forevertues's Posts

Thanks Blurb.
It seems as though you guys have your stuff together…you took feedback from the users and actually put it to good use. Keep up the good work and thanks for providing such an excellent service.
Blurb, you rock.
alex

I agree. Please Blurb….an answer would help us greatly….good or bad, an answer would be appreciated.

I did create a new image in PS to the exact “optimal measurements” and the picture looks fuzzy when placed on a brand new book…when a book is ordered it will be cleared up then?

Heh….I’m a goof. I just answered my own question I think…

There are new optimal resolutions for the books in BookSmart….I’m working on a 10×8…

Full Bleed Cover: W=3059 and H=2555
Full Bleed Page: W=2888 and H=2475

I’m sure that others have changed as well…..just be aware of that peoples.

And Blurb, be sure to update your FAQs…

Cheers!
alex

I’d say that I agree on that….would be a nice perk.

Picture update!

Here’s a few pics of my completed book…..enjoy!
Oh, and just to let it be known about the blurb customer service…..they’re great. They contacted me first thing this morning…..far less than 24 hours from my initial email to them. Thanks Blurb.

notice the image on the back cover there….not what its supposed to look like :P

There ya go….some pictures to see what a finished book looks like…and to show the quality of the Blurb company.

Keep an eye out for my next book….it’ll be available to the public! It’s just about done. It’ll be a 40 page coffee table book of artistic action shots of my dogs in their backyard kingdom….I’m really proud of the shots myself.

Cheers!
alex

Okay…..here goes…
My book arrived today….after much anticipation it is finally within my grasp…of course, I haven’t opened it yet…I’m too worried and excited…

I made a 272 page, 10 inch by 8 inch, hardcover book for my fiancé for our one year anniversary commemorating the day we started dating. The book is a collection of our first year together. I spent countless hours scouring through (literally) thousands of photographs of the two of us and our many adventures together and chose over 250 of the best and edited them for color, clarity, and all around goodness to bring out the best from each photograph…Our anniversary is Friday…and I reeeeally hope this book is top notch. Do I dare open it? Hm….well….here goes.

Cutting the tape of the box now…

Bubble wrap!!! That’ll be fun later. Nice work on shipping material…all is intact and looks good…so far.

The moment of truth…

Well, I’ve got good news and bad news.

Good news:
The quality of paper for the cover is supurb….I used .PNG images on both the front and back covers…and the front looks quite good. The spine even look neat-o too.

Bad news:
The image on the back was blown way out of proportion and cuts off the bottom of the cover….covering up the text that was supposed to be below the image…
I understand that others have had problems with .PNG images so I’ll contact blurb in a bit concerning the issue…I’m sure it can be resolved no problem. Minor setback…still quite pleased.

Now…to actually open the book… fingers crossed

Inside flaps on the jacket look great….

:D

Beautiful work Blurb. The quality is better than expected….Thank you. Images are a bit dark (not enough to be an issue though)…but I think that the darkness is due to the cameras used for the first several pages…Halfway through the year we upgraded to a Nikon D80…Let’s see…
Here’s where the D80 kicks in….
Again I say…
:D
Crystal clear images….beautiful color. Crisp and clean…No problems as far as streaks, off colored pages, or anything of that sort. Images look beautiful against the black background….wow.

Overall, I’m extremely pleased with the final product. From the start this has been a rather good experience. The BookSmart software was easy to use and made the process of making a book fun. My only quarrel with the program is that the preview page isn’t full screen….that would be nice on my 17” laptop. The program ran smoothly and I had experienced little or no slowdown. Ordering the book was a breeze (coming up with the money as a poor college student wasn’t a breeze though). The price wasn’t bad at all…considering the final product. The book itself is amazing. Save the .PNG issue, the product is Grade A material. The cover is shiny and seems to be quite durable…The paper is sturdy and of excellent quality. At the same time, the print quality is wonderful and allows the image to jump off the page.
I will definitely make more books through Blurb. I think that I might brighten up images a tad for my next book though…just to ensure a slightly brighter image. Don’t get me wrong though, these images are amazing.

Oh, and I’ll try to have plenty of images up tomorrow night…don’t have my camera at the moment…but they’re coming.

Thank you Blurb…thank you.

I suppose I’m a victim of the backed up orders…It’s a about 4 business days past the “estimated” ship date….which is an estimate of course….but I’m just so anxious to see the final product….
Keep up the good work burb….meanwhile, I’ll wait patiently here.
cheers!
Alex

I know that you guys had mentioned that the new booksmart update would be available this month…..just curious as to when that’s all. I noticed that on the Booksmart download page it no longer says version 1.8…..it doesn’t specify any version really….unless I overlooked it. Just curious that’s all.
thanks,
alex

Well, I just placed an order for my first book…its a book I made for my fiance and I am reeeeally hoping it arrives by early october….fingers crossed on that as well as the final result.  I’ll be sure to post some pics on here of the book once I get it….I know that I was really interested in seeing pictures of finished products and there is only one post that was helpful in that area that I found.

alex

Hm…so..er…um….I’m not exactly all that PS savvy….so you’re saying that I can save the white silhouette on the transperant background in a JPEG format?  That would be handy….I’ll see if’n I could figure it out…..thanks for the help.

cheers!

alex

So I’m working on a book for my fiance and was toying with a black and white cover…..I used photoshop to create a sort of inverted shadow picture (solid black background and solid white image).....just wondering if on the full bleed cover option for the 10×8 if the printer will print the black background of the image or only print the white portion of the image and retain the original black background of the booksmart layout…..does this make sense?

that’s the image…....would it print alright or should I go back to a normal picture for the cover?