# Blurb Reviews **Vendor:** Blurb **Category:** [Managed Print Services ](https://www.g2.com/categories/managed-print-services) **Average Rating:** 3.7/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 15 ## About Blurb A complete publishing platform. Authors, creative professionals, business people, photo book makers⎯no matter who you are, welcome. You’re here to create and publish a book and we’re here to help you do it. ## Blurb Reviews ### 1. Great for making custom books through their InDesign Plug-in **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ansley W. | CREATIVE DIRECTOR, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 15, 2021 **What do you like best about Blurb?** I like designing picture books withing Adobe InDesign and then loading it through their upload PDF. You can install their plug-in and load it directly from the software on your desktop. They also have coupons available frequently to cut down on costs. **What do you dislike about Blurb?** I hate when you are ordering and you make a selection such as Expedited shipping; when you enter the mailing address in or the coupon code, it resets the shipping the default and you have to go back and make sure that you reselect the faster shipping options. It's caused me to have a delayed order. **What problems is Blurb solving and how is that benefiting you?** We can print professional books very quickly and easily. They are delivered very quickly, and the quality of the printing is very good. Their customer service is also quick to respond and have reimbursed the agent for shipping if the book arrived late. ### 2. Unprofessional Logo Policy **Rating:** 0.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jason C. | Guild Certified Hypnotist, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 27, 2021 **What do you like best about Blurb?** The website is fresh and easy to navigate and their product offerings are robust. **What do you dislike about Blurb?** It is clear that Blurb caters to amateurs. They charge a 25% "Custom Logo Fee" to have their logo REMOVED from your book. Yep, unless you are willing to be a free advertisement for them, you must pay them for removing their logo. There are plenty of other options out there that do not expect clients to be unpaid ad staff. I would never use them or recommend them for that reason alone. Their online support also seems to be tone-deaf to the whole idea that people who resell their products don't want 3rd party logos on the books. **Recommendations to others considering Blurb:** Find a better option. **What problems is Blurb solving and how is that benefiting you?** I run a professional photography studio, and my clients buy custom books. ### 3. Dissapointing **Rating:** 0.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Writing and Editing | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 21, 2021 **What do you like best about Blurb?** Quick customer service reply though the online chat. **What do you dislike about Blurb?** Fraudulent company, won't let you access your own work. Their printing prices are 6 times the cost of my local printer but they will only sell me an unprintable pdf as a way to try and force me to pay their exorbitante printing prices. The work in the app is my content and my labour which they can profit off of but they refused to even sell me my own work to print myself. **What problems is Blurb solving and how is that benefiting you?** I started using blurb to design a book after reading you can pay for a pdf. They dont disclose ahead of time however that the pdf is not for print. ### 4. Blurb: needs to improve some **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Government Administration | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 30, 2018 **What do you like best about Blurb?** It's a simple to use website that let's you publish yourself without too many complicated hassles. Uploading, set up, and layouts are easy to create and fun to use. Their customer service is very easily reachable and you get your product in a timely manner. **What do you dislike about Blurb?** Lately, since they've begun to be more popular, they have been making mistakes on the printing, specifically with the quality of it. Some come out with missing pages, others with ink spots or lines, etc. And they seem to not be as good at replacing the prints as easily and complacently as before. It's a big push away for me. **What problems is Blurb solving and how is that benefiting you?** This is a great way to publish things in a professional manner all on your own. ### 5. Affordable self-publishing with some limitations **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Wesley D. | English Instructor & Teacher Leader, Education Management, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 23, 2018 **What do you like best about Blurb?** Blurb allows for easy and quick publication of student-produced text. The simplicity allows the process to be put into students’ hands and for them to walk away with professional looking books. **What do you dislike about Blurb?** Fonts sometimes are not supported, and as can be expected quick self-publishing means that there are inconsistencies in formatting, primarily trying to match cover dimensions without using the suggested (but not always user-friendly) Bookwright program. **What problems is Blurb solving and how is that benefiting you?** Students’ ownership of the editing and revision process is enhanced by the professional product and the quick turnaround of the published book/magazine/photo book. ### 6. Great tool to create photobooks **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Nada Chan, C. | Project Manager, Financial Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 05, 2017 **What do you like best about Blurb?** Super easy to use. I loved the preset layouts - they let me create entire books easy and quickly. I liked that I could put in quotes, large blocks of text as needed. I could upload photos as backgrounds so layouts varied between white clean pages and more image focused layouts. **What do you dislike about Blurb?** Sometimes I couldn't find the layout that I was looking for and there wasn't an option to change the layout and customize it. Text was hard to input - fonts sometimes were inconsistent in type and in size, so I would have to do a check on each text box after I inputted all the content. **What problems is Blurb solving and how is that benefiting you?