Blurb for Webware

User Reviews

• NO SAVE AS or EXPORT book creation no confidentiality

  Joel20013August 12, 2013

  Pros

  Very good easy to produce book software.

  Cons

  Blurb application has no SAVE AS nor EXPORT your file. Local print contains watermark and is poor quality print. Done on purpose to force you to use only Blurb for printing or issuing PDF file at price.

  Summary

  Not secure methods your book can be copied and sold without your knowledge. Be careful using Blurb as no guarantee given that book will be copied and sold to another party.

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• Horrible Customer Service & Product

  TexasMandaDecember 7, 2012

  Pros

  Easy-to-use website Quick processing and shipping around holiday

  Cons

  Print defects Horrible customer service Only saves your books for 15 days No lay-flat page option

  Summary

  I ordered an Instagram photo book from Blurb on 11/26 because I was under the assumption they were the only company that does the square books that are meant specifically for Instagram photos. My book was ready for shipping fairly quickly on 11/29 and only 2 days later on 11/30 I already received the book in the mail. This was great because the book was a secret Christmas gift for a friend that lives out of state from me. I compiled all the instagram photos of her newborn baby that she had posted online the past year. Unfortunately, when I received the book, the very first thing I noticed was the artwork on the cover was printed off-center and the photos were literally 3mm from the right edge of the book with a 2.2 cm edge of white space on the left side of the book. I have ordered several times from other photo book companies with no problem getting print defects corrected and reprinted, so I immediately contacted Blurb customer service to ask for a fix and reprint as it was clearly a print defect. I included a picture of the product as well. Their response was that it was not a print defect and it was my fault for going out of the "trim guidelines." This was a photo book made using all of Blurb's pre-made layouts. I did not touch anything with the layouts and simply selected the photos to be inserted in the book. How could that possibly be my fault? I was insulted that they would try to blame this on the customer and not only that, I was surprised they were okay with printing a book of this quality that would be displayed and "advertised" on a coffee table for a lot of people to see. I replied back to their email questioning how it was the customer's fault and they still refused to reprint the book correctly. I found another new online business that prints the Instagram books and although the printing takes longer, it seems worth it to get the product done right! Although I tried planning this gift early by originally ordering from Blurb in November, my friend will no longer get her gift in time since I had to wait on Blurb's customer service only to be told there was nothing they could do and then have to reorder from another company that actually cares about their product quality. Do not buy from Blurb! Read the customer reviews first and do not believe the "sponsored" reviews you see online. They make sure to send a perfect product when they know their product is going to be reviewed on a big website, but they don't care about Joe-Schmoe who is ordering a sentimental gift for someone.

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• Great Print quality but expensive books

  rosendpAugust 11, 2012

  Pros

  The booksmart software is great but not as easy to learn as they make it sound. The print quality of the book was fantastic. I know that often photos tend to reproduce darker so I adjusted my photos to compensate for that and it worked fine.

  Cons

  The booksmart software takes time to learn and is not that easy to use. Once you get it down it's easy to use buy you have to be patient. I think the book prices are too expensive. It's hard on a limited budget to promote my book because I can't afford to buy many at one time. I order two books a month. Also you can't contact them by phone. I hate it when they force you to deal with email only.

  Summary

  IMHO, all world class companies allow you to contact them via phone. Blurb doesn't do that, it's email only so you have to wait. The print quality is great and the books are very impressive. I would like to see Blurb do more to help you promote your book. They don't offer enough help. You are pretty much totally on your own after your book is published.

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• easy and great quality.

  laurenli03January 4, 2012

  Pros

  free software

  Cons

  takes a fair amount of time to make a book

  Summary

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• Other Reviewers Are CLUELESS (imho)

  kiki77netDecember 14, 2008

  Pros

  User-Friendly software - not complicated. Excellent quality products.

  Cons

  Software is heavy and sometimes slow. Note: If you can, try to save your work in progress on a Flashcard/USB drive, because it's easier to take your book WITH YOU if you move from one computer to another.

