Blurb Forums

Photo Shop

Hi… I’m new to blurb..Up until now I haven’t had to use Photo Shop… I’ve used other free programs but I see so many postings for photoshop… is it worth the $ and if so, how do you upload to use in blurb?  Does anyone know if you can use other programs such as JALBUM?

Thanks for any replies!

Hello sherrylambe;

If you’re serious about working on your images then I highly recommend PhotoShop Elements (current release is 6).  I would say that – it’s what I use… I’ve never seen or had the need to upgrade to the full-blown system…

Unless you are a professional, or a skilled image processor then PSE6 has all the goodies you will ever need for your day-to-day work, and even when you become more proficient, there are always ways to make PSE6 do the more advanced techniques!. You can get it for c. $75, and it will soon re-pay your investment. (Make sure you buy the right flavour – Windows or Mac!)

There’s no doubt that it is the leading post-processing software around… in terms of volume sales that is…

Next, you don’t use PSE to "upload for use in Blurb"! PSE6 is image processing software. You do your work, save your file (as a regular JPEG image) and then open BookSmart and use it’s own uploader to add your images into the BookSmart software routine…

Lastly, I have no experience of using JALBUM, but on a quick & dirty Google search, it appears that JALBUM is basically an online photo album. I don’t believe that Blurb has a scraper for JALBUM – but I may be wrong.

If that’s the only place your images are, then you would need to re-download them onto your local hard-drive, before you can upload them into BookSmart…

Good luck;

Cheers;

Lee

I agree with everything Lee says, except for the small point that after you modify your image on photoshop, it’s a really good idea to save it as a Photoshop file and a JPEG.  JPEG is the format that you upload to your book, but the Photoshop file is the one you can go back to and alter once again, or add or edit your text, (if any). This file is kept in layers which can each be manipulated in future, whereas if you only have a JPEG you can’t play with the different layers- (the text layer for example.)