A Little Blurb Update

[percepts]

A third book just arrived. No obvious defects, nice binding actually, except that the greyscale images' color drifts from a warm magenta to a neutral grey under tungsten, but everything is neutral in daylight. And a few of the images look like they have a different Gamma than most of the others, that isn't consistent either.

It's acceptable. But I wouldn't rely on these guys to do any better, it is what it is.

Since blurb is not a specialist photo printer why don't you try one of the online picture printers who now all seem to produce photo books in various sizes and on various paper thickness. In the UK we have photobox and Jessops (major photographic retailer) who have started doing it too. And then there are dozens of wedding photo printing services producing books but maybe more expensively. Why home in on blurb who are really about publishing the written word more than photography. Unless of course it's the online sales of the book you really want.

[Frank Petronio]

I probably will, in which case Blurb has served as a valuable proofing tool to use before committing to a more expensive on-demand book printer. But I would like to get a satisfactory Blurb book regardless, especially since they advertise and promote all their fine-art photography books with contests and such. If they can claim to print decent fine-art photo books and people want to buy them... well then they should be able to print my (yours and the rest of the public) books equally as well.

I sent in photos and they just gave me a credit for the first mis-printed book, hopefully in another day or so they will do likewise for my other. I won't fault their service other than it seems to be slow.

If sold ten books that would be a lot and I did add a few $ profit, so ten sales would buy a moderate dinner out.

[Sanders McNew]

FWIW, I used Blurb for my new book,
Double Exposures: Essays in Portraiture,
and I was pleased with the end product
-- 160 pages, 8x10, on premium paper.
I submitted everything in an sRGB space
@300ppi and got back consistent images
-- I was very happy with the print quality
and the binding.

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/770769

I've sold nearly 100 copies of the book, and
so far no one has told me of any flaw in their
copy attributable to Blurb.

[Frank Petronio]

Sanders -- Did you use the B3 workflow and BookSmart? As I have been using the PDF to Book workflow which does not offer the B3 quality control steps.

I just hate "using" that BookSmart application, it is so clumsy -- so kudos for having the patience to use it. I've already asked and Blurb said they would not offer B3 with PDF to Book this year.

Another exciting surprise happened this evening when I ordered another copy -- the cost of overnight shipping more than doubled compared to last week. Ouch. $27 for overnighting an 8x10 book!

I did find a typo and made the cover image smaller and adjusted it to make it a little more foolproof in case they shift the wrapping. And I rewrote the book summary to make me sound like a little less of a tool. I think?

http://www.blurb.com/my/book/detail/861180

Hopefully the future books will have Sander's kind of luck!

[jb7]

It reads very well Frank-
more power to you-
as they say here-

j

[Sanders McNew]

Sanders -- Did you use the B3 workflow and BookSmart? As I have been using the PDF to Book workflow which does not offer the B3 quality control steps. I just hate "using" that BookSmart application, it is so clumsy --

I found BookSmart constricting. (I don't know
what B3 is so I assume I did not use it.) I got
around BookSmart's limitations by making each
of my pages a full-bleed JPG. That meant resizing
each of my 121 photographs to be 5.5 inches wide
against a white 8x10-inch canvas, and then typing
the captions in underneath each on the canvas in
PhotoShop Elements. I imported each of the 35 or
so text pages from Word by printing each to PDF,
opening each in Elements, and resetting each onto
an 8x10-inch canvas, and then resaving each as a
PNG file. (Blurb did not offer the PDF-to-book
option when I published mine.)

So, in the end, the page design is completely mine
-- no stupid BookSmart page templates to confine
me. I improvised with Word and Elements but I'm
guessing it would be easier with better tools. Some
day when I grow up I'll spend real money and buy
Photoshop and Quark or whatever that page layout
program is called.

[Frank Petronio]

Blurb's B3 program is their "professional" level with their own forums, color profiles, and better quality control... they charge an extra $10 or so per book for the "B3 workflow" but it is tied to BookSmart (which is silly, professionals are the ones who want the PDF workflow instead of using BookSmart).

Yes you can save your Photoshop files as jpgs to use as full pages in BookSmart but it makes it very slow and difficult to edit text and experiment/sequence the pages and images. I imagine the best way to design a book like that would be to spread your prints out on the floor and plan the sequence before getting on the computer. That's a valid way to work, but I prefer to work on screen so I can see things at different scales and look for patterns and sequences in the layout.

But you did a very beautiful book Sanders and I want to purchase one. I wish you made the larger size but I understand the prices get pretty high. I thought an 8x10 photo book would feel tiny but if you max out the pages (160-pages using their premium paper) it has a nice heft and feel.

Based on my experience, I find it hard to believe that 100 individual orders were successfully printed by Blurb, as so far I have found at least one problem worthy of a credit or reprint with my last four orders. I know my files are OK because they have printed fine, each problem has been human error. And I am not that picky or petty, really!

I am not slamming Blurb, I just ordered another book last night. I think they are trying hard to please their customers and it is a challenging business. When they get it right, the books can be impressive. I showed one at an ad agency yesterday and they wanted to keep it.

And Sanders, next book you should run the portrait you did of me!

[Wallace_Billingham]

What I am wondering after reading this thread is if the PDF workflow is somehow introducing problems more so than the actual printing. I know it sounds crazy and that it really should not, but that is what I wonder.

My guess is that Blurb has tweaked their entire workflow around the Booksmart program and that their systems get the best results from using Booksmart. This is why they only have Booksmart available with the B3 program.

My guess is that most of the people using the B3 program are wedding and event shooters. I know several wedding shooters who make decent money with Blurb from weddings. They have the Bride and Groom email them the introduction text that they just cut and paste into booksmart, and then they just quickly drag and drop the photos into book smart. The total time to put a book together this way is about 15-30 minutes. Then they upload to Blurb and they do the rest. They actually sell lots of copies to wedding guests who would normally be hard to sell prints to, and since each book has all the photographers contact info in it, it makes a nice marketing piece.

[Frank Petronio]

I don't think it is a software or file prep issue at all, because I've gotten a very nicely printed book (neutral B&W, rich shadows, fine color) from the same file as one that had color shifts in the B&W images. Which mostly likely means that the printer must have drifted out of calibration and they didn't notice.

The other issues were mechanical, like binding a defective and dirty sheet with some sort of residue bonded on top of it. That ain't software, that's just not paying attention.

[Frank Petronio]

Finally... I am pleased to report that I just got a book that is pretty much perfect - neutral B&W, good color, good gamma, clean sheets, tight binding.

And then I found my typo ;-)