I ordered a book from Blurb - 200 pages. $60.90 for the book and shipping. I haven't received it yet though so I can't comment on quality. You CAN do full bleed pages - I have a few in my own book. As far as I know - they don't do any corrections (colour or whatever).
Please let us know what you think when it gets in. Truth's comments on the images being 1 stop darker than the originals have me worried. Thanks!
-Greg
I know quality can be relative but I ordered one of Picaboo's sample wedding albums thinking it would be indicative of their best quality... the book I received was horendous (grainy grainy grainy...) I would not suggest this route if you are looking for quality
OK... I won't be compiling my book for another few months, but I'm trying to get the research done upfront. I'll need full-bleed pages, and I DON'T want any auto correction applied to my images. I want excellent quality color, sharpness, pages, images, and binding.
I've read through this thread, and it seems to me that the frontrunner is Picaboo. I'm willing to pay a few extra bucks if the quality and accuaracy are noticably better than Blurb. Am I right about Picaboo?
They actually ONLY ship to Australian addresses...
I just got a book I had made (I live in Canada, but a friends sister lives in Australia, and came back here for Xmas). LOVE the quality (A little pricey I thought) but a few issues I had that might have been more my fault: a few text boxes got shifted a little bit after uploading the book to them. I noticed one, didn't think anything of it but then after receiving the book I found a few other problems (a couple lines of text cut off for example).
Derek
Derek, I've heard some good stuff about Momento from an OZ-based photo forum but, yes, they are a bit pricey. Maybe one day I'll try them.
Derek, I've heard some good stuff about Momento from an OZ-based photo forum but, yes, they are a bit pricey. Maybe one day I'll try them.
Frank
I think the quality from Momento is top notch, but I had a few issues that I didn't catch. Once I uploaded the book to Momento, there was a few things that got moved around (text) that I didn't catch until it was too late - my fault? Theirs? (shrug)
A few things where cut off all together and I might have missed regardless but it can be said that I might not have proof read the pdf file very good so lets put the blame on me. This doesn't explain why things had shifted though.
Photos looked incredible - no problem there. Text nice and crisp. A few headers shifted a bit somehow when uploaded - didn't catch those problems.
Feel of the book is excellent. No 'Momento' printed on the book like with other companies I've tried, but it was embossed on the back.
The pages where thick - felt like the quality was truley excellent.
Except the few headers moving around a bit (not like from one end of the page to the other, I mean things like instead to the header being on one line, that it was extended a bit to go on two lines, which caused the text to interfere with the other text. A few lines of text where cut off, but this I don't understand because the text box was well within their guidlines so I'm not so sure what to say about that - but *I* still missed these problems when I checked out the pdf file before sending to printing.)
They ONLY ship to Australian addresses - so unless you know someone that will allow you to ship to and in return have them forward to you - Momento is not an option if you don't live in Australia *at this time anyway*.
Overall quality - excellent. Am I happy with the book? Yes - except for the text issues that *I* missed.
Still waiting for my Blurb book to arrive. Tracking doesn't seem to work once it crossed the border to Canada so I have no idea where it is or when it will be here (it was in Washington on the 12th!).
Ok - at 6:30 this morning, the UPS guy delivered my Blurb book - luckly I was already up and dressed for work! I had to wait until I got to work before I could check it out.
My impressions are as follows:
Dust jacket: Colours are not 100% accurate. Cover photo had the reds a little saturated, inside flap has a photo of me and a Snowbirds crew member and our skin tones are terrible - too red. Other photos on dust jacket are a too saturated. Due to the stock they print it on? I don't know. No photo in the book with people in the shot so I can't compare.
Cover: Not much to really say - looks good, feels good - NO printing or embossing on the front/back cover or spine: only printing is on the dust jacket.
