blurb – (lack of) support

I’ve given up on trying to get a decent book from Blurb; their customer support is unresponsive, so I am left with a book which has posterized images, and is unacceptable.
04-04-2007 emailed blurb about posterization including a link to a flickr set with examples; received an automated reply that I’d get a actual reply within [...]

Making a book with Picaboo

One reader asked if I’d seen books by Picaboo. I hadn’t so I took a look at their site.
I hesitated for two reasons: first was that their app runs only in XP, which means I’d have to run it in Parallels on my mac. Philosophically, I’d rather run an app in the native [...]

Lowepro CompuTrekker Plus AW

CompuTrekker Plus AW
Originally uploaded by mikefranklin.

I finally had too many lenses for my nearly year-old Timbuk2 bag I’d originally purchased for carrying my macbook, and thus went hunting for a better bag.
I liked the Timbuk2 shoulder bag since it provided easy access to the lenses, and could just [...]

Panorama software for OS X

Lake elmore
Originally uploaded by mikefranklin.

A friend of mine, Lars Ivar was hunting for some decent panorama software, and found Double Take.
It’s does a pretty amazing job of merging photos, even considering different angles and sizes of the images… and gives quite a bit of manual control over [...]

Apple book problem and resolution

picked-off black goop
Originally uploaded by mikefranklin.

I’ve successfully had two Apple books printed via Aperture. Easy, convenient, and they turned out perfectly.
The third book has black residue (dried ink, perhaps?) on two of the pages. Here, I’ve picked it off to see what was underneath: just the [...]

technical support – blurb, viovio, soon apple

Thanks to Bagelturf for mentioning me on his blog; my reviews have temporarily become popular.
After printing books and seeing problems comes dealing with technical support. What fun.
Blurb
I emailed Blurb about posterization on april 5, 2007, indicating the flickr set which showed examples along with comparisons of the same non-postersized images in a [...]

Blurb customer support

I received a slightly delayed response to my question to Blurb regarding lack of quality on my second blurb book. They kindly offered a coupon for $10 off my next book, and then explained that 300 dpi was the best to use:
We recommend 300 dpi. 180 dpi should still print well, but 300 is [...]

Blurb book review (II)

blurb blob
Originally uploaded by mikefranklin.

apple detail
Originally uploaded by mikefranklin.

My original blurb book was produced with images exported at 72dpi (the aperture default, which I had neglected to check before exporting).
So I re-exported the images at 180 dpi, and re-created the book as a (cheaper) softcover, and sent it [...]

Viovio photobook

cover
Originally uploaded by mikefranklin.

My search for the perfect book continues.
I found Viovio when I was searching for something else. The prices looked quite reasonable ($5 per softcover + $0.25 per page), and while there was some online book arrangement app, I could also upload a PDF for [...]