Blurb quality

[twirlerzmom]

My 3 books I made at Blurb just came and I'm a little disappointed in the quality but I don't have anything else to compare to so I don't know if I'm disappointed in their print process or my own shortcomings.

First, let me say, overall I'm satisfied with my books. They seem sturdy and for the most part seem to have printed very well. However, most of my photos (not so much the digital elements) seem to have printed darker than what they should be. My cover picture is alot darker than what I see on my monitor and from what prints out on my own printer (both Epson and Canon ones). I don't have expensive monitor calibrating software but if that were the problem wouldn't everything be "off" in color? Only the photos are. And mostly it's skin tones, not so much other items in the photos. They're a tad darker, duller and not "crisp"....like if I would choose economy mode on my home printer and I can see very faint lines in the skintones. Anyone understand what I mean by that?? I didn't choose the premium paper so could that be the root of my issues? I've never printed any books from them before or any other company so I don't have anything to compare to which is why I'm wondering if it's something I did, or that's just how books print out-rather flat and dull?

I probably should have had one book printed on the premium paper so I had something to compare too.....darnit! NOW I think of that!

[Jen D]

I have never used them... but if you are that unhappy I would contact them. Maybe like shutterfly they do that vivid pics thing that always throws things off.

I have used another company and I was printing individual pages... but I experienced the same thing you are describing. I now use scrapping simply and have had no issue. But, again that is individual layouts not books =(

I know a few ladies have used blurb so I am sure they can offer more insight.

[twirlerzmom]

Hmmm I just read this on their site:

"There may be minor differences across different prints of the same books and/or across books printed by our different book-printing partners, including, but not limited to, slight variances in color fidelity and binding type. While we work very hard to keep our product as consistent as possible, this variation is a normal occurrence and is not considered a manufacturing defect or a defect in workmanship and does not qualify for a reprint. "

Sounds like that might be what happened. Well that kinda sucks

[earlofoxford]

Jan, definitely contact customer service at Blurb if you're unhappy with anything about your books. They are very accommodating. I have done that, and they offered to reprint my book or give me a credit for the amount.

[earlofoxford]

We must have been posting at the same time, Jan. That disclaimer must be something new, as I don't recall seeing it before. It still couldn't hurt to try customer service. They may want you to take a picture of the part you don't like.

[dugarner]

My cover picture is much darker---but it is probably due to the cover material they print on. I think it absorbs more ink than the regular paper. (My cover and my title page are the same, so I was able to compare them side-by-side.) My color is very close to what I see on my monitor, and I did use the premium paper. Lighter-weight paper is not going to take the inks as well, I would imagine. The premium paper is actually a little heavier than Shutterfly. But I would follow Linda's advice and contact customer service.

[twirlerzmom]

Well I went ahead and contacted Customer Service. After I look at my book in the sun the faint lines become very obvious and the whole page looks "grainy" for lack of a better term. This is really going to bug me and if that's their typical print out then I'll probably switch companies because it bothers me that much. I'll post a follow up and let you know what they say.

[twirlerzmom]

Update: Customer Service got back to me on my concerns. They asked if I could upload some pictures of the pages that I thought were dark and/or had fine lines running through the printed page. I did that last night. CS replied back to me today. Although the color and brightness in my printed pages is not something they guarantee as being 100% accurate they did agree that the fine lines showing through is not par for their quality standards. They have generously offered me a coupon equal to my TOTAL order (that's 3 books worth) on my next purchase. I didn't expect that but am so pleased that I will definitely give them another shot.

This is what they told me about their printing process and some of their suggestions for next time:

"As a print-on-demand, self-publishing service, we do not do any type of color correction or alterations to the book that you've uploaded for print. Once you upload a book, it is immediately flattened and rendered for print. No editing can be done from our side to a flattened, print-only file. Once you have placed your order, your flattened, print-only file goes through an automated printing process during which neither the people of Blurb, nor our print partners are able to proof, revise, or, in any manner, change the content that is being printed.

The slight color difference looks like it's something that can be expected from a print-on-demand, self-publishing platform. Blurb does not technically honor color/ICC profiles--meaning we do not guarantee an exact match between what you see on screen and what will appear in your printed book--but there are ways to manage color while anticipating slight hue differences from print run to print run.

