Mike DelGaudio

@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.

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!

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.

Does BLURB do Auto-correct on photos for printing?

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?

Thanks for your generosity in sharing. It is invaluable information.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Excellent review. I will now order for my family 3 books from them, showcasing a family trip that we want to remember forever!

Tried a Canadian photobook producer http://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.

Because of this site I am going to look at Creative memories. Thanks.

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.

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.

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 http://www.creativememories.com ? they are selling too many stuff. I couldn’t find price of photobook.

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?

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.

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.

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?

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.

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?

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?

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.

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

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.

I looked at the blurb pricing and found their paper quality and pricing to be higher priced than where I ended up getting my books printed at http://www.ubuildbook.com. I was able to get 25 books sent to family members for an upcoming family reunion for a much lower price and great quality.
Also being a newbie doing this I really valued being able to call someone and ask how to do things.

Can someone help me? I am having troubles uploading my book on blurb.com. The error reads”failed to upload cover (code 2)” I have emailed blurb 3 times and no response. Does anyone have a sloution for me? Thank you

Hi there,
I have seen on the blurb wedding website that some books had a backround of their image that was a soft grey with other photos on it, I cant figure out how to do this, if anyone can help I would greatly appreciate it, thank you!!!

The biggest problem with Blurb–no phone customer service. Let me tell you, when Fedex has lost your Christmas gifts a week before Christmas, you NEED customer service, and you need them now.

Biggest problem with Blurb, NO CUSTOMER SERVICE. Also, they have been having huge problems with their software, many people (including me) have spent hours and days on the books, to find that the files wont open. Then, customer service gets back to you in, oh, a week and a half or so. Of course, after the deadlines for uploading to have things delivered by Christmas. And after they “fixed” the problem, half of the book was missing. And my book won’t be here until well after Christmas. Unacceptable.

They should post a warning about the bug. It’s been a problem on their forums (unresolved) since April. It’s now the end of December. Totally unacceptable.

This is a great review and I agree that Blurb has a good quality product. However, like the posters above, I have also had major problems with Blurb’s customer service.

I ordered books as Christmas gifts for my entire family and placed the order before Blurb’s deadline for Christmas Eve delivery. The books never showed up. In fact, it is the day after Christmas and the books have not yet been shipped. My biggest problem with Blurb is that they never e-mailed to let me know that the books would be late. Without warning, I ran out of time to buy other gifts. Notice of late orders seems like a pretty basic customer service. They have refunded my overnight shipping charges, but this won’t even cover the costs I will have to incur to send the belated Christmas gifts to my family. I have been a huge fan of Blurb in the past, but this unreliability is enough to make me switch to a competitor.

If you are working on an important project or need your book by a certain date, I would really caution others about using Blurb. Good product. Terrible customer service.

I made my father a Blurb book for Christmas. There are things I loved about it, and things I didn’t like very much. The full photo cover looks great, and the software was very easy to use. But I wished they had more layouts that used both vertical and horizontals in the same double -page spread. It just got boring. The layouts are not very creative, IMO. Though I like the book overall (and I got the largest size, about 120 pgs on the heaviest paper), I was pretty disappointed in the picture quality. They appeared so dark in the book even though they looked bright and clear here. It is not due to my camera. My camera is a good one, and the photos were taken at resolutions suitable for making posters. But they appeared much darker in the book than I’d expected. Kind of a letdown… where did my light, bright, colorful pictures go?

we use blurb our first book
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/532195

peter

Thank you for your review of your books quality. I have a book about a month away from being sent to blurb. Did you have ant personal contact with a person by phone or was it all by E-mail? I want to talk to someone on the phone but can’t seem to get that accomplished. I too have many colored pictures and was glad to see the prints in your book. thanks again for the info- If you any suggestions on talking to a blurb representative person to person that would be greatly appreciated. Larry Livingston.

