wtmarks's Posts

FWIW, I used the softproofing tool in PS Elements 5.0 with both boxes checked and the final printed pages in the book were spot on. They were slightly darker than my monitor, which I had corrected for by adding a little saturation. BTW, I am extremely pleased with the book. Thanks to all on these forums who gave great information and advice.

If you go to the link provided by rdmastro in his post of 10/19 and then click on "Get full version," that should download the key to unlocking the soft proof file. As I recall, I then had to transfer the Show Tools files to my Adobe 5.0 folder. I hope this helps. As I mentioned it was a little trial and error on my part, but I got it to work. Good luck!

A final note re: soft proofing in Element 5.0. Thanks to the link posted by rdmastro above, I am now able to soft proof. It took a little trial and error to get the soft proof to show in the Edit screen (it would probaly be a simple matter for more of a computer techie), but it does work. BTW, jgescuadro, when I check the "Simulate Paper Color" box I get the same kind of result you did. My proof copy has been sent for publishing, so I’ll check it against the soft proof when I receive it. That will help me determine what changes, if any, I need to make. I have published a couple of books previously and the colors were certainly better than the soft proof w/ the "Simulate Paper Color" box checked.

rdmastro,

I tried the steps suggested, but still could not get a soft proof in Elements 5 or 6. There is a software package called Qimage which is relatively inexpensive and has a soft proof feature, so I may try that. Thanks again for your help. BTW, my Blurb books look very good, but I would like to see if I could improve on the colors at all. I have calibrated my monitor and I save, as suggested, in sRGB but wanted to try the soft proof option as one final tweak before I submit my current book.  

If I understand your last gripe correctly, I believe the new version addresses it. One of the earlier posts indicates that after you choose the initial text font, it defaults on succeeding pages to that font until you change it.

I think both mypublisher and blurb have their strengths and weaknesses. For a 20 page book, the best quality is arguably mypublisher. However, most of my books are 100-300 pages and you can’t top Blurb for these books. First of all, I have not found a publisher other than Blurb who will even publish a book over 100 pages (mypublisher’s limit) and certainly not at the price offered by Blurb. To offer a comparison for a 100 page book, the cost from Blurb is $74.95 and from mypublisher $358.80. I suspect if Blurb chose a heavier paper stock, the cost would be significantly higher. For smaller books, I would prefer mypublisher, but for anything larger than 40 pages, I would use Blurb. 

I have published two books and have been very happy. The first book came out a little dark, but I subsequently calibrated my monitor (with Spyder2 software) and it eliminated this problem. I now have a 330 page book in the hopper and am anxiously awaiting the new version so I can finish it without having the system keep kicking me out. I trust the folks at Blurb to correct these problems and am looking forward to my new book.

I am a fan of Photoshop Elements 5.0. It has many of the features of CS3 and is much cheaper. If you are not planning to turn pro, I would think that Elements would be all you need.