-Besides ensuring that your images are in the sRGB colorspace, you can also include a color chart in the back of your book so that you can make some adjustments before placing a larger order of the same book.

-Black and white images are best added to BookSmart as PNG files and not JPGs, and desaturated to remove any potential color cast. "

[earlofoxford]

Jan, I'm glad you got a positive response from Blurb. I thought you would.

[Jellsy]

Ack, I was just going to print a 70 page book at blurb and now I'm scared!!
Since it is a 12 x 12 book, the photos and pages are quite large and I'm concerned about quality.
I have printed with shutterfly, but the cost would be so much more. I did notice printing was somewhat darker with shutterfly as well, so perhaps this is going to be the same.
Another concern I have is the cover... I have enlarge the 'image spot' on both the front and back covers to accommodate my 12x12 full bleed image, and my text and photos are centered exactly on the page. I'm wondering with the 'imagewrap' if it will come out centered or too far to the right side, since the right side gets wrapped. Any info would be great! j

[dugarner]

Originally Posted by Jellsy

Ack, I was just going to print a 70 page book at blurb and now I'm scared!!
Since it is a 12 x 12 book, the photos and pages are quite large and I'm concerned about quality.
I have printed with shutterfly, but the cost would be so much more. I did notice printing was somewhat darker with shutterfly as well, so perhaps this is going to be the same.
Another concern I have is the cover... I have enlarge the 'image spot' on both the front and back covers to accommodate my 12x12 full bleed image, and my text and photos are centered exactly on the page. I'm wondering with the 'imagewrap' if it will come out centered or too far to the right side, since the right side gets wrapped. Any info would be great! j

Well, I don't want to add fuel to the fire, but as time goes on, I really am not pleased with my Blurb book. That is to say, it just isn't as durable as the Shutterfly books. I have a toddler and a nine-year-old and they are not hard on my books; in fact, they cannot look at them unless I am there with them. But somehow this Blurb book is smeared, stained with grease and who knows what else, and it's been bumped and torn on the top edge of the cover already.

I made sure with my Blurb cover that I used an image that was off-center so that it wouldn't matter where the wrap was, as long as it was showing on the front. I do have to say that their preview software is spot-on; so if you make your cover and preview it in BookSmart, that's what you'll get.

If you can afford it, I'd go with Shutterfly. For a 70 page book, I'd wait to save the $$ and go that route. I'm saving Blurb for my 100+ page books, and even now, I might opt to split a big book into two Shutterfly books.

[2girlsandapoodle]

i have a softcover photo book from both Blurb and Shutterfly that are about the same size although different contents - i LOVE the insides of each - quality and colour is super. i actually issues with the covers of both, for different reasons.

the blurb cover curls at the open edges - i suppose if i weighted it down for a bit they might flatten and stay like that. that's my only problem with my experience with Blurb - i plan to use them again (i also love the pricing). the cover is heavier than the pages but still rather thin, and glossy.

My shutterfly book is one from their "simple path" - the cover is called softcover, but it's more like cardboard or coverstock and stiff, and where it bends at the spine you can see where the outside has already cracked and reveals the white of the inside of the paper underneath (and the print is black in these areas so you can really see this). the corners have also worn easily. it was barely handled before the cracking occurred, and i find that much more disappointing than the curled Blurb cover. i love the Shutterfly print quality as well, so neither incident would deter me from using either again entirely.

[ccblue]

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.

[Jellsy]

Interesting, about the different printers outside of USA. I'm in Australia. I priced out the books and it worked out that if I were to print over 40something pages, it was MUCH cheaper to go with Blurb. I can print up to 80 pages before I jump up to the next price category and if I remember correctly it was about 45-50$ cheaper than doing it with Shutterfly. When I get my final page count I'll recalculate, because if I'm using premium paper - that price will go up with Blurb. It would REALLY be a pain having to upload pages to shutterfly now that my pages are already in Blurb's Booksmart!

I'm most concerned with my centered items on the cover of a hardcover Imagewrap. I really don't want to change my design. They say they 'digitally stretch' the cover image to wrap but they don't say that this changes the orientation of the page.

