Hi Denise, our Forums are the right place for comments and suggestions. If you have a specific problem with an order, that should be sent to us via our Order Support here http://www.blurb.com/help/order_support.
We appreciate your feedback. And, since you are a member here, you can always PM me if you have a specific issue that is not being addressed.
Best,
--bw
I've just checked the Blurb forum for responses to Denise's various posts. There has now been a response from a member of Blurb staff :-
Your post has lots of detailed info and questions here, but it’s not something the community at large can answer. Technical issues like these are best served by filling out a Technical Support form, so someone can work with you on an individual.
That said, there are a lot of variables that might be contributing to what is going on and why your results might differ from someone else’s. For instance, both the camera used and the program used to upload images to SmugMug, can have a lot to do with how BookSmart reads data. Unfortunately, we have no idea if this is a larger issue until we can do more research. Also, keep in mind that BookSmart is compatible with a lot of platforms (PC, Mac, SmugMug, Flickr, blog apps, etc.), and creating the exact same user experience for each one is something we try to do the best we can.
As you noted, you can still build your book, albeit in more of a manual fashion than you hoped for.
Thanks for your patience.
Bruce,
May I please request that the issues raised in this and Denise's other posts to Blurb's forum can be dealt with in an open forum ? Assuming Denise doesn't mind of course Its likely the answers will be of interest to many of us and will ultimately make the experience of using Blurb a better one for the users and ultimately more profitable for Blurb - Happy Customers=More Sales=Bigger Profits
I've just checked the Blurb forum for responses to Denise's various posts. There has now been a response from a member of Blurb staff :-
"That said, there are a lot of variables that might be contributing to what is going on and why your results might differ from someone else’s. For instance, both the camera used and the program used to upload images to SmugMug, can have a lot to do with how BookSmart reads data. Unfortunately, we have no idea if this is a larger issue until we can do more research. Also, keep in mind that BookSmart is compatible with a lot of platforms (PC, Mac, SmugMug, Flickr, blog apps, etc.), and creating the exact same user experience for each one is something we try to do the best we can. As you noted, you can still build your book, albeit in more of a manual fashion than you hoped for."
Bruce,
May I please request that the issues raised in this and Denise's other posts to Blurb's forum can be dealt with in an open forum ? Assuming Denise doesn't mind of course Its likely the answers will be of interest to many of us and will ultimately make the experience of using Blurb a better one for the users and ultimately more profitable for Blurb - Happy Customers=More Sales=Bigger Profits
Caroline
I don't mind at all.
In somewhat bad support behavior, I did send all 5 of my issues through to tech support as well as placing them in the forums. I explained my bad customer support behavior at the beginning of my support query with this:
This is probably not good customer behavior because I have also posted in your BookSmart forum, but there was a reason behind that posting. I am a new blurb customer, and I am also a SmugMug customer. There are many of us at SmugMug / Digital Grin who were the recipients of a coupon for a free blurb book, and I believe that many of us may run into the same issues. That's the reason that I chose to post in the forum - to share information with other SmugMug / blurb customers. But - I would like an answer from blurb about my issues (as well as potential responses from the blurb community).
I got a "that's something we're thinking about answer" on some of the questions via email - I'll post those responses in this thread since there was no response in the blurb forum.
But - I am currently in the middle of an email stream with blurb support about the incorrect file names, date taken, and date modified - the only issue I placed on the forum where I received any response at all from blurb support.
I'm on my way out right now, but will add a post later with the answers (and non-answers) I received via email.
In case anyone is interested in the answers I received on the blurb issues that I posted in the BookSmart forum, I will include the answers here. I did not receive answers in the forum, but did receive some answers to the email that I sent to blurb support. OK, on to the answers:
Q: No title on book (hardcover) as opposed to on the book jacket A: We are definitely researching the ability to have a title imprinted on the actual cover of the book and not just the dust cover.
Q: allow author to specify default font A: The way you can define a default font is to select the font you want on one page, then copy and paste that page or pages and it will retain the font you choose
Q: Request to allow resizing of photo boxes on pages Q: Auto cropping and resizing (photos automatically default to cropped, when I wanted them to default to show the full image) A: We are currently looking into the ability to allow users to choose more default options in futer releases of BookSmart. Until then, you will need to change each image container that you don't want cropped individually. As with the default options, we will look into an option that allows users to move and resize containers on the fly.