Pages: Seem a little thin to me. Blurb.com indicates 80 lb paper. Momento uses "high-quality 170 gram satin stock which is rated as archival according to standard ISO-9706". Compared to the Momento book pages, Blurb felt a little cheap/thin. Not sure what all that means, but the Momento pages feel thicker, more prefessional.This next item may be due to thinness of the pages, or caused by trimming of the book OR THE HIGH HUMIDITY IN THIS ROOM AT THIS TIME: but all pages had a slight curl at the open edge - not sure how to convey this part. When you have the book open to any page, the corners at the open end of the book sort of curl up, so looking at the open edge of the book (when book opened) it kinda has a slight smile. I assume this would be due to a thinner page stock. From Blurb: "Heavyweight, archival paper stock ideal for photos and text" but I think the pages are a little thin.
Binding: Go this link to see what I'm talking about: On Bookstore Quality, go to page 2 of in that little frame in the middle of the page to see what they show what you get for binding on a soft cover book - page 3 shows hard cover. I do not know the terms for bookmaking/binding so bear with me. The picture of the softcover book is how it is bound when hard cover is chosen as well - only difference is that they put a hard cover on. The actualy binding is the same as in the photo. Pages glued at the one edge, and then base of the spine (where the pages are glued) they have a strip of fabric to strengthen the spine, and attach to the hard covering.
Will the binding last? I don't know - without having anything to compare it to in front of me, I can't say if it's good or bad. I'm jus saying ordering the hard cover doesn't mean better binding. I really wish they had something embossed on the cover though! You loose that dust jacket, and you are stuck opening it all the time to see what book it is.
Photos printed: Someone here said that someone else mentioned that the photos printed a stop darker. We have to realize something here you guys: Looking at a CRT screen is different than a LCD screen. Looking at any computer screen is different than looking at printed media. So this might explain that 1 stop difference. It all depends on the lighting (amount of, type of). The crt and the lcd displays the images differently, and is totally different from printed images.
Some photos that I actually thought would print lousy came out really nice. There where a few pages where in the photo I had some small printing (side of an aircraft) where you couldn't quite read the text. Some of the text as printed was about 1.0 - 1.5 mm so I can say that not much could have being done about that! Plus, on the one photo the text was questionable even on the computer screen, so I can not complain about that. There had being a few photos that where a touch softer than I remember, but I don't have those photos on the laptop anymore for me to compare. A couple photos had a slight colour cast to them, but that was my fault - I didn't correct those colour casts in those photos.
Some photos started a little dark, so I was curious as to wether or not they would print well or not - and they looked good.
A full stop, half stop dark? I don't know. I don't think so.
Full Bleed Pages:I had a few photos printed full bleed - they indeed go edge to edge. My book was the 8x10 and I am wishing I had a larger book so that those full bleed photos would look bigger/better!
Text: My pages where black, and I went with white text, so all text was easy to read. You can change the font but I used the default. No complaints there.
Things to remember though guys: Not all of my photos started razor sharp - some where scanned negatives (those usually came out a little soft anyway). The photos that had a colour cast (IN the book, not the dust jacket) which was my own fault.
Photos where taken with 5 different digital cameras, one was only a 3 mp. I also used photos taken with at least 3 film cameras then all film/slides scanned by myself with a Nikon Coolscan IV ED. Photos taken with a film camera (like a Pentax K-1000) where taken as far back as the early 90's.
MOST photos did not benefit by me using a tripod. The IR photos, or longer shutter speeds shots like of waterfalls had being taken while using a tripod, but about 95% of the photos where hand held.
I am NOT a PS guru!
ALL my photos where resized to 180 or 200 dpi. Minimum they indicated was 150 dpi. I went with 180 because most of my photos had already being resized to 180 dpi before I got a response to my question (or used photos that I had resized for other projects).
I'm trying to be critical. Looking at this test book to see wether or not I would buy this book (if I hadn't already done so!) if I saw it in a store.
Am I satisfied:Yes and no.I would say I am about 85% satisfied. What I like to see changed: Thicker paper. SOMETHING embossed on the cover: at least on the spine! Something! Momento had 'Momento' embossed on the back cover but I didn't get a dust jacket unless I forgot to choose that option. Overall size of the book seems too small. The Momento book was larger. With the book only 8x10, the photos unless full bleed are too small.
