Helpful, informative, efficient and friendly — and the cover was improved beyond what I could have done myself.”
— Royden Johnson, Town

“The team made a daunting process manageable; communication was easy and delivery was efficient and professional.”
— Nicola Catalano, Can’t Get You Out Of My Head

“The team did the heavy lifting, allowing me to focus on writing the next book.”
— A.J. McMarson, Jasmine Neutron Star

“I was blown away by the final product and how professional the book looked.”
— Douglas Cooney, Makara

“Informative, reassuring and responsive guidance made the move from print to eBook straightforward.”
— Brian A. Carter, I Sing Now / Life is Be Ready

“Creative design, flawless production and realistic costs helped the book reach bookstores around Australia and repeated reprints.”
— David Hocking, Why Shouldn’t I Call My Son Clint?

“A smooth process from beginning to end. I loved the cover design, layout and the way the book looked and felt.”
— Greg Ralls, Unravel: To Unwell and Back

“The personal attention and support from start to finish were superb.”
— William Gillespie, Karl Ritter: His Life and “Zeitfilms” under National Socialism

“Straightforward, honest and reliable advice transformed my manuscript into a beautifully presented book.”
— Zoe-Anne Fields, Transformations – A Guided Journal

“Fantastic service: prompt answers, consistently helpful advice and very professional presentation.”
— Brandon Neale, Magic with the Juggleician

“The editing was world-class — attentive, intelligent and insightful, with genuine care for the project.”
— Kerry Howells, Gratitude and Resentment

“Simple, clear advice and friendly, prompt service made the publishing process easy to navigate.”
— Bede Harris, Exploring the Frozen Continent

“The right balance of guidance and momentum helped turn the book into a professional reality.”
— Dr X, The Antidotes to Modern Living

“Fontaine made the process feel effortless; professionalism made all the difference in getting the work into readers’ hands.”
— Steve Coleman, The Cat’s Whisker

“Intuitive, receptive and enlightened — the end result was a world-class, highly polished product.”
— Maurice Czarniak, Accidental Discovery

Project enquiry

The right fit
matters.

We take on projects where we believe our experience can make a meaningful difference — particularly well-considered projects where the quality of the finished book matters.

We review enquiries before arranging calls or meetings. If Fontaine looks like a good fit, we will come back to you with the appropriate next step.

Detailed production planning, specifications and consultancy form part of an engaged project rather than the initial enquiry process.

Emailhello@fontaine.com.au

Phone+61 8 9467 4143

LocationEast Fremantle, WA

From content to object.From ephemeral to enduring.

Consider us yourbook architect.

Twenty years ofmaking content physical.

The (Almost) Complete Works of E. W. Cole

The Nature of the Jarrah Forest

Making Marks: Australia and Afghanistan

MLC — 125 Years

The Cars of Mighty Car Mods

Horikashi

A lush cacao cookbook designed to feel nourishing, desirable and keep-worthy.

Two Fontaine Press books that had lasting ramifications well beyond publication.

Horrible Man

Filthy Rat

Start withthe content.

Experiencecounts.

We have sat on both sides of the publishing desk.

Some of the organisations we’ve had the privilege to work with.

Our clientssay it better.

The right fitmatters.

From content to object.
From ephemeral to enduring.

Consider us your
book architect.

Twenty years of
making content physical.

Start with
the content.

Experience
counts.

Our clients
say it better.

The right fit
matters.