Quality review of a Blurb Photobook.

February 16th, 2007 · 82 Comments

A few months back I posted how easy it is to create a photo book using the Blurb Booksmart software.

I ordered a few copies of this book from Blurb for myself and for relatives, and wanted to show you what the delivered book looks like so you can get a sense of the quality of the book.

The books arrived packaged in a cardboard box that and each book is individually shrink wrapped. This is a nice touch so that your fingerprints don’t get all over the cover before you give the gift.

This book was pretty thick at nearly 200 pages. As we saw in the pricing showdown for a variety of photobook makers, a book of this size is very reasonably priced with Blurb.

Blurb Hardcovers come with a full color, full bleed dust cover. There are many different layouts, I happened to like the full bleed. You can have full page images on the front and back cover as well as on the inside flaps. This I tried to capture the gloss on the dustcover by showing you the reflectivity of the lights.

The Hardcover is cased with linen, and the pages appear glued into the binding. I can’t find any evidence of stitching on the pages or binding.

As of this writing, blurb does not imprint anything on the linen or spine.

The inside cover of the book is white; you’ll note that there is linen near the spine, which is finished with a glued white sheet of heavy paper on the actual cover. I have been satisfied so far with the quality and durability of the spine. We’ll see what happens in 50 years to see if the adhesive on the spine holds.

Inside, the photos are printed on heavy, glossy paper. The pages feel thicker and glossier than in most books, but certainly not as heavy as actual photo paper. The page weight is consistent with other art / coffee table books I own.

Held at a distance of 12 inches, there are no discernible “dots” in the printing. As you peer in closely you can make out the pattern of the dots that create the image. In comparison to magazine quality, or dust-jackets of “real-bookstore-books” the quality is on par, if only the tiniest bit more coarse. I’ve tried to create an enlargement here so you can see the pattern. This enlargement is a box roughly 5 millimeters on a side in the actual book. Note that the fine detail is preserved.

I learned from the Cool Tools website that Blurb uses the HP Indigo 50000, which according to HP achieves a quality of “812×1624 dpi when printing in high resolution mode” Citation.

Overall, I find the quality of the Blurb product quite impressive, and that is why I am a repeat customer. You can feel comfortable that you’ll get a quality product that showcases your photos.

That said, I agree with the assessment on Cool Tools. In short, bad photos will look bad in higher resolution. Blurry photos, out of focus images, scans of ink-jet-printer prints, scans of old 110 prints, overly-compressed jpgs, all will show less detail than a sharp-direct from digital images. Bear this in mind when you create your book. I have been supremely happy with the images from my 4.0 and 6.1 mega pixel cameras that appear in my Blurb BooksDon’t blame blurb if your source images can’t hold up to such high resolution printing.

[tags] photobook, blurb, booksmart, photo book[/tags]

Tags: Blurb · Photo Books

82 responses so far ↓

nsa107 // Feb 26, 2007 at 10:25 pm

Thanks for the feedback. I just ordered my first book and am very excited to receive it. I have created 2 additional books in the meantime, but am waiting on this first one to test the quality before ordering additional books.
mdelgaudio // Feb 26, 2007 at 11:04 pm

Thanks for stopping by nsa107 — I hope you are as pleased with your book as I was with mine. Please, feel free to come back and let my know what you think!

Mike
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Carlo // Apr 17, 2007 at 8:25 am

Hiya - it was great to find this review - very helpful and with excellent images.

I will be ordering a book soon and am very much looking forward to seeing the final product.

Thanks again,

Carlo
Joe // Jul 7, 2007 at 12:11 pm

Thanks for such a thorough review.
Twana // Aug 20, 2007 at 10:15 am

Thank you for reviewing blurb. I’m working on a photo project and needed detail review on the processing and stuff.
Jen // Sep 6, 2007 at 1:05 pm

Hi Mike,

I wanted to tell you that your review is very helpful to me. I am currently using Blurb to work on a book and I have put in many hours designing it this summer. I am glad to know that the quality is great!

Thanks!
Jen
mdelgaudio // Sep 6, 2007 at 2:19 pm

My pleasure everyone, I hope you enjoy your books as much as I enjoy mine!
Izabela // Sep 7, 2007 at 6:12 am

Hi Mike

I don’t suppose you know how Blurb’s print quality compares to Shutterfly? I’m having a lot of trouble figuring that out.