Q: Image name and date taken are not preserved from EXIF of photo.
This is a huge issue for me. The name appears to be cloned from the smugmug unique identifier as opposed to the actual file name. And the date taken and date modified are somewhat of a mystery. That makes sorting of the photos essentially unusable, making it very difficult to find the photos I was looking for as I created my pages. (Or perhaps they were trying to tell me that I was including too many photos...) I sent the following information to blurb support via explanation plus screen shots
File name. EXIF in smugmug shows file name as IMG_8659L.jpg. That matches the file name on my computer. File name in blurb's BookSmart on photo pulled in from smug shows as 2041176848-f7b82be6e820551c0bc31dd0a78adcf2-3.jpg. Huh? If I import the photo inot blurb from my hard drive as opposed to from smug then the file name is correct
Date taken. On my computer, shows as 9/21/07. In smug's EXIF, shows as 9/21/07. In blurb's BookSmart with photo imported from smug, shows as 10/4/07. If I pull the file in from my hard drive instead of smug, it shows as 9/30/07. The photo was taken on 9/21/07, and was modified on 9/30/07. To me, the ability to sort by date taken is an strong requirement.
Date modified. On my computer and in smug, this is the date that I last changed the photo. In blurb it appears to be the date the photo was uploaded to blurb. To me, this is useless information.
A: The initial response from blurb was essentially the one that Caroline included in her post, stating that "both the camera used and the program used to upload images to SmugMug, can have a lot to do with how BookSmart reads EXIF data". What? Funny that my computer and the EXIF on Smug matches. So where is BookSmart pulling this information from? That made no sense at all to me, and I exchanged several more emails with blurb support, telling them that I considered this to be a bug and not something that should just be considered for a future release.
The last response I received from blurb indicated that they are working on a new release of BookSmart. No date was given (and I didn't expect one), and no promise was made that this issue would be corrected. I'd like to be an optomist and believe that this is an issue that will be solved.
I would be interested in hearing if other folks importing photos from SmugMug ran into the same problem that I did with the file names and date taken.
question!
[Hey, so I saw that one of your postings said you might have more codes for the free books. I know it's kind of late, but figured, I'd ask.
please let me know and thank you!
[Hey, so I saw that one of your postings said you might have more codes for the free books. I know it's kind of late, but figured, I'd ask.
please let me know and thank you!
Ah well, :-(, live and learn. I did a book on Lulu and it was not overall a pleasant experiance. I've signed up at Blurb and am going through the forums and faq and see there are a lot of issues. The software does seem mostly ok, though not quite as flexible as I'd like.
What is the general preference here, among smuggers? Prepare the pages in photoshop completely, or place the images and resize and crop and such within the blurb software? In other words, if I set up each image to be 8x10 with allowance for bleed, am i better off than putting each image in a page and working it there?
Brandon Smith http://redwoodtwig.com
Sony A7r4 with a selection of Rokinon Cine primes that I'm really enjoying learning how to use.
Ah well, :-(, live and learn. I did a book on Lulu and it was not overall a pleasant experiance. I've signed up at Blurb and am going through the forums and faq and see there are a lot of issues. The software does seem mostly ok, though not quite as flexible as I'd like.
What is the general preference here, among smuggers? Prepare the pages in photoshop completely, or place the images and resize and crop and such within the blurb software? In other words, if I set up each image to be 8x10 with allowance for bleed, am i better off than putting each image in a page and working it there?
I found it easier and quicker to manipulate/place/crop/zoom the images in the Blurb software, but it's not as flexible because they only have a limited number of layout choices if you are trying to put multiple images on a page. So, I ended up doing a little of both. If what I wanted for a page was a layout already supported by Blurb, I just finished the PP on the image, then imported the image into Blurb and positioned, cropped and placed it in Blurb.
But, when I needed multi-image page layouts that weren't in Blurb, I created the final multi-image page in Photoshop and then imported the final result into Blurb.
We used Blurb several months ago to produce a 'Yearbook' for the homeschool group we are in.
Several of the moms are digital scrapbookers and we produced our pages using PSP, PSE, PS and uploading the pages 'full-bleed'.
However if you do that you can't have page numbers on your pages.
(unless you manually figure out what page it will be on beforehand and incorporate the page number into your design).
If you want page numbers then you need to use the Blurb page templates.
We were thrilled with our books btw! They are awesome and reasonably priced.
