AnnBrooks's Posts

Dear Blurb,

At the beginning of September I uploaded my first book, 7×7, 40 pages, paperback. I had it back (Seattle to SF Bay Area) in less than a week. The book arrived in a small, flat cardboard box, in perfect condition. The color was very close to the original, a beautiful little book I would be proud to give to my photo subject when I return to India in October. Everyone who saw this first copy was also impressed with my work and Blurb.

Because this gift book was getting so much handling, and I wanted to gift a “new” copy, I ordered a second copy to take with me to a documentary photojournalists’ workshop in Missouri next week.

The second copy arrived in five days from uploading. It was in a small bubble envelope and terribly bent out of shape. Additionally, the colors (from the same uploading) are yellower than the original and not very pleasing.

I thought I would be taking this wonderful Blurb book to the Missouri workshop to show off your great product and my first documentary photojournalism project. Sad to say, I’m taking this bent up one to Missouri, saving the first one to take to India as a gift. It’s hard to be proud of the book I’m taking.

I do need a replacement for the second printing, however, I’m leaving for Missouri with it in less than two days and will have to straighten it out with you in ten days or so.

Gosh, I hope you at Blurb get these occasional problems in printing and/or delivery straightened out soon. I think Blurb has great potential.

Ann

I figured it out.

The sentence at the bottom of the book detail edit page was a little misleading. I ordered my book and then it worked fine.

Ann

I just uploaded my book which came up “Untitled” on the order page in the bookstore. In the software, I renamed the book “Heena 2006” before uploading.

Where did I miss the boat along the way? I have not ordered yet.

How can I give my book a title in the bookstore?

Ann

Kyle,

I’ve been setting up my whole page in Photoshop CS2, putting text, photos wherever I want and dragging the whole (in this case) 7×7 page on to a blank, full bleed page in BookSmart. Works like a charm.

Ann

Hi Pat,

You refer to a color recipe and give a link. On my Mac with Safari, the link doesn’t go anywhere. I’m interested. Any other ways to get there?

Ann B

Hi Pat,

My camera(s) produce 10 megapixil files, so no problem there. Thanks for your, as always, thorough answer.

Best regards,
Ann

There may be a technical answer to this, I don’t know.

However, I’ve gained complete control over all my pages (except the copyright page) by choosing “blank” for my pages and planning for full bleed. I set up each page in Photoshop CS2 (Elements would probably work too). I’m doing a 7×7 book. So, for each of my pages, in PS I choose FIle>New. In the window I make Width 2063 pixels, Height 2067 pixels, resolution 300. To line up pictures and text properly, I make the background Transparent and flatten the results when I have placed everything where I want it. Then it goes to my Blurb book #3 (or whatever) folder under Pictures on my HD.

When I have all my pages completed in their entirety in PS (Elements) and placed in the “Blurb book #3” folder, I upload them to BookSmart and place them sequentially in the book I am assembling. For a blank page in my Blurb book, I make a 7×7 page in PS that is all white (or black or whatever color you are using). I make as many blank pages as there will be in my book, because I haven’t figured out a way to reuse any pages/images I’ve uploaded to BookSmart.

If anyone has a more efficient way to do this, I’d sure be interested.

Ann

Marion, thanks for sharing the good news.

Ann

Many thanks Ben. Being new to this, I didn’t realize I should go to Customer Support with this. Will do.

Ann

Oh, my! I’m in beginning stages putting a book together. Reading this, I’m wondering if I should even use Blurb. Are pages falling out of 7×7 books with, say, 60 pages? My first should be about that size. I like what I hear about Blurb’s image quality but, the bindings??

Ann

P.S. I’m using v 1.8.1.17856 beta.
Ann

Hi Meg,

It did get solved. Blurb staff found my first post. Here’s the answer:

http://forums.blurb.com/forums/1/topics/144

I did it a little different. I made a “Blurb Books photos” file and put it in Home> Pictures … along with the iPhoto folder that I don’t want to use for this. I have two different book projects going so I have a folder for each in “Blurb Books photos”. Works fine.

Now I just have to figure out more aspects of the program and work around 1.8.1 beta bugs. Think I’ll be on this forum a bit. Thanks to everyone who shares their experiences.

Ann

Hi Megan

Thanks for the reply. I just put a high res jpg in a folder called “book art” on my desktop. “Get Photos” didn’t recognize it. Then I tried putting it in my “Documents” folder which is where “Get Photos” seems to want to look “on my computer”. Nothing there either. Maybe the problem is this new beta 1.8.1 of the program? Thanks for trying.

Anyone else have some ideas/solution?

Ann