What LR output sharpening for Blurb book using BookWright?

Hi,

I have a question about Bookwright and the support team don't seem to be able to give an answer. If anyone here has some experience with Bookwright, thanks in advance.

I can't use Blurb from LR because it's an option that is too limited when manipulating large amounts of text. So I'm using Bookwright. However, it seems that Bookwright is not color managed (even when the softproof option is enabled). I have imported JPEG/sRGB images into Bookwright and they are all oversaturated, as usual in non color managed software. So I'm wondering whether this will also affect the prints. This overstaturation is a show stopper for me. I'm using a calibrated display and all my photos are correctly displayed in any color managed software. So, the problem is not on my side.

Anyone having also noticed this behavior ?

Thanks.

It took 6 days for Blurb to reply to my post on their website (same post as above) and this is the reply I got today:

The HP Indigo printers we use print using halftones. That being said, we do not usually recommend much sharpening for your images. Sharpening is something that you may not want to apply to all images. It is hard for me to make a judgement on your images with a sharpening method from another company's software.

However, to help you get started, I suggest trying out that sharpening and then zooming into 200% to check the quality of your image. Also, zoom into 200% of an unsharpened version of that image. If the image quality looks good at that zoom level it's a good indicator that it will hold up well for printing. If it looks very blocky, grainy, blurry or pixelated, it will print that way.

For more detailed instructions on the 200% test, including sample screenshots, please see the following knowledgebase article: https://blurb.zendesk.com/entries/55623984

Sharpening can add pixelation or grain to some images and I do highly suggest using minimal sharpening and adding it only when reviewing each image while zoomed into 200%.

Additionally, as you are placing your images into BookWright image containers, please note that it is best to make sure your images are the size of the image container in BookWright. If your images are much larger than the image container in BookWright then the software will have to compress that image to fit the container. This can cause some grain in your image, which can become even grainier if that image was over-sharpened.

Yesterday I uploaded my photo book using the BookWright software.  I decided to turn off the output sharpening in the LR export window and that seems like the proper choice.  Thanks again to everyone.

Thanks to everyone who has replied.  Okay, so it is believed that the LR book module does not do any output sharpening on the files it uploads to Blurb?

I am still trying to figure out though what I should use in the export window for output sharpening when the photo files will be imported into BookWright.  I thought that if I knew what LR does when it sends photos to Blurb then I should probably try to do the same.  Should I turn output sharpening off in this case?

And, yes, I realize trying something, uploading the book, buying the book, waiting for it to arrive here to Japan, examining it, trying something else, and repeating that is the ideal way.  It is quite expensive though because in addition to the price of the book each time there is the expensive shipping to Japan and it usually takes 4-6 weeks each time to receive it.  I would prefer to get it right or as close to right the first time. :-)  I have been reasonably satisfied with the books I made using the LR book module so if I did the same with regards to output sharpening that it does then that would probably be okay.

bakubo  wrote In the past I have made a couple of Blurb books with LR Classic CC book module and uploaded them directly from LR. You choose the type and size of paper and it is not clear what kind of output sharpening LR does when it uploads.  Do you know?

None; all output sharpening is targeted for ink jet technology, Blurb is using a totally different kind of device using halftone dots. In the Print Module, your options are three strengths for two papers using ink jet output. This was based on the Pixel Genius PhotoKit Sharpener II product and Adobe didn't take the halftone (or contone) sharpening algorithms for output to those kinds of print technologies.

I agree with Jay vdL’s advice, LR’s output sharpening is very good both for up sizing and reducing file size.

For me there are too many unknowns (except by proof printing a small test piece through Blurb, if that is possible).

Sharpening must be done after resizing, so surely Blurb can support you with some help with your query.

Please let us know how you went . . .

Without knowing whether the software also resizes the images before uploading I don't think you can actually know. Are you resizing the images yourself to the size you are going to use in the book at the right resolution of typically between 240 and 300 ppi? If you are not doing this, the output sharpening you apply is not relevant anyway. Lightroom's output sharpening is applied at the pixel level and in general at sizes typical for book prints, the effect is going to be completely invisible because the printing method is not able to reproduce that detail. You will only see the effect of output sharpening if you scale down your images to a more reasonable resolution for the output medium.