I recieved my first book from blurb today and overall i am very satisfied.
The pictures that I thought I might have production problems with based on the preview came out better than I expected. Overall color was pretty good. Printing and binding quality is good. A little heavier paper would be nice but the paper used is fine.Their software is not perfect but is acceptable. If they can continue to update and include some of the suggestions I have read here and seen in some of their foums it should be a very reasonable way to put together books that will meet most everyone's needs.
Short of publishing a book through Houghton Mifflin, etc. I do not think you could ask for much more for a small run book. I do not have any other experiences with this but did see a book that was purchased through shutterfly and i was not impressed. It may have been the quality of the photo's used so it might be a tough comparison.
I will be interested to see what happens now that I have at least some experience with this and I try to make new books that meet more exacting specifications then the ones i used on the first.
Hi - I made a couple of Blurb books for the family as Christmas gifts.
I did a simple 'hightlights of 2007' of the kids.
They absolutely loved them! Honesty, they could not put them down!
My sister-in-laws who scrapbook now want to make their own blurb books as well as my brother-in-law thought it would be a great idea to do books
as a fundraiser for the soccer teams he coaches next year (like a small book of poses and action pictures and the proceeds could go to the team).
Ok - enough said - thumbs up on the blurb books. The software was 'simple' to use and I like the variety of types of books offered.
If anything, I think everyone should order one book to see the quality and delivery. I will be offering this to my customers in 2008.
Comments
Bruce,
May I please request that the issues raised in this and Denise's other posts to Blurb's forum can be dealt with in an open forum ? Assuming Denise doesn't mind of course
Caroline
www.carolineshipsey.co.uk - Follow me on G+
[/URL]
In somewhat bad support behavior, I did send all 5 of my issues through to tech support as well as placing them in the forums. I explained my bad customer support behavior at the beginning of my support query with this:
But - I am currently in the middle of an email stream with blurb support about the incorrect file names, date taken, and date modified - the only issue I placed on the forum where I received any response at all from blurb support.
I'm on my way out right now, but will add a post later with the answers (and non-answers) I received via email.
--- Denise
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
A: We are definitely researching the ability to have a title imprinted on the actual cover of the book and not just the dust cover.
A: The way you can define a default font is to select the font you want on one page, then copy and paste that page or pages and it will retain the font you choose
Q: Auto cropping and resizing (photos automatically default to cropped, when I wanted them to default to show the full image)
A: We are currently looking into the ability to allow users to choose more default options in futer releases of BookSmart. Until then, you will need to change each image container that you don't want cropped individually. As with the default options, we will look into an option that allows users to move and resize containers on the fly.
This is a huge issue for me. The name appears to be cloned from the smugmug unique identifier as opposed to the actual file name. And the date taken and date modified are somewhat of a mystery. That makes sorting of the photos essentially unusable, making it very difficult to find the photos I was looking for as I created my pages. (Or perhaps they were trying to tell me that I was including too many photos...) I sent the following information to blurb support via explanation plus screen shots
- File name. EXIF in smugmug shows file name as IMG_8659L.jpg. That matches the file name on my computer. File name in blurb's BookSmart on photo pulled in from smug shows as 2041176848-f7b82be6e820551c0bc31dd0a78adcf2-3.jpg. Huh? If I import the photo inot blurb from my hard drive as opposed to from smug then the file name is correct
- Date taken. On my computer, shows as 9/21/07. In smug's EXIF, shows as 9/21/07. In blurb's BookSmart with photo imported from smug, shows as 10/4/07. If I pull the file in from my hard drive instead of smug, it shows as 9/30/07. The photo was taken on 9/21/07, and was modified on 9/30/07. To me, the ability to sort by date taken is an strong requirement.
- Date modified. On my computer and in smug, this is the date that I last changed the photo. In blurb it appears to be the date the photo was uploaded to blurb. To me, this is useless information.
A: The initial response from blurb was essentially the one that Caroline included in her post, stating that "both the camera used and the program used to upload images to SmugMug, can have a lot to do with how BookSmart reads EXIF data". What? Funny that my computer and the EXIF on Smug matches. So where is BookSmart pulling this information from? That made no sense at all to me, and I exchanged several more emails with blurb support, telling them that I considered this to be a bug and not something that should just be considered for a future release.The last response I received from blurb indicated that they are working on a new release of BookSmart. No date was given (and I didn't expect one), and no promise was made that this issue would be corrected. I'd like to be an optomist and believe that this is an issue that will be solved.
