Printing Books with Blurb

[pennyshilling]

Just thought I would start a new thread re printing our Life 365 books with Blurb...to try and keep the info all together.

I have just discovered that we can print with Blurb here in Australia. ( I have only used Artscow in the past). The prices look pretty good and I like that they do up to 440 pages (think that is right) in the one book. Yes they now do 12 X 12.

I was wondering what the differences are between the regular paper and the Premium Paper which is much more expensive? Would love some feed back on this re the quality, colour, finish ect.

I like that you can download the software and work on this offline....so also now wondering how long it will take to upload?
Decisions, decisions.....

[nursepaula06]

Ok. I have printed about 9 books with Blurb in a all of their sizes except their small B&W book. All have turned out FABULOUS - every time. I only had quality issues once, and Blurb was quick to replace my book for me.

I have used both the premium paper & their regular. I prefer their premium paper as in the states it is not that much more. The quality of printing on both papers is the same. The premium paper is much thicker and really has a nice professional feel to it. Your book will look great in either one. The luster is great and looks like a real book - cause it is!

The only time I have EVER noticed a difference, is when there is light behind my book and I am looking at a book. On the regular paper, the light does shine through slightly and you can barely see what is printed on the other side. With the premium paper, this does not happen because the paper is thicker.

I hope that helps! Let me know if you have more questions as I have used them multiple times.

[pennyshilling]

Thanks for that great feedback Paula...really appreciated it. I having just intalled their program and checking it out now. xxox Glad to hear that you have had such a positive experience.

[Tiff]

Here is the link to go directly to my review of my LIfe365 book from Blurb (from another thread):
http://weedsandwildflowersdesign.com/theweedpatch/viewtopic.php?t=3471&start=18

As far as formatting your pages, I suggest at least a 1/2 inch margin is needed in the inner border (where the pages bind together) for a ~100 page 12 x 12 book. I discussed that a little in my review.

Paula, did you mention that you had some guidelines for the cover - to the get the cover image centered properly?

[Tiff]

I like that you can download the software and work on this offline....so also now wondering how long it will take to upload?
Decisions, decisions.....

I have high speed internet through a cable modem (maybe I can find a speed number on our bill or something), and although I didn't time it, I would say it took 30 - 45 minutes for my ~100 page 12 x 12 book.

[pennyshilling]

Gee that was quick to upload Tiff thanks for the info. Sorry I was not able to find your earlier thread re this...although I remember it! So thanks for the link.

I add an extra half inch round all my pages before I do my layouts...so do them at 13 X 13 which has worked for me in the past. I have been kinda wondering whether I should leave a bit wider margin on the inner edge of each page so the background border "looks" even.

Maybe they have some specs re this on their site or in a forum somewhere...if I find anything I will post the info/link here.
xox Deb

[Wendy]

What did you end up doing, Penny? Is there an easy way to do this when ordering the book or do you have do to it every time on a new page?

[Wendy]

(just adding to my above post to clarify): I have my P365 almost completed and did every page 12x12. I am worried as I look at these posts that my book on Blurb will turn out a little off. Any suggestions???

[Tiff]

I think you're worried about doing a Full Bleed book, (where your designed page extends all the way to the edge). Will some of your design get trimmed off the sides? Will the inner margin and binding of the book hide some of your page on the inner edge?

Yes, these are issues you have do deal with for a full bleed page. I had to process every one of my pages after the fact, to put in that 1/2 inch margin. And it was a bit of a pain. The 1/2 inch margin did perform well, though.

I'm considering printing all future pages in Blurb books, but I've done some 2-page designs lately, and based on my last book, a 2-pager would be problematic. So this is what I'm thinking of:

Instead of doing full bleed, shrink the image down and just have a blank border all the way around. The Blurb software will do this for you. Here's a screen shot of me playing around a little after reading your question:



If you set up the first page, using the Picture Layout that has a single large picture, the software will shrink the image for you. So nothing should get trimmed. This default page looks like it gives about 1/2 to 2/3 inch all the way around.