The dust jacket needs work - I didn't like how the colours where over saturated. After all, you judge the book by its cover!
Since I did the Moment book with photos of my child, and the Blurb book was scenery/trains/planes, I can't say which is better. I am overall happy with the printing of the photos in the Blurb book. Any 'issues' had being caused by myself.
IF you do make a book - do NOT do something like: on a page,referring the reader to another page!!! I tried really hard to keep things straight but I still messed that up by adding a photo here and there!! Make triple sure you proof read the text! And maybe have someone else do it too..there was a few mistakes - again MY fault.
Would I use Blurb again? Well guys and gals, I am not a professional so I don't need to be so critical as some of you might have to be, but for me I would continue to use Blurb. For one they have books as large as 440 pages and the price is good. So for family sort of stuff, Blurb is fine for me and yes I would use them again. I prefer the quality of the Momento book but I had issues with them too (text issues). Plus they don't ship to you unless you live in Australia - which I don't. I just hope that in the printed pages that they print photos of people better than they printed on the dust jacket!
If Momento had better prices and shipped anywhere in the world, I would use Momento.
I hope I didn't scare some of you from using Blurb. Overall good but I prefer thicker paper as an example. Ease of use of the software, price of the books, and ability togo from 20 to 440 pages is a bonus.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.
Ordered Blurb book
I ordered a soft cover photo book from Blurb, and am waiting for it to arrive. It is currently in transit. Someone at Blurb apparently liked it, as they chose it as last weeks Book of the Week http://www.blurberatiblog.com/. It's about 3 postings down, titled "Book of the Week hangs ten". I'll update everyone when it arrives.
Thanks for the in-depth review, Derek. Sounds like Blurb is worth it for most of us. Perhaps we need to desaturate the pics for the jacket a bit to compensate.
Thanks for the in-depth review, Derek. Sounds like Blurb is worth it for most of us. Perhaps we need to desaturate the pics for the jacket a bit to compensate.
I was planning on contacting Blurb on the dustjacket issue, but I'm so bored here at work I actually forgot to e-mail them.
I noticed today that Mpix has books "coming soon." Their photo quality has been consistently good - will be interesting to see how the book quality turns out.
I noticed today that Mpix has books "coming soon." Their photo quality has been consistently good - will be interesting to see how the book quality turns out.
Well they already have proof portfolios - so maybe the books will be here soon. I would give them a try if not to expensive.
The thing I liked about blurb is the cost - my 200 pagebook for 60.90 USD shipped, where as a book half the pages was twice the cost from Momento (but I regress, I really like Momento quality)
I had printed my book originally thru Lulu and did not like their paper or printing. The Blurb copy was head and shoulders above the Lulu in quality and in price.
The cover photo on my dustjacket printed perfectly. There is a photo of me on the inside of the dustjacket that did not. All of the photos on all 108 pages were perfect, at least as far as I was concerned (and who else matters?).
I didn't think of photographing the photo book hah! Good idea.
I would say that the Blub book was about the same size but I would have to measure it to be 100%.
Since mine was for me, I only have to please myself but I'd be more critical than anyone else.
I can't take credit for the idea. Someone in another forum asked me to photograph it and to give it some scale. (So I thought of the ruler!:ivar )
My only complaint with Blurb is there is no live way to edit the book once you've uploaded it to them. You have to change the book on your PC and then re-upload the whole thing again. Lulu had a decent online tool for doing this. I repeated one photo and would like to delete it out but it was too much hassle. I don't figure I'll ever sell any (not even my relatives will buy one, darn it) so it doesn't really matter.
I'm sure that someday we will be able to do this here at Smugmug and when we can I'm sure we will be given the best tools to do it. So I view this as a short term solution!
The Blurb book is exactly the same as your Lulu book.
I sent a e-mail to Blurb about my issue with the dust jacket, but so far just the automated reply that they got my e-mail, and that it's being forwarded to the proper dude.