Thanks!

Izabela
mdelgaudio // Sep 7, 2007 at 11:51 am

Izabela, I;ve not ordered a book from shutterfly. I have ordered from Kodak Photo Gallery, and I believe those books are very similar (at least the “shutterfly classic” with the hole in the cover. The print quality should be similar between shutterfly and Blurb. The Blurb book’s regular size is a bit smaller than shutterfly, but I expect that the blurb book will accommodate more pages at a lower price. This post might help.
Izabela // Sep 8, 2007 at 2:07 pm

Thanks Mike, your advice is really helpful!
Scooter // Oct 17, 2007 at 12:19 pm

I, too, have used both Lulu and now Blurb. Lulu’s recent upgrade in print quality and paper is significant, however, their increase in price of 149% for the product drove me to find Blurb. A 50 page 9X7 softcover photobook from Lulu went from $12.03 to $29.95. I just built an 80 page 8X10 photobook at Blurb and the cost is $21.95 for the softcover and is available in hard cover with a dust jacket for $34.95. I am afraid that Lulu just priced themselves out of the market for those of us that use the pro feature to sell our books.
Scooter
Scooter // Oct 17, 2007 at 12:21 pm

…. Oh … and thanks for the comprehensive comparision …
scooter
Kyrie // Oct 21, 2007 at 3:27 am

Hey Mike,
Great walk through of Blurb. So appreciative of your sharing. I have a question… I’m looking into Blurb to print landscapes and I wonder 1. how is the color integrity, and 2. what resolution do you submit? Nothing less than 300dpi is my guess. What do you say?

Cheers, K
Pete // Oct 30, 2007 at 6:49 pm

Ordered a book through lulu using the new more expensive process. Their flash based (web) software was pretty limited. In the end I was happy with the layout but disappointed with the quality, I can’t imagine what the old quality was like if this new and improved option looks so bad. I just expected quality on par with a decent magazine but ideally a National Geographic. The matt finish of their new photobook is disappointing. The cover looked great with a little gloss the quality looked better. So after so many raves about the quality of lulu I am in search of a new source. Has anyone compared the new lulu to blurb? I think if this quality is as good as it gets right now it is bad news. Why can’t they just use photo paper because photos look so much better than this. There is visible texture in the book. I suggest to avoid Lulu.
retro // Nov 1, 2007 at 11:47 am

I just love the classics!
kaityv // Dec 3, 2007 at 12:14 am

Hi Mike,

Thank you for a great review. I currently finished editting my first book on Blurb, but I am becoming increasingly concerned about the quality of my pictures. I am using old pictures that I scanned into my computer. I used the tool in Blurb to bleed the pictures, but now all my pictures have the (!) warning sign. I don’t mind if my pictures aren’t perfect (they are old pictures) but I don’t want to spend $50 on a book that will be blurry. Any suggestions? I am ordering this soon since it’s is going to be a Christmas gift. Any help is appreciated. You’re book turned out beautiful (how did you increase the picture size?).
Thanks,
Kaity
mdelgaudio // Dec 3, 2007 at 9:39 am

kaityv — If you are seeing the (!) it means you are trying to make the photos larger than can be printed without being blurry. There are two solutions:
1) Make the pictures smaller foregoing the full-bleed, or …
2) rescan them at a higher resolution, such as 150 or 300 dpi. I would suggest 300 dpi to be absolutely sure you can resize them to full-bleed sizes.

If you want the images to be clear and full bleed, you’ll most likely need to rescan them.

You MIGHT be able to use a program like Photoshop Elements (if you have that) or “The GIMP” to resize the photos to a larger size (the GIMP is free — gimp.org) although the learning curve might be a little steep if time is of the essence. If you go this route, you could resize the images to be larger in number of total pixels. They might still be a bit blurry, but will probably work better than blurbs built in resizer.

For my book, the pictures came from my digital camera, so I already had enough pixels in my image to enlarge them — though I don’t generally resize them much in Blurb.

Hope this helps.
kaityv // Dec 3, 2007 at 3:26 pm

Thanks Mike!

This does help. I am glad I waited to order my book, although I probably wasted a lot of time getting everything setup since I’ll probably have to start over. I’m going to give GIMP a try when I get home, since rescaning isn’t an option (the pictures are in another state). I really hope it works. I’m a bit of a perfectionist so I like anything I do to look really good.

Thanks again.
mdelgaudio // Dec 3, 2007 at 3:48 pm

kaityv — a quick google reveals that there are tutorials for resizing with the Gimp: here is one that looks pretty good. Here is another tutorial that talks specifically about dpi and resolution. Good luck!
Kate // Dec 4, 2007 at 2:17 pm

Hey everyone!

I just ordered my first blurb book and received it in the mail yesterday! The quality is amazing! I actually just looked for a place to write this review because I am so happy with the product. I also looked at shutterfly, but the prices are so much better for higher number of pages.

I definitely recommend it! I love my book!

kate
kaityv // Dec 4, 2007 at 11:55 pm

Hey Mike,

I download GIMP when I got home and spent a long time resizing my photos (I’m still not done). It is time consuming, especially since I have 150 pics, but they look much better and I no longer get the ! warning. I’m assuming since they look good in booksmart, they will print well (fingers crossed).

Thanks for all your help. I’ve been having a blast exploring GIMP and can’t wait to see how my book turns out.
-Kaity
mdelgaudio // Dec 6, 2007 at 10:12 am

Glad to help kaityv.

Kate, thanks for the feedback. I’m sure it will help others!
James // Dec 10, 2007 at 3:02 pm

Im just putting together my first Blurb book. Ive scanned many of my (historical) images in at very high resolution, 400dpi usually. Has anyone had any issues with images that are “too big” displaying “scaling artifacts” when printed? Blurb mentions the possibility of “scaling artifacts”.

Id rather not go in a exact size every image to the layout specs!

Also, I assume I’ll be fine with 72dpi images as long as they are large enough (eg 3000 x 2000 pixels) correct? Ultimately its the total pixel count that matters right?

-james

Thanks for any feedback and the post. Looking forward to my book.

-james
mdelgaudio // Dec 10, 2007 at 8:21 pm

James, You should be fine with those high resolution images getting scaled down. I think the scaling artifacts would be introduced when the images are scaled up (as kaityv was experiencing in the comments above) Most all of my images are 3000×2000 pixels from my camera and the detail is preserved to the extent the printer used is capable. In other words, I see the actual dots laid down by the printer before the image runs out of detail. No scaling artifacts are seen.

The image of the palm trees in the post above are from a 3000×2000 (6 megapixel) image — so that is the level of detail you might expect.
Marci // Dec 11, 2007 at 10:52 am

I was just using picaboo to create a photo book when I had a problem and lost over 50 pages of work. I found your review and I am thrilled! I am going to re-create my book (which I was limiting due to picaboo’s page limitation) using blurb. I am so excited that I will get a great book for a great price - and I can use more of my photos rather than carefully selecting photos to stay within a page limitation.

THANK YOU!
By the way, this book will be our personal wedding experience - from the engagement trip to the honeymoon. So I need at least 250+ pages!
mdelgaudio // Dec 11, 2007 at 11:13 am

@marci: Sorry about the duplicate work there with picaboo. I’m sure you’ll be pleased with your blurb book. You’ll end up with a great memento. (Why not order two! one to look at, and one to save for your 50th anniversary! :-) )
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kaityv // Dec 14, 2007 at 6:32 pm

Hey Mike,

I just wanted to let you know that I got my book in the mail today and it looks fantastic!!! I was getting my hair done when I opened it and everyone was asking to see my book. It’s my dad’s christmas present and I know he’s going to be blown away.

Thanks for all your help!
Kaity
mdelgaudio // Dec 14, 2007 at 10:01 pm

Thanks for the follow-up comment kaity, I’m so pleased that your book came out well. I’m sure the folks over at blurb are happy to hear it too. Happy Holidays!
Jeff T. // Jan 4, 2008 at 12:17 pm

Mike,

Very helpful and informative site.

What about ‘book ownership’ At the following link, a Blurb snippet is posted regarding ‘content.’

