I try not to be too much of a Blurb fanboy here on the print/ready blog, but there's a lot of pride about what our little company accomplished this week. So please allow the shameless plug if you would as I wax about our latest releases.
Today we announced four new languages to add to our stable. After this week's launch of Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, and Spanish, we are now localized in seven tongues including French, German, and English. You can see the new sites at http://es.blurb.com/, http://it.blurb.com/, http://nl.blurb.com/, and http://br.blurb.com/.
We've also made a huge plunge into eBooks with our new iOS offering. Anyone that has previously created a book using BookSmart or Bookify can now purchase and sell eBook versions that can be viewed on any Apple mobile device (iTouch, iPad, iPhone). You can see more about this cool offering at http://www.blurb.com/ebook/
Not to be outdone, our tried-and-true backbone authoring tool, BookSmart, has an upgrade as well. Now you can create weekly planners, import seamlessly from Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3, along with a slew of little updates like improved spell-check, font management, UI enhancements, and new spreads. Plus, you can now make books of 240 pages using our Premium or ProLine paper options, up from the previous 160.
Our upstart mobile group has an update as well, Blurb Mobile 1.4. With it you can now export to video, take advantage of a new layout editor, as well as improved sharing. You can get it now at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blurb-mobile/id430933688?mt=8
So, yeah, we're pretty proud. And we hope all of our customers will like what we've done and keep coming back for more.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
iPhone 4S first thoughts
Right on time, my friendly FedEx delivery guy dropped off a little brown box at my front door last Friday. I have to admit, I was a bit more excited to get my iPhone4 last year, but the day a new Apple product arrives is always a pretty good day.
As with the iPhone 4, the 4S migration was painless and fairly quick for me, unlike some others that I've heard from. I upgraded my 4 to iOS 5 earlier in the week so I was already familiar with most of the new features and the fact that the sync process how happens somewhat in the background once you get the phone's initial set up complete.
So, yeah, I played with Seri a bit and it's as billed. I used the Voice Command feature on my 4 quite a bit when I'm in my car so I had a good comparison. Bottom line, there is no comparison. For someone who works from their car quite a bit this should be a must have, both for efficiency and safety.
While the news was mainly about Seri, the speed of the 4S is the real story. It's noticeably quicker, smoother, more responsive...all of the things you would expect from a major Apple phone upgrade. And, gee, all of my iPhone accessories still work so that's another bonus.
The camera was my main reason for upgrading and it does not disappoint. While a lot of the cool new features are in iOS 5 and available for the 4, the speed of the 4S makes the camera work even more like a standalone device. Add a very nice lens and sensor upgrade and the 4S looks to me like another nail in the coffin of point-and-shoot cameras.
Bottom line? Well worth the upgrade if you use your iPhone a lot and you can qualify. If you don't qualify yet, I suggest you don't play around with a 4S because it will make you want to replace your 4 even more. But the advances with iOS 5 on the 4 makes it almost like a new phone so if you haven't stepped up and updated your software yet I strongly encourage it.
As with the iPhone 4, the 4S migration was painless and fairly quick for me, unlike some others that I've heard from. I upgraded my 4 to iOS 5 earlier in the week so I was already familiar with most of the new features and the fact that the sync process how happens somewhat in the background once you get the phone's initial set up complete.
So, yeah, I played with Seri a bit and it's as billed. I used the Voice Command feature on my 4 quite a bit when I'm in my car so I had a good comparison. Bottom line, there is no comparison. For someone who works from their car quite a bit this should be a must have, both for efficiency and safety.
While the news was mainly about Seri, the speed of the 4S is the real story. It's noticeably quicker, smoother, more responsive...all of the things you would expect from a major Apple phone upgrade. And, gee, all of my iPhone accessories still work so that's another bonus.
The camera was my main reason for upgrading and it does not disappoint. While a lot of the cool new features are in iOS 5 and available for the 4, the speed of the 4S makes the camera work even more like a standalone device. Add a very nice lens and sensor upgrade and the 4S looks to me like another nail in the coffin of point-and-shoot cameras.