I'll post any response I might get from a real person.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.
Awesome review, Derek. Thank you for posting. Sounds like blurb might not be the best choice for a fancy portfolio-- though the price is nice. This review is VERY helpful.
Awesome review, Derek. Thank you for posting. Sounds like blurb might not be the best choice for a fancy portfolio-- though the price is nice. This review is VERY helpful.
Derek I see you live in Dresden, As I am going to do a blurb book I have one question for you. You mentioned they shipper UPS, did UPS tack on any "brokerage charges" on the book, as I have swore I would never use them to ship to Canada again.
Derek I see you live in Dresden, As I am going to do a blurb book I have one question for you. You mentioned they shipper UPS, did UPS tack on any "brokerage charges" on the book, as I have swore I would never use them to ship to Canada again.
Thanks
ACtually, Dryden! I totally agree with you onthe BS 'brokerage charges' - the last one I paid was $40 bucks!
But I did NOT get charged any brokerage fees 'so far'. The book was delivered already, and the delievery guy did not ask for any payment, nor have I so far received anything from UPS 'so far'.
The only shipping fee I paid was what ever Blurb charged forshipping (I think it was $12.95 USD).
I will reply to this thread again in a week or two to say wether or not I had in fact received anything from UPS in the form of BS brokerage fees.
I will also like to point out that on the two orders I had shipped from Adorama using UPS I did not get dinged with brokerage fees - but Adorama does charge a minumum of $50 USD as far as I can tell to ship stuff to Canada - which is *BS*because the same item(s) can be shipped to an American addy for like $13 USD.
Wanted to also thank Derek for his bang-up review. Very informative!
i'm working on a blurb book now and about ready to submit. I just did a measurement and 8x10 is really small! Does anyone know of other self publishers that offer BIGGER books? (Besides ASUKA...I use thm for weddings but they're kinda pricey for portrait clients?)
Picaboo works great
I used Picaboo to put together a wedding album for my niece. I was impressed by the quality of the photos especially since one of the photos I used was well-below the recommended resolution. I also like the sample albums they had. They gave me alot of good ideas for the layout.
Blurb Review
Just got my first blurb book and have to say I was expecting the worst, but was very pleasantly surprised.
I'll try to be concise.
Cover: Very nice gloss, layout printed exactly the way I expected it to. I had read here that color images on the cover stock printed funny so I stuck to black and white and it was really stunning. My friend (who doesn't know the kid on the cover at all) picked it up and got tears in her eyes. She was so impressed, the professional "tangibility." That said, I did put a tiny color image on the inside cover and it was whacked. Pixelly, this strange lemon yellow cast...horrible.
PAges: very nice feel. a nice sheen to them without being reflective. Seems to resist fingerprints.
Images: Again, very impressed by the black and white images. The sharpness, grain, tonality and exposure were almost all right on. There were a few places where the shadows were deeper than in other prints/on screen, but negligible. Color images were odd. A customer would be happy with them, but I found them a bit softer than shot, overall a half-stop under exposed (based on comparable EZprints) and its weird, but the shadow areas were a full or even 2 stops darker than normal. There are a few pics that seemed exposed close to normal in the face area, then in the neck/shadow area, almost like there was a vignette. Kinda odd.
Layout/bleed/trim: This was where I expected flubs. I am a graphic designer who buys lots of printing and thought : these print on demand places are going to hack this up. I was so wrong. Every bleed, every gutter, every trim was right on. And I'm a perfectionist about those things.
I'm pretty happy overall, and am looking forward to offering these to my portrait clients. If they had a bigger size than 8x10, I might even consider offering them as a budget wedding album, but I'm trying a few other places first.
Thanks for the review...I just received an product update from them today stating:
By very popular demand we now offer two new distinct sizes: a large format landscape 13x11 book (starting at $54.95 and available in hardcover with dust jacket only) and a square 7x7 book (starting at $12.95 and available in both hardcover and softcover).
The 13x11 might be just what you are looking for...
