editing tips for blurb books?

[a._krem]

<p>Hello all,</p>

<p>I'm making a Blurb book - is there anything I should keep in mind as far as editing goes for these books? How is their printed color quality?</p>

<p>Thanks,<br>

Adam Kremer</p>

[martin-s]

<p>Make sure all your images are in the sRGB colour space. Blurb's and many other printers' workflows don't honour colour profile information, and simply <strong>assume</strong> sRGB.<br>

So if you edit your images in a large colour space such as AdobeRGB or Pro Photo, I suggest you create copies of them in sRGB for use in the book.</p>

[a._krem]

<p>Thanks Martin</p>

[robert_k1]

<p>You may find my comments here helpful:<br>

http://www.photo.net/digital-darkroom-forum/00VoI4<br>

http://www.photo.net/casual-conversations-forum/00VzQR</p>

[patricklavoie]

<p>other than sRGB Jpeg quality 10-12 from Photoshop, or quality 80-100 from lightroom and of course some good extra sharpening in the end (in lightroom choose glossy paper standard in photoshop a high pass of 1-2 in softlight should do)</p>

<p>I will also suggest you take there premium paper for the best quality, i order one book with the regular paper, for a test and the paper is thin, and look a bit like the page of a magazine or close too.</p>

[monika_epsefass]

<p>I've ordered several books with Blurb, because their quality is simply very good, and there is nothing equal in Europe if you want books that are not on photo paper and do include text. Their choice of templates is really great. The sRGB factor has been mentioned, that's important, premium paper, yes, and if you stick with their software, go for the recommendations in image size which will work very good.</p>

<p>If, though, you have a chance to work in InDesign, go for that. Blurb offer templates for that software, and suddenly possibilities become endless. I was always annoyed by the fact that I could not spread images across pages when involving text, and by defining my own layout, I have true liberty in doing as I please. The templates are converted into pdf files which are sent to Blurb when ready. You will have to pass their compliance test to be printed at all, so it's quite a safe solution.</p>

[patricklavoie]

<p>you can also do your page layout in Indesign or Quark or else, and export each page as JPEG that you after place into there software into blank page.. that way you dont have to follow anything at all.. this is how i do my blurb book since the beginning, finding there template a bit boring for me.</p>

[tonybynum]

Patric, care to share your templates - just kidding . . . .

[monika_epsefass]

<p>@Patrick Lavoie: the only thing I use their illustrator template for is for the exact book size. Or are you talking about their proprietary software?</p>

[patricklavoie]

<p>Monika, good point. I didtn know before they had release template, so i simply got a screen capture and mesure the safe zone and the exact page size in Photoshop with the ruler.. old way of getting the info, then create a dummy page to see if it fit correctly.. trial and error 1 or 2 time ; )</p>

<p>Now my page is set correctly in Indesign, and i create my story on a spread like format, like for a 7x7 book my format is 14x7 that way i can put my image on 2 pages, put text across in need etc..., then when i export i call my page 1-2-3-4 and use they auto flow feature of there software to fill up the page and send them the file with boooksmart...</p>

<p>here *some* example of page layout i use, the white represent the paper white, the black the images.</p><div></div>

[patricklavoie]

<p>others idea for page layout</p><div></div>

[carol_conti_entin]

<p>Adam, if you follow the suggestions found in Blurb's Color Management Resource Center:<br>

http://www.blurb.com/resources/color_management<br>

you should get very good to excellent color fidelity. If the color is way off (which happened to me on one order), there's an online form to fill out so that Blurb's CS can set things right. Keep in mind, however, that Blurb considers slight color variations from book to book to be acceptable, and all Blurb books except the very smallest size use HP Indigo 5000 printers: solid, light-colored backgrounds aren't going to look "bookstore quality," but everything else comes darned close.<br>

As for papers, the premium is thicker but also more matte (has even less sheen) than the regular.</p>