Bottom line? Well worth the upgrade if you use your iPhone a lot and you can qualify. If you don't qualify yet, I suggest you don't play around with a 4S because it will make you want to replace your 4 even more. But the advances with iOS 5 on the 4 makes it almost like a new phone so if you haven't stepped up and updated your software yet I strongly encourage it.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
My Humble Steve Jobs Blog Post
Like just about everyone I know, I have strong emotions about Steve Jobs. There will be plenty of epitaphs that will be much more interesting, or well written, or relevant than mine. But here goes nonetheless.
My first practical Apple experience was, as many of us in the 80's, via graphic arts. I was running production for a Pacific Color, Inc., a professional photo lab in Seattle. In the days before large screens and digital projectors if you needed to do a presentation you used view graphs or slides, all optically created on movable-stage cameras. That changed when the original Macintosh gave graphic power to to masses. At PCI we invested in a system that would allow folks to make their own slides. The Autographix and Dicomed imaging systems we installed were the first of their kind, but everything was still monotone, including the authoring tools in software like Aldus Persuasion. If you were around in those days, you'll remember that with Persuasion you received a sleeve of 20 slides with colors and ID's to choose your for your text. At PCI we created and imaged all of these inserts for Aldus (Seattle-based and early Apple supporter before being purchased by Adobe)and produced most all of the final customer output for the Pacific Northwest.
I soon moved on and joined Bill Gates' little start-up, Continuum Productions, later renamed Corbis. I quickly had a five million dollar global budget to expand the footprint of the scanning operations, much of it spent on totally tricked out Apple Quadra 950's, the ultimate state of the art at the time for graphic applications, partially due to ColorSync 1.0. Keep in mind, in the early and mid 90's Microsoft and Apple were not friendly and one of my favorite "Bill stories" is when, soon after the release of Windows 95, Bill was touring my Bellevue WA lab and said "I guess we'll be changing all of these Macs to PC's now that Windows is color managed." I got to inform him that W95 had faux color management at best and we had no plans to replace our Apple hardware. I would have hated to be the W95 product manager when Bill made it back to Redmond.
Fast forward to September 1997 and the Seybold Conference in San Francisco, then the largest of its kind in the world and a must-go event for those associated with publishing and graphic arts. Steve was still interim CEO of Apple at this point, returning to try and save them after some disastrous months. When Bill Gates appeared on the big screen behind Steve at the keynote the crowd booed lustily, the beginning of the real fan boy mentality for Apple in my opinion. But Steve knew he needed Microsoft to survive and Bill could have snuffed Apple out if he would have decided to stop producing software for the Mac. Microsoft invested in Apple and the rest is history.
During this time I got my first dose of what it was like being close to Steve (or, at least, close to those close to him) as Corbis became the flavor of the month around Apple as we tried to find ways to work more closely together. The pull of his personality was palpable, even second hand.
My next experience with Apple was in 2002. I began working for the company that produced the photo books for iPhoto and I was constantly amazed that Steve himself was so involved in even the smallest details of the product, down to the paper weight and color profiles. I have to say having Apple as a customer was not much fun and intense is an understatement of what it was like. But being part of the Apple extended network is something I'm very proud of.
Being a Seattle guy, I was always a bit conflicted in the Apple vs Microsoft wars. Over the years I moved pretty freely between platforms, finally settling for good on the Apple ecosystem when I joined Blurb. As a mobile professional, iPhone, iPad and MacBookPro has changed the way I do business so completely that I can't imagine how I could succeed without these tools. So this becomes Steve's legacy for me. The freedom to live where I like, do a job I absolutely love with an extended family of graphic arts pros and operations folks, making strikingly beautiful artifacts.
Can you imagine how many disparate stories like mine that are being written today?