The question remains: “Who owns the book?” Blurb owns page formats and designs, but the author owns the content. Can Blurb use ‘content’ posted on their proprietary page layouts without author permission? Can they sell the book after any given period of time without an author’s permission. The legaleeze is pretty confusing.
mdelgaudio // Jan 4, 2008 at 2:04 pm

@Jeff T. Clearly, I am not a lawyer, however my understanding is that they are the copyright holders on the the actual layout of the book, but all the content that you place in that layout is your copyright. It is my understanding that they cannot /will not sell your content without your explicit permission (such as adding your book to the bookstore) They don’t own what you have written and the photos you have placed in the book, and therefore have no rights to sell them.
Amy // Jan 6, 2008 at 5:12 pm

I just received a photobook that I made in Picaboo and was EXTREMELY disappointed by the quality. Their customer service rep told me to resize (smaller) all my photos to avoid their down-sampling. Instead of trying that I am going to try Blurb instead….thanks for the review.
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kaityv // Jan 24, 2008 at 11:00 am

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kaityv // Jan 24, 2008 at 11:01 am

Sorry about that entry above. I did not mean to enter that.
Doodee // Feb 1, 2008 at 1:06 pm

Thanks for sharing
Adam // Feb 5, 2008 at 11:44 pm

Nice review. I just received my book and was equally pleased with the outcome.

The size and quality makes a blurb book a smart buy, I’m certain I will be using blurb in the future.

I like the use of the quarter to show size, I happened to do the same thing in my review.

Have a look here, I was able to highlight some of the small printing mistakes made.
http://www.4tay.com/blogs/Adam_Parker/Blurb_Italy_book_has_arrived/1/1/692/
Richard // Feb 12, 2008 at 2:15 pm

I’ve done 2 books with Blurb and not only is the quality excellant, their software is more user friendly than the likes of Picaboo or MyPublisher. I began my last book with MyPublisher because they were offering a nice discount but manipulating the pictures and pages became so arduous that I scaped it and restarted it via Blurb. That experience alone will most likely prevent me from using anyone other than Blurb at this point.
Nitin // Feb 29, 2008 at 1:32 pm

I ordered a book from blurb and one from iphoto/mac.
The idea was that I could do a comparison and see which one works out better.
I ordered the hardcover version from both.
Blurb books are about a 1/3 of the iphoto price.
when the blurb book came in , I was excited.. very good quality.

The Apple book blows it out of the water though.

the pictures look the same, no oversaturation and no attempts to correct my pics. That was good.

The apple book seems to have beter binding, the jacket is of a way better quality, they use a heaveier stock of paper and that makes the whole book look and feel a lot better (better than most of the photo books you would see in Barnes and Noble)

In short, the blurb book is very good but is no match for the apple one.
I will stick to apple for my copy.
For my grandmothers copy, the blurb book would be more than fine.
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mary // Mar 15, 2008 at 12:05 am

i read your blurb review before i ordered my bOOk and found it very informative. i just received my blurb book yesterday. i think they have changed their paper quality since you have made your bOOk because the bOOk i received had paper that was so thin you could see through to the other side of the page. i was rather disappointed…the print quality was great though.
Nicole // Mar 17, 2008 at 6:55 pm

As everyone has said, thanks so much for such a comprehensive review. I am planning on making a photo book in leiu of a guestbook at my wedding. In your opinion, are the pages thick enough so that when guests sign, their messages won’t bleed through to the next page? Any other suggestions anyone can offer?
Alan // Mar 23, 2008 at 4:35 pm

Has anyone compared the quality of a Blurb book with MyPublisher? I like their quality, their price is reasonable, but their customer support is terrible. In addition, there are real problems with their upgraded software.
Bill // Mar 29, 2008 at 1:41 pm

Alan, I am about to prepare a photo book and have the same question re: a comparison of Blurb and MyPublisher.

