When I found out that blurb had launched a pdf service, I had to give it a try. blurb provide InDesign templates to download. Design and layout of a photo book in InDesign turned out to be surprisingly easy. The rulers, guides and dynamic rulers make it a breeze. You could then extract whole pages to a single JPG for the likes of http://www.photobox.co.uk but even then their template software insists on certain layouts for cover images and opening spreads.
blurb pdf to book review
I've liked the concept of a printed photo book for a while. To me it seems a waste of digital to print photos and use a scrapbook approach. There's a whole host of providers around - blurb and photobox appear to be the market leaders here in the UK. I experimented with both suppliers a couple of years ago, but found the template software restrictive. What i wanted was to be able to design my own layout in InDesign and use a printer capable of taking this. Of course, there are plenty of printers capable of providing this kind of service, but it tends to be cost prohibitive for very small print runs. The results have been pretty disappointing, read on for the saga.
Sun, 02/07/2010 - 14:10
tags:
Consistent print quality is critical for these providers. I understand blurb use HP Indigo printers, but I guess they are still having a few teething troubles with their printers and quality control. My first book order was fantastic, the second order had a few pages so dark all the detail was lost, the a third order had a paper jam marking some pages on one copy. The fourth, well that had been cropped incorrectly!
One thing I can say is that blurb's customer support throughout this has been fantastic - they have reprinted the faulty books without prompting after seeing photos of the problematic areas and then even credited 50% of the original order back when a second problem occurred. The customer service gives me some confidence they are working behind the scenes to improve their offering. Even so, it's getting a little silly now that I'm on a fourth reprint. I'm mid way through designing the next album, from our Australia photos, and hopefully all will go well this time.