I got one of those books published

[E.B. West]

from Blurb.

I guess the best description is that I'm sort of underwhelmed. The quality of the book and paper is good, but there is a overall flatness to the photos, in my opinion. Part of it may be because I chose the black background, but that's not the whole reason. Several of the pictures I used were from Banff and I know they weren't flat.

All in all, for about $35 (20 pages, hardcover, 10X10) it's probably still a good deal and I'll give them another try sometime.

[ricwis]

EB
I've had many Blurb books printed and the pictures just pop. I am using the black pages with the white frame around the photo. Do your photos have the Adobe RGB profile imbedded in them? If they have sRGB, they may appear flat. When I emailed Blurb about specifics for the photos, they answered by saying the photos should be 300 dpi and have the Adobe RGB profile embedded. Might be worth a check.

[E.B. West]

That may be the case, mine are sRGB. I haven't given up on them. As soon as I figure out something else to do, I'll try them again.

Thanks

[ricwis]

EB,
Right now through Nov 20th, you can get free shipping (Up to $7, which is ground shipping) using promotion code holidayfs during checkout. It would be worth a try to imbed the AdobeRGB color into your files. I think that would make a huge difference in how the pages look. This is really confusing because their latest FAQ says to use sRGB, yet that results in flat prints. Not sure what is going on. They also recommend 300 dpi.

Hope you can get good results. The books are really nice.
Another company to try is Viovio at www.viovio.com. They don't have the book building software you download so you have to upload your images and create the book on line. I've used them too as they can be less money. I've looked at books from both with a loupe to see if there is any difference in quality and they look the same to me.

[E.B. West]

Thanks Rich. They also have a deal on for Smugmug users, I'm going to give it another try with some bird shots.

[Kathleen]

I had a book printed through Blurb and have to say that I was more than happy, images were not flat. I submitted my photos as Adobe RGB 300 ppi, Now IVe heard that I should set photoshop to their settings and soft proof according to their profile. sRGB. Now I'm a little confused as to what is right?? I'm in the process of putting together another book with the sRGB settings as this site suggests: http://www.bonsai-photography.com/ (http://www.bonsai-photography.com/)
Should I stay with the Adobe settings? Is there real need for soft proofing.

[ricwis]

Kathleen, this is confusing too. I have always used the Adobe RGB for the Blurb books and have been happy with the results. Don't know why they say sRGB.

[Kathleen]

Hi Rich, I just emailed Blurb and they requested sRGB for my images. This is their note:
Thanks for writing us at Blurb!

Please make sure the images meet the following criteria:
1) JPG or PNG format (no TIFFs)
2) RGB or grayscale color (no CMYK)
3) Are saved on your hard drive and not on an external drive
4) If you’re using iPhoto, that the library has its default name and is saved in its default location
5) The images have no ICC/color profiles attached, nor any tags, such as keyword descriptions of the pictures.
6) Please be sure that no images are saved as 16-bit files. 8-bit is the default, and you wil probably know if you have save any images as 16-bit. If so, please change those back to 8-bit files.
7) Between 150-300dpi. Images should be between 150-300 dpi (dots per inch or pixels per inch). For instance, a 5x7 image frame should be filled with an image that is at least 750x1050 pixels and no greater than 1500-2100 pixels.

You can use Adobe RGB, but the colors may be slightly flatter than if you used sRGB.

I'm confused to say the least??????????? Maybe all of this reading is bad medicine. lol

I've also been reading the following Blurb forum postings:
http://forums.blurb.com/forums/2/topics/821

[Ellen]

I have just received two blurb books. I find that they are fantastic. Color and sharpness are spot on. I did not think that they looked flat. I made them all in sRGB. which was a bit of a pain as I had to redo all of them. But it was worth it.

[E.B. West]

I did another book and I'm more pleased with this one than the last. The big difference, I think, is that the fist one had a black background and this one was white. It was a big difference.

As far as the sRGB or Adobe or whatever, here is a nice explanation of the differences. It's for Smugmug prints but it helps understand it a little more.

http://www.smugmug.com/help/srgb-versus-adobe-rgb-1998