My first Blurb book

I decided to create a Blurb book of photos from my Alaska eagle trip. Since I returned just before Thanksgiving, there wasn't a lot of time to create the book and get it sent out in time for the holidays. It was time-consuming to design the book and I didn't place my order until Dec. 5, so I wasn't able to proof it before having it shipped to friends and family. Today I received a copy and it turned out great. I'm very happy with the quality and the printing of the photos. I did do a bit of reading in the Blurb forums beforehand to learn as much as possible. Here are a few snapshots of the book itself, if anyone is interested! This is the hardcover version.

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What did you use to make the book, software and printing company? Looks good!

showngo wrote in post #4506469
What did you use to make the book, software and printing company? Looks good!

Blurb - http://www.blurb.com . You can download their software and go from there.

looks like an awesome book. do you plan to sell it somehow? if not, may be you should get an online version to share with us

Looks very good, I'm impressed.
I'd downloaded the software awhile back, but haven't had time to put together a book yet... makes me want to look into it again. Thanks for sharing!

Any tips you wish to share?

Your book looks truly amazing! I sent my photos to Blurb last week, can't wait to see the results.
Have never heard of this:
"Here I used Genuine Fractals to increase the image size for the 2-page spread:"
Can you enlighten us?

IB/M wrote in post #4507423
=IB///M;4507423]looks like an awesome book. do you plan to sell it somehow? if not, may be you should get an online version to share with us

Through Blurb you can make your book public on their site and sell for the same price you'd pay to have it printed, or set your own price to sell for a profit. I made my book public because there was really no reason not to, but my intention was just to give to friends/family as a gift. If you want to sell at a profit that gets a lot more complicated - you have to deal with taxes and provide Blurb your SSN so they can send you a 1099.

You can see the page for my book at http://www.blurb.com/b​ookstore/detail/133858

The preview there doesn't look that great, so I was a little nervous about how the real thing would turn out. Actually it turned out really great.

davidcrebelxt wrote in post #4507441
Looks very good, I'm impressed.
I'd downloaded the software awhile back, but haven't had time to put together a book yet... makes me want to look into it again. Thanks for sharing!

Any tips you wish to share?

I didn't do anything too complicated. I made sure all of my images were 300 dpi because that's what they recommend. Also I sized each of them to be the exact recommended resolution for the layout on the page. For each I disabled the automatic cropping that happens when you drop an image on a page, so I could be sure it would appear the way I wanted. I printed out the book on a color laser printer to get an initial idea of what it would look like. Also I had someone else read through it, which was good because she found some typos and made suggestions on how I worded some things. I'd suggest visiting the Blurb Tips & Tricks forums just to read through what various people say.

FuryMe wrote in post #4508937
Your book looks truly amazing! I sent my photos to Blurb last week, can't wait to see the results.
Have never heard of this:
"Here I used Genuine Fractals to increase the image size for the 2-page spread:"
Can you enlighten us?

Thanks, it really turned out well! Genuine Fractals is a Photoshop plugin that allows you to upsize your image to whatever resolution you want, while retaining really good quality. The workshop leader on my Alaska trip said he uses it to make huge poster size prints. Since none of my images were large enough to spread across 2 pages at 300 dpi. I used GF to increase the image size and then I cropped to fit the dimension needed for spreading across. It was an experiment for me - I wanted the book to have some variety and I thought that would be a good image to try that on. It worked out quite well. Check it out at http://www.ononesoftwa​re.com/detail.php?prod​Line_id=2 .

One thing to note about it is that it does NOT work with Paint Shop Pro, only Photoshop. I'm a PSP user, so I got PS Elements just so I could use Genuine Fractals.

I had a look at the preview of your book.
Looks really good!
What an inspiration.
How is the quality of the book binding? My first POTN books fell to pieces within days.
They were replace by Blurb foc by the way.

Another book success story & the pdf previews look great. Good for you!

1/ Download the new software.
2/ They say that bleed margins are 1/8". Don't believe it if you have something important right at that edge. Allow 1/4" instead. More if the important edge is at the binding edge.
3/ I didn't care for some of their layouts, so I just made a bleed print in PS with the pics & type where I wanted it. Worked great!
4/ Make sure that the CB of the dust cover matches the same interior print of the same subject.
5/ If you're doing the book for a commercial client, you don't have to have the Blurb logo in the book, but they will cost more.
6/ And, if/when they screw up, email Bruce & he'll take care of it.

mtonsbeek wrote in post #4509716
I had a look at the preview of your book.
Looks really good!
What an inspiration.
How is the quality of the book binding? My first POTN books fell to pieces within days.
They were replace by Blurb foc by the way.

Thanks - the binding seems pretty sturdy so far. Was the POTN book hard or soft cover? Mine is hardcover, don't know if that makes a difference. I should be getting some soft cover versions in next week.

I also want to try doing one of their large format books at some point, but that will be more work because I'll have to upsize all of the images using Genuine Fractals.

The POTN book was hard cover but I believe it was printed in Holland.
So it was unlikely you would have one of that batch.

Great shots, Good book and thanks for the Links (off your page)

I did soft for the 1st proof print. Hard for the rest.