Howdy clever folks,

Nice workaround!  

Please note this should work only after starting up BookSmart. If the bit depth is lowered to 16 before opening BookSmart 1.9.2, the program won’t load (or at least, it shouldn’t). Also, please note that BookSmart technically requires 32-bit color to operate correctly, and lowering the color depth could create some other issues such as images appearing purple or faded out. While any such images will print just fine in your bound-and-finished book, their purplish appearance in BookSmart can be confusing. I’ll talk to our developers, and update this post should I learn of any serious potential downsides to this workaround.

Best regards,
Jeremy

Just FWI,  I tried this out, and it seems to work well.  Everything is snappy at 16 bit.  Also, if you go back to 32 bit again, the performance is still snappy.

 So… 

1. Starting Booksmart

2. Setting color depth to 16bit

3. Setting color depth to 32bit again

...results in Booksmart 1.8 era performance.

As an aside, blurb really needs to pull the 1.92 version of the software.  I have converted a dozen or so people to blurb but have begun telling people to use other providers.  The idea that the performance is just due to older computers or obscure hardware is bogus.  I am running a near top of the line machine with standard hardware and so is nearly everyone else I know that is having slowdowns.

Please fix this or you are going to lose customers FAST!  Someone’s first experience with blurb should not be with the hideous performance of the latest booksmart. 

Howdy,

Unfortunately, if your graphics card or monitor can’t support 32-bit color, than your system doesn’t meet BookSmart’s requirements (check the BookSmart download page for required specs). I’d recommend upgrading your graphics card to a newer mode, and that should do the trick.

Best regards,
Jeremy

Thanks Guys you really helped.

I was just about to give up. I mean i have a high-end video card and a quad core cpu and I could’t do anything.