The Shoreditch, London-based pre-media firm was sent original images – including photography, fashion sketches and designs – which were then reproduced using the latest colour management techniques to ensure a quality match.

The main challenge faced by Rhapsody and Thames & Hudson was the short turnaround time, which for the publisher was just two months. Rhapsody had to work on an even tighter timescale as it was charged with scanning, retouching and colour-matching 346 images within seven days.

Another pre-media challenge was that spread layouts were constantly being changed from the start to the end of the process. Peter Cannon, Rhapsody’s sales director, said: "Kylie had complete control of the book, so she was seeing proofs and selecting images, so the [project] was constantly changing."

Cannon said the firm drew on its repro expertise for the project, which involved both scanning and digitally photographing fragile old analogue photographs in its in-house studio, before retouching and colour correcting them prior to converting them to colour managed print-ready PDFs.

Source material for the book included photographs from Kylie’s personal collection, unseen archival photography, album sleeves and magazine covers, from the 1980s through to the present day.

The company used its Emagine workflow to manage the project from file receipt through to uploading the profiled PDFs to Hong Kong-based Asia Pacific Offset.

A Thames & Hudson production controller was based at Rhapsody throughout the duration of the project, offering guidance, while hard-copy proofs were issued for approval by Kylie and her creative director.

The book, which goes on sale this week, has been produced in multi-language versions, with two different jacket covers produced for the UK and US markets.

Neil Palfreyman, Thames & Hudson’s production director, said: "The book was originally commissioned in the spring so we had a very short space of time to plan and produce it bearing in mind the two months lead-time required for printing and shipping the books back from the Far East."

Palfreyman added: "It was also made more complex due to the sheer volume of transparencies and pre-printed materials to be used and the fact that spreads were constantly changing right up to the very end."