Last week I discussed my SoFoBoMo 2011 project, a photo book titled Treasure Pond. It is available at the SoFoBoMo site, and also as a Blurb version.
In the above photograph you see all the photo books I have made so far using the Blurb service. If you want to know more about making photo books, see my instructions page.
It took some time for the printed Blurb book to arrive. I got the shipping confirmation on Monday, July 18th, and the book arrived on Friday, July 22nd. Last year the delivery was much faster - I got the shipment the next day after receiving the shipping confirmation. I guess the "priority" delivery isn't so priority after all (it is the cheapest option).
The quality was as expected, not big surprises. Some things need to be improved next time, if there is one, for example I forgot to check the placement of the matrix barcode on the back cover, and it was overlapping with the last character of the text there. And the placement of the title text should have been a bit further away from the gutter.
The image quality was good - I was using the premium "lustre" option - and there were no physical blemishes in the printed book.
The photographs of course could have been better; maybe I should have deleted a dozen more. However, I have often felt a bit of disappointment after looking at the printed copy of the finished work.
It is good to let the book rest a bit and only then make an appraisal. The SoFoBoMo books from last year seem now much better than they felt right after the event.
Anyway, I like the Blurb service, as the output seems to be of reliable high quality. If I were making individual prints then there would be room for much more finetuning regarding the print quality, but for making a photo book, the Blurb service works fine. (Especially given my radically simple jpeg workflow.) And despite that there was a little bit of extra work needed with Blurb, I think it isn't such a big deal.
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9 hours ago
2 comments:
Juha, during the weekend I finally got around reading the pdf version of your book. A fine work it certainly is, despite your own critical remarks. I regard it as consistent, well put together with your texts, and it is exactly of the kind of books that I enjoy: Amazed about the wonders in one's own neighbourhood, yet sober and poetic but without all that sweetness and romanticism that makes so many landscape books hard to digest.
@Markus: Thanks for the feedback, nice that the book provided some enjoyment.
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