Best Photokit sharpener output settings for Blurb books?

[BernardLanguillier]

Dear all,

I asked the same question on the Blurb forums but have not gotten an answer yet.

For those using Photokit Sharpener on top of Photoshop, what are the best output sharpening settings for Blurb books?
Is it halftone 150 lpi (300 ppi) coated?

Thank you.
Cheers,

Bernard

[DarkPenguin]

I've no idea but if you are making a Blurb book please let us know when it is available.

Back to your subject....

[BernardLanguillier]

I've no idea but if you are making a Blurb book please let us know when it is available.

Yep, I am mostly done with the design. Hoping to be able to finish the details this week.

I'll keep you posted.

Cheers,
Bernard

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Yep, I am mostly done with the design. Hoping to be able to finish the details this week.

I'll keep you posted.  

Cheers,
Bernard

I'll order one.



-Eric

[Gordon Buck]

Dear all,

I asked the same question on the Blurb forums but have not gotten an answer yet.

For those using Photokit Sharpener on top of Photoshop, what are the best output sharpening settings for Blurb books?
Is it halftone 150 lpi (300 ppi) coated?

Thank you.
Cheers,

Bernard

I really don't know about the 'best' but I submit all photos to Blurb as sRGB and sharpened with Photokit Sharpener as though I would be printing them on my inkject printer.  I was concerned that this might be oversharpening but it seems OK to me.

[BernardLanguillier]

I'll order one.

-Eric

Thanks for your kind support Eric!

One question if you don't mind.

What price would you be willing to pay for this? There will be about 100 pages and probably 76 near full page size images, some panos over the full width of the spread.

I am considering going for the best possible paper at the largest size, but the price will end up being fairly high, around 75 US$.

Do you think this is too much?

I could reduce the size and stay at around 40 US$.

Thanks for letting me know how you feel about this as a potential buyer.

Cheers,
Bernard

[BernardLanguillier]

I really don't know about the 'best' but I submit all photos to Blurb as sRGB and sharpened with Photokit Sharpener as though I would be printing them on my inkject printer.  I was concerned that this might be oversharpening but it seems OK to me.

OK, thanks for the feedback.

Cheers,
Bernard

[DarkPenguin]

Thanks for your kind support Eric!

One question if you don't mind.

What price would you be willing to pay for this? There will be about 100 pages and probably 76 near full page size images, some panos over the full width of the spread.

I am considering going for the best possible paper at the largest size, but the price will end up being fairly high, around 75 US$.

Do you think this is too much?

I could reduce the size and stay at around 40 US$.

Thanks for letting me know how you feel about this as a potential buyer.

Cheers,
Bernard

In this economy I'd be happier with $40 but I would probably buy one (eventually) at $75.

[azmike]

Bernard,  

From what I have learned on the Blurb forums, they set their HP Indigo 5000 printers at 175 lpi, they are halftone and the paper is "coated."  Thus one would use the PK halftone printer settings of 175 lpi/ 262 ppi coated, or 175 lpi/350 ppi coated, or 150 lpi/300ppi coated.  I have printed a "test" book with all of these (as well as unsharpened and inkjet 300dpi/matte).

For a number of images that I use for reference, it was difficult to distinguish in the printed Blurb book among the PK settings for halftone, coated of 150/300 or 175/262, or 175/350. (Obviously, the unsharpened images looked unsharpened).  For my current Blurb books I am capture sharpening prior to image editing/page design with Photoshop.  I will edit/design a "full bleed page" to the exact Blurb page pixel dimensions (at 300ppi), and when finished, PK output sharpen (at halftone, 175lpi/350ppi coated), and convert to sRGB and high-quality jpeg. These are then just placed as full pages into the Blurb Booksmart page paste-up.

This is obviously more work than using the Blurb templates, but in addition to having more design freedom, the image quality is preserved. The Blurb resizing tool (e.g. to downsize a large image to fit say, a quarter-page Blurb template) really takes a toll on the printed image quality.

Happy to comment further on my experience with Blurb.


Mike Coffey
Prescott, Arizona

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

In this economy I'd be happier with $40 but I would probably buy one (eventually) at $75.

Dark said it well. If I hadn't seen a lot of your work on LL, I'd balk at the $75. I expect $40 will get more sales, especially in this economy. I'm being very selective in my buying these days. Mitch Dobrowner's LensWork folio is my most recent photo purchase, and I expect to enjoy it for a long time. I have high expectations for your book, too. I just hope Blurb doesn't mess things up for you.

Good luck with the venture!


Regards,

Eric

[BernardLanguillier]

Bernard,  

From what I have learned on the Blurb forums, they set their HP Indigo 5000 printers at 175 lpi, they are halftone and the paper is "coated."  Thus one would use the PK halftone printer settings of 175 lpi/ 262 ppi coated, or 175 lpi/350 ppi coated, or 150 lpi/300ppi coated.  I have printed a "test" book with all of these (as well as unsharpened and inkjet 300dpi/matte).

For a number of images that I use for reference, it was difficult to distinguish in the printed Blurb book among the PK settings for halftone, coated of 150/300 or 175/262, or 175/350. (Obviously, the unsharpened images looked unsharpened).  For my current Blurb books I am capture sharpening prior to image editing/page design with Photoshop.  I will edit/design a "full bleed page" to the exact Blurb page pixel dimensions (at 300ppi), and when finished, PK output sharpen (at halftone, 175lpi/350ppi coated), and convert to sRGB and high-quality jpeg. These are then just placed as full pages into the Blurb Booksmart page paste-up.

