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Blurb

I am considering printing some works of mine (not necessarily photography). I found that site, which as a decent reputation, as well as prices that are quite fair.. AFIC....

http://www.blurb.com


there also that : which comes handy :

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/788154801

I am also considering printing my Photoshop CS4 manual: 775 pages in French, two volumes for 22 pounds bound, better than the copy shop (not immediate though)...But I don't know if they are about to kick me out of the site for copyright reasons (I have no intent to sell it back, the thing is: I hate reading PDFs on my screen!)

Can you tell me some experiences, or may be other sites of reputable bookprinters.
Thank you!
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Sandrine,

I am considering printing some works of mine (not necessarily photography). I found that site, which as a decent reputation, as well as prices that are quite fair.. AFIC....

http://www.blurb.com

We have had good luck at Lulu.com:

http://www.lulu.com/

There is no cost whatsoever to have them set up a book for publishing. They will then print 1 or 1,000 when ordered.

You just format your stuff appropriately and upload it. In a matter of seconds, you are published. There is no cost to you at all.

The general public can order books from their site (unless you prohibit that), and when they do, you are paid a royalty. (You determine that amount - it of course is reflected in the book "retail" price.) If you order one or more copies, the cost to you is "wholesale" (meaning, only, minus the royalty), and of course you receive no royalty.

Their site will even let you design and compose a cover, using generic or stock backgrounds. In our case, we supply finished art for the front and back cover but let their site compose the "spine".

Carla's book, "The Cherokee Advantage", and mine, "Readings in Digital Photography", are published there:

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperba...gContext=search_results/search_shelf/center/1

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperba...gContext=search_results/search_shelf/center/1

Best regards,

Doug
 

John Angulat

pro member
Hi Sandrine,
I have used Blurb for a few book prints.
No problems, good color and B&W reproduction.
All in all, I was satisfied.
You will have to download their software (Booksmart) to creat and edit your book.
I found the s/w to be ok, a bit quirky at times but overall fairly easy to use.
I can't say much about LuLu, as I not used them.
However, a recomendation by Doug carries some weight, to be sure!
I checked Blurb's site for copyright info and as suspected, they claim not to check/verify such.
It's up to the "uploader" to follow any laws.
I doubt you'd have any problem, considering you are only printing it for your own use.
Hope this helps.
 
Thank you both, My "works" will be in PDFs anyway...(no photography) and even if I am considering (not in a near future) doing a coffee table book for my retouchings, their software doesn't bother me that much for the moment... I'll have 1st to understand all these colour stuffs because I'm hopeless at that. I'm just gathering infos for the moment, and, for the manual, I'll obviously take the cheapest.


PS: I've already done these things in the past but using a "Fuji" dedicated service (Not professionnal) for bespoke (one at the time) books I've been making as a restorer in France (books with family tree and photos of the ancestors side by side) I was quite happy by the results but it was far more expensive than these ones...I just wonder...
 

Ken Tanaka

pro member
Blurb is a fine place to print small-run photo books. I've used Blurb and have been very satisfied with them, congruent with John's experience. Color management is important. Invest time to learn their basic guidelines if you're printing anything to be fussy about.

LuLu has been aimed mainly at the "vanity" press market and been around quite some time. I've never used LuLu but many aspiring, but publisherless, authors have reporteed good experiences, as has Doug.

Both these services, as well as many others (such as MyPublisher) are made possible by Hewlett Packard's Indigo printing systems which have a virtual corner on the on-demand printing systems business. To that end, distinctions will mainly come from service and price rather than product.

Re: printing your CS4 manual, it's a nutty idea. Buy a manual/book from Amazon which is surely offering far, far better prices on this outdated version's books than you'll pay to print one or two copies of whatever the heck you have in PDF.

And, yes, reproducing an Adobe manual would very much be a copyright violation and disrespect to intellectual property regardless of whether or not you attempted to sell it.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Re: printing your CS4 manual, it's a nutty idea. Buy a manual/book from Amazon which is surely offering far, far better prices on this outdated version's books than you'll pay to print one or two copies of whatever the heck you have in PDF.

Another point is that for many issues, there's a free tutorial video online from Adobe or other sources.

And, yes, reproducing an Adobe manual would very much be a copyright violation and disrespect to intellectual property regardless of whether or not you attempted to sell it.

Well, Ken, not so certain about that. Adobe does allow unlimited non-commercial publishing. So if the user pays for their own printing, then that would not seem to be any issue. In fact, Adobe want's these manuals distributed it would seem!

© 2010 Adobe Systems Incorporated and its licensors. All rights reserved.

Using Adobe® Photoshop® CS5 for Windows® and Mac OS®

This user guide is protected under copyright law, furnished for informational use only, is subject to change without notice, and should not be construed as a commitment by Adobe Systems Incorporated. Adobe Systems Incorporated assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in the informational content contained in this guide.

This user guide is licensed for use under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 License. This License allows users to copy, distribute, and transmit the user guide for noncommercial purposes only so long as (1) proper attribution to Adobe is given as the owner of the user guide; and (2) any reuse or distribution of the user guide contains a notice that use of the user guide is governed by these terms. The best way to provide notice is to include the following link. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Source

Asher
 
I used Lulu.com for a small project and was completely dissapointed with their color reproduction. They do not publish profiles, so you can't accurately predict the color rendering.