My first practical Apple experience was, as many of us in the 80's, via graphic arts. I was running production for a Pacific Color, Inc., a professional photo lab in Seattle. In the days before large screens and digital projectors if you needed to do a presentation you used view graphs or slides, all optically created on movable-stage cameras. That changed when the original Macintosh gave graphic power to to masses. At PCI we invested in a system that would allow folks to make their own slides. The Autographix and Dicomed imaging systems we installed were the first of their kind, but everything was still monotone, including the authoring tools in software like Aldus Persuasion. If you were around in those days, you'll remember that with Persuasion you received a sleeve of 20 slides with colors and ID's to choose your for your text. At PCI we created and imaged all of these inserts for Aldus (Seattle-based and early Apple supporter before being purchased by Adobe)and produced most all of the final customer output for the Pacific Northwest.
I soon moved on and joined Bill Gates' little start-up, Continuum Productions, later renamed Corbis. I quickly had a five million dollar global budget to expand the footprint of the scanning operations, much of it spent on totally tricked out Apple Quadra 950's, the ultimate state of the art at the time for graphic applications, partially due to ColorSync 1.0. Keep in mind, in the early and mid 90's Microsoft and Apple were not friendly and one of my favorite "Bill stories" is when, soon after the release of Windows 95, Bill was touring my Bellevue WA lab and said "I guess we'll be changing all of these Macs to PC's now that Windows is color managed." I got to inform him that W95 had faux color management at best and we had no plans to replace our Apple hardware. I would have hated to be the W95 product manager when Bill made it back to Redmond.
During this time I got my first dose of what it was like being close to Steve (or, at least, close to those close to him) as Corbis became the flavor of the month around Apple as we tried to find ways to work more closely together. The pull of his personality was palpable, even second hand.
My next experience with Apple was in 2002. I began working for the company that produced the photo books for iPhoto and I was constantly amazed that Steve himself was so involved in even the smallest details of the product, down to the paper weight and color profiles. I have to say having Apple as a customer was not much fun and intense is an understatement of what it was like. But being part of the Apple extended network is something I'm very proud of.
Being a Seattle guy, I was always a bit conflicted in the Apple vs Microsoft wars. Over the years I moved pretty freely between platforms, finally settling for good on the Apple ecosystem when I joined Blurb. As a mobile professional, iPhone, iPad and MacBookPro has changed the way I do business so completely that I can't imagine how I could succeed without these tools. So this becomes Steve's legacy for me. The freedom to live where I like, do a job I absolutely love with an extended family of graphic arts pros and operations folks, making strikingly beautiful artifacts.
Can you imagine how many disparate stories like mine that are being written today?
Friday, September 30, 2011
Best phone toys so far this year
I've worked remote or had remote direct reports since 1994 so communication devices are something that are not an option but critical to my job. Plus I love new technology so the new stuff I tend to gravitate toward are things the meet both of these needs. So far this year I've gotten a couple of new toys that I thought I would share.
A few months ago a bought the new Jabra Freeway in-car Bluetooth speakerphone system. I have a car that didn't come with an integrated phone system and I've been using a Jawbone headset since they were first released years ago. But that all has changed. The Freeway is an excellent unit, with dual microphones allowing for ambient noise cancellation and a three-speaker listening device with plenty of pop. Plus you can route the sound to your FM radio if you want to share the call via your audio system. At around $115 it's not the cheapest, but it's a great investment if you spend a lot of time in your car taking calls.
The home office needed a new phone system so we did the normal churn of walking though all of the options. We ended up with the Panasonic KX-TG4644. Granted, it's been quite a few years since I've bought an office or home phone, but I've been just blown away by the performance and features of this unit. It seamlessly integrates with my CenturyLink voicemail system, has great sound clarity and range, and also allows for use of up to two cell phones via Bluetooth connection. Plus, this little gem will work during a power outage, drawing power from the phone unit in the base while you can use any of the other three extensions. At around $120 it's on the higher end, but I've been extremely happy with it and expect it to meet my needs for years to come.
