Is preview mode true to what will print?
I made my layouts for a 10×8 landscape book in photoshop following the guidelines I found in the FAQ. I set up guides in photoshop for the exact size specfied in the FAQ and arranged my photos accordingly. When I insert the layouts as full-bleed pictures in booksmart and go to the preview, it looks like more is being cut off the bottom of the page than what the guides were set at for the trim. Is the preview mode true to what it will look like, should I go back and adjust for pictures that now appear too close the edge?
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If you read through the FAQs you’ll see that there is roughly a 1/8” cut off area around the edges. This is necessary to give you the full bleed option, and the paper is trimmed post printing I believe. So the preview is giving you a guess that trim.
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Aside from the trimming issue, what about the image quality of the photos? I’ve recently written Blurb to find out if the horrible image quality in the preview mode is indicative of what we’ll see when the final copy is printed. If what I’m seeing in preview mode is true, there’s no way I’ll want to pay for a print of any of my books! (by the way, they looked GREAT in the preview mode on the old version of booksmart). Donna
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Donna- I can’t give you an exact answer- the book I have was done under 1.8. But my 1.91 book looks good in preview. I sent in another yesterday, so I’ll let you know when I get it. The only things that didn’t look good (in 1.91) were my cover pages that have rather complex graphics created in photoshop. They look kinda jaggy. But I think this has to do with the fact that the program uses a smaller version of the pics inorder to make it run faster. Since my first book came out well- well, the photos that were good look good, and the photos that were marginal are still (wait for it..) marginal. I made a test print of my cover out of photoshop and it looks fine, so I’m thinking it’s just the smaller version that booksmart uses for preview, Si I sent off the book, and we’ll see.
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I did read the FAQ’s and set up the pages with the 1/8" trim accounted for (i.e. I didn’t put anything in that area or really close to it); however, in preview mode some of the images on my pages are much closer to the edge than they appear in photoshop. I have only printed one other book with Blurb and the trim didn’t matter as much with that…but with this one it does. In response to post above…my images look great in the preview mode, maybe your resolution is too low?
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OK- I just went and compared my physical book with the preview mode. But remember the book was created and published under 1.8. For what it’s worth, I’m on a Mac, g5, 2 gigs of ram
and guess what? the physical printing is actually cropped MORE than what I see in preview. The book is not filled with perfectly composed shots- it’s of our honeymoon—so it really didn’t matter. But there IS further cropping from what I see in preview mode. On all sides. If I have time tomorrow, I will try to get some screen shots and shots of the physical book to show you—but it may be moot as it is the old software. I’ll have more info when I get my first 1.9.1 book, but that wont be until next week or so. But if your layouts are crucial- beware you might wait for more info from someone with 1.91 evidence. Since I have an Epson that does borderless printing by slightly blowing up the image, I’ve learned to watch the edges of my pics when I print anyway. In general, I would say that in the book it’s about the same amount as my home printer.
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Thanks for the info. I just upgraded to the new software today and the preview looks the same as with the old software. So what’s the point of telling us the amount of trim if it’s going to be different when they print the book? (retorical frustration question) Hmmm…I’d appreciate the screen shots if you have time, it would at least give me a better idea of how much I should be concerned about this.
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OK- I’ll try to do those tomorrow. As to your retorical question- I think because it’s a guess. I’m guessing that it’s like on my epson. The paper has wiggle room, and they don’t really know eaxtly how it will go through- so they overcompensate to make sure there aren’t weird wiggly white lines on the edge. It’s not that different than the average photolab I would guess. The technology they have at hane (for pod) is more like a 1 hr. photo automated process than an expensive fancy custom lab. In Blurbs case- I think the paper may be trimmed post printing- so it’s just a guess how the paper will go through each step. So it might not even be exactly the same from book to book…. hmmmmm… I don’t have a ton of full bleed in my book- but I’ll try to do several so we can see if it varies over the course of the book.
aah
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Thanks…I just took a look at the book I did with blurb before and it is trimmed more than what is shown in the preview. I guess I will try to overcompensate.
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FWIW:
Edit mode and preview mode ahow you the exact same thing. So I was wrong about it taking the 1/8” into consideration. And, as I suspected, there isn’t an exact 1/8” missing in the final print. Some have more cut off than others.
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hmm… the forum is changing the aspect ratio of the photos. Kinda makes this pointless. These pics are on Flickr- so I’ll add them to the Blurb group over there so you can see them correctly.
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It’d be nice if I could edit my own posts here…
But if you click on any one of those pics, it’ll take you to the image on Flickr.
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Thanks for taking the time to do that! I am adjusting my layouts to try to account for the extra..we’ll see how it turns out! It looks like on some of your pages it’s pretty accurate but on others it’s trimmed more….I guess it’s a crap shoot!
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Oddly, the PDF preview online seems to trim less than the preview in BookSmart. I think the BookSmart preview is perfectly adequate, but you have to have faith in the quality of your images. If you’ve seen them printed at the appropriate resolution and size before, or know what to expect, it shouldn’t be a problem.
