I mentioned a family wedding in a previous post and as a follow-on to that my brother, a very good photographer, told me that he was creating a wedding album using the photographs he had taken at the wedding. I managed to get a peek at the preview of the album and was quite impressed by both the quality and the method of creating the album.

He was using BLURB which is a simple, self-publishing service which allows you to publish beautiful photo-centered books such as wedding albums, cookbooks, yearbooks, photo portfolios-and so on.

This is not a web-based service as your book is created, in your own time, on your own computer, using their free, downloadable BookSmart software, which is both Mac and PC compatible.

I have since downloaded the free software, played very happily with it and created my first book.

I am impressed.

The software accesses your photos on Picasa, Flickr, Photobucket, SmugMug, iphotos, email and your hard drive, and imports them into your projected book, or you can even invite contributors to send photos.

The software will do most of the work for you if you are in a hurry or technically challenged or it allows you to be much more involved in the process if you want to.

The following is the order of creating your book:

NB. There is a Wizard which guides you every step of the way.

The first option is to choose the size of your book from four options, namely square (7″x7″, 18cmx18cm), standard landscape (10″x8″, 25cms x 20cms), portrait (8″x10″, 20cms x 25cms), large format landscape (13″x11″, 33cms x 28 cms).

This is followed by customizing the cover i.e. text, importing a cover photograph, followed by choosing a starter layout (photo book, guest book, portfolio, wedding, cookbook, yearbook, journal, text and photo, text only, blog, poetry and blank). Options are soft cover, hard cover, dust-jacket.

You then have the option of adding design special effects, co-ordinating color schemes, page backgrounds and design layouts.

Then you can add text, change fonts, change font size and add italics  for captions, descriptions etc. In fact the usual text options.

Now is the time to load your photos with the option to zoom, reposition or rotate, add borders.

You can slot in additional pages if required or remove pages, and override photos with another photo.

Now  you preview your book!

Options then include going back to tweak or adjust your input or press the publish button, in which case the book is uploaded and you have then ordered from blurb.

Prices for books are from $12.95 for a 7×7 square book soft cover to a hardcover, large format landscape for $54.95.

Delivery is quite fast depending on where you live, of course, and the quality of the finished product is excellent.

Other options include marketing your book through the online store or you can contact professionals through their Blurb Nation, and also get bulk discounts.

This software is simple to use, great fun – you really feel creative, and you get a chance to create something very personal, or a quality book for sale at a reasonable price.

The following reviews are available on the Blurb website which shows that this is being taken seriously.

No, I do not get paid for this once again but I like it and I am sure you will. Enjoy!