When I pointed out the marked color de-saturation, they replied "sorry, that's the best we can do..."

They offer lots of services and products for the "self-publishing" market, including ISBN numbers, links through Amazon, etc. But the combination of poor quality, and worse customer service drove me away.
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Charles,

I used Lulu.com for a small project and was completely dissapointed with their color reproduction. They do not publish profiles, so you can't accurately predict the color rendering.
Indeed, there was no critical color work (not even any critical photographic work) in the Lulu.com projects here. We did notice some questionable color renderings in the covers.

It may well be that this is not a good house when such matters are of importance.

Best regards,

Doug
 
Buy a manual/book from Amazon which is surely offering far, far better prices on this outdated version's books than you'll pay to print one or two copies of whatever the heck you have in PDF.
Do you mean the Actual Official Adobe Photoshop CS4 manual (the same one that is provided in PDF with the box)? or any book such as Manin Evening CS4 for photographers or Steve's Caplin's. (I already own some of them )


I'm the kind of person that reads manual from A to Z of any thing I'm buying (and for some things needs to refer again and again.)
 

Ken Tanaka

pro member
© 2010 Adobe Systems Incorporated and its licensors. All rights reserved.

Using Adobe® Photoshop® CS5 for Windows® and Mac OS®

This user guide is protected under copyright law, furnished for informational use only, is subject to change without notice, and should not be construed as a commitment by Adobe Systems Incorporated. Adobe Systems Incorporated assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in the informational content contained in this guide.

This user guide is licensed for use under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 License. This License allows users to copy, distribute, and transmit the user guide for noncommercial purposes only so long as (1) proper attribution to Adobe is given as the owner of the user guide; and (2) any reuse or distribution of the user guide contains a notice that use of the user guide is governed by these terms. The best way to provide notice is to include the following link. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Source

Asher

Apparently I stand conditionally corrected regarding reproduction of the manual for personal use. Thank you Asher.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Apparently I stand conditionally corrected regarding reproduction of the manual for personal use. Thank you Asher.
That's kind of you, Ken! It's rare indeed that there's anything to correct, LOL although we may differ in our appreciation of things, as should be!

Asher
 

Kevin Stecyk

New member
I agree with Ken's earlier comment where he stated printing out the entire manual is a nutty idea. It'll be expensive and I doubt you'll learn as much from the manual as you will from various books.

Here's a brief list of some excellent references with embedded Amazon affiliate links where appropriate:


You can see I have given CS4 and CS5 versions. I'd choose CS5, even if using CS4. You might wish to upgrade, and the differences, for the most part, are pretty minor, despite what Adobe might say. Or put differently, if you are going to invest the time to read any of these large books cover to cover, you might as well get CS5.

Julieanne's blog mentioned at the end is very good too. She's an Adobe Evangelist who travels the globe promoting Photoshop. Every day, she provides a new tip on using Photoshop.

The reality is, even after reading and knowing all the commands, you still won't know it all. That is, the commands are only one small part of your required knowledge base. The next trick is to apply what you know to help create beautiful pictures.

Reading the dictionary and expanding your vocabulary doesn't necessarily imply that you'll become a great writer. Similarly, knowing the commands doesn't necessarily imply that you can create pictures. Instead, both writing and creating pictures take practice.

You might find a more efficient approach is to define what you want to do with Photoshop, and then investigate how to do it. In taking this approach, you'll force yourself to learn those commands that are applicable to your task. And then grow from there.
 
Just to state that I have most of the books you mentioned (not necessarily here in GB, not necessarily for CS4, most of them for PS7 or CS).

there are some functions that are never explained in those books, because they seem invaluable for photo editing but might be valuable for other purposes... And it's just for my knowledge anyway...
 

Kevin Stecyk

New member
Just to state that I have most of the books you mentioned (not necessarily here in GB, not necessarily for CS4, most of them for PS7 or CS).

there are some functions that are never explained in those books, because they seem invaluable for photo editing but might be valuable for other purposes... And it's just for my knowledge anyway...
Much has changed since PS7.

The point that I was driving toward is that the Adobe manual is a reference. It likely, for the most part, just tells you the technical stuff of what a command does. It won't provide much guidance on how to use it.

With those books and reference mentioned earlier, most cover photography and other applications. In other words, they are not limited to just photographs.

In your response, you haven't indicated what information you're seeking or what it is you're trying to do that can't already do. So it's hard to say whether reading an Adobe manual will address your concerns.

If you simply--well, perhaps not so simply--want to learn the commands, you might want to investigate Adobe's certification process. I suspect it would put you through the paces of the different commands. Another option is to join Kelby Training or Lynda.com to see their course offerings.

Anyway, just food for thought. I hope your process meets your objectives, whichever path you follow.
 
Thank you for your food and your thoughts :) I know it seems odd, I am just like that...Some want to dismantle prime canon lenses, some needs reference. I won't use it much after I have read entirely from A to Z, just as a dictionary, But, Did I ever mention that I love to read dictionary at a random page? Odd, I know....

Anyway, for the certification (ACE) it's on its way, at least in my mind....
Cheers!
 

Bradley Patten

New member
Blurb and Lightroom 4

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone has given ordering via lightroom 4 a go? It seems like it would save on the download of additonal software but I may be misunderstanding things a bit.
 
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