Amirko (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} amirko) wrote in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} paperwaste,@ 2008-07-18 13:15:00 |
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Review of Coffee Table book printed on Blurb.com
This is a review on my photo book printed on www.blurb.com POD service.
I received it a while ago, so this is not the first impression.
Ok, here is the book:
"La Machine a Habiter", Large Format Landscape 13x11 inches (33x28 cm), 152 pages.
link to the book on Blurb's site
This is a book of black and white street/cityscape images I have shoot in 2004-2008.
Originals are 35mm and medium-format BW negatives with exception of few digital shots.
Book preview is available at Blurb and here at my pbase site.
I previously published some books with blurb (8x10 portraits), you'll find some comparison below.
BookSmart
To create you book, blurb want you to use their software, BookSmart.
It is still marked as beta and suffered many problems and errors in the past.
There is no way around. Download it, install it and use it -- BookSmart's interface is pretty intuitive.
You have to make you choice of format in very beginning and it can not be changed on later stages.
I liked BookSmart, it served me well. Of course it is slow, especially when book is getting bigger (mine is around 0.5 Gb when exported).
But on my system at home (running Windows XP-64bit with 4Gigs of memory, fast HDD and DualCore processor) speed was ok.
During you work it is recommended to export and backup the book as soon as any considerable changes had been made; this way you are not going to loose it due to simple HDD crush or alike.
Images to be printed
Images have to be not less then 300dpi resolution and I actually used bigger dpi with good results.
RGB color space is recommended, do not use grayscale for B&W images, just desaturate them.
I used simplest templates just to supply page number and full-bleed templates for 2-page spreads.
Upload
When book was ready and I clicked "Buy Book" button it took almost 2 hours on my home DSL for BookSmart to upload the book.
Well, these 2 hours were just the beginning of long waiting for production to finish and then for book to arrive.
Overall it is 10-14 days from the order till you receive the actual book (estimate is base on 4 books I have printed so far on blurb).
Shipping and packaging
The shipping is very slow unless you have not ordered faster service (I have not), but every step is trackable and it is UPS.
Package is not the best one, it is very cheap and can be broken easily but luckily the book arrived unharmed.
First impression
At first glance, I liked it very much:
The book is really big; need some distance to look at.
Blacks are good density and I see very little color shift. I think print quality is acceptable.
Resolution is ok, 35mm grain can be easily seen.
Tonal gradations are also consistent with what preview in BookSmart is showing; with one important exception: the cover (i.e dust jacket).
It is too dark. See more on this in "Printing problems and errors" paragraph below.
Binding
This is a main surprise -- the real binding, not a simple one like I have seen before for 8x10 book:
The full binding is a way better then glue-only. The book opens flatter and it is also less prone to breakage.
Bravo, Blurb!
Paper
Paper used for this book is the same I have seen in my 8x10 books. Been adequate for 8x10 it is too light for bigger books like this one.
I would like Blurb to offer choices of paper (matte, heavy weight etc). The current paper is also too transparent.
The book now in use for almost a month I can tell it creases very easy. It is not that bad, but I would say it is on the edge of acceptance.
All the "real production" coffee table photo books in my collection have better paper.
Cost
Price is very competitive; probably the best one. Less then $100 for such a big and solid book (+shipping) is a great price at the moment.
Printing problems and errors
Yes, there are few.
Here is a photo of the very same image as above but on the cover:
It is obviously too dark. There are no details in shadows.
I contacted blurb's support and opened this thread in their forums.
I have received a book with dust cover from blurb before and it was printed good -- at least consistent with BookSmart's preview.
This one is way off. According to blurb (see the thread above) this is fairly normal thing to happen which is a big "-" for me.
Still, the overall tonality of the book itself is ok.
Another error, a small one:
This white stripe in the middle of the spread is not in BookSmart's preview, has to be printing error.
Conclusion
For this book, I would give Blurb 3.5 out of 5 points due to paper quality and printing errors
(most important, no paper choice and no way offered to fix the dust jacket's printing error).
I still going to print at least one copy of the book; I also going to try another POD printer.