** Solved the business problem of how to capture the essence of the experiential learning programs that we create and manage for the various participants on the program. Our participants loved the books that we created and it has helped increase the sign up volume for future programs as the books served as a marketing tool when previous participants use the book to share their experience with their family and friends. ### 7. Book publishing made easy! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jenny H. | Freelance Artist, Arts and Crafts, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 09, 2017 **What do you like best about Blurb?** What I love about Blurb is that it brings book publishing to the masses! In this digital age where we never look at our photos after we've taken them, Blurb makes it so easy to make a great family album or record a special event with ease and then order it as a lovely gift for a loved one. **What do you dislike about Blurb?** In the past I tried to use the InDesign merging option with Blurb, I'm not sure if this feature still exists as I haven't looked at it lately but despite being a professional designer with knowledge of pagination and imposition and what not I still managed to screw up the pagination so that my pages were out of order. I think what was unclear was that it is not made clear how many pages are added at the beginning and end of the book for Blurb's end pages and that's where I went wrong. However, other than that minor hiccup which could very well have been user error it worked fine. **Recommendations to others considering Blurb:** Blurb can be used to create practically anything, a beautiful wedding album, family photo album, workplace manual, cookbook, memoir etc etc etc. It really is up to your imagination to what you create. The free software that comes with it 'Bookwright' is easy to use and straightforward to understand. This is definitely a great option for anyone considering self-publishing. They have also been around for a long time - I've used them on and off for years whenever I needed to create a book and they are constantly improving, so they are a great option for someone looking for a stable company that knows what they are doing. **What problems is Blurb solving and how is that benefiting you?** The benefit of Blurb is that now anyone can publish a book of their choosing whether it be a short story, children's book, photo album or cook book. Their free software makes it very easy if you are not computer savvy and if you are then you can go nuts with the design and enjoy it regardless. ### 8. Excellent book making tool **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Brett F. | Owner, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 17, 2017 **What do you like best about Blurb?** Blurb offers great tools especially in book making. I was able to make a book with images and text that I needed exactly how I wanted it and at a decent price. The printing was really good. Great quality. **What do you dislike about Blurb?** Their interface was slow and it took a decent amount of time to finish the book, partially because I put a lot of images and text and design changes into it, but the issue I had was the slowness of the system at the time. **What problems is Blurb solving and how is that benefiting you?** It was a really good option for lower budget book making where I only needed one copy. It was way too expensive to try to print a book a traditional method. Blurb was one of, if not the first, company I found that was able to solve this problem for us. ### 9. Simple way to make a book **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Food & Beverages | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 03, 2017 **What do you like best about Blurb?** You just upload your artwork, and it's ready to be printed! Very simple process that's affordable and quick. **What do you dislike about Blurb?** Cover and paper options, there could be more, but I'm not complaining. **Recommendations to others considering Blurb:** I highly suggest blurb over any other book creation website. This is clean, simple, and very professional. You can create your book without their logo for a small extra fee, which is nice because it makes the book look even more professional. **What problems is Blurb solving and how is that benefiting you?** I needed a portfolio book for interviews after college. Instead of binding one on my own, blurb gave me a much cleaner, easier option. ### 10. great quality books at affordable prices **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jodi G. | Travel Specialist, Consumer Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 19, 2017 **What do you like best about Blurb?** Blurb is really easy to use, and the print quality is excellent! Colours are exactly as they should be. **What do you dislike about Blurb?** Although the quality is slightly superior to others, the cost is also a little bit higher than others. **What problems is Blurb solving and how is that benefiting you?** I had so many photos and wanted to create something so I can display them nicely. Blurb really does a great job! ### 11. Great tool to create photo books **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Emanuela C. | Director Digital Marketing & Technology, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 26, 2016 **What do you like best about Blurb?** I can create photo books with the layout I create. I created multiple page layouts so I can apply the same on all my books and be sure that all books and all pages will be perfectly aligned. I can also add texts and titles. All my photo books appear as professional photo albums and I store them all together in my library. They are really nice. **What do you dislike about Blurb?** The premium paper is not really nice, the photos appears blurred in some cases. I prefer the standard paper. The resolution of the pictures will decrease compare to the quality you see on your computer. **What problems is Blurb solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use blurb to print the photo books of my travels, they appears all aligned and I don't have to print all the pictures. ### 12. Blurb Review **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Christina H. | Executive Assistant, Commercial Real Estate, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 28, 2016 **What do you like best about Blurb?** I absolutely love Blurb and the high quality books that it has helped me to make for both work and pleasure. The system is super easy to use and does not need a lot of time to start flying through the process of making the books and magazines. **What do you dislike about Blurb?