In your posting, you commented on “their” price being reasonable but having poor customer support and problematic software. Were you referring to Blurb or MyPublisher?
Alan // Mar 31, 2008 at 6:10 pm

I was referring to My Publisher. Many people seem to have had a problem uploading and purchasing through My Publisher with Bookmaker version 2.3, whereas 2.2 worked fine. After numerous attempts to get this sorted out via their customer support, I threw in the towel and made essentially the same book through Blurb. I have not yet received it, but when I do, I will be able to compare the same photos printed by both publishers.
Carla // Apr 23, 2008 at 12:22 pm

Alan
Have your received your Blurb book yet? I am waiting for your comments as I am trying to decide between MyPublisher and Blurb. I am concerned about the quality of paper that Mary received on Mar 15.
Christian // Apr 29, 2008 at 12:59 pm

does anyone have advice on printing black and white images through blurb??
I ordered a book of my black and white photography (300 dpi and sRGB) and the printed book was grainy and the colors were funky. Would it be different if I exported my images from Aperture as black and white even though blurb makes it RGB?
any advice would be great!!
Thanks!
Pam // May 1, 2008 at 5:40 pm

Hi!
I am looking at creating a photo book for a small private school and have never ordered from Blurb before. Are there any surprises in their prices? I will be doing a softcover 8×10 portrait size with 80 pages or less. Their price says 21.95 with a 10% discount if you order more than 10. Besides shipping, are there any other costs that are hidden somewhere or can I pretty much depend on the prices they have on their site? I just want to make sure I get the school the best possible quote for their books.

I would really like to use Blurb but I need to give the school a confident quote on a per book price.

Thanks for any input!
mdelgaudio // May 2, 2008 at 7:55 am

@Christian — I have a few pages in my book that are black and white, I always converted to grayscale before placing them in the book. It is clear, though, that the images that result are not pure black and white — I noted a slight reddish cast in my images. For my purposes that was fine, if you are looking to create a fine art black and white book, you may not be satisfied.

@Pam — I have not ordered in bulk from blurb, but I have always found their prices to be as quoted, no hidden fees in there anywhere.
Christian // May 3, 2008 at 6:31 pm

Thank you very much for the advice…would you know a good source for fine art black and white printing?
Thanks Again!
Christian
lauren // May 3, 2008 at 11:50 pm

I was wondering if anyone could tell me if it is possible on Blurb to have a faded picture in the background with pictures on top. I have seen this in several photo books, especially wedding ones, and I really like that. If Blurb does not offer that feature, do you know any companies that do?
Pam // May 4, 2008 at 9:27 am

Mike: Thanks for letting me know! I just wanted to make sure.
Denise // May 7, 2008 at 8:25 am

I also just made a book with Blurb. I wanted to try a small softcover project to test their quality before I put tons of hours into something. I must say I was soooooooo disappointed! I chose to not make my pages in Photoshop, but do them directly in their program to see the “virgin” quality. My images are from a 10MP DSLR with each photo being about 2-3 MB each, so the input quality was fine. Their output was dark, grainy, oversaturated photos. I was floored. I’ve heard such glowing reviews that I couldn’t believe it. I contacted Blurb and they offered to remake the book for me, indicating that they can only keep prices so low by not recalibrating the printer after each book. They figured mine was one of the 3% of books that were toward the end of the run. So, they sent me another book and it was the same. What a disappointment.

The main company I use is Creative Memories for my photobooks since the quality is superb and the pages are sewn, not glued to the spine. Most of the companies are within a few dollars of CM, except for Blurb and Viovio (still waiting for the Viovio album to arrive.) I have a full Excel spreadsheet comparing if anyone wants.

I’ve made 3 gift books from MyPublisher (I got 2 for free–good promo!) where I inserted my Photoshop layouts into full bleed pages and they came out beautifully.

So, now I guess I wait to see how the VioVio book comes out for a less expensive alternative for gifts and such. Does anyone have experience with them?
Denise // May 7, 2008 at 9:12 am

@Lauren–You may want to try the Creative Memories software. They have a free version which is the drag and drop into their layouts, and a for-purchase version which allows you to make any photo the background and change the opacity to whatever you want. Very user friendly and no learning curve. Must’ve been designed by a woman :) Let me know if you want more info.
Denise // May 7, 2008 at 11:17 am

Update on Blurb and VioVio

Just received viovio photobook-softcover-20 pages. The cover is glossy and beautiful. BUT 2 small white spots and obvious posterization on one of the faces. Interior pages are not impressive. Lots of posterization making the faces look kind of dirty. Also some yellowish tinge on the faces on a page with a pale yellow background. Ugh. Side by side comparison with the MyPublisher book (same images) and the color is much better with MyPublisher.

