Blurb Forums

Wish I could help.. but it should look fine.  The real issue is with the dpi and 300 is fine.  Is the font used set to smooth with anti-aliasing on?  If so, you should be fine. 

Thanks for your comments!

Ah, I see that this particular forum discussion has been discussed few months ago – August 2007, and this is now November. I don’t think people will come back and continue to discuss it.

However, I am remain hopeful that original poster and perhaps Chad from Blurb confirm this. I would like to know if ABILLC or Jingothecat, or anyone else (who has done a custom full-bleed design with InDesign—then export InDesign document as PDF, and then open it in Photoshop and save all the work as JPG) and that those who (as few others above, and myself) has had discovered problem with “fuzzy, jazzy” result on BookSmart application.

I am in middle of finalize the final stage of BookSmart by incorporating Photoshop/InDesign piece.

Can anyone offer a couple of snapshot of those fuzzy look on BookSmart application AND the result on Blurb book that is published. I want to see some solid evidence if printing works out nicely regardless of hiccup going on with Blurb Booksmart application.

Chad, I see that Blurb has released 1.9.1 only few weeks ago, and there is same bug problem and reported here. And I realize that I see that Blurb already released 1.9.2, and I don’t think itself resolve a problem related to what we are seeing with funny behavior associated with Photoshop JPG files on BookSmart.

I will file a feature enhancement request to address this issue. I suspect that individuals like myself who use InDesign (and Photoshop) working with customized full-bleed design project, and that we’ll be seeing the same old bug problem all over again. It would be nice if Blurb software engineering team work on this horrible bug problem. It is truly important that it must be addressed promptly, the better.

Because I spent lot of hours, energy and with all toolbox I have, BookSmart is impossible to work with. I almost gave up, just barely.

Perhaps that Blurb should set up a special advisory team that works with software engineers and advise them to do what see fits and all. I know that not every feature enhancement would be met on timely basis, but THIS feature request MUST be under consideration now, the better.

I’ll write a couple of feature enhancement requests and push the Blurb team to the envelope and hope for the best. And I think that Blurb software engineering team should invite some selected individual participants as “alpha testers” and report back the bug back to software engineering team and work on removing bug problem. So that there is less buggy problem reported once the BookSmart app release to the general public.

However, I recognize that BookSmart itself is still a beta stage, so I can’t say much about that. However I would stronly encourage that Blurb software engineering team (and the management) to reexamine the priorities around improving BookSmart – to make it a better application. The rest is up to Blurb.

Brian, 

As the Cap’n said the bug is in the screen rendering, not the printing.  I’ve seen many Blurb books obviously done without the use of Booksmart formating that look perfect.  For example take a look at Prefab Green by Michelle Kaufmann. It’s as beautifully rendered as any architecture book you’d buy at a bookstore.  I saw it and others, at the Apple show this year at Moscone, that were spectacular. The Booksmart program has obvious problems with text handling, fonts, default storage location etc. but it’s also obvious they’re pedaling as fast as they can, and are committed to continual improvement.  It’s a deceptively complex program that’s pretty easy for the average person to use while still allowing pros to do their thing.

Perhaps if you did a test book with pics et al from all your high-end software, you could answer some of your questions for yourself.  These longwinded, less than helpfull rants only encourage me (and I suspect most others) to skip right over your posts.  After you’ve actually made a book, you can decide for yourself if Blurb is for you, or if you need to move on.

Just curious if the "proof" we’re encouraged to order to check the quality of Blurb’s work is eligible for refund it we find that the result is not satisfactory.

One copy of my book cost more than $150 dollars and there’s no option for a "proof" copy that I can see! 

Donna

Donna,

Perhaps that you need to talk to customer service rep about this issue.

The participants at Blurb forums only helping other Blurb participants with possible workaround tips or solutions, but remember that most participants are like you or me – volunteering helping other participants. I am not employee of Blurb, only just volunteering and offering some help or suggestion with other topics or tips.

So, in your case, please submit web contact form here:
http://www.blurb.com/help/

Hope that helps.