** There is not much that I dislike from this product, but if I had to say something I would say the price of an Ebook could be a little lower. **Recommendations to others considering Blurb:** Yes! They are continuing to implement new products and ways to make the books better! **What problems is Blurb solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have been able to quickly make trade magazines and books for both clients and shows when I am on a time crunch. ### 13. Simple to use, but book quality not up to par **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Monique K. | Social Media Manager and Retoucher, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 21, 2016 **What do you like best about Blurb?** The software is extremely easy to figure out and very intuitive, particularly the Blurb software built within Adobe lightroom. Amyone who can use lightroom can figure out Blurb. If you already have a collection of photos in lightroom for a book, they are easy to drag and drop. I do like the fact that it is simple and there aren't a million different options to choose from. In my opinion, less is more anyways. Your books can be clear, concise and to the point with having simplified options for the page layouts and it looks more professional and less like a Walgreens style photo book. **What do you dislike about Blurb?** The book quality was not so awesome, even with corrected color profiles in the photos. Having to change the color profiles of my photos was cumbersome. The color was very off in printed book form. When working with photographs of people, this is very concerning, especially when worrying about correct skin tone. I was indeed working with portraits so that quality is unacceptable for a professional seeking a simple book solution. **Recommendations to others considering Blurb:** I would seek out as many other budget priced book making softwares as possible instead of Blurb. **What problems is Blurb solving and how is that benefiting you?** This software can be used to easily and simply create custom albums for photography clients or as a portfolio for a photographer (I have done both). The benefit is that it is very time-saving compared to making your own layout in something like Adobe InDesign. Anyone who can really work a computer and knows how to use any photo editing software can easily figure out how to use Blurb without much guidance. ### 14. Best Self Publishing Site (Promo Books Especially!) **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 13, 2016 **What do you like best about Blurb?** It's easy to use. It has plug-ins with Adobe Lightroom, plenty of templates to choose from, the user has control over all aspects of what they would like. Over the years the output quality has just gotten better and better. Other than one company (which is too pricey), Blurb is #1 when it comes to affordability and quality of self publishing -- practically a requirement in Fine Art/Photographic Arts professionals. **What do you dislike about Blurb?** The cost (without a coupon, and sometimes the coupon only provides the user with only more than one copy of the same book), and the cost for a faster turn around time. Honestly, I don't think these are things that can be changed -- or that I even want to change -- it's just we live in a world of immediate gratification and "Prime" membership. **Recommendations to others considering Blurb:** There are some good sites, but the quality does not compare to Blurb. Additionally, they have fantastic customer service, although I haven't needed to use it in a number of years. **What problems is Blurb solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use Blurb for personal promotional uses and require BFA students to create a simple portfolio of their work before graduation so get in the practice of self publishing. The benefits is that they can shop their work around, but can also use the Book module in Adobe Lr to create a myriad of interesting products in freelance work. ### 15. There once was a review for Blurb here **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Photography | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 28, 2015 **What do you like best about Blurb?** But since G2 Crowd is more interested in spamming users, not living up to their promises which, to the uninformed, includes giving out gift cards, this review has been edited by the original writer. **What do you dislike about Blurb?** G2 Crowd hasn't responded to **What problems is Blurb solving and how is that benefiting you?** Book printing is hard and expensive. You have to have a lot of knowledge to even attempt to make a professional printer understand your needs, and you need to know your CMYK values and offset margins. Blurb kinda does all that for you, or at least holds your hand a lot of the way. It's hard to do wrong, since it's all very What You See Is What You Get, and for most people, that's perfectly fine. ## Blurb Discussions - [What is the blurb app?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-the-blurb-app) - [What is the difference between Blurb BookSmart and BookWright?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-the-difference-between-blurb-booksmart-and-bookwright) - [How good is blurb?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-good-is-blurb) - [What is a blurb used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-a-blurb-used-for) - [View Blurb pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/blurb/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-15+09%3A26%3A54+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=236216a7-fed5-4f29-a6b4-de94ad03600d&secure%5Btoken%5D=401a94cb961190b8fdf70db0953c87553b0e2b28d05772fef4a2ae764c674c37&format=llm_user) ## Blurb Features **Planning** - Needs Assessment - Resource Allocation - Stayed within Budget - Statement of Work - Best Practices **Delivery** - Technical Expertise - Met Deadlines - Meeting Management - Project Updates - Scope Management - Roll-out **Team Quality** - Change Management Skills - Executive Presence - Vertical Expertise - Technology Partnerships ## Top Blurb Alternatives - [CDW Hardware](https://www.g2.com/products/cdw-hardware/reviews) - 4.2/5.0 (27 reviews) - [Brother Managed Print Services](https://www.g2.com/products/brother-managed-print-services/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (8 reviews) - [Canon Managed Print Services](https://www.g2.com/products/canon-managed-print-services/reviews) - 4.4/5.0 (9 reviews)