I am in love Blurb.com. I've used Blurb's free software, Booksmart, to make photo books of several of our adventures: our wedding day, honeymoon in Costa Rica, a crazy camping roadtrip we took out west, our memories from our years in Chicago, and I have another book that's currently in-progress. In these digital days, I miss seeing prints of my photos (plus I'm too impatient to scrapbook), and a Blurb book is the perfect alternative. I will gladly vouch for their claim that their books are "bookstore quality" -- I have not been disappointed yet!
Blurb's Booksmart is user-friendly. It lets you design your own layouts and determine your page count. Blurb has pretty quick turnaround. Their books are reasonably priced (especially when you price out the cost to print all of your photos!). They run periodic specials, so I usually order when I can get a discount or free shipping. Lastly, they have GREAT customer service. I had one issue (color bleed) with a page in a book I ordered recently, and Blurb promptly reprinted and sent me another copy of the book for free! I'm a believer.
Here's a sample of a few of my creations (you can preview the first few pages of each book). Give Blurb a try today!
How fun is that! Ya'll have some great photos. How long on average does it usually take to make a book?
ReplyDeleteForgot to say that I had been thinking about doing a recipe photo book of family pics and our favorite things to cook & eat together at holidays or other special occasions. How customizable are the blurb books for text?
ReplyDeleteVery customizable for text! I even think they have a "cook book" template (of course, you can modify their layout).
ReplyDeleteI usually knock out a book in a couple of weekends (once I start - I get obsessed). I'll get an email that Blurb is having a sale or free shipping and then I rush to make whatever book I'd been thinking of making but just haven't started. I think what takes the longest for me is deciding what pictures to put into it. Also, I'm pretty used to the software, so it may take you awhile your first book.
I think a recipe book would be PERFECT!
Susan, this is so awesome! Don't know if you remember me - my name is Julie LeCleir, I was in the campus honors program with you at UIUC..but I click on your blog when I am wasting time instead of studying (just finishing up medical school!). I LOVE these books, and I am totally going to do them - medical school needs one, my brother's wedding needs one, so many things to now do! Did you always use the same size book? (The large landscape?) And did you do the image wrap? You obviously spent tons of time on them! They look fantastic.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great info :)
- Julie
Julie! I remember you!!! How fun to connect years after U of I & Campus Honors! :) To answer your questions: I've made books of all sizes. Large landscape, standard landscape, and even the small square size (that was an accident ...but it turned out to be a cute little book!). One thing to note, once you commit to a size you're stuck with it. That was my oops! with the small square book I made (the Chicago book). I thought I was making the large square book, until I went to order and the prices were a lot lower than I anticipated! I actually think I'm going to start making small annual albums for all of our catch-all photos because I liked the small size so much... but I digress. I've also done both dust jackets (b/f there was image wrap) and image wrap. I prefer image wrap... but that's just a preference :) Good luck! Enjoy :) (& congrats on finishing up med school!)
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