Product review: Blurb Photobook (Large Format Landscape)

After three weeks - and many months of procastinating - of twiddling with the layout of the Blurb photobook, it arrived a couple of days ago by Fedex. I have to say that the first time I set my eyes on the book, I absolutely loved it.

You can't see it clearly cos of the light, but the spine says "Danny, Zheng, Vanessa Summer '08"

Yes, it cost $110 SGD, but believe me, it's worth every cent. So here's what I liked about my overall Blurb experience:

Likes
1. Software downloaded was intuitive and comprehensive, compared with the others I tried; giving you enough control without forcing you to create from zero.

2. Loophole that allowed to exploit the depreciating sterling pound. (Eh, I saved almost 40+ SGD by ordering in pounds ok!)

3. Excellent print quality of finished product. Each image was perfectly reproduced and I loved the full bleed option, which means you can print right to the edge of the page.

Dislikes
1. I chose the imagewrap option for the cover, as opposed to the dust jacket option, which I thought meant that the image would be "scanned" onto the cover, rather that being "pasted" (like it turned out to be). As a result, there are small crease marks at the edges of the the cover.

2. Edges of the pages were cut with a rather rough paper cutter, IMO, resulting in it feeling rather rough on the edges.

3. Ok, if I really wanted to nitpick, I'd point out that it's not possible to share the book in its entirity before printing, with someone else. It's ok if it's like a family project, so everyone just needs to physically sit in front of the same screen to vet the project; I wanted to share it with my friends to get their opinions - and the preview option only allowed them to see the first 15 pages of my 50 page book.

4. Last thing, after ordering your book, the "after-sales" email you receive to give you the details of what you've ordered, book tracking, etc, makes it really hard for you to contact them. I mean, I've just paid over 50 pounds to order something from you for the first time; is it really too much to ask for an email address I can send any queries I have to?

The bottomline
This is an awesome product that not only allows you to crystallise your memories, it also lets you have a ball of a time doing so. The flaws I pointed out are really minor and disappear the moment you first see your creation, fresh out of the Fedex package, and I really encourage you to try it for yourself.

The high price is a deterrent, but you should note that I chose the highest grade options for everything, and chose the largest size. Smaller books should be a lot cheaper to make.

Now if they would just open a branch here, like TheDigibook and iPhoto so that shipping is free...