Print Quality
I just received my first book and thought everything was really good except the print quality. Blurb adversited they can print bookstore quality photo books, but I can see the printer roller marks on the page and all my images have lost there detail and look blotchy. Has anyone else had this problem? Most peoples feedback seems really positive. Am I just being too picky? But I don’t think a client I have photographed for would be happy with this print qualty.
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Hi, I’ve just recieved my books… same problems, pictures are dark, no greys. And i even cannot read the texts… Sorry but your are far from a bookstore quality printing.
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This sounds like a printing problem, mine really was book store quality, I was really chuffed. I think you should both contact Order Support, there’s an option in the drop down to say you have a problem with print quality, they’ll certainly help you. http://www.blurb.com/help/order_support ..........Tony
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I have contacted order support and they want me to send them a digital image of the problem. That would be great except the issues don’t really show up in the digital image. Does anyone know if there is a printing difference between the 7×7 and the larger books. I just wanted a sample to see the quality but if the larger books have better quality maybe I should try that. Looking for any info anyone has.
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Colorpro, I would recommend doing a Forum search for just that issue – 7×7 print quality or 7×7 printing. This topic has been discussed EXTENSIVELY in the forums. In sum, the 7×7 books ARE printed on different printers. Hopefully by perusing other threads you will find some information that helps you make the decision between 7×7 books and other sizes. Good luck!
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I just received my books yesterday and I have to say that I was very pleased with the results. They look like book store quality in every way and that dust cover just blew me away. I had been using a competitor for several years and although the print quality is about the same, Blurb really excells in flexibility and choice of layouts, tmemes, etc. Prices are better too.
I think a lot of people who have been unhappy with the print quality really have to take a hard look at their image quality, file size, color balance, etc. These things are often overlooked, especially by those are not designers or photographers. Monitor calibration is key also to insure that you your book comes as close as possible to what you see on the screen. I Photoshop every image to some extent before putting my pages together, and although it is time consuming, it definitely pays off in the end.
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I completely agree with ttriolo, although I have not gone to the extent of monitor calibration (and haven’t seemed to need to). I have had nothing but astounding success with Blurb after publication of 3 books (and a 4th is in the works). I am especially pleased with my third book, which is a nearly text-exclusive compilation of writings dating back 15+ years. Before I learned about Blurb, I figured that although having a real published bookstore quality compilation of my work has been something of a life goal for me for about 15 years now, it would never be achieved because I only wanted one copy of the book for myself. Who would publish that?? Well, now that goal has been achieved and I am THRILLED with the product. AMAZED AND THRILLED. Users must take care that the product they submit for publication to Blurb is of the best possible quality and free of errors. If they do so, they can be assured that the resulting product will be fantastic. (Disclaimer: I have never published a 7×7 book so I cannot speak to the difference in print quality.) Good luck to all!!
Teri
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I am a photographer and a designer. I have a business designing and color correcting for photographers. My monitors are calibrated weekly and my image quality is right on, so it’s not on my end. I have also worked in the printing industry for ten years so I feel I know poor print quality when I see it and the 7×7 ablum is not good quality. I have read some of the other threads and found the info helpful, Im still waiting to hear back from Blurb.
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Hi colopro – You’ve likely been contacted by our Customer Service group about this issue, assuming you used our email support form. Since you’re an expert in color correction and calibration, I thought you might be interested in this new service we’re working on with a few print and photography professionals like yourself.
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I just got my first book, 7×7 and i have the same issue, splotchy and also weirdly saturated pink/reds. It isnt my files and it isnt consistent, some pages look great others the faces are just a pinkish smear. totally disappointing.
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I have ordered 4 testers to date all fab! with excellent print quality." hardback 7×7’s a soft cover 7×7 and a hard back 8×10 :)
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From this link; http://www.blurb.com/b3info
“CC Profile specially calibrated to the Blurb back-end. This ICC profile enables soft proofing of your images to ensure that what you see is what you will get in your printed Blurb books.”
Why, would you charge extra for this?
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I just received my first book of photographs today and I’m blown away. They replicate virtually precisely what I see on my computer screen. FYI, my avocation is fine-art black-and-white photography, and I am very picky. (I also enjoy color work with my digital camera and my first book is color images). I did a couple of calendars with two other services and while the results were "ok", they didn’t compare to Blurb.
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I also received my first book yesterday and the quality is great. The print quality is what you would see in a good magazine – in other words, if you look very very closely you can see the screening dots, but the photos look great! I did no calibration of my monitor but the photos have printed really close to what I see on screen. A few pics that looks a bit dark but acceptable on screen are a little too dark in print, so I know for future reference that they should look a hair overexposed on screen for optimum results.
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