Blurb is raising their prices tomorrow. This is the new rate table http://blurberatiblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/pricesheet_normal_0805_justtable.pdf

Looks like you get what you pay for. (not considering iPhoto–I’m on a pc) I guess I’m sticking with Creative Memories for quality and ease since they are priced similarly to all the well known companies.

Hope this helps someone!
Charles Maclauchlan // May 17, 2008 at 11:11 pm

I am looking for a book maker that has acceptable product at reasonable prices. Just received my Blurb book and although the software is easy to use and the work was done quickly I am afraid I need to keep looking. My work is all about subtle tones and colors and the subtleties didn’t come through. A couple of “Normal” (oversaturated) digital images printed acceptably but the subtle ones did not.
Srujan // May 29, 2008 at 11:50 pm

Does BLURB do Auto-correct on photos for printing?
David Arias // Jun 18, 2008 at 4:56 pm

I’m thinking about trying Blurb to publish a design portfolio book. However, I find the software quiet basic for my design needs, and I’m thinking of designing my own custom layout in Adobe’s InDesign. Blurb allows this as long as you export to JPEG format once the book is done, and use the JPEG files on the BookSmart Software. My question is, has anyone done this procedure before? How did that go? How was the quality? My concern is “text” quality, since text will be rasterized once in the JPEG format, it will lose its crisp quality. I find that BookSmart doesn’t give me enough flexibility with handling typographic treatment. Any thoughts?
anna // Jun 19, 2008 at 2:28 pm

Thanks for your generosity in sharing. It is invaluable information.
Martin Waugh // Jun 26, 2008 at 7:58 pm

David,

I recently did some of what you’re asking about: A Blurb page that I wanted formatted just so. I used Photoshop to create the image with text and dropped it into BookSmart. I can’t tell my page from their pages - the text is as crisp, and the font even matches quite well. I am quite happy with the results.

One final note: I am not ecstatic about Blurb’s print quality in general. There is some posterization and pixilation. It is fair to say that I have photos printed professionally for sale and I am accustomed to very high quality work, so I may be pickier than necessary. But, the samples I have received are not art book quality. From what I read, Lulu won’t be any better, and I am mildly curious about MyPublisher.
Celso Mollo // Jun 29, 2008 at 11:26 am

I just ordered 6 copies of my book, However I was afraid to put such a order before seeing how the book would come out. Now reading this review I feel a little bit better and confident that the book wil come out really nice.
By the way if you guys can check my book out.
Just go to blurb and on search type: Celso Mollo.
Thanks again for the review
Regards

Celso
Elwyn Garaza // Jun 29, 2008 at 1:47 pm

Thanks for the great review. It was very informative, and really helped me choose. The print detail and quality of binding wrapping and pages was what I found helpful.

I think I’m going with Blurb, I’ve been shopping around for an Online Book printer to put photos for a wedding I shot candids for.
jenn // Jul 7, 2008 at 1:18 pm

I got my blurb book today and have some mixed feelings. I did all my layouts in photoshop with full bleed and title on my cover was cut off. I did the image wrap hardcover and I see were the image and my title were wrapped. Also some of the text on my pages came really close to being cut off.

But the image quality was very good. And my text done in PS showed up crisp. The image wrapped cover is really nice. Personally I’m not a fan of dust jackets.

Overall I’m planning to order other books from blurb but I’ll make sure to consider my margins and not push important items to the edges.

I hope future software enhancements will warn users using full bleeds.
Chris // Jul 7, 2008 at 2:22 pm

Hey Mike, this is a really great review, thanks. I still have a few questions even after watching Blurb’s videos and FAQs. I’d like my entire book in electronic form, like a full-resolution PDF or at least JPG or TIFF files. Does anyone know of a way to do this besides cutting off the binding and scanning?

Also, how stiff is the binding when you open the book? In other words, does the book easily open flat? Or do you have to forcibly hold it open and flatten it to see two-page panorama shots?

