Blurb Photobooks is one those photo book printing services that doesn't actually specialize in photo books-- instead, they specialize in book self publishing in general, whether that book consists of text, photo, or a combination of the two. In some ways, this make fore a more flexible photo book design and layout. In other ways, it makes the job more work intensive.

Blurb's New Photo Book Software Update

Blurb recently updated their photo book software in April of 2010. The Booksmart 2.6 release focused on a 50% crash reduction and full support for Windows 7 and Mac OS X Snow Leopard. This photo book printer review is for the Booksmart 2.6, although the changes are transparent for most users of Booksmart 2.5

The Blurb Booksmart 2.6 software is downloaded directly to you computer and you work on you book offline. It is a hefty 48MB file and you need 110MB of free space on your computer to install. When you have a finished Blurb photobook, you then upload the book to Blub and place your order. It's a bit more trouble than some of the more seamless photo book creation softwares out there, but isn't at all difficult to do.

Tutorials: If you like to really get into the software there are several tutorials that you can watch. This way you can really take advantage of all the functions offered. Uploading your photos is very easy, and getting photos from some social networking sites is integrated in the photo upload process.

Photo Book Collaboration: If you are collaborating on a project you can request people to add photos to your project too -- this would be an awesome help if you were, say, making a yearbook.

The improvment has definitely helped Blurb's photo book software to run more smoothly, and has fixed a lot of my previous problems with the photo book creation process-- definitely a step in the right direction.

Types of Photo Books to Make at Blurb

There are many different types of books you can make at Blurb photobooks, including business books, wedding books, and more. If you're looking to make a photo book at Blurb, however, they do have a special section for photo books. They have four size options and two cover options for their photo books, including:

Sofcover Photo Books

Hardcover Photo Books with Dust Jacket

In addition to using their Blurb photobooks software to create your own photo book, you can also make photobooks in a few creative ways:

Turn Your Blog into a Photo Book

A really cool feature is the ability to turn your blog into a book. This process is a little different than making a regular book, but something an avid blogger may love to see. It is also very easy to create text-based books -- all text, guest books, and journals. The variety provided should cover every type of book that you'd like to make.

Upload a PDF Book

It is very easy to upload a pdf to create a book that you have put together in another software. Since the focus of this website is the average user - the people who don't have the software to put together on their own - we will not review that process.

Use a Quick Start Template

Quick Start Book Templates are available to help you design a book using the Booksmart Software. There are over 8 different templates to choose, and there is great Help documentation to help you figure out how to use these templates.

Other Blurb Photobook Options

You can now add a picture as a background, one of the features missing with the original Booksmart. You can make an unlimited number of layouts as you can add picture boxes and text boxes at will. A really nice new feature is that the picture will automatically fill the container that you have chosen -- in the past you might have to make manual adjustments to achieve this. You cannot do any picture editing within the software, so make sure you do that if you have some pictures that need a little bit of work. Blurb

Blurb Photobooks Specifications

Paper Weight	Standard - 80# matte Premium - 100# coated
Max. # of Pages	440
Mac Compatible?	Yes

Updated: August 11, 2010

Blurb Photo Book Review

Comparative Photo Book Software Review

Background Themes	Wide variety
Layout Variety	Wide variety, can create you own too.
JPG as a Background	Yes - must be done manually, but it works
Digi-Scrapbooking Friendly	Yes
In-book Editing	Only flip, rotate, crop.
Text - variety and Full Page	Great variety
Embellishments and Corners	Very limited.
Full-Page Bleed	Yes
Final Grade	A

For an explanation of the Feature Set Review

Photo Book Sizes

The prices given are based on a 20 page book with printing on both sides of the pages. Additional pages are available for an extra charge. The price given is the lowest price for that size category.

Hardcover
7x7	22.95
8x10	29.95
10x8	29.95
12x12	59.95
13x11	54.95
Softcover
7x7	12.95
8x10	19.95
10x8	19.95

For a more detailed pricing, please visit Photo Book Covers and Sizes

Go from Blurb Photobooks Review to my other Photo Book Printer Reviews