  Summary

  All the reviewers complain about the "picture quality." Notice they took shortcuts, didn't follow the photo guidelines. If you use a high quality photo editor; like Corel/PSP or PhotoShop, works GREAT. Follow the PHOTO guidelines to a TEE and you won't have issues. I ordered 2 demo books: 1) 7x7 paperback w/photos, glossy black paper. Outstanding. 2) 5x8 hardcover w/dust jacket, white matte paper, mostly b/w text, minimal photos. Outstanding. If you're confused about HOW to use Blurb at any point, there is an exhaustive Forum on their site. Hundreds of users will help you out if you get stuck or have questions.

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• Poor service, late shipping, mediocre print quality

  gfrenchyJuly 21, 2008

  Pros

  Cons

  No telephone support to resolve simple issues, shipped item 3 days after informing me that it was shipped and still charged 2-day shipping, images were dark. Will not use them again

  Summary

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• Poor printing quality, overall bad experience

  ValenVitolsJune 17, 2008

  Pros

  SmartBook is the only thing I enjoyed about my very bad experience with Blurb. Do check out other providers and if you're a pro, use an off-set or real life digital professional printing service. At the end of the day, you'll save money and won't have to go through emotional distress.

  Cons

  "Blurb guarantees your satisfaction with the workmanship of your book."<p>Blurb.com<p>Sadly, they don't exactly follow this.<p>If you're an art student, faculty member (well, some of my professors were not that happy with my idea of using Blurb to print my thesis book), or a professional artist, Blurb is not the place to get your work published.<p>I initially printed my book with them and had to return all the books. The book had strong cyan (turquoise) and green casts. They have serious problems with the printing of the covers (extremely dark), because the same file I used for the cover I used inside the book and the difference in printing is dramatic. To add more book drama to my case, the cover also curled.<p>The quality of the paper was fine, but nothing to write home about.Their software is fantastic, though; the only nice part of this experience was working with their BookSmart application. <p>My mistake? Not ordering a "demo" book. I didn't do it based on a couple of peers' previous experiences of ordering one single book to see how the printing quality was, and then ordering more books and getting something completely different. After this happened to me, I've seen a ton of reviews complaining about this particular issue. "I got a demo and then got completely different books in my second order" I thought it was a waste of time.<p> <p>The grand closing of my case is the customer support. Very nice and polite, I have to admit. However, I initially got the promise of a full refund (minus one of the books I kept for my archive), and then surprise, surprise! Because my customer support agent bought a book in a bookstore with a "slight curling on the cover" apparently similar to mine, he and his boss decided I didn't deserve the full refund, but only two-thirds of my money back. Wow! OK. So you promise something, treat a workmanship defect that your product has as something minor, and then you drop your offer? OK.<p>For the $20 I paid for each paperback book, I expected a flawless product, as you should for any expensive product. I didn't get anything close to that.<p>I will never use them again.

  Summary

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• Poor print quality

  DeniseAckMay 7, 2008

  Pros

  Way less expensive than most print on demand companies. Prices are for a range of pages ie:20-40, 41-80, 81-120. Offers up to 440 pages, whereas most have a capacity of 100 to 160 pages. Not sure if this diminishes quality or durability though.

  Cons

  I just made a book with Blurb. I wanted to try a small softcover project to test their quality before I put tons of hours into something. I must say I was soooooooo disappointed! I chose to not make my pages in Photoshop, but do them directly in their program to see the “virgin” quality. My images are from a 10MP DSLR with each photo being about 2-3 MB each, so the input quality was fine. Their output was dark, grainy, oversaturated photos. I was floored. I’ve heard such glowing reviews that I couldn’t believe it. I contacted Blurb and they offered to remake the book for me, indicating that they can only keep prices so low by not recalibrating the printer after each book. They figured mine was one of the 3% of books that were toward the end of the run. So, they sent me another book and it was the same. What a disappointment. <p> <p>I have a full Excel spreadsheet comparing companies if anyone wants.

  Summary

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