Very excited about the potential I'm hearing about the iPhone5. While speed increases are always welcome, the potential of expanded voice recognition is something I'm really looking forward to. With the increase in the use of text messaging for business, the ability to speak a text is a pretty cool feature and will keep your eyes on the road. Don't know if that feature will be backward compatible with my iPhone4, but I see a 5 in my future.
A few months ago a bought the new Jabra Freeway in-car Bluetooth speakerphone system. I have a car that didn't come with an integrated phone system and I've been using a Jawbone headset since they were first released years ago. But that all has changed. The Freeway is an excellent unit, with dual microphones allowing for ambient noise cancellation and a three-speaker listening device with plenty of pop. Plus you can route the sound to your FM radio if you want to share the call via your audio system. At around $115 it's not the cheapest, but it's a great investment if you spend a lot of time in your car taking calls.
The home office needed a new phone system so we did the normal churn of walking though all of the options. We ended up with the Panasonic KX-TG4644. Granted, it's been quite a few years since I've bought an office or home phone, but I've been just blown away by the performance and features of this unit. It seamlessly integrates with my CenturyLink voicemail system, has great sound clarity and range, and also allows for use of up to two cell phones via Bluetooth connection. Plus, this little gem will work during a power outage, drawing power from the phone unit in the base while you can use any of the other three extensions. At around $120 it's on the higher end, but I've been extremely happy with it and expect it to meet my needs for years to come.
Very excited about the potential I'm hearing about the iPhone5. While speed increases are always welcome, the potential of expanded voice recognition is something I'm really looking forward to. With the increase in the use of text messaging for business, the ability to speak a text is a pretty cool feature and will keep your eyes on the road. Don't know if that feature will be backward compatible with my iPhone4, but I see a 5 in my future.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Just when you thought print was dead....
Last week was a great one for me. I started out in Chicago at Graph Expo and got a chance to catch up with a lot of vendor friends as well as representatives from all of the Blurb Global Print network, including our newest member from Australia (yep, OZ folks, you will soon be getting books printed in-country!). Walking the show floor and talking with folks from throughout the industry, there is still a real buzz about what is possible. If you weren't in the industry you would likely think that a print show in 2011 would be like a death march. And don't get me wrong, it's a tough world out there. But to see the pace at which enlightened printers are looking to expand their horizons via social media, just-in-time manufacturing, and direct-to-consumer fulfillment is very encouraging. A new generation of print service providers have learned that they can compete against the big guys by being agile, creative, and customer oriented. Anyone who thinks there is not a major move in progress hasn't paid attention to the grassroots groundswell that is happening around industry groups like Dscoop, who threw a great party on Monday night by the way.
Then I was off to New York City for the Photography Book Now awards party. Held this year in the center of creative photo expression at the Aperture Foundation, this year's entrants were stunning. And making the hard decisions on winners is a task I'm glad is not mine. The winner, Gomorrah Girl by Italian photographer Valerio Spada, was an offset printed book not published by Blurb, a proud reminder of the independence our judges bring to the competition. But Valerio's book was just the tip of the iceberg. Seeing the attendees handling, inspecting, and, yes, smelling the volumes of ink-on-paper proves something that a digital display will never give--a physical, personal relationship with the author's vision. It was a great night not just for the winners, many of whom made the trek to New York from around the world, but for all the lovers of art objects that attended as well.
I finished the week feeling refreshed about the print business. From seeing new, excited participants entering the print industry at Graph Expo, to rubbing shoulders with emerging artist/authors less than half my age at PBN, I know that print is alive and well. Like any changing industry, print must adapt to the times and I'm happy to say that the great people engaged in just that bode for a very exciting future.
Then I was off to New York City for the Photography Book Now awards party. Held this year in the center of creative photo expression at the Aperture Foundation, this year's entrants were stunning. And making the hard decisions on winners is a task I'm glad is not mine. The winner, Gomorrah Girl by Italian photographer Valerio Spada, was an offset printed book not published by Blurb, a proud reminder of the independence our judges bring to the competition. But Valerio's book was just the tip of the iceberg. Seeing the attendees handling, inspecting, and, yes, smelling the volumes of ink-on-paper proves something that a digital display will never give--a physical, personal relationship with the author's vision. It was a great night not just for the winners, many of whom made the trek to New York from around the world, but for all the lovers of art objects that attended as well.
