Digital photography has completely changed the way we interact with images. It’s safe to say that fewer images are printed in photo labs, while more and more of our prized shots sit gathering digital dust on a hard drive. But while this may sound like doom and gloom, there is a bright light at the end of the tunnel in the form of online photo book companies such as Blurb. Blurb is an online platform that allows you to create high quality photo books in the comfort of your own home. So, where the traditional photo album is in decline, the photo book has taken over.
Blurb was founded in 2005 to fill a gap in the self-publishing book market providing a simple and affordable way for anyone to create a photo book. In 2006 the company released the first version of its free Booksmart software, and a year later the website allowed customers to sell their books and set their own prices. Since then the company has gone from strength to strength, and in 2013 reported that eight million books had been shipped using the Blurb platform.
It’s now possible to produce photo books, trade books, magazines and even ebooks formatted for Kindle, iPad and Android devices or converted to PDF. There are so many options available you can present your photography in a way that suits it most.
If you’re wondering how you can customise a photo book, there are six sizes available, six paper types, three cover types and a layflat option that creates a seamless image across two pages. Books can be created using Blurb’s free desktop software, browser or mobile tools. You can also upload PDFs directly. So again, you’re in complete control.
