So what’s he trying to say here?  Don’t expect too much?  I really don’t understand what he means by, "you’ll definitely see the halftone screening on Blurb books."   It sounds a little like trying to cover your, er, tracks, Bruce.  Here I am designing a client’s family album book and now I don’t know what to do….

wvphotog the posting by Bruce is very accurate and didn’t sound like he was making excuses for anything but instead trying to set expectations. I also didn’t see as much negative in his description as you apparently did. I think Blurb quality is excellent (I have 3 books printed and we’re working on 2 more) and Bruce’s decription of Blurb printing is very accurate.  But were I for example, a wedding photograher who usually handed my client an album of "photographs" I would be sure to show my prospective client an example of a Blurb book before committing to proving that instead of the photograph album. A color photograph shows only fine random grain with a 10x loop but the Blurb book will have a halftone pattern. Is that acceptable to the client? The advantage of the Blurb book is the various picture sizes and formats including text that can be used in the book. Another advantage is that anyone who wants a copy of the book can have one for a "reasonable cost" instead of several hundreds of dollars for the photo album. I think photographers have found a market for this quality level which is different than the standard photograph album but just as acceptable to many clients. Nice having the option. Wish I had this option xx years ago.

I would highly recommend that anyone with reservations on using Blurb or their quality order their book on how to write a Blurb book. It will provide ideas and a sample of print quality since the book is printed by Blurb. This is a lot cheaper and faster than doing your first book.  

The quality is truely like a good photobook that you can purchase on Amazon or a local book store. One caution is that the book on Amazon was worked on by a number of diffferent professionals in book editing, book design, typography, photography (Intended for offset press.) etc. To expect a Blurb book to look like one for those books the first few times out is being very optimistic. Again this is not the result of Blurbs printing processes.

So if you are looking for printing that looks like a photograph, and here I’m refering to a conventional Kodak-like photograph (silver dye reversal) or a high quality ink jet print (using an ink jet photo printer printing on "photo" paper and claiming 2-5 picoliter drops) don’t use Blurb. The only way to get that photographic look on a short run is to use tipped in photographs. 

In searching the internet, I found this post, and I think it’s a useful addendum:

http://mikedelgaudio.com/wordpress/2007/02/16/quality-review-of-a-blurb-photobook/  

Bruce <del>- I’ve never found Blurb’s halftone screening to be an issue -</del> because I expect the book to look like a commercial book, not like a set of bound photos. But one of my Blurb photo books is filled with photos taken in a dark club, and the darkest areas of the images seem to pose a challenge for Blurb printing. Compared to my inkjet prints, the shadows aren’t very black and the results are muddy. Is there anything I can do to get better results? Thanks.

Sorry to jump in… but I guess that the explanation Bruce is giving is indeed necessary and absolutely sincere for any professional or enthusiast amateur photographer (mainly!)....

You see… Blurb may be used by dozens of "types" of users (writers, photographers, bloggers etc. etc.) and all with different needs (personal books, limited-number books, portfolios for clients etc.). Photographers are (normally) the most demanding group due to the need for more accruate color renditions.

However, let me add my 2 cents here for photobooks…

The results obtained from Blurb (especially during the last 1.5 months when problems have been being sorted out) are comparable to most mid- or low-priced photobooks at the stores.

And yes! If you use a loupe you are going to see some halftone screening, which is however invisible in normal book browsing. Most of the people that have seen my photobooks think that I have gone to a large-scale publisher etc. Most of them will never notice anything. Actually they are stunned and they do want their own copy after a single browsing.

Of course my photos look much better on my calibrated screen (and of course on my 1 picolitre inkjet!)... But my target group is not "trained" for that and actually does not have such high demands, or is not in the position to buy such quality (even at the bookstores). For other photographers that need to print their portfolios at the absolutely highest quality for specific clients and assignments, this may not be an option.

What Bruce is actually saying is that Blurb is providing a low-cost, high-quality on-demand printing process, similar to most photobooks that you see on the shelves, and this is sufficient for all but the most demanding photography needs. In any case, he presents the true case with some of its "technical" parameters and I guess this should be treated as an honest description and not as an apology or anything!

(PS my "difficult" sunset and low-light photos, are printed at a much better quality than expected in the photobook)

 Regards, Yannis

And please notice that Bruce said you’ll see the halftone screening <del>—> if you look at the book with a 10x loupe <</del>—!!!   For heck’s sake – if you look at a really good inkjet print with a 10x loupe, you will see the ink dots!

I’ve just done my first book, when I look at it w/o magnifcation, no screening is apparent. And even under a loupe, the screening is much finer than most other halftone screens I’ve looked at!