I finished the week feeling refreshed about the print business. From seeing new, excited participants entering the print industry at Graph Expo, to rubbing shoulders with emerging artist/authors less than half my age at PBN, I know that print is alive and well. Like any changing industry, print must adapt to the times and I'm happy to say that the great people engaged in just that bode for a very exciting future.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Why I don't use an eReader--and hopefully never will
There are several technologies that have changed my life. The move to CCDs and digital photography revolutionized the photo business and enabled companies like Corbis, where I spent 8 years scanning film and building the huge digital collection. Electrophotographic print devices like HP Indigo, Xerox iGen, and Canon CLC proved that you didn't have to use silver halide materials to create one-off image-intensive prints and paved the way for the mass personalization that is so prevalent today. The Internet changed forever how we do business, and the smartphone changed the style in which that business is done.
If I had tried to imagine what my work life today would be like back when I was running a professional photo lab in the 80's I don't think I would have come close. Keeping an eye on Blurb's global print network means that I'm at various parts of the country and the world at any given time, and the sun never sets on places where we do business. Questions and issues don't wait for regular business hours and have to be managed in real time. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that the business I'm in could not exist in it's current form without the free-flowing communication that mobile devices bring.
But there is a downside of course. Since I am remote from Blurb's headquarters I'm on the phone a lot. Always. Every day. And because of this I've lost my ability to have a non-business phone conversation without trying to figure out how to end it quickly. Talking on the phone has become synonymous with work.
It's very much the same with things I read. During the week I take all of my news on-line, but on the weekends I crave my paper New York Times. I even save some parts of the Sunday times to read during the week so I can savor it a bit.
Reading anything on a screen puts me into "work mode". It's a sickness that I can't kick, the bit of OCD that serves me well when dealing with business but puts me in exactly the wrong space if I want to read for pleasure. That's why I don't have a Kindle or a Nook. I do have an iPad but I use it for "consumable" reading and to keep the weight of what I carry from town to town at a minimum.
I know that eBooks are what most folks talk about and I'm excited to see the possibilities that exist to new authors that did not in the past when publishers held all of the cards. But to me a "transmissive" experience equals work or research and a "reflective" one equates to reading on my own terms.
Technology has indeed changed my life quite a bit. But I'm determined to not allow it to completely run my life. And reading books with ink on paper is my small rejection of a completely digital world.
If I had tried to imagine what my work life today would be like back when I was running a professional photo lab in the 80's I don't think I would have come close. Keeping an eye on Blurb's global print network means that I'm at various parts of the country and the world at any given time, and the sun never sets on places where we do business. Questions and issues don't wait for regular business hours and have to be managed in real time. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that the business I'm in could not exist in it's current form without the free-flowing communication that mobile devices bring.
But there is a downside of course. Since I am remote from Blurb's headquarters I'm on the phone a lot. Always. Every day. And because of this I've lost my ability to have a non-business phone conversation without trying to figure out how to end it quickly. Talking on the phone has become synonymous with work.
It's very much the same with things I read. During the week I take all of my news on-line, but on the weekends I crave my paper New York Times. I even save some parts of the Sunday times to read during the week so I can savor it a bit.
Reading anything on a screen puts me into "work mode". It's a sickness that I can't kick, the bit of OCD that serves me well when dealing with business but puts me in exactly the wrong space if I want to read for pleasure. That's why I don't have a Kindle or a Nook. I do have an iPad but I use it for "consumable" reading and to keep the weight of what I carry from town to town at a minimum.
I know that eBooks are what most folks talk about and I'm excited to see the possibilities that exist to new authors that did not in the past when publishers held all of the cards. But to me a "transmissive" experience equals work or research and a "reflective" one equates to reading on my own terms.