--- Denise
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
[Hey, so I saw that one of your postings said you might have more codes for the free books. I know it's kind of late, but figured, I'd ask.
please let me know and thank you!
Nope, it ran out on Nov 20th.
Markham
www.twitter.com/markhambennett
Homepage • Popular
JFriend's javascript customizations • Secrets for getting fast answers on Dgrin
Always include a link to your site when posting a question
Best,
--bw
so, to satisfy me...you guys feel like taking a pic of your book and posting it up so we can see what it looks like?
I posted a pic of my book's cover earlier in this very thread.
http://pilotdave.smugmug.com/gallery/3940083
Dave
Rgds
We do indeed ship to Austraila.
--bw
Ah well, :-(, live and learn. I did a book on Lulu and it was not overall a pleasant experiance. I've signed up at Blurb and am going through the forums and faq and see there are a lot of issues. The software does seem mostly ok, though not quite as flexible as I'd like.
What is the general preference here, among smuggers? Prepare the pages in photoshop completely, or place the images and resize and crop and such within the blurb software? In other words, if I set up each image to be 8x10 with allowance for bleed, am i better off than putting each image in a page and working it there?
http://redwoodtwig.com
Sony A7r4 with a selection of Rokinon Cine primes that I'm really enjoying learning how to use.
I found it easier and quicker to manipulate/place/crop/zoom the images in the Blurb software, but it's not as flexible because they only have a limited number of layout choices if you are trying to put multiple images on a page. So, I ended up doing a little of both. If what I wanted for a page was a layout already supported by Blurb, I just finished the PP on the image, then imported the image into Blurb and positioned, cropped and placed it in Blurb.
But, when I needed multi-image page layouts that weren't in Blurb, I created the final multi-image page in Photoshop and then imported the final result into Blurb.
Homepage • Popular
JFriend's javascript customizations • Secrets for getting fast answers on Dgrin
Always include a link to your site when posting a question
We used Blurb several months ago to produce a 'Yearbook' for the homeschool group we are in.
Several of the moms are digital scrapbookers and we produced our pages using PSP, PSE, PS and uploading the pages 'full-bleed'.
However if you do that you can't have page numbers on your pages.
(unless you manually figure out what page it will be on beforehand and incorporate the page number into your design).
If you want page numbers then you need to use the Blurb page templates.
We were thrilled with our books btw! They are awesome and reasonably priced.
I recieved my first book from blurb today and overall i am very satisfied.
The pictures that I thought I might have production problems with based on the preview came out better than I expected. Overall color was pretty good. Printing and binding quality is good. A little heavier paper would be nice but the paper used is fine.Their software is not perfect but is acceptable. If they can continue to update and include some of the suggestions I have read here and seen in some of their foums it should be a very reasonable way to put together books that will meet most everyone's needs.
Short of publishing a book through Houghton Mifflin, etc. I do not think you could ask for much more for a small run book. I do not have any other experiences with this but did see a book that was purchased through shutterfly and i was not impressed. It may have been the quality of the photo's used so it might be a tough comparison.
I will be interested to see what happens now that I have at least some experience with this and I try to make new books that meet more exacting specifications then the ones i used on the first.
http://kuzzy.smugmug.com
[URL="http://URL="http://marianhigh.smugmug.com/"]http://marianhigh.smugmug.com"]http://marianhigh.smugmug.com[/URL]
http://www.photo.net/photos/kuzzy
I did a simple 'hightlights of 2007' of the kids.
They absolutely loved them! Honesty, they could not put them down!
My sister-in-laws who scrapbook now want to make their own blurb books as well as my brother-in-law thought it would be a great idea to do books
as a fundraiser for the soccer teams he coaches next year (like a small book of poses and action pictures and the proceeds could go to the team).
Ok - enough said - thumbs up on the blurb books. The software was 'simple' to use and I like the variety of types of books offered.
If anything, I think everyone should order one book to see the quality and delivery. I will be offering this to my customers in 2008.
Great idea and great job !
- jerryr
SmugMug Sites - Creative Examples
Favorite Images and SmugMug Designs
Is this offer still available?
I follow the link but no code appears.
Ceej
It's not available any more, sorry. This was from November last year, and the 500 books went quickly. I wish I had a different answer for you.
Welcome to Digital Grin
www.ivarborst.nl & smugmug