Blurb Photo Book Review

The Blurb bookmaking interface was very easy to use, it is not at all technical and even offers a wizard where you just select the photos you want included and the software creates the book for you. The only disadvantage I had was that it didn't offer the feature in the software to customise the layout and design of the book; you had to choose premade ones. However if does allow you to create your own design in programs such as Photoshop or Corel Paint Shop and import it as a full bleed design.

Words of advice: When creating your book, make sure to proof read a million times. You could get someone else to also proof read. You definitely do not want to order your book and have it come out with many typos.

The book I ordered was a softcover book to display just the beginnings of my photography. It took me about 3 - 4 weeks to create the book. This is because I wanted to use all the best images I had at the time and the best post production that I was capable of.

Shipping to the U.K I thought took way too long, though I had to keep in mind that it was from the USA or so I thought. It cost £3.44 for economy shipping. I chose this as I didn't want to spend around £10 on priority when there isn't much difference between the estimated shipping times, plus I did not know how the book was going to turn out. Shipping took around 3 weeks and there was absolutely no way to track it on economy. I knew this beforehand though other sites offer tracking on all shipping methods.

I advise others to use priority shipping, as they will be able to track their orders and hopefully that means it will definately come. If your order gets lost in economy shipping there is no way to recieve it. Blurb also advises you to use priority shipping, this is the reason.

Customer service was great, I probably annoyed them way too much asking when my book was going to come even though I knew they didn't have a clue. They were very friendly and told me it should be on their way and gave me helpful information on the shipping times.

When I finally received my book I found out that it was from the Netherlands. It takes 5 - 6 days to process the book. They informed me my book had been printed at 5 days which was great. On the other hand, this meant that shipping was 18 days. From Netherland to UK? I was definitely surprised, I do not know how they ship it to the UK, but I'm sure they could of shipped it faster.

The packaging wasn't much to look at, but it was very, very sturdy and stealth proof, no one would have been able to see my book while it was shipping. Here are some pictures of the packaging.

The width of the book was around 4mm for 40 pages on softcover. I ordered on softcover since I am not that of a fan of hardback books unless they are BIG! The binding of the book was great, from what I could see it was bonded using a form of white glue or something. It hasn't shown any signs of breakage or weaknesses.

The picture quality was good, I haven't used any other photo facility printing before, though I am planning to print out 9" by 6" photos from JPICS, Jessops sometime soon. I will also do a review on that and compare the difference. In the book the colours that were presented on the picture where great, they nearly all looked as though they looked on my computer monitor, not as good quality as on my screen but it was what I expected which was presentable quality, I disappointedly say however not professional quality. My monitor uses NVIDIA graphic which is great, thus I do say I do not know much other than that about it.

I shoot using a Nikon D40 and edit using Corel Paint Shop Pro X. Many have had issues with colour, especially dark colours, but it seems to me that it may just be their post production software instead of Blurb printing facilites.



A while later and on the second page, it barely looks black anymore, there are a great deal of speckles thus making it look worn out. This is a major disappointment as I ordered premium paper. The paper is almost like card and doesn't have any gloss to it. I sometimes wonder if I didn't get premium paper!

The front cover has quite a lot of dents and bruises in it, a while later, this is surprising as I did take care of the book, however it may not have been enough. The book cover was very, very soft. I had a great idea for a book to print with Blurb, however I am holding out for a while. When I do print it out I would probably laminate my book as soon as it came so it would be free of fingerprints and look great and last longer.

Here are some photos

The dents didn't come out as bad in the photo:


However the speckles did come out clearly in the photo:


Apart from the above issues; one can be corrected by buying a hardback cover, I would definitely recommend it to people who want to a quick and easy way to display occasions, for instance remembering a holiday or birthdays etc. I however would 100% not recommend it for portfolios trying to impress people. I would go for the largest prints your camera can print on great photo paper and great resolution on a portfolio.

Overall, I would probably create and purchase a new blurb book. However I would buy the book in hardcover this time though still with premium cover. Blurb's shipping times makes the whole thing a hassle, so I might order on express shipping.

If you want good customer service, Blurb's got that checked down. Though if you want quick shipping and great costs, blurb has not got that box ticked. However for quality, you get what you paid for in blurb.

It would be great if others could tell me if they found my review helpful and how their books from Blurb came out! If anyone needs additonal information or photos feel free to comment.