Blurb, DIY book printing review

About a year ago I became a fairly frequent user of flickr.com. One of their partners is a Do It Yourself book publishing company called Blurb. I was very intrigued, and after taking their "BookSmart" software for a spin, I was hooked. More about this review after the bump.

I love the idea of having my own hardcover coffee table book of my photographs. The fact that you can now print your own book, if only 1 copy for yourself, or 30 copies for gift is just amazing to me. What really sold me was the ease-of-use of their BookSmart software for laying out a book. Initially I downlaoded the software just to play with the idea of making a book, only being half-serious about actually ordering it. But after a few tries at making a book with their various templates, I was really impressed with the result.

I have to say, however, had they not offered a version of their software for Apple OS X, I may not have given it a real chance. These days, a MacBook Pro has been my main workstation of choice. After I made my book, it took a few months before I actually ordered it. My first book was a collection of photographs from our April trip to Belize. I did not spend a lot of time with title or descriptions, mainly crammed in an assortment of photos. I opted for a solid black background and some of the photos bleed off of the page. I ordered a single copy, hard cover with a full-bleed dust jacket. The total came to around $35 for a 54 page book.

The book arrived within a week, which is not too bad for UPS ground shipping. It was packaged in a flat cardboard box and the book itself was shrink-wrapped. My first impression was a good one as, the photo on the dust jacket looked great. The book itself was of good quality, with nice binding. However, my impression of the photos on the pages were not as great.

The first thing I noticed was that the photos all seemed a bit dark. This could be due to my work flow not being properly calibrated. The second thing I noticed was the severity of the halftone process they used. The photographic quality was that of a low quality magazine or color newsprint. The halftone was very obvious on just about every photo.

The text and titling quality was sharp, and the black background I chose was glossy and black. The overall quality of the paper and cover were excellent, I have no complaints there. The book feels like a book you would have pulled off the shelf at Barnes & Nobles. But the image quallity left much to be desired. I did a little research into their halftone process and found that they are using HP Indigo 5000 printers. Another Blurb reviewer claims that he has found a way to sharpen photos optimally for their process. Unfortunately, learning his techniques require you to purchase a copy of his Blurb book with those examples. A great idea, but that is $30 bucks I would rather not have to spend.

Would I print another one? I would say yes. Their software makes the production of the book extremely simple (and I will admit, fun). The overall quality of the resulting book is acceptable and the price is not hard to swallow.

In a nutshell:

Pros: