I had the same experience with dark photos with both Shutterfly and Blurb until I calibrated my monitor. I bought one of those Spyder2-Express devices, it was about $75. You might also check how you're saving your layouts (choose the highest quality), I always start with 300 dpi and when I put the photos in the layout I try not to increase their size too much, otherwise I'll get grainy photos when I print. Looks fine on the screen, but the screen in only 72 dpi.
My second book with Blurb was absolutely gorgeous. It did have cropping issues (some pages had white lines at the bottom) which I reported to them and within 15 minutes they sent a note saying that a new copy was on it's way which was gorgeous without cropping issues.
I have heard about differences of printers that Blurb uses, but that was outside the U.S. (not sure where you are). Blurb is in Seattle and I'm in the southeast and my books come cross country from Seattle.
I do recommend the premium paper, it feels really nice and it doesn't show dents where people have turned the page. I haven't had any issues with durability, but I don't have small children either.
I do like Shutterfly's quality. Their glossy covers seems brighter than the matte finish that Blurb uses. With Shutterfly, i've had issues with two page spreads and they are limited to 100 pages. I also think the vivid pictures thing and uploading each individual page is a pain.
I think Shutterfly is having a sale right now, last time I checked it was 20% off until May 19th. If your book is less than 50 pages the price is actually better with Shutterfly (with the sale). I can't seem to my books short (much like this post), which is how I ended up with Blurb.
Hope that helps.
|