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Has anyone tried a "Blurb" book?

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Bob Rheaume

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I was recently sent a complimentary copy of a book containing two of my photos that I sold to the publisher several months ago. Needless to say, I was tickled to have a couple of my pics included in the book, but I couldn't help thinking that there were many other of my pics I would have chosen before the two in question. My limited experience with such matters however, gives me the impression that potential customers Googling the Internet and perusing Pbase usually have particular subject matter in mind ahead of photographic merit.

In any event, shortly after I received the book I chanced upon an article about self publishing via Blurb.com. I checked out the site, and I'm intrigued by the prospect of building my own book. Of course for me this would be an exercise in pure self indulgence and personal vanity without any commercial prospects, but I think it would be a fun project.

So my question is whether any of you have had experience with Blurb books and, if so, how satisfied are you with the final product.

Kind regards,
Bob
 
Hi, Raymond. I was playing with a 24" iMac just yesterday, and I certainly wouldn't mind having one of these on my desk :-) As it is, I'm the only PC holdout in the family, as my wife and two sons all own Macs.

Cheers,
Bob
 
Got a Pentium D and a 19" widescreen monitor - never owned a Mac. I've been making chapbooks for years - even back when all I had was a Pentium and a 15" tube-type SVGA monitor.

It's not the screen size or the PC that makes making books easy. I've been using Serif's Pageplus for all my chapbooks since version 5.

But I must admit that a larger monitor (going for a 24" on my next monitor), 4-8GB of RAM and Photoshop sure make photo-editing easier. ;-)

Derek
Raymond Wardenaer said:
I am getting a Mac and Aperture soon. Then I shall make my own books!
--
Raymond
http://home.online.no/~rwardena
http://www.volleyball.no/t3.asp?p=57227
Click to expand...
 
Bob,

There appears to be a Mac vs. PC war going on. Your OP has nothing to do with that.

To answer your initial question, yes, I've used it and it's much better than I ever expected.
Additionally, the support is excellent.
Blurb is good stuff.

--
Twice Banned!
When in doubt, poke it with a stick.

 
I am in the process right now. Their tech support is top shelf. I had questions about the color space they recommend, and the equipment they use. From their answers, they know exactly what they are doing. Now I just have to have time to finish my project!
--
Best Regards,
Mark Devine
 
I must say that their Mac version is a slow dog. Not really fun if you have a lot of pictures to work with. Design wise it's fine, some basic features (at lest for me) are missing, but the major problem is the speed in my opinion.

Last time I tried was October, so maybe they have a new version out and hopefully it's faster.

Regards

Marek
 
I just did a test book with Blurb. Thought the quality was excellent. Gave it to some friends and they absolutely loved the book.

It was printed in a few days and shipped promptly. I will use them a lot. Prices are great, particularly for the larger page books.

Highly recommended.

--
Charlie McNulty
 
Bill, I also downloaded their software and am thinking of doing a vanity book thing, but what about the paper quality, image quality, etc. Is it "National Geographic" worthy, or what? How would you describe the image quality?

--
'And only the stump, or fishy part of him remained'

http://www2.gol.com/users/nhavens
A Contemplative Companion to Fujino Township
 
Yep, I tried it by buying a couple of already-done books and rolling my own. The quality is superb, but I'd like more size options.

The PC-only (right?) software is very nice. I much prefer their client-side approach, rather than a web application. The prospects of slow uploading of full-resolution images to a book-layout web-app didn't excite me. But their book design software is very well designed and snappy.

It does take a while to layout a book, but that's nothing that the software should be blamed for.....it's just a tedious process if you want to get it right.

Also highly recommended.

Skip
 
I've been following this for a while on DPR... What a wonderful resource it has turned out to be.

Blurb threads - I
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1014&message=20823752

Blurb threads - II
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1014&message=21547762

Other book threads - I
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1014&message=18517645

Other book threads - II
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1014&message=19511153

--
Marc
Sacramento / California / USA
 
I've been using 'mypublisher.com' and made three books of various trips so far. They produce a fine table top type book. Easy to use and the printout is really good. Got rave reviews from people who've seen it.

I tried Blurb and liked the fact that they produce a jacket for the book but I got hung up in the finishing up of the software and the limited choice of sizes. For gifts I prefer the smaller size which they don't offer. It worked fine but I didn't finish. I have a PC.

--
Allen C.

Travel in RV when not home.
 
A member of my photo salon had one done of some black and white pictures she had previously shown us. In comparison to the prints, the book illustrations looked muddy. Crisp contrast seemed to be missing.

JonK
 
Hi Jon,

Have they asked the tech folks at Blurb about the muddy appearance? They gave me some pointers on resolution and color space - perhaps they would have some ideas.
--
Best Regards,
Mark Devine
 
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