Blurb magazines - any one try them?

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stompyq

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Has anyone tried the magazine option from blurb? I'am going to try this as it seems a good cost effective option to give out some of my photos. Just wondering how the quality stacks up vs magazines that I can get off a newsstand.
 
Sounds interesting, but for now it seems to be available through an In-Design plug-in, not LR or Blurb software.
 
froyd said:
Sounds interesting, but for now it seems to be available through an In-Design plug-in, not LR or Blurb software.
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Well you can upload in pdf format. As long as it meets the requirements I don't think it matters to blurb what is used to create the pdf
 
So it turns out its a little bit more complecated than I thought. I have no intention of getting indesign. Does anyone here use scribus? A blurb template for scribus would be awesome but I can't find any!
 
jsrockit said:
What don't you like about Blurbs software Pramodh?
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Blurbs software currently doesn't support the magazine format. They only support it through Adobe in-design. They've stated that they will bring support for magazines and brochures from via booksmart but that was in 2012. Other than that I have no problem with booksmart. I think it's a nice simple piece of software that helps get the job done with minimum fuss. It just doesn't let me use all the products that blurb offers.
 
I got the usual 'hand-off' when I asked them when the magazine option was going to be extended to other platforms - no 'in-design' for me either!
I can't see what their problem is but they must have some good reason for not making the magazine option more available.
I suggest you write to them - puts on a bit more pressure.
jesse
 
jesse1dog said:
I got the usual 'hand-off' when I asked them when the magazine option was going to be extended to other platforms - no 'in-design' for me either!
I can't see what their problem is but they must have some good reason for not making the magazine option more available.
I suggest you write to them - puts on a bit more pressure.
jesse
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I will although I think this is adobe pressuring them. After all they have a blurb module directly within lightroom. Can't really think adobe will be happy with blurb if they start supporting open source software. If they were so concerned with scribus they could offer the same plugin for quarkexpress (which they don't). I'am going to give scribus a try. Doesn't seem that difficult to figure it out
 
NY_Dan said:
I made a Blurb Magazine titled Eye Tourist this past March-April. You can see it here: http://www.blurb.com/b/4195108-eye-tourist
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Just checked out your 'zine and love it !!! I use and love Blurb, but have not done a magazine yet.

How is the quality? How did the B&W turn out? Paper? And how did all those double truck bleeds work out in the finished product?

Finally, what was your workflow for the B&W?
 
I went with Magcloud instead of blurb for my magazine (Thanks for letting me know about Magcloud, John). I'll be getting my finished product in 1-2 weeks and will update the thread with what I feel about it. The overall design process was the same. However, blurbs upload requirements are much more stringent than Magclouds and overall is about double the cost.
 
I am going to have to look into Magcloud.... I have been waiting and waiting patiently for Blurb to release their software with the ability to make magazines, but its looks like they just are going to say one thing and do another.

I really like the idea of a magazine for my photography. For some reason, it comes off less "serious" than a book, and its something I would feel more comfortable having on my coffee table.
 
dasuess said:
Just checked out your 'zine and love it !!! I use and love Blurb, but have not done a magazine yet.

How is the quality? How did the B&W turn out? Paper? And how did all those double truck bleeds work out in the finished product?

Finally, what was your workflow for the B&W?
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Quality -- I thought it was very good. I wanted a fair amount of pages so it would feel like a real magazine. Sadly, one cannot print on the spine -- so the spine ends up printing white.

B&W -- These are srgb jpegs and they came out nice.

Spreads -- I don't recommend them -- I had a pdf for each page. It's too hard for me to predict what will get lost in the gutter. I'd love to find a way to print double page spreads. With all Blurb products print one copy first and adjust for any problems.

Work Flow -- Shoot, Develop, Scan, PhotoShop (levels, curves, burn, dodge, dust, sharpen, lighten darken, save as Tiff, save as Jpeg) -- I make all images on the light side for printing & color gets extra saturation. I did layouts and had an art director friend drop each page I made into Indesign and he executed my cover design and set type for intro page, my wife cleaned up my copy, I made fixes myself with Acrobat Pro (after seeing first copy).
 
Blurb make very nice books for the price (I've done more than 40 of them after also trying MyPublisher, SharedInk, Apple (great but too small), and one other I can't remember).

Blub Booksmart software is horrible, however, and the best way to make a blurb book is to build each page in Photoshop and then import the page as a full bleed image into Booksmart.

MagCloud is fantastic for magazines (which can double as softcover books :). You do not need indesign....same drill as Blurb...make full bleed pages in Photoshop and save as PDF with Preview or Acrobat if you have it. Really really nice printing.

BTW, another advantage of Blurb that used to be free but is reasonable now, is that they will format and get posted for you on the Apple iBooks marketplace.
 
I have a magcloud magazine in the works . Printing now. Should arrive next week. 40 pages. I have a lot of double page spreads , not sure how they'll come out. lm curious about the paper and print quality . I used InDesign with the magcloud plugin. it handles 8.5x11, wish there were more formats .
Philippe
 
NY_Dan said:
I made a Blurb Magazine titled Eye Tourist this past March-April. You can see it here: http://www.blurb.com/b/4195108-eye-tourist
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I just looked at your mag (which is really like a whole book!). Very impressive. You have many really good photos there. I see you didn't hesitate to use flash. Nice and refreshing to see non-Gilden flash images from the street. Well done overall.

philip
 
I received my Magcloud magazine today (within a week of upload). Overall I'am very impressed. The print quality is good and the color accuracy/brightness/contrast of the images is also quite close to what I originally sent. I would say the overall feel is near identical to View camera magazine (if anyone's a LF photographer then you are very familiar about this magazine). I think I will stick with them for my monthly books and go with blurb photobooks for anything serious.
 
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