Thanks so much for this review! A few months ago I ordered a book through Apple (from Aperture) and I was really disappointed with the results. Not only is the paper quality bad, but once you touch the paper, it leaves a permanent fingerprint mark and the quality of the images is just pitiful.
How would you compare Blurb books to the Apple books? Have you ever printed with Apple? Is the “premium paper” Blurb offers worth it?
Also, I wonder if it would be possible to get good results if I create the book pages with Aperture, export them as images and print them with Blurb…

Thanks so much again!
Lina

Great book well done but…..no sense in PAYING for 2 day delivery it took 8 DAYS and they take your shipping money. If you order just take the normal way of shipping…D

Is just received my 2 books from blurb. One of the books has the right cover but contains someone elses book! The other book contains all the correct content, but the binding seems very bad. I contacted blurb through email–no phone customer service. They have sent me a packing slip to return the books.

I am a bit frustrated because I sent $195 on these two books and neither are what I had in mind. Also I wrongly assumed (my fault) that you could order a dust jacket with an image wrap book. I spent alot of time write things on the book jacket for my parents and come to find out it does not with the book.

I hope this get resolved very quick since this is a gift for next Friday.

ps. I did receive a $195 voucher.

I created and ordered a book which was posted very nearly a month ago, but I still have not received it. I used the economy because the other options made the book so very expensive. I have no doubt that the book will be good as I had heard great things about them but they really do need to sort out the posting problem. I have doubts now that the book will ever turn up.

I submitted my book almost a month ago and I still have not received my book yet. It’s supposed to be an anniversary present and now I’m afraid it won’t be here on time. Blurb contacted me via email to tell me that the book was shipped back to them and to confirm my address. It was the correct address and I asked them to mail it again right away. I really hope it gets here on time! I don’t think I will use Blurb again.

Thanks for the in depth review.

You should be getting a cut from them :)

I ordered over 15 books with Blurb. Half of them had to be returned due to upside-down pages, ect. The quality is thrown together and when I complained about discrepencies in their imagewrap, they shut down their site for about 15 minutes, updated it to cover the mistakes they made and then sent me a responce they couldnt fix it due to it being in their policy. I spent $1100 on books I can not use. DONT USE BLURB. BAD BUSINESS ETHICS.

Thanks for the review, very interesting – am looking at cheaper photo books right now and these seem interesting

dp

I uploaded my book last Sunday, March 29th and today April 6th I received them earlier than expected (8 days from uploading to having them in my hands- not bad!). The 4 books I ordered look great and although the photos are a little darker than they appeared in the Booksmart software I am not unhappy with them. I didn’t get a chance to order one and inspect it because I am using these books next week for promotional purposes for a film of mine. For what I need it for, the books are beyond my expectations and will serve my purposes. The paper quality isn’t bad and I didn’t get the premium kind. The opacity of the paper isn’t as bad as I thought having read the above reviews. I will order more from Blurb and plan to continue using them as long as the quality continues to be the same or improve. So far I am quite happy with them; good price, on time delivery and high quality.

One thing to think about, ( no matter who you print with) is make sure your screen is CALIBRATED!! If your pictures on your screen are bright/colorful ect, but your prints are coming out really dark, ( you can test this with your own ink jet printer ) you may have your screen set very bright!

This makes it easier to see darker pictures on screen, but when printing them,,well,, you’ll have issues..just something to think about.

Cheers

STAY AWAY FROM BLURB! They say they will remove 1/8″ from your page for full bleed reasons, but they took away 3/16″ on mine and as much as 1/4″ from other people that I know. For some reason they do not take PDFs, only JPEGs, which have terrible quality for CAD drawings and other vector-based files. Plus the prices are outrageous; I would not pay that for someone else’s book let alone my own.

Wow, that was quite an information. I had been looking badly for such kind of a facility. You made my day :)

Although HP Indigo 5000 capable to produce image at 812 DPI or 812 x 1624 DPI (at high definition mode). Blurb limit the maximum DPI at:

150 DPI minimum and 300 DPI maximum.