If you go to Edit Layout, you can shrink the picture even more if you feel that is needed.

And then if you do AutoFlow (sorry, I didn't circle that in my screen shot) it will apply that image size to all pages as it automatically adds them to your book.

So, that's one idea to circumvent the margin and page trim problems. It gives the blank border all the way around, which you may or may not like, but it lessens the trim and binding problems.

[Wendy]

A few questions:

As you probably guessed, I don't really want a border on every page either. How do I do the 1/2" border that you went back and did on your layouts??? What a pain-but better than getting a book back that I am unhappy with.

How do you suggest sizing for future layouts?

Are you saying that Blurb isn't good with a 2 page layout? I have a handful of these and really like them...

thank you!

[nursepaula06]

Here is a pretty good blog that offers some tips and templates to get a 2-page layout into blurb:

http://theartofengineering.wordpress.com/2008/01/23/how-to-use-the-free-blurb-templates/

Check around her site - seems like she has some good tips for Blurb beginners.

Basically what she is saying is that you need a 1/4" area of overlap on each Right and Left page.

[Tiff]

A few questions:

As you probably guessed, I don't really want a border on every page either. How do I do the 1/2" border that you went back and did on your layouts??? What a pain-but better than getting a book back that I am unhappy with.

How do you suggest sizing for future layouts?

Are you saying that Blurb isn't good with a 2 page layout? I have a handful of these and really like them...

thank you!

Wendy:
What I did was in my psd file (at 12x12) I made a 1/2 inch grid visible. (I don't know if your software does it; I did it in PSE 7). Then I selected all layers except the BG and shrunk and nudged them so that my 365 page border was just inside the 1/2 grid mark all the way around. Then I resized my canvas to the Blurb dimensions and saved the jpg. (I REALLY wished I had thought this out before starting.)

I had just over 100 pages, for 160 you might even want to do a little bigger margin. If you see in my photos, the the 365 border is JUST visible at the center of the book.

I didn't mean to say that Blurb isn't good at 2-pagers. I just meant that it would require some thought to make them show properly, and the blank border option was the first thing that had come to my mind.

Paula:
Thanks for that reference for 2-pagers! I'll be looking into those.

[Wendy]

Sorry-I'm putting you to work today. You are awesome! And you seem like the perfect one to ask! Hopefully this will help many others too. When you say "resized my canvas to the Blurb dimensions' -what does that mean??? This is my first book and I just want to get this down so that it will be easy in the future. I have PSE6.

I will be checking the mentioned web site too. Thank you! Thank you!!!

[Tiff]

Ok, this is stuff that I've learned on my own through trial and error, so I might not have it all correct.

In PSE, you can change the size of your image by the menu item:
Image -> Resize

And then you have the option of resizing the image or resizing the canvas. These are probably related to each other, but my overall understanding of them is:

Resizing image keeps the overall original shape. So you could resize a 12 x 12 down to 10 x 10, but from the look on the screen, is basically looks the same.

Resizing the canvas gives you the option of actually changing the shape of your file. I think Blurb was 12 x 11.87, and I don't remember what was width and what was height. And when you change the canvas size smaller, some of your file will actually be "trimmed" off. And if you resize larger, additional space is added.

To me, resizing the canvas was just more understandable - I was literally adding or subtracting workspace area. Resizing image seemed to be more of scaling things smaller or bigger.

That's about all I know about it. The blurb dimensions are so close to 12 x 12 maybe it's not necessary. But I read somewhere that if your file is a different size than their specs, then their software has to reformat your page as it uploads, and thus causes longer uploads.

[pennyshilling]

I just received an email invite to join Blurb for a free webinar on Colour Management. Personally just want I am needing and thought others here may also be interested.

It will cover such topics as
• Monitor calibration and profiling
• Color spaces and conversions
• Soft proofing in Adobe® Photoshop®
• Prepping files for Blurb books

It might be worth signing up for Blurb to at least check this out.
I have 3 books almost ready for printing now.. so will definitely book into one of the webinars.