All of your experiences are very helpful though. I don't think I'll go with a soft cover, my teenage daughter is about as careful as a 4 year old. Love her, but know her well!

I wonder if I could get my monitor calibrated at the mac store. I have applecare and I'm getting a new keyboard replaced by them on thursday... hmmm....

Janelle

[rsowers]

I did a book recently from Blurb just to try them out. I was excited about the fact that you can include more pages than Shutterfly, and I have to say that compared to my Shutterfly albums, the pictures in my Blurb album look dull and pixelated. I wasn't that happy with them, either. I even had a couple pages that were the same as in one of my Shutterfly books, and they look very different. I didn't call the company, but I won't use them in the future.

[Jellsy]

Originally Posted by rsowers

I did a book recently from Blurb just to try them out. I was excited about the fact that you can include more pages than Shutterfly, and I have to say that compared to my Shutterfly albums, the pictures in my Blurb album look dull and pixelated. I wasn't that happy with them, either. I even had a couple pages that were the same as in one of my Shutterfly books, and they look very different. I didn't call the company, but I won't use them in the future.

Renee, do you remember if you used the reg paper or the premium paper? Not sure how much difference it will make. I'm just curious.

Janelle

[earlofoxford]

Renee, Blurb has very good customer service. If you're unhappy with your album, you should contact them.

[esther_a]

I just had an album delivered by Blurb. The quality of the print was fine but I did notice that the photos are not quite as crisp and vibrant as my Shutterfly album. I was able to compare one of the photos that I printed in both. I printed in premium paper and that paper was quite nice and thick but not as smooth to the touch as the Shutterfly paper. Given the big difference in price I think the difference in print and paper quality is very minor. I did a bit of research before I printed the Blurb book and although there were a few people who had print problems almost everyone seemed to be very happy with Blurb Customer Service.

[JALong]

Whenever I have anything printed I lighten it. Right now I am doing this:

Flatten image
Copy layer
Change that layer to screen
Change opacity on screen to 20%
Save as a JPEG--I indicate that it is ready for upload to Shutterfly by putting a SF before the title in this copy.

BTW: I have to lighten any project that I take to Office Max for printing, too.

[twirlerzmom]

Blurb sent me a coupon worth $231 (my total of my previous 3 books that I wasn't happy with) and I used it towards printing 3 different books that should arrive on Tuesday. I'm anxious to see them. On one book I ordered the premium paper (I used the standard on my first 3 books) to see if there is a difference in the colors or print quality. I think I might spend the money to buy a calibration program though. Maybe that would help resolve some issues.

[twirlerzmom]

My 3 new Blurb books just came and I must say I'm really impressed this time around. The covers seem nicer (not as dark) and the majority of my pages printed just as I viewed them (no graininess, lines or too dark). Some of my photos (including a cover photo) did not print the greatest but that's not Blurb's fault-they were bad photos taken back in the day before digital cameras were made. I did order the premium paper in one book and the pages are a tad glossier than their regular paper. I do like that alot. After seeing this batch of books printed I don't think I would hesitate using Blurb again. Maybe my first set of books that I had printed (and didn't like) ran through a bad press or something?

[angie wags]

Thanks for the instructions, Janet. I'm going to try that.

[Jellsy]

Good to hear you love your books, Jan! I bet you can't stop looking at them.

And thank you Janet for the 'screen/opacity' advice, I'm going to try in on this book I'm uploading. Shutterfly is having a 20% off sale until the 19th, plus $10 off of any purchase, plus free shipping to USA or Canada - and since I'm going to Canada in August - I might as well send it to my Mom's there. I'll try blurb next time!!

Janellee

[ValerieP]

That is good to know, because I think by the time I add up all of the random pages I have made about our explorations in this state, I might need a 200 page book!

[hulseyfam]

Love all the info here! I really need to get to working on my book. Is there anyway I can save this thread for future reference??

[esther_a]

Jaime, up the top of the thread is a heading "Thread Tools" with a pull down menu and you can choose "Subscribe to this thread" from there.

[hulseyfam]

Thanks Esther!