Thanks for the review...I just received an product update from them today stating:
By very popular demand we now offer two new distinct sizes: a large format landscape 13x11 book (starting at $54.95 and available in hardcover with dust jacket only) and a square 7x7 book (starting at $12.95 and available in both hardcover and softcover).
The 13x11 might be just what you are looking for...
Comments
Please let us know what you think when it gets in. Truth's comments on the images being 1 stop darker than the originals have me worried. Thanks!
-Greg
Swim for Them | WellmanHouse.net | AlbumFetcher | SmugShowBuilder
Frank
I think the quality from Momento is top notch, but I had a few issues that I didn't catch. Once I uploaded the book to Momento, there was a few things that got moved around (text) that I didn't catch until it was too late - my fault? Theirs? (shrug)
A few things where cut off all together and I might have missed regardless but it can be said that I might not have proof read the pdf file very good so lets put the blame on me. This doesn't explain why things had shifted though.
Photos looked incredible - no problem there. Text nice and crisp. A few headers shifted a bit somehow when uploaded - didn't catch those problems.
Feel of the book is excellent. No 'Momento' printed on the book like with other companies I've tried, but it was embossed on the back.
The pages where thick - felt like the quality was truley excellent.
Except the few headers moving around a bit (not like from one end of the page to the other, I mean things like instead to the header being on one line, that it was extended a bit to go on two lines, which caused the text to interfere with the other text. A few lines of text where cut off, but this I don't understand because the text box was well within their guidlines so I'm not so sure what to say about that - but *I* still missed these problems when I checked out the pdf file before sending to printing.)
They ONLY ship to Australian addresses - so unless you know someone that will allow you to ship to and in return have them forward to you - Momento is not an option if you don't live in Australia *at this time anyway*.
Overall quality - excellent. Am I happy with the book? Yes - except for the text issues that *I* missed.
Still waiting for my Blurb book to arrive. Tracking doesn't seem to work once it crossed the border to Canada so I have no idea where it is or when it will be here (it was in Washington on the 12th!).
Derek
What did Cinderella say when she left the photo shop? "One day my prints will come."
Thanks for your comments on Momento's product - I'll keep them in mind if I decide to try publishing my images.
I'd be interested to hear your impressions of your Blurb book when it arrives.
Frank
My Blurb.com book should be here today or tomorow... key word being 'should'.
What did Cinderella say when she left the photo shop? "One day my prints will come."
My impressions are as follows:
Dust jacket: Colours are not 100% accurate. Cover photo had the reds a little saturated, inside flap has a photo of me and a Snowbirds crew member and our skin tones are terrible - too red. Other photos on dust jacket are a too saturated. Due to the stock they print it on? I don't know. No photo in the book with people in the shot so I can't compare.
Cover: Not much to really say - looks good, feels good - NO printing or embossing on the front/back cover or spine: only printing is on the dust jacket.
Pages: Seem a little thin to me. Blurb.com indicates 80 lb paper. Momento uses "high-quality 170 gram satin stock which is rated as archival according to standard ISO-9706". Compared to the Momento book pages, Blurb felt a little cheap/thin. Not sure what all that means, but the Momento pages feel thicker, more prefessional.This next item may be due to thinness of the pages, or caused by trimming of the book OR THE HIGH HUMIDITY IN THIS ROOM AT THIS TIME: but all pages had a slight curl at the open edge - not sure how to convey this part. When you have the book open to any page, the corners at the open end of the book sort of curl up, so looking at the open edge of the book (when book opened) it kinda has a slight smile. I assume this would be due to a thinner page stock. From Blurb: "Heavyweight, archival paper stock ideal for photos and text" but I think the pages are a little thin.
Binding: Go this link to see what I'm talking about: On Bookstore Quality, go to page 2 of in that little frame in the middle of the page to see what they show what you get for binding on a soft cover book - page 3 shows hard cover. I do not know the terms for bookmaking/binding so bear with me. The picture of the softcover book is how it is bound when hard cover is chosen as well - only difference is that they put a hard cover on. The actualy binding is the same as in the photo. Pages glued at the one edge, and then base of the spine (where the pages are glued) they have a strip of fabric to strengthen the spine, and attach to the hard covering.