What's next, VioVio? Lulu? MyPublisher? do not know yet. Probably VioVio since I have already tried Lulu and MyPublisher.
This is a review on my photo book printed on www.blurb.com POD service.
I received it a while ago, so this is not the first impression.
Ok, here is the book:
"La Machine a Habiter", Large Format Landscape 13x11 inches (33x28 cm), 152 pages.
link to the book on Blurb's site
This is a book of black and white street/cityscape images I have shoot in 2004-2008.
Originals are 35mm and medium-format BW negatives with exception of few digital shots.
Book preview is available at Blurb and here at my pbase site.
I previously published some books with blurb (8x10 portraits), you'll find some comparison below.
BookSmart
To create you book, blurb want you to use their software, BookSmart.
It is still marked as beta and suffered many problems and errors in the past.
There is no way around. Download it, install it and use it -- BookSmart's interface is pretty intuitive.
You have to make you choice of format in very beginning and it can not be changed on later stages.
I liked BookSmart, it served me well. Of course it is slow, especially when book is getting bigger (mine is around 0.5 Gb when exported).
But on my system at home (running Windows XP-64bit with 4Gigs of memory, fast HDD and DualCore processor) speed was ok.
During you work it is recommended to export and backup the book as soon as any considerable changes had been made; this way you are not going to loose it due to simple HDD crush or alike.
Images to be printed
Images have to be not less then 300dpi resolution and I actually used bigger dpi with good results.
RGB color space is recommended, do not use grayscale for B&W images, just desaturate them.
I used simplest templates just to supply page number and full-bleed templates for 2-page spreads.
Upload
When book was ready and I clicked "Buy Book" button it took almost 2 hours on my home DSL for BookSmart to upload the book.
Well, these 2 hours were just the beginning of long waiting for production to finish and then for book to arrive.
Overall it is 10-14 days from the order till you receive the actual book (estimate is base on 4 books I have printed so far on blurb).
Shipping and packaging
The shipping is very slow unless you have not ordered faster service (I have not), but every step is trackable and it is UPS.
Package is not the best one, it is very cheap and can be broken easily but luckily the book arrived unharmed.
First impression
At first glance, I liked it very much:
The book is really big; need some distance to look at.
Blacks are good density and I see very little color shift. I think print quality is acceptable.
Resolution is ok, 35mm grain can be easily seen.
Tonal gradations are also consistent with what preview in BookSmart is showing; with one important exception: the cover (i.e dust jacket).
It is too dark. See more on this in "Printing problems and errors" paragraph below.
Binding
This is a main surprise -- the real binding, not a simple one like I have seen before for 8x10 book:
The full binding is a way better then glue-only. The book opens flatter and it is also less prone to breakage.
Bravo, Blurb!
Paper
Paper used for this book is the same I have seen in my 8x10 books. Been adequate for 8x10 it is too light for bigger books like this one.
I would like Blurb to offer choices of paper (matte, heavy weight etc). The current paper is also too transparent.
The book now in use for almost a month I can tell it creases very easy. It is not that bad, but I would say it is on the edge of acceptance.
All the "real production" coffee table photo books in my collection have better paper.
Cost
Price is very competitive; probably the best one. Less then $100 for such a big and solid book (+shipping) is a great price at the moment.
Printing problems and errors
Yes, there are few.
Here is a photo of the very same image as above but on the cover:
It is obviously too dark. There are no details in shadows.
I contacted blurb's support and opened this thread in their forums.
I have received a book with dust cover from blurb before and it was printed good -- at least consistent with BookSmart's preview.
This one is way off. According to blurb (see the thread above) this is fairly normal thing to happen which is a big "-" for me.
Still, the overall tonality of the book itself is ok.
Another error, a small one:
This white stripe in the middle of the spread is not in BookSmart's preview, has to be printing error.
Conclusion
For this book, I would give Blurb 3.5 out of 5 points due to paper quality and printing errors
(most important, no paper choice and no way offered to fix the dust jacket's printing error).
I still going to print at least one copy of the book; I also going to try another POD printer.
What's next, VioVio? Lulu? MyPublisher? do not know yet. Probably VioVio since I have already tried Lulu and MyPublisher.
