Recently I decided to try a photo book through LR/Blurb. The process was seamless , and the “proof” copy I ordered was perfect. (Full disclosure, I’m a retired photographer with 50 years experience. I shoot exclusively in black and white and my standards are pretty high.)
Based on the exceptional proof copy I ordered 5 more copies. The 5 copies arrived with all of the highlights having a strong blue cast. I complained to Blurb and they re-ran another copy that came through with the same blue cast. I sent them some side-by-side comparisons with the original proof copy, and their response ( below) essentially says that when you go through Blurb for B&W, you can expect anything from Blue-and-White to Red-and-White, and that’s fine according to their quality thresholds. I’m not posting this to complain, just to make you aware of these quality thresholds as Adobe is partnered with Blurb as a book vendor. I was particularly put off but by the statement that you shouldn't expect a book to look like what you see on the computer screen with Lightroom. That, to me, is unacceptable. When I make a print on my Epson printer I get exactly what I see on the screen, otherwise why put the work into LightRoom.
BLURB RESPONSE
I'm sorry to hear that you're still not happy with the reprinted book. When you print your book through our (or any other) print-on-demand process there's always the chance of some slight variation in the printing and production process.
That variation could be in the color of your book. It might look slightly warmer (more red) or slightly cooler (more blue) compared to the original image, or compared to the same book printed earlier.
You may see some slight variation in the brightness of the printed image compared to the original image or the same image printed earlier.
There may also be slight variations in the trimming, binding and alignment of the printed book.
Any variation should be slight but may still be noticeable. (An extreme variation would likely be considered a print defect). We simply have to allow for any slight variations that can occur in production.
This means you may not get a 100% match between what's on your screen and what's in the printed book, or between different orders of the same book.
But your book should still fall within our overall quality standards and that's the case here. Your book has some of the slight variation we have to allow for.
If this was a print defect I could order you a replacement and be confident it would look better. But a reprint won't guarantee a different result in this case and I don't want you to be disappointed by a second attempt.
Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.
Best regards,
Zoe
Blurb Customer Support
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