Will the binding last? I don't know - without having anything to compare it to in front of me, I can't say if it's good or bad. I'm jus saying ordering the hard cover doesn't mean better binding. I really wish they had something embossed on the cover though! You loose that dust jacket, and you are stuck opening it all the time to see what book it is.
Photos printed: Someone here said that someone else mentioned that the photos printed a stop darker. We have to realize something here you guys: Looking at a CRT screen is different than a LCD screen. Looking at any computer screen is different than looking at printed media. So this might explain that 1 stop difference. It all depends on the lighting (amount of, type of). The crt and the lcd displays the images differently, and is totally different from printed images.
Some photos that I actually thought would print lousy came out really nice. There where a few pages where in the photo I had some small printing (side of an aircraft) where you couldn't quite read the text. Some of the text as printed was about 1.0 - 1.5 mm so I can say that not much could have being done about that! Plus, on the one photo the text was questionable even on the computer screen, so I can not complain about that. There had being a few photos that where a touch softer than I remember, but I don't have those photos on the laptop anymore for me to compare. A couple photos had a slight colour cast to them, but that was my fault - I didn't correct those colour casts in those photos.
Some photos started a little dark, so I was curious as to wether or not they would print well or not - and they looked good.
A full stop, half stop dark? I don't know. I don't think so.
Full Bleed Pages: I had a few photos printed full bleed - they indeed go edge to edge. My book was the 8x10 and I am wishing I had a larger book so that those full bleed photos would look bigger/better!
Text: My pages where black, and I went with white text, so all text was easy to read. You can change the font but I used the default. No complaints there.
Things to remember though guys: Not all of my photos started razor sharp - some where scanned negatives (those usually came out a little soft anyway). The photos that had a colour cast (IN the book, not the dust jacket) which was my own fault.
Photos where taken with 5 different digital cameras, one was only a 3 mp. I also used photos taken with at least 3 film cameras then all film/slides scanned by myself with a Nikon Coolscan IV ED. Photos taken with a film camera (like a Pentax K-1000) where taken as far back as the early 90's.
MOST photos did not benefit by me using a tripod. The IR photos, or longer shutter speeds shots like of waterfalls had being taken while using a tripod, but about 95% of the photos where hand held.
I am NOT a PS guru!
ALL my photos where resized to 180 or 200 dpi. Minimum they indicated was 150 dpi. I went with 180 because most of my photos had already being resized to 180 dpi before I got a response to my question (or used photos that I had resized for other projects).
I'm trying to be critical. Looking at this test book to see wether or not I would buy this book (if I hadn't already done so!) if I saw it in a store.
Am I satisfied: Yes and no.I would say I am about 85% satisfied. What I like to see changed: Thicker paper. SOMETHING embossed on the cover: at least on the spine! Something! Momento had 'Momento' embossed on the back cover but I didn't get a dust jacket unless I forgot to choose that option. Overall size of the book seems too small. The Momento book was larger. With the book only 8x10, the photos unless full bleed are too small.
The dust jacket needs work - I didn't like how the colours where over saturated. After all, you judge the book by its cover!
Since I did the Moment book with photos of my child, and the Blurb book was scenery/trains/planes, I can't say which is better. I am overall happy with the printing of the photos in the Blurb book. Any 'issues' had being caused by myself.
IF you do make a book - do NOT do something like: on a page,referring the reader to another page!!! I tried really hard to keep things straight but I still messed that up by adding a photo here and there!! Make triple sure you proof read the text! And maybe have someone else do it too..there was a few mistakes - again MY fault.
Would I use Blurb again? Well guys and gals, I am not a professional so I don't need to be so critical as some of you might have to be, but for me I would continue to use Blurb. For one they have books as large as 440 pages and the price is good. So for family sort of stuff, Blurb is fine for me and yes I would use them again. I prefer the quality of the Momento book but I had issues with them too (text issues). Plus they don't ship to you unless you live in Australia - which I don't. I just hope that in the printed pages that they print photos of people better than they printed on the dust jacket!
If Momento had better prices and shipped anywhere in the world, I would use Momento.
I hope I didn't scare some of you from using Blurb. Overall good but I prefer thicker paper as an example. Ease of use of the software, price of the books, and ability togo from 20 to 440 pages is a bonus.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.
Derek
What did Cinderella say when she left the photo shop? "One day my prints will come."
I ordered a soft cover photo book from Blurb, and am waiting for it to arrive. It is currently in transit. Someone at Blurb apparently liked it, as they chose it as last weeks Book of the Week http://www.blurberatiblog.com/. It's about 3 postings down, titled "Book of the Week hangs ten". I'll update everyone when it arrives.
http://www.chrislaudermilkphoto.com/
I was planning on contacting Blurb on the dustjacket issue, but I'm so bored here at work I actually forgot to e-mail them.
I do that NOW that I'm thinking about it.
Derek
What did Cinderella say when she left the photo shop? "One day my prints will come."
E-mail sent, I will post Blurbs reply when I receive it
What did Cinderella say when she left the photo shop? "One day my prints will come."
Link: http://www.mpix.com/productsinfo.aspx
Swim for Them | WellmanHouse.net | AlbumFetcher | SmugShowBuilder
Well they already have proof portfolios - so maybe the books will be here soon. I would give them a try if not to expensive.
The thing I liked about blurb is the cost - my 200 pagebook for 60.90 USD shipped, where as a book half the pages was twice the cost from Momento (but I regress, I really like Momento quality)
What did Cinderella say when she left the photo shop? "One day my prints will come."
The cover photo on my dustjacket printed perfectly. There is a photo of me on the inside of the dustjacket that did not. All of the photos on all 108 pages were perfect, at least as far as I was concerned (and who else matters?).
I was very happy with mine.
Smugmug site
Blog Portfolio
Facebook
I would say that the Blub book was about the same size but I would have to measure it to be 100%.
Since mine was for me, I only have to please myself but I'd be more critical than anyone else.
What did Cinderella say when she left the photo shop? "One day my prints will come."
I can't take credit for the idea. Someone in another forum asked me to photograph it and to give it some scale. (So I thought of the ruler!:ivar )
My only complaint with Blurb is there is no live way to edit the book once you've uploaded it to them. You have to change the book on your PC and then re-upload the whole thing again. Lulu had a decent online tool for doing this. I repeated one photo and would like to delete it out but it was too much hassle. I don't figure I'll ever sell any (not even my relatives will buy one, darn it) so it doesn't really matter.
I'm sure that someday we will be able to do this here at Smugmug and when we can I'm sure we will be given the best tools to do it. So I view this as a short term solution!
Smugmug site
Blog Portfolio
Facebook
The Blurb book is exactly the same as your Lulu book.
I sent a e-mail to Blurb about my issue with the dust jacket, but so far just the automated reply that they got my e-mail, and that it's being forwarded to the proper dude.
I'll post any response I might get from a real person.
Derek
What did Cinderella say when she left the photo shop? "One day my prints will come."
Awesome review, Derek. Thank you for posting. Sounds like blurb might not be the best choice for a fancy portfolio-- though the price is nice. This review is VERY helpful.
Portland, Oregon Photographer Pete Springer
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Thanks Pete - glad I was of some help.
What did Cinderella say when she left the photo shop? "One day my prints will come."
Thanks
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Frank
ACtually, Dryden! I totally agree with you onthe BS 'brokerage charges' - the last one I paid was $40 bucks!
But I did NOT get charged any brokerage fees 'so far'. The book was delivered already, and the delievery guy did not ask for any payment, nor have I so far received anything from UPS 'so far'.
The only shipping fee I paid was what ever Blurb charged forshipping (I think it was $12.95 USD).
I will reply to this thread again in a week or two to say wether or not I had in fact received anything from UPS in the form of BS brokerage fees.