One final question, Blurb’s videos said their software works with on-line photo sites. But can you also work with photos which exist on your local hard drive? In other words, without having to first upload them to Flickr, etc.

Thanks.
zanyviper // Jul 10, 2008 at 1:59 pm

well….I don’t agree. I’ve ordered 3 books from Blurb and very dissapointed in the quality of the paper. it is way too thin to be considered a “real book” quality. All 3 books I’ve had for about 2 months now all have creases/bends from flipping all over the pages. A good quality book with heavy stock paper would not do this. To me they have nice covers and option of making a 400 page book which is all nice but in the end, it ends up looking like any other photo book. I’ve suggested to them to use heavier stock paper or at least make it an option so that our books can last longer. I for one would be willing to pay for heavier stock pages.
John // Jul 18, 2008 at 11:02 am

Excellent review. I will now order for my family 3 books from them, showcasing a family trip that we want to remember forever!
Tony // Jul 21, 2008 at 11:55 am

Tried a Canadian photobook producer www.photoinpress.ca located in quebec - quite pleased with the results (2 day turnaround). On a couple of pages the color balance was slightly off but still acceptable. I went back to their software and compared the color balance for all of the images and there was nothing to suggest that the fault was mine.

I was going to try Blurb but after reading the thread, I am reluctant. Perhaps I should invest in a test book and see for myself.
Tony // Jul 21, 2008 at 11:58 am

Because of this site I am going to look at Creative memories. Thanks.
Francine // Jul 21, 2008 at 8:49 pm

I just wanted to share my customer service experience with Blurb. I ordered a book from them about two weeks ago for a family gathering. I did upload it a bit later than I had expected so I paid extra for 2-day shipping.

I was quite thrilled when I got an email 2 days later stating that the item had shipped. Three days later, I still had not received the book and checked the UPS tracking information verify the status. Strangely, UPS had no shipping information, only billing information. Blurb emailed me that although the book had been printed and I had been informed that it had shipped, they had not scheduled a pick-up until 3 days later, and the item arrived 5 days after I was informed that it had shipped, hardly within the 2 day shipping that I had paid for.

After emailing back and forth with Blurb for over a week to resolve the shipping charges - they do not offer any kind of phone support - I have finally resorted to disputing the charge on my credit card. Blurb has told me that despite sending the email that my book had shipped (not that it was completed, or that it was awaiting shipping, but that it has shipped and they do not claim that this email was in error), that the book did ship within their stated 6 day timeframe for completing a book and it was shipped via 2 day air (after 3 days of sitting in the printing department I presume) that my extra payment of 2 day air was an acceptable charge.

My dispute with Blurb is about their communications and their support- they informed me that my book shipped, but didn’t actually ship until three days later and still expect me to pay the extra shipping charges.

Personally, I will not use the services of Blurb for future publishing and would recommend that you evaluate your tolerance for dealing with a simple dispute without telephone support, and your tolerance for misleading information that costs you money.
Ling // Jul 27, 2008 at 10:38 am

I just ordered a 100 pages photobook from mypublisher, I will write my review after I receive it. Thanks for all the reviews on Blurb, for a moment I wanted to try it, maybe not anymore.
Ling // Aug 5, 2008 at 9:22 pm

I got my book from mypublisher. I wish I have something else to compare with. Paper and color qualities are good. I think I will purchase again in the future. For the creative memories, anyone know the price? Is the website www.creativememories.com ? they are selling too many stuff. I couldn’t find price of photobook.
Frank // Aug 11, 2008 at 2:45 pm

Mike,

I noticed you mentioned using Kodakgallery to do a photo book. How does it compare to Blurb and Lulu?

Also noticed that one of the top European companies has started in the U.S. “Eurobook”. From a quick look at their ebsite “dotphoto.com” it looks like a nice product. Do you know anything about this company and what the final product looks like?
Diane // Aug 26, 2008 at 4:37 pm

I wish I had read this website review before ordering a book through My Publisher (2.2 version via a Mac). I have had two weeks of frustration with their customer service. I submitted a book to be printed and my title page was lost, which shoved all the other pages forward with some text printed on the wrong pages. MyPublisher said they would reprint the books but after recreating the entire book I spent two days emailing back and forth with them (they can’t be reached by phone) trying to overcome problems with their software (their software insists I am sending in a 100 page book and wants to charge me for that, whereas in reality the book is 38 pages long). I asked customer service to call me to clear the matter up but got no call. So I am willing to try blurb
but need to know if their customer service is responsive.
Aruna // Sep 4, 2008 at 2:11 pm

I got my first book from Blurb, softcover and hardcover with jacket and absolutly love it.