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gilenh20: no problem. Yeah- each one is sightly different. I think this is like the wiggle room on my printer.
remid0d0s0: When I took screen captures of both the edit window and the preview window they show me the exact same thing. And neither of them is exactly what I recieved in the book. In fact, each page that I tested differed in the amount is was off.
aah
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Honestly, if you want the kind of precision that comes from a professional press, you should be using a professional press. It will however cost you more than $30 for a single copy of a book and it will take you more than a couple of weeks from the time you start dropping pictures into frames on the computer till you receive a copy of the printed book. Just allow for some slop with Blurb, and be realistic in your expectations, and you should be happy enough. They’re bookstore quality books, sure, but not all books in the bookstore have the same quality. Meanwhile, as long as the preview is in the ballpark, and the only significant errors are in trimming, I personally don’t care.
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remid0d0s0- it seems to me like you’ve misunderstood us. Both gilenh20 and I have printed books and we’re both working on others. There’s nothing wrong with an honest discussion of what you see vs what you get. If you reread our posts you’ll see that neither of us cared with our first books either, and it’s just that gilenh20 is now working on something where he does care. So please spare me the professional press lecture (since neither of us ever mentioned this) all we’re tyring to do is get a good handle on what we will get back from Blurb versus what we see. We’re not bashing Blurb at all and I’m not sure where the tone I’m picking up from your post is coming from.
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I’ve found this an interesting thread and I think gilenh20 indicated the answer to his question several postings ago "I guess it’s a crap shoot!". That’s is what I think the 1/8" allowance amounts to. That edge (I assume the three cut sides) are controlled by the press and cutter variability on each of the print runs and on the various presses and press locations that Blurb uses. I personally use the full bleed like all of you and have avoided having important content along the edges.
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I often print wedding albums from different vendors. Each of them have specs. However, each of them will tell you that non of it is exact, so I see Blurb as the same. I personally add another 50% to each recommendation by these book binding/printers.
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With my books, the 1/8” figure seems like a wild estimate. I’ve ordered the same book on different occasions, and the final results are different. Sometimes only 1/8 or 1/16 is trimmed, and other times it seems like 3/8. Now, that I know, I’ve adapted, but it’s a bit disconcerting at first to find that one book shows the shot perfectly composed, and the next order (without any changes) chops off a significant part of a foot. The issue becomes greater when trying to print a 2-page spread, but that’s another story…
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Hi folks, Briefly skipping back to the thread title, yes, in the vast majority of cases Preview Mode is absolutely WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). There are rare exceptions. That trimming issue is perhaps the most noteable, and we try to be very thorough in messaging authors that UP TO 1/8th of an inch (maybe less, maybe more, maybe exactly .125 inches, maybe 0 inches) is subject to trimming on the outside edge of any given page in any given book. There is always a trade off in print media, unless you pay extra for trimming, between displaying the full image and getting a full bleed. Preview Mode does not account for trimming—it shows you the full-page before trimming, and it is up to the user to fill the area completely in order to guarantee a full bleed, while at the same time ensuring that no crucial content (such as a face or embedded text) is within the possible trim zone. Best regards and Happy Blurbing, Jeremy
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I am in a similar situation. In the booksmart preview of my book, there is often a small white border between a picture that should bleed and the actual edge of the page. I am assuming that this won’t be a problem since 1/8" is likely to be trimmed. But Jeremy’s reply gives me a little pause. What if the trim is exactly 0 inches? Is there a chance I will get this border, or is it an artifact of the BookSmart preview? I’ve done everything I can and can’t get the white to disappear. Thanks. Dave
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That narrow border is an artifact of the Booksmart preview, intended, I gather, to present a crisp, evident line or border between your image and the dark grey of the preview background. Just as an experiment I once left a narrow white space on one edge of a full bleed page. It may have been only a one sixteenth inch band of white, but it was trimmed off anyway. I don’t believe that a trim of 0 inches (as far as printers and presses are concerned), is even possible. You’re going to loose a little at the edges, .....that’s the deal. But don’t worry about the thin white presentation border you see in Preview- it won’t appear in your book., ......Keith
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By the way, and as an aside, I liked Remid’s comment about Blurb books being of bookstore quality, but not all books in a store are of the same quality. Sometimes I get tired of comments I read in various forums, (not in this thread) complaining that really Blurb books are’nt really "bookstore quality". They should be reminded of how much crap gets published and put out to the bookstore chains- and yes, I’m referring to the quality of reproduction and binding of lots of art books and "fine art" photo books I’ve seen, (and even bought!) that can be found in just about any bookstore. Some of those responsible should be arrested for impersonating publishers. What I’ve gotten back from Blurb thus far exceeds the quality of a lot of books I have seen from time to time in the stores. Just my opinion…...Keith
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My 7×7 book came back 6.5 by 6.75. Go figure. My request to Blurbers for clarification got no response. I ahd thought that if I made my files say 7.5 by 7.5 I would get back a 7×7. Now I will design a 6.5 inch book but put it in as a 7×7.
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And get back a 6.5×6.75 maybe. Robert
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I’m a newbie here and have just uploaded and placed an order of my new book after proof-reading my book several times by the preview mode of BookSmart. To my dismay, one of my photos turned upside down when I viewed the Book Preview PDF file from blurb bookstore even though it is okay under the preview mode of BookSmart. As I can only preview the first 15 pages of my book pdf version, I wonder if Blurb can ensure the final products are the same as what the authors created. As I have already pressed the "order" button, it seems that I can do nothing except waiting for the final product. Did you guys encounter similar problems?
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