I will also like to point out that on the two orders I had shipped from Adorama using UPS I did not get dinged with brokerage fees - but Adorama does charge a minumum of $50 USD as far as I can tell to ship stuff to Canada - which is *BS*because the same item(s) can be shipped to an American addy for like $13 USD.
What did Cinderella say when she left the photo shop? "One day my prints will come."
i'm working on a blurb book now and about ready to submit. I just did a measurement and 8x10 is really small! Does anyone know of other self publishers that offer BIGGER books? (Besides ASUKA...I use thm for weddings but they're kinda pricey for portrait clients?)
THX!!
Lynne
50mm 1.4, 85mm 1.8, 24-70 2.8L, 35mm 1.4L, 135mm f2L
ST-E2 Transmitter + (3) 580 EXII + radio poppers
I used Picaboo to put together a wedding album for my niece. I was impressed by the quality of the photos especially since one of the photos I used was well-below the recommended resolution. I also like the sample albums they had. They gave me alot of good ideas for the layout.
Just got my first blurb book and have to say I was expecting the worst, but was very pleasantly surprised.
I'll try to be concise.
Cover: Very nice gloss, layout printed exactly the way I expected it to. I had read here that color images on the cover stock printed funny so I stuck to black and white and it was really stunning. My friend (who doesn't know the kid on the cover at all) picked it up and got tears in her eyes. She was so impressed, the professional "tangibility." That said, I did put a tiny color image on the inside cover and it was whacked. Pixelly, this strange lemon yellow cast...horrible.
PAges: very nice feel. a nice sheen to them without being reflective. Seems to resist fingerprints.
Images: Again, very impressed by the black and white images. The sharpness, grain, tonality and exposure were almost all right on. There were a few places where the shadows were deeper than in other prints/on screen, but negligible. Color images were odd. A customer would be happy with them, but I found them a bit softer than shot, overall a half-stop under exposed (based on comparable EZprints) and its weird, but the shadow areas were a full or even 2 stops darker than normal. There are a few pics that seemed exposed close to normal in the face area, then in the neck/shadow area, almost like there was a vignette. Kinda odd.
Layout/bleed/trim: This was where I expected flubs. I am a graphic designer who buys lots of printing and thought : these print on demand places are going to hack this up. I was so wrong. Every bleed, every gutter, every trim was right on. And I'm a perfectionist about those things.
I'm pretty happy overall, and am looking forward to offering these to my portrait clients. If they had a bigger size than 8x10, I might even consider offering them as a budget wedding album, but I'm trying a few other places first.
HTH
lynne
50mm 1.4, 85mm 1.8, 24-70 2.8L, 35mm 1.4L, 135mm f2L
ST-E2 Transmitter + (3) 580 EXII + radio poppers
So it sounds like you are best off sticking with B&W images on the covers and bumping the inner images by 1/2 stop to get them printed properly.
http://www.chrislaudermilkphoto.com/
Thanks for the review...I just received an product update from them today stating:
By very popular demand we now offer two new distinct sizes: a large format landscape 13x11 book (starting at $54.95 and available in hardcover with dust jacket only) and a square 7x7 book (starting at $12.95 and available in both hardcover and softcover).
The 13x11 might be just what you are looking for...
It is funny because when you look at their FAQ it states (http://www.blurb.com/help/faq#WhatBookBindings) that the size is 13x10.
Either way, it might be what you are looking for...
Thanks,
Lee
Darn it you beat me to it!
What did Cinderella say when she left the photo shop? "One day my prints will come."
freakin A!!!! that rocks! I like the 13x11 idea even better than the 12x12 idea (too scrapbook-y!) The 7x7s would be great "parent" albums.
Now, the only question is do I really lower my "book prices" or do I just enjoy a bigger profit margin over ASUKA?
50mm 1.4, 85mm 1.8, 24-70 2.8L, 35mm 1.4L, 135mm f2L
ST-E2 Transmitter + (3) 580 EXII + radio poppers