This is obviously more work than using the Blurb templates, but in addition to having more design freedom, the image quality is preserved. The Blurb resizing tool (e.g. to downsize a large image to fit say, a quarter-page Blurb template) really takes a toll on the printed image quality.

Hi Mike,

Thanks a lot for the useful feedback!

That's indeed more or less what I was considering using for sharpening.

I have been using a very similar approach to yours, except that:

- I create the output sharpened images in CS4 and save them in .png format (I have also created actions for resizing, output sharpening and saving to .png),
- I create the layout in InDesign (much easier to manage the layout and long documents than PS) and place the PS images,
- export all the pages from InDesign to jpg files that i then paste into Smartbook without any resizing.

Cheers,
Bernard

[BernardLanguillier]

Dark said it well. If I hadn't seen a lot of your work on LL, I'd balk at the $75. I expect $40 will get more sales, especially in this economy. I'm being very selective in my buying these days. Mitch Dobrowner's LensWork folio is my most recent photo purchase, and I expect to enjoy it for a long time. I have high expectations for your book, too. I just hope Blurb doesn't mess things up for you.

Hello Dark and Eric,

Thanks for the useful feedback.

I'll probably do a first test with the more expensive option, and depending on the quality of the result will probably end up with 2 versions at the 2 price points.

A bit more work, but this will give more options to potential buyers (I don't expect that many of them but...).

Regards,
Bernard

[digitaldog]

Dear all,

I asked the same question on the Blurb forums but have not gotten an answer yet.

For those using Photokit Sharpener on top of Photoshop, what are the best output sharpening settings for Blurb books?
Is it halftone 150 lpi (300 ppi) coated?

Use Halftone routine with the closest linescreen to what they are printing (geeze, even Blurb should know the answer to that question).

They are using some digital direct to press (Xekion, Indigo, NextPress etc).

[Gordon Buck]

Use Halftone routine with the closest linescreen to what they are printing (geeze, even Blurb should know the answer to that question).

They are using some digital direct to press (Xekion, Indigo, NextPress etc).

Thanks, I'll be using this next time.

[pminicucci]

FWIW, the Blurb forums do talk about the loss of text crispness when using JPG exports from InDesign. I do not know how severe the problem is.

Also, the latest version of Smartbook can do some stealth resizing if the insert is not exact to the selected container's pixel dimensions. They've promised a no-resizing option in future versions (as was the case in older versions) but in the interim, you have to be really careful. It is a great example of software that tries to be easier but ends up harder to use if you really care about the appearance of images.

Hi Mike,

Thanks a lot for the useful feedback!

That's indeed more or less what I was considering using for sharpening.

I have been using a very similar approach to yours, except that:

- I create the output sharpened images in CS4 and save them in .png format (I have also created actions for resizing, output sharpening and saving to .png),
- I create the layout in InDesign (much easier to manage the layout and long documents than PS) and place the PS images,
- export all the pages from InDesign to jpg files that i then paste into Smartbook without any resizing.

Cheers,
Bernard

[BernardLanguillier]

FWIW, the Blurb forums do talk about the loss of text crispness when using JPG exports from InDesign. I do not know how severe the problem is.

Yes, I have read that also, but other people seem to be saying that it is in fact not that bad. I'll give it a try.

InDesign is so much easier than PS for layout, etc... that the time savings and reduced errors might justify a small loss of acuity in fonts... I mostly only have page numbers in this first book trial anyway.

By the way, do you know if they accept .pdf?

Also, the latest version of Smartbook can do some stealth resizing if the insert is not exact to the selected container's pixel dimensions. They've promised a no-resizing option in future versions (as was the case in older versions) but in the interim, you have to be really careful. It is a great example of software that tries to be easier but ends up harder to use if you really care about the appearance of images.

My main problem with Smartbook is that there is no suitable photo sizes in their default templates. They are either full page, which is not the look I am after for this book, or too small for my taste. InDesign gives me total freedom on a page by page basis to do exactly as I please.

Cheers,
Bernard

[BernardLanguillier]

Use Halftone routine with the closest linescreen to what they are printing (geeze, even Blurb should know the answer to that question).

Thanks Andrew.

cheers,
Bernard

[Gordon Buck]

Yes, I have read that also, but other people seem to be saying that it is in fact not that bad. I'll give it a try.

InDesign is so much easier than PS for layout, etc... that the time savings and reduced errors might justify a small loss of acuity in fonts... I mostly only have page numbers in this first book trial anyway.

By the way, do you know if they accept .pdf?



My main problem with Smartbook is that there is no suitable photo sizes in their default templates. They are either full page, which is not the look I am after for this book, or too small for my taste. InDesign gives me total freedom on a page by page basis to do exactly as I please.

Cheers,
Bernard

Blurb is always being asked about .pdf but they don't accept it.

You can resize a photo in BookSmart.  First select ('click') on the the photo and you'll see a new slider 'zoom / crop" appear in the upper left part of the menu bar.  There are limits and I'm now not so sure of the effect on quality but photos can be resized.

[BernardLanguillier]

Blurb is always being asked about .pdf but they don't accept it.

You can resize a photo in BookSmart.  First select ('click') on the the photo and you'll see a new slider 'zoom / crop" appear in the upper left part of the menu bar.  There are limits and I'm now not so sure of the effect on quality but photos can be resized.

Thanks Gordon,

Resizing always required some corrective sharpening follow up action, so doing it in Smartbook is not really an option for optimal results.

Regards,
Bernard

[John.Murray]

Count me in @75...  I'm also curious what your experience and impression end up being