Comparing Blurb's Quality to Offset

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In its few year history, Blurb’s quality has improved tremendously.
How does Blurb’s print-on-demand quality compare to standard web offset press quality? Blurb delivers better quality than most offset presses where careful attention is not paid to production. Blurb doesn’t meet the best carefully overseen offset quality.
Common problems with Blurb printing include printing dark with some shadow detail loss, inconsistent neutrality and graybalance, and slight banding. Blurb’s dot structure or line screen is average, which is somewhat coarse in comparison with the finest 300 line screen offset. Blurb offers slightly better saturation compared to offset, but not six color hi-fi offset. The problems you encounter with Blurb are all common problems with offset printing if it’s not carefully overseen, which is common.
Oversight is one of the challenges with print-on-demand paradigms. It’s not practical to proof a book of one. It’s not practical to proof it again six months later with the next order. It’s unrealistic to expect an extremely low volume run to compete with a high volume run. In a high volume run, time and materials are allocated to test press conditions, carefully proof content before final printing, and maintained during a run of hundreds or even thousands. That’s why offset runs are only cost effective if you’re making a lot of books and that drives initial costs much higher and per unit costs much lower. Blurb’s offers extremely low initial costs but higher unit costs.
The Blurb revolution makes some books, that otherwise might never have been made, a reality
So, how good is Blurb’s quality?
Good enough.
And getting better all the time.
Find my Blurb book Antarctica here.
Find out about my Blurb seminars in New York April 29 and Toronto May 15.
Learn more in my Fine Art Digital Printing Workshops.

Hire a Professional Designer to Make Your Blurb Book – BlurbNation Directory

blurbnation
Professional design makes a difference.
Want to hire a professional to design you Blurb book but don’t know one?
Find one on the BlurbNation Directory.
You’ll get better results when you work with a designer if you understand core design concepts.
Check out How to Make a Gorgeous Photo Book here.
Check out these great design books I recommend.
Find my Blurb book Antarctica here.
Find out more about my Blurb seminars in New York April 29 and Toronto May 15.
Learn more in my Fine Art Digital Printing Workshops.

Use Space – Tracking & Leading

Use space to improve your design. There’s the space around blocks of text – margins. And there’s the space between elements of text – tracking and leading. Tracking is the space between letters. Leading is the space between lines. If tracking and leading are too tight, words appear cramped and are harder to distinguish from one another. If tracking and leading are too loose, units of text fall apart into separate units. Use enough space to help text rest gracefully on the page and breathe, but not so much space that it weakens the relationships between separate pieces and they drift apart.
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leading
Find books on design I recommend here.
Learn more in my Fine Art Digital Printing Workshops.

13 Go To Fonts, 7 Fonts to Avoid

Whether you’re designing for a book or a presentation choosing the right type face is important. The font you choose helps shape the tone of what you create. As with any endeavor, it helps to have a trusted resources you can always turn to.
Here are my go to serif and sans serif fonts … and a few I steer clear of.
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sanserif
stylized
Serif and san serif and the most common kinds of fonts. Serif fonts have a classic feel. Sans serif fonts set a contemporary tone. Decorative or display fonts have a great deal more flair and are generally best used for signage; it takes the right project and a great designer to use them well in other applications. Design is typically best used as a support for content, not a distraction from it or a substitute for it.
Find books on design I recommend here.
Learn more in my Fine Art Digital Printing Workshops.

Use PDFs to Make Blurb Books

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Want to design your Blurb book with something other than BookSmart.
Want to use InDesign or Quark?
Make a PDF with them.
Then make a Blurb book from the PDF.
This way, you’ll have all the refined control of professional design software and still get print-on-demand books from Blurb.
Learn more about Blurb PDF workflow here.
Watch 3 helpful videos here.
Check out these great design books I recommend.
Find my Blurb book Antarctica here.
Learn more in my Fine Art Digital Printing Workshops.

Blurb's BookSmart Makes Design Easy

BookSmart
Blurb’s BookSmart software makes designing books easy. Don’t know how to use InDesign or Quark? No worries. Just want to make a book? Can do. It’s great to use software that intuitively teaches you how to use it as you work with it.
Daniel Milnor makes Blurb books in as little as 20 minutes.
Check out his On Approach here.
Blurb’s new Color Management Resource Center offers BookSmart help.
Find more BookSmart tips here.
Check out these great design books I recommend.
Find my Blurb book Antarctica here.
Learn more in my Fine Art Digital Printing Workshops.

Blurb Widget Makes Online Book Previews Easy


Blurb’s new book preview Widget lets you preview as much or as little of your Blurb book as you like online. You can embed it on any blog or webpage.
Visitors can view your book as a virtual page turning book or as thumbnails.
They can check Full Screen for a larger preview.
They can click the Share button and help you spread the word.
They can click the Comment button and give you instant feedback.
Or, they can click the Purchase button and get a copy of your book.
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BlurbWidgetPage copy
This HTML code generates the widget.
<object classid=”clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000? width=”425? height=”300? codebase=”http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0?><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true” /><param name=”allowScriptAccess” value=”always” /><param name=”src” value=”http://www.blurb.com/assets/embed.swf?book_id=1244722? /><param name=”allowfullscreen” value=”true” /><embed type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”425? height=”300? src=”http://www.blurb.com/assets/embed.swf?book_id=1244722? allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true”></embed></object>
You can scale the display by changing the dimension numbers.
It’s easy to implement and use.
Here’s more on how to install the widget.
Find out more about how to Share, Promote, Sell your Blurb books here.
Learn more in my Fine Art Digital Printing Workshops.

How To Make a Gorgeous Photo Book – Blurb


Blurb recently released a great overview of all the issues you need to consider to produce a great photo book – from concept to execution and promotion. Read it and make all your books better.
“Beautiful photo books don’t happen by accident. Talented people invest time and intent using proven design tenets, and the results can be spectacular. To help you up your bookmaking game, we’ve tapped our network of photographers and book designers and collected their best advice on everything from sequencing and layouts to typography and cover design. How to Make a Gorgeous Photo Book includes plenty of tips, tricks, and information to push your creative edge and help you design beautiful books that showcase your best work.”
Find my Blurb book Antarctica here.
Check out these other great design books I recommend.
Stay tuned for dates on my upcoming Blurb seminars and workshop.