Blurb Photo Book Review Part 1

November 3, 2012

I have always been one of those people that likes to capture everything in life. Twin daddy will agree with me on this. From taking pictures of our holidays together, to family events and generally anything that catches my eye. Our home is filled with photo books, photo frames and albums. So, when I was given the opportunity to review www.blurb.co.uk, I jumped at the chance!

Blurb is a website, that allows members to create, share and sell books. My review of Blurb will be in two parts.

Part 1, will be about creating my book and Part 2, will be a review of my photo book when it arrives.


The Blurb website is well presented and easy to navigate. Selecting the ‘Make a Book’ option, I am taken to a page that gives me 3 options to create my book:

1. Easy-to-Use Template
2. More Customisation
3. Full Creative Control

Option number 1, allows you to create a fast, fun Facebook or Instagram book, with the option to convert it into an ebook for the Ipad.

Option number 2, which the website says is its most popular choice, requires you to download the Blurb BookSmart software.

Finally, option number 3, is for professionals and also allows you to create an ebook for the Ipad. 

I decide to go for option number 2 and download the software. I have quite a lot of experience in creating photo books. I have created one for all of Twin Daddy and I’s holidays, our wedding and I am in the process of creating one for our twins first year. I have used numerous different softwares, most of which are slow and unresponsive, so when the Blurb BookSmart software downloaded and installed in less than 2 minutes, I was off to a good start! 

The first page that appeared after downloading the software, asked me to choose which type of book I wanted to create. Each option clearly showed the product size and what options were available to choose with the book. There is also a ‘Pricing’ button, which when clicked takes me to Blurb’s website and shows me the pricing for the different types of books available.

So far so good! 

The website is easy to navigate and any information that I wanted to find out has been easy to find. 

After opting for a large landscape book, priced at £31.95 for 20pages, I then choose the layout I want for my book. I also notice that I now have two options. I can either start my book straight away or continue with the step by step guide. 

I opt for a photo book layout and the step by step guide. So, the next step involves selecting the photos that I want to go in my book. I have a few options of how to do this:

  • Your Files – Select files from your computer and attached drives
  • Photo Sites;
  • Flickr.com
  • Photobucket.com
  • Picasa Web Albums
  • SmugMug.com
I choose to use the photos saved to my laptop. I found this step to be a bit time consuming. I chose a folder containing my recent photos and I assumed all the photos in that folder would be automatically uploaded. Unfortunately not. I have to wade my way through selecting each photo one by one. I don’t mind doing this, as I have found most photo websites to be the same, but one thing I would have liked to have seen is an option to preview the photo I have selected. The photo’s showing in the folder were quite small and with my eye sight I had to squint to ensure I hadn’t selected the same photo twice. 

After picking my photos, I am then given two options. I can either have my book filled automatically or I can chose to drag and drop the photos myself. I decide to do it myself.

The next step is to choose a theme. I am given 3 options, so decide to opt for the view finder theme. After clicking continue, my photos are imported in less than 30 seconds and I am ready to start dragging and dropping my photos. 

The front cover allows you to add a title, as well as an author and I am also pleased to see that there are a few more themes to choose from than the original 3 I was shown in the guide. There are a lot of different layouts I can choose for my front cover and I am able to customise the colour, font and border. 

One feature that I particularly like, is that after dragging a photo onto the front cover, a pop up box tells me that the resolution is too low to print well and I have the option to fix this. This means that my chosen picture is scaled down to a size that will print well.

My front cover is complete in just a few minutes and it looks pretty good to me! 

After choosing a pattern for the background and deciding on a layout, I proceed with filling my book with photos.

There are a number of different options available, which lets me put either 1 photo per page or more. I opt for 1 photo a page. The process of creating my book is very simple and there is a lot of options available for customisation.

Once happy with my finished book, I click order and am reminded to double check that I am happy with my book. My photo book is then uploaded in under 5 minutes. 

Overall, I found Blurb easy to use. The information provided on their website is clear to understand, with no jargon and the guide to help you create your book makes it a very simple process. The software downloaded and installed quickly, my pictures were uploaded quickly and most importantly the software works and didn’t freeze! 

I would definitely use www.blurb.co.uk again in the future. 

If you would like to create your very own book, Blurb have an offer of 20% off for new customers, if you use the code ‘NOEL20’.

For the purpose of this review I was sent a £30 voucher to use at www.blurb.co.uk

Don’t forget to keep an eye out for part 2!

Emily

I started Twin Mummy and Daddy in 2012.  

Over time Twin Mummy and Daddy has gone from strength to strength. I write about our family life, my love for running and our passion for adventure and travel.  

We’ve also started living a more eco-friendly life. As such I also write about our zero waste journey in a bid to encourage others to think about the impact they have on the environment.

I’m a keen runner and in April 2019 I ran the London Marathon for an amazing charity called WellChild. It’s one of my biggest achievements to date. I raised over £2,000 for the charity and learnt so much along the way.

This year we’re passionate about spending time outdoors. We’ll be sharing our travel, days out and camping adventures right here on Twin Mummy and Daddy.

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