I am a photographer and I do printing at home, with a hight quality printer and caliberated monitor. Blub print quality is not comparable to high quality photo prints, but the book and the finish is ace, not to mention the price I paid.

Before I read about Blurb, I tried SharedInk and I should say the print quality is a bit better than Blurb, but the finish is NOT there. I ordered from Ottawa, Canada and the shipping took less than a week.

The only complain I would have is the dustjacket was not folded/aligned properly. I wish they would iron-out these minor problems as I am going to stick with them for quite a while.

Also, I did not see a ISBN print at the end page, did they get rid of it? I was expecting one the be printed.
Sheila // Sep 15, 2008 at 5:50 am

I have a MAC question. I downloaded blurb and I was looking forward to setting up my digital photobook. Unfortunately, the blurb software was only able to view some of the photos in my pictures folder but not others. Any tips on this

I am really disappointed and hope that maybe shutterfly will be able to read them. So shutterfly is just as good in quality even if pricier?
Kathy // Sep 19, 2008 at 9:45 am

I am just about ready to “oublish” my first book but am very disappointed in the cover options, I must be overlooking something. I would like to use multiple photos on the cover with the title overlayed. Any ideas?
Thank you.
Kris // Oct 21, 2008 at 11:19 am

Thanks for the review - nice pictures! I’m starting a blurb photo book and was wondering about the price / quality. The thing i’m worried about are the colors - i don’t know how my photos will look as far as temerature/cast. Any tips?
Michael // Oct 27, 2008 at 8:11 am

Useful review, thanks! I wonder how good is Blurb’s print quality compared to a Getty Images photobook (i’ve got “ideas 1″) ?
Or, maybe, where could I get a hi-res photo of a Blurb book to compare quality?
Rochelle // Oct 30, 2008 at 6:27 pm

Thank you for your review of Blurb. First time user of Blurb. I am helping my 5 yr old grandaughter do up a book for her parents for Christmas. She is illustrating her own stories so the quality will be what it is.
My question has to do with the spine of the dustjacket. I have a full bleed photo on front of jacket and a different full bleed photo on back. What colour is the spine on the dust jacket ?
How do I make it blend with the front and back pages of the dust jacket?Right now it is showing as white with titles and author’s name in Black . If I select i.e. Blue then all I get is a plain blue colour that also is blue on the inside flaps. Do I just pick one color that blends with front, back, and inside flaps of dust jacket and go with that or is there a better way of approaching this?
All suggestions warmly received and appreciated.
Accordionstu // Nov 6, 2008 at 11:24 pm

Great review, I have published a reference book on Loyalist Flute Bands using Blurb, it was only supposed to be for myself, but I put in on sale on the Blurb site and have sold over 30 so far. The Books are great quality and they have now introduced a black and white budget style book for about £2.75 for up to 40 pages. Thanks for creating this page.

stu
Keith // Nov 9, 2008 at 7:42 am

I have been using Blurb for a while and find their quality very good for the money. If you consider cost is around a £1 per page it is much cheaper than buying a traditional print for an album when you take into consideration the cost of a decent album, adhesive and the time it takes to fiddle around putting it in.

Like all prints, for a book or for the wall, the quality of the end product depends on the photographer’s skill with the camera and post processing. I shoot mainly for b/w these days and can tell anyone wishing to print just a greyscale images without paying attention to achieving good contrast, correct black and white points, that they will not get a decent printout unless they do. If the contrast is bland, as it is with a greyscale image, they will definitely experience magenta casting. This is because Blurb print b/w using CYMK colour space and not black ink. It is possible to download the HP Indigo 5000 semimat printer profile and soft-proof work in Photoshop before putting it in Booksmart. It’s worth learning how to do this both for colour and b/w before proceeding to build a Blurb book. You will save possible disappointment if you do.

Mike DelGaudio