Blurb book from Leica Monochrom files??

[robgo2]

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Is it possible to print a book of Monochrom photos using the Blurb book printing service. I ask, because something tells me that the Blurb software requires RGB files and will not work with grayscale files. Does anyone have knowledge of or experience with this issue?

[elmars]

Some months ago I printed a book with some files of the M10 Monochrome in it. No problem.

I think, Blurb converts the sites in another format while uploading. Perhaps into a PDF. The color DNG (or other RAW formates) have to be converted too.

[robgo2]

Probably the key step in uploading is to convert the grayscale image to sRGB, which is a color space that Blurb likes.

[pippy]

I had a book printed by Blurb (all images in monochrome) and the experience was not without its quirks...

The original order, when it arrived, had a number of images which had distinct traces of colour but only on some of the images. I was printing one photograph per page and the result rendered very darkest tones with a slight cyan cast - subtle but noticeable - yet the lightest tones had a similarly subtle very slight tinge of yellow. The effect was not unpleasant - it actually made some images a bit more intriguing! - yet it was not what I was expecting. Reminded me strongly of some old quad-tone printed books from the first quarter of the 1900's

Very soon afterwards I needed to put in a second order but didn't have the time to take up the issue with Blurb and went ahead. This time all copies of the volume were perfectly as they should have been in the first instance. I couldn't have been happier with the final article; the quality of the volume really is top-notch in every regard. So much so that I've since ordered further copies - all of which have been perfect.

No idea what went 'wrong' initially. Perhaps one sheet of images for the press weren't zeroed-in properly in terms of white balance?

I don't know if this will give you any idea of the quality of production but, FWIW, here's a couple of quick snaps showing the full thing and a typical double-page spread;

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Philip.

Edited September 9, 2021 by pippy

[johnwolf]

Blurb wants CMYK. I output TIFFs from Lightroom, then bring into Photoshop, desaturate, and convert to CMYK.

https://support.blurb.com/hc/en-us/articles/360026993072-Preparing-black-and-white-images-for-Adobe-InDesign-or-Blurb-s-PDF-Uploader-workflows

Edited September 9, 2021 by johnwolf

[robgo2]

2 hours ago, johnwolf said:

Blurb wants CMYK. I output TIFFs from Lightroom, then bring into Photoshop, desaturate, and convert to CMYK.

https://support.blurb.com/hc/en-us/articles/360026993072-Preparing-black-and-white-images-for-Adobe-InDesign-or-Blurb-s-PDF-Uploader-workflows

The article you referenced relates to using InDesign or Blurb’s PDF Uploader. I use Blurb’s Bookwright, which accepts jpeg and png files in either RGB or CMYK color space. 
 

https://support.blurb.com/hc/en-us/articles/360026993092-Preparing-Color-Images-for-BookWright

[jpattison]

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I used BookWright for my Monochrom book in 2013, JPGs were fine.

https://www.blurb.co.uk/books/4563801-monochrom-images-2013

To answer your question, I just exported them as JPG, and assume that LR made RGB JPegs from the original monochrome DNGs.

John

Edited September 25, 2021 by jpattison
added text

[robgo2]

8 hours ago, jpattison said:

I used BookWright for my Monochrom book in 2013, JPGs were fine.

https://www.blurb.co.uk/books/4563801-monochrom-images-2013

To answer your question, I just exported them as JPG, and assume that LR made RGB JPegs from the original monochrome DNGs.

John

I use Capture One, which has excellent soft proofing tools. Blurb has its own CMYK profile that I used in the soft proofing process, after which I converted back to sRGB, resized, exported as jpegs and finally uploaded to the Blurb site for printing. On my monitor, the images appeared a bit dark, so I am anxious to see how they look in print. 

[jpattison]

I couldn't fault the final book.  I'm a Hi-Res audio streaming and vinyl record playing kind of guy, via Audio Note equipment, - so only the best will do in that genre, but I just send my Leica Monochrom CCD images as JPegs to get my own (mini) book in print. I guess I need to ponder on that !!!

Cheers, John

Edited September 25, 2021 by jpattison

[robgo2]

John, I don’t know if soft proofing is as vital for monochrome images, but my book contains both mono and color images, so I’m hoping that using the blurb CMYK profile was worth the extra effort. 

[Berlinman]

I use the Lightroom book-tool for bw- books, but most of my approx 40 books since 2014 are mixed color and bw. The first years I had no problems. In the last time I had 2 books were I had also colorcasts (greenish). I send pictures of the problem and they send a new copy. The export in the correct format is done by LR.

[robgo2]

OP here. I thought that I would post a follow-up of my experience with the Blurb book that I had printed. It contained both color and B&W images. The soft-proofing of color images was done in Capture One using the Blurb CMYK profile, which can be downloaded from Blurb's website. After soft-proofing, the files were converted to sRGB.

The color reproduction in the book is excellent, much better than I have ever gotten from Blurb in the past. The colors are quite accurate (not perfect, of course) and well saturated. For me, this will be the way to go with printing books in the future.

[abphoto]

Did one a few years back from the originals MM. RGB files 

https://www.blurb.com/b/8495841

Edited December 21, 2021 by abphoto

[Photojournoguy]

I’ve used Printique/Adorama for the past 3-4 years (one book a year in multiple sizes). Just got my M10M so no experience printing those files but just another reco for printing - have been very happy with the finished product and best of all they use lie flat books so no creases down the middle.

Curious if anyone has used them and been happy (or not).

[fotografr]

18 hours ago, abphoto said:

Did one a few years back from the originals MM. RGB files 

https://www.blurb.com/b/8495841

Really nice work. The reproduction looks excellent.

[abphoto]

Thanks Brent.

 

Had two one man exhibits of work from this book. One here in Chicago and one in Hamburg, Germany. Here is some local press I got about the Hamburg exhibit. 

https://www.oakpark.com/2019/05/28/streets-alleys-and-other-captured-moments/

 

Also had some words in Viewfinder (LHSA) 

https://www.lhsa.org/blog/2018/10/allen-bourgeois-streets-alleys-and-other-urban-observations

Yes the reproduction is quite good. I did go the most expensive route. Blurb did a wonderful job with the printing. 

 

Edited December 22, 2021 by abphoto

[fotografr]

21 hours ago, abphoto said:

Thanks Brent.

 

Had two one man exhibits of work from this book. One here in Chicago and one in Hamburg, Germany. Here is some local press I got about the Hamburg exhibit. 

https://www.oakpark.com/2019/05/28/streets-alleys-and-other-captured-moments/

 

Also had some words in Viewfinder (LHSA) 

https://www.lhsa.org/blog/2018/10/allen-bourgeois-streets-alleys-and-other-urban-observations

Yes the reproduction is quite good. I did go the most expensive route. Blurb did a wonderful job with the printing. 

 

I wish I'd known about the Chicago exhibition. I'd have made the drive from Madison to see it.

[abphoto]

I'll give you a heads up on my next exhibit. I was supposed to be in a group exhibit last Sept but covid stopped that from happening. Nothing in the works at the moment. 

 

Edited December 23, 2021 by abphoto