Blurb bookmaking question (covers being dark)

docbell · July 9, 2010

I have now made 5 books through Blurb and have noticed repeated problems in the consistency in the final products. The primary problem is that the covers all seem to print much darker than the original photos. I don't think the problem is on my end because: 1) I regularly calibrate my monitor, and 2) the photos that I have used on the cover do not show the darkness when printed out through smugmug or when being viewed on other computers. One of the books had the photos on the inside of the book much darker than what they should have been, but typically it's only been the covers that have been the problem.
I have spoken with another person who also noted his cover printed noticably darker than the original photo.

Soooo, has anyone else noted this problem when using Blurb. If so, is there anything else I should be doing on my end (other than intentionally lightening the cover photos to hopefully compensate for a darkened final product??).

Thanx for any insight. Kevin.

(moderators - if this is in the wrong forum, sorry. Go ahead and place it where it should be).

deb22 · July 14, 2010

Hi I had the exact same problem, the cover was so dark that I could not even use the book, When i contacted them they seemed very helpful and asked to see pics and then would refund the price. Well I did send them everything and one more contact was made and then NOTHING I have not heard from them again- I ordered a large # of things with that order and I will never use them again.I ordered from 5 other companies and all were o.k but no where near what I can print at home. If anyone knows of a good book company other than blurb please let us know. thank-you.

mehampson · July 14, 2010

I wonder if they're using some auto-correction software that's being fooled by your cover images. Is there an option for using/not using anything like that? I think I remember hearing that their book creation software displays images differently than other software, but I don't know if that means it ignores display profiles or what. I wouldn't import any images into that until they're fully cooked and soft-proofed elsewhere, though.

But really all you can do is make sure your monitor calibration is recent, soft-proof with the print profile they offer, and make sure the images are sRGB before you send them to Blurb. If it turns out the problem is that they've got techs who don't know their job, or they don't calibrate the printers often enough, or whatever, then obviously there's nothing you can do about that but find a different printer.

deb22: I had a book done by Adoramapix (Adorama's lab) a few months ago and was really pleased. The books are leporello-bound photo prints (off the top of my head, I want to say Fuji Crystal paper), not press-printed or anything like that, so the paper, binding, and image quality is great. The downside is they're more expensive than Blurb, so you get fewer or smaller pages per dollar. But if you price out some of the higher-quality options on Blurb, it doesn't come out that much cheaper, and the quality still doesn't come close to Adorama's.

HelenOster · July 14, 2010

mehampson wrote: »

...... I had a book done by Adoramapix (Adorama's lab) a few months ago and was really pleased. .........the quality still doesn't come close to Adorama's.

Thanks so much for your feedback, which I've passed on to the lab.

BTW if you ever need advice or after-sales support with an order from AdoramaPix, or Adorama Camera, please don't hesitate to email me directly.

Blurb bookmaking question (covers being dark)

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