Technology has indeed changed my life quite a bit. But I'm determined to not allow it to completely run my life. And reading books with ink on paper is my small rejection of a completely digital world.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Uncoated paper options at Blurb
At Blurb we've been in the final stages of judging for the fourth annual Photography Book Now international juried book competition. It's always an exciting time as we wait to find out who the winners are and have one more chance to review the thousands of fabulous entries. The competition is great for the artists that have the opportunity to have their work reviewed by a top-notch group of judges. But it's really good for us as well as we get lots of valuable feedback on what our highly creative customers need.
This year the big deal is the addition of Blurb ProLine, offering those submitting work to stand out from the crowd with options on book papers, end sheets, and cover linens. While all of these options have been widely used by PBN entrants, the judges were most struck by the addition of our ProLine Uncoated Paper. Which leads to the question, "what exactly is the difference between coated and uncoated papers"?
In general, uncoated papers have a bit more of a "natural" feel to them. A bit toothy. Like what you would expect stationary paper to feel like. Coated papers basically fill in the gaps in the natural fibers with a coating that enhances it's ability to hold ink with less dot gain, or spreading of the ink beyond where it is laid down on the paper.
When we were looking for a more natural look for artsy books, we knew we wanted an uncoated option. But we wanted to limit the downside from a quality standpoint. The obvious choice for us was the Mohawk Superfine Eggshell Ultrawhite with i-Tone surface treatment. Developed for digital presses, this paper has the feel we wanted but with excellent ink adhesion and durability.
ProLine Uncoated is a substantial 100# text/148 gsm sheet, perfect for high-end, photo intensive books. But there are times that you want to add a bit of color to a more text-heavy option as well. To that end we have recently released our new Color Trade and Pocket choices. These are the same sizes and bindings as our one-color product line, but with the addition of 4-color printing. The paper is complementary to our off-white, one-color paper, and is white with a vellum finish. It's a lighter-weight sheet at 60# text/89 gsm, and you will see a bit more dot gain in this product. But it's great for lower-fi applications like notebooks, memoirs, travel books, mini portfolios, and novels. And we've kept the price low so you can buy a lot or sell for some bucks.
Whatever paper you choose, we want you to be able to find one that will enhance your vision. ProLine and Color Trade and Pocket are just a couple of new ways to make your book your own.
This year the big deal is the addition of Blurb ProLine, offering those submitting work to stand out from the crowd with options on book papers, end sheets, and cover linens. While all of these options have been widely used by PBN entrants, the judges were most struck by the addition of our ProLine Uncoated Paper. Which leads to the question, "what exactly is the difference between coated and uncoated papers"?
In general, uncoated papers have a bit more of a "natural" feel to them. A bit toothy. Like what you would expect stationary paper to feel like. Coated papers basically fill in the gaps in the natural fibers with a coating that enhances it's ability to hold ink with less dot gain, or spreading of the ink beyond where it is laid down on the paper.
When we were looking for a more natural look for artsy books, we knew we wanted an uncoated option. But we wanted to limit the downside from a quality standpoint. The obvious choice for us was the Mohawk Superfine Eggshell Ultrawhite with i-Tone surface treatment. Developed for digital presses, this paper has the feel we wanted but with excellent ink adhesion and durability.
ProLine Uncoated is a substantial 100# text/148 gsm sheet, perfect for high-end, photo intensive books. But there are times that you want to add a bit of color to a more text-heavy option as well. To that end we have recently released our new Color Trade and Pocket choices. These are the same sizes and bindings as our one-color product line, but with the addition of 4-color printing. The paper is complementary to our off-white, one-color paper, and is white with a vellum finish. It's a lighter-weight sheet at 60# text/89 gsm, and you will see a bit more dot gain in this product. But it's great for lower-fi applications like notebooks, memoirs, travel books, mini portfolios, and novels. And we've kept the price low so you can buy a lot or sell for some bucks.
Whatever paper you choose, we want you to be able to find one that will enhance your vision. ProLine and Color Trade and Pocket are just a couple of new ways to make your book your own.
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