Blurb Forums

First book. My review.

Received my first book.
8.5×10, hardcover, 28 pages.
Ordered on 1/13, delivered on 1/18.

I like the software better than iPhoto.
Page thumbs and source photos in view simultaneously.
More page templates and easier font modification.

Very pleased with the glossy cover.
The entire book consists of photos of oil paintings so I think I am a little more critical than if the images were of people or normal scenes.

I used the available HP profile and proofed all photos in Photoshop.
The printed photos were reasonably clear but there is a fine grain in all of them.
If they were as clear as the cover, that would be excellent.

Photo color was correct. However the images had a little too much contrast.
I went back and reexamined the original layered files and decided I had over compensated a bit when soft proofing.
So for now I will mark that down to user error. I have modified the images and will print the book again.

The font was a light cream color, Helvetica on black. Smallest size, 11 pt.
There isn’t much text but it is clear.
The thin Helvetica Neue also looked nice. (24 pt.)

Criticism;
Images not photo quality.
In edit mode, if a black page background is chosen you can’t see the place holder text.
As someone pointed out, if you don’t delete unwanted black text, it can be seen even on a black background when printed.
Just noticed on my book the small header/title on the black photo pages. Didn’t realize it was there when making the book. But you have to look for it to see it on the printed page.

When I select, Header>show none>apply to all pages, it does not work. You have to choose “apply to this page only” and do it for every page.
Maybe I am doing it wrong.

What’s the deal with the bar code???

Paying $10 to not have the Blurb logo is a flat out rip off!
Even Apple gives you the choice to leave off the logo

Would like to see:
A global font change feature.
The color picker remembering swatches for a project even if BookSmart is closed, then opened.
A color picker that can take a sample from the computer screen.
Full bleed page template with text box.
The ability to slide in a custom background of my creation behind a photo box, on a fixed page template.

Over all I am pleased with the book.
I would rate it 8 out of 10.
We shall see how the construction holds up within a gallery environment.

Thanks.

Orchids

Did you receive your book yet? How did it turn out?

Thanks

Orchids

Thank you for your reply. After I receive my book I will reply back. Mine is an engagement proof album sample.

Hello all… I just created my first book last week and am awaiting it’s arrival. I noticed that the above posts indicate that the photo quality is lacking. Is this typical? I did upload rather large files so I am hoping for fairly clear images. I also found that uploading was easy..but NOT quick at all. It took 4 minutes per photo to be placed in the template. I will let me know you how my book comes out when I receive it. Thanks for the insight.

Cheers.

Hello again….

My files were definitely larger than 2mb. I had to convert RAW images to JPGS which were still data heavy files. Do you know the minimum requirements that would ensure a sharp image even across a full page? I often crop my images as well, using portions of the photo so I wanted to maintain consistent quality. That said…I am pretty excited to see the finished piece seeing as it is a Valentine’s Day present for my girlfriend.

Thanks again for the info and I will post a review when I receive my book. Is the estimated shipping date generally accurate ?

Emily,

may be I’m being excessively suspicious but from a quick perusal of recent postings you appear to have posted exactly this same message in response to 5 quite separate threads.

I just have to assume that you are an agent for familymemories.com why else would you do that???

So I will ignore your post.

Blurbs T&Cs do not allow advertising of other services wityhin these forums, your clumsy postings just have to be an attempt at such advertising.

........Tony

Thanks to Blurb staff all the other identical postings (I think it was eventually 7) have now been removed, just leaving this one.

......Tony

I personally loved my first photo book from Blurb.  I thought that all of my images were printed better than my HP Officjet 7400 series did.  I was very careful to first change each image to 300 dpi, and then carefully crop to the exact size of the template that I wanted to use.  My camera only takes 72 dpi images, so every image needed to be readjusted first.  If I changed a template, I have to redo the image.  It was a lot more work, but I am very happy with the results.  The only images that showed excessive grain, showed it on the printed version first, so I was not at all surprised.  Thinking of the printed version, I did have to print two pages at a time, as printing the whole book at once (78 pages) crashed my computer (too much info for it to handle).  I found mistakes in the printed version that I had previously missed too.  So, all in all, I found it very useful to print the pages first.

 I fully agree with the ideas for the color picker remembering the swatches, and being able to choose from the screen.  I had to choose colors from Paint Shop Pro, check the values, and type them into the Blurb software.  It would’ve saved time if I could’ve just chosen the color in Book Smart to begin with.