Smallest book ever?

tiniest book ever

tiniest book ever 02

Okay, seriously, I can’t even fathom a book this small. At just under 3 mm, this little leather bound book was printed like any other publication, but all the tools to print and bind it had to be made in miniature form.

German typographer Joshua Reichert designed the alphabet font that adorns the pages and the book comes with a magnifying glass so you can actually read it. 300 copies of the edition were printed and cost £70. Apparently the last remaining few are being sold by Selfridges - get yours while you still can.

(via lost in a supermarket)

By Natalie   Posted in Uncategorized   September 4, 2008 – 3:28 pm
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Keeping it real with 826CHI

Book of the Week

We never cease to be amazed at how many Blurbarians make books for a cause and the stories behind each are all phenomenal. Case in point, The My World Project, a book featuring the photographs of ten students from Chicago’s non-profit organization 826CHI.

Mike Hettwer (National Geographic contract photographer) taught 10 middle/high school kids how to take photographs of ‘their world’ in a period of eight weeks. That’s right, eight weeks people. 12,128 photographs later, they compiled this book to show off their newly learned skills. I have to admit, I’m pretty impressed. Check out the preview to see for yourself what an awesome eye these kids have for capturing the world around them.

You can buy the book here, or if you’re in the Chicago area, check out 826CHI’s gallery exhibition of all the photos this Thursday, September 4th from 5:30 – 7:30 PM at Elegant Mr. Gallery.

By Natalie   Posted in Book of the Week   September 3, 2008 – 4:45 pm
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The NEW BookSmart: Text editing at its best yet!

We did it again – the newest version of BookSmart is here and ready for download! It’s our mission to keep making it easier for you guys to make great books, and we think this edition of BookSmart is another huge step down that path. Not only will you notice enhanced performance and greater stability, but lots of improvements when you’re working with text too. “Better text” is always at the top of your suggestions, and we’re listening.

One of the biggest changes you’ll see is the addition of Global Text Styles that makes changing large bodies of text a snap. Get halfway through your book and realize you don’t like the font or size of your captions? Before – not so fun. Now – no worries. With the new BookSmart our nifty text editor will go through your entire book and make all the changes for you. We also added new text layout features like justified text (woohoo!), vertical alignment, and text borders.

AND it gets better. In the spirit of even better control, we made some improvements to how you can manage your book. We added enhanced page numbering so you decide where numbering starts. Speaking of pages, we also added the ability to lock them to the right, to the left, or to another page. No more fiddling to make a full page spread – it’ll all come together with ease in the new BookSmart.

There’s also improved book file management – now you can move (or copy) your file library to a new location and remove all those unused images to save disk space. No more bogging down your computers performance by storing lots of unused images.

So download the latest version of BookSmart here, get your book on, and let us know what you think!!!

Have questions? Need a little help? Check out our FAQs.

By Natalie   Posted in Product Notes   September 3, 2008 – 1:03 pm
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People’s Choice Award - vote for your favorite Photography.Book.Now book

The entries are in and to put it simply, the work is amazing. With over 2,000 Photography.Book.Now submissions, our judges are cranking as we come into the home stretch. We announce the winners on September 10th, but we want to give all of you a chance to voice your opinion too.

So, we’ve added an additional award - the People’s Choice Award - so you have a chance to let the world know who you think is the best of the best. Voting is open through September 10th, and the clock is ticking, so get moving!

Here’s how it works.

You can vote for one book, and one book only. Just go to the Photography.Book.Now bookstore to see all the work, then click on the voting button under your favorite book. (The button’s big and orange, should be pretty easy to spot.) Want to stack the deck for your top choice? We have some tools to make it easy for you to spread the word. You can download an image to forward along in emails, or grab a People’s Choice voting badge for your website or blog by clicking here to save the file.

Once you cast your vote, you can also send a note directly from the bookstore to bring your people right back to your top choice.

The winner of the People’s Choice Award will be announced at the Awards Ceremony in San Francicsco on September 19th. Pick up your tickets here. Oh, and the prize? We’re keeping that one a secret. After all, who doesn’t love a little surprise?

By Natalie   Posted in Inspiration   August 29, 2008 – 1:35 pm
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Bikes, polo, and book of the week

Wheeled Horses - Chicago Bike Polo

If I hadn’t stumbled across this book in the Blurb Bookstore, I would have never found my way to chicagobikepolo.com, and that would be a damn shame. But I did and I did, and now I’m neck deep in bike polo links, and Wheeled Horses is this week’s Book of the Week.

Bike Polo – apparently created by an Irishman named Richard Mecredy in 1891 – has evolved into Urban Cycle Polo, which basically means fewer rules and you can play anywhere. The sport is becoming pretty popular, and was even featured in the New York Times last year (login may be required to read). You can check out more Bike Polo photos and videos here.

Robert Griffin’s book features some great photography, and offers thanks to “all of you with the guts to swing mallets from atop your bike.” Um, yeah. Swinging mallets on bikes is pretty hard core. I’ll stick to Robert’s book for the time being, but I can probably commit to patronizing one of the Chicago Bike Polo Tournament sponsors.

By Mike   Posted in Book of the Week   August 27, 2008 – 5:54 pm
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NYC Event: Free Blurb & Maine Media Workshop at B&H Event Space

Please note: Due to overwhelming demand the Wed, Sept 17 workshop at B&H Photo is fully booked. We have added an additional workshop the following day, Thurs, Sept 18 from 2:00-5:00 at the B&H Event Space. Sign-up Here.

If you cannot make this date, you also may want to check out our upcoming free back-to-back webinars, Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Your Book and BookSmart Design Tips and Techniques which cover similar topics. Thanks! - Chad

—————

A heads up to NYC area Blurbarians. On Wednesday, September 17th Thursday, September 18th I’ll be leading a workshop at B&H Photo’s event space in Manhattan. Join me, VP of Design and founding employee, and Mat Thorne from Maine Media Workshops for a “Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Your Own Commercial Quality Books.”

I think both new and seasoned Blurb bookmakers will enjoy and find value in this free three-hour workshop. There are limited seats so please register soon if you’ll be joining us. All attendees will also get a coupon for $10 off of your next book.

Here’s a bit more detail on what we’ll be covering.

This provocative workshop will provide an introduction to the fundamentals of book design as well as a hands-on demonstration of Blurb’s creative publishing platform. First, Mat Thorne, New York based photographer, designer and former Art Director at the prestigious Maine Media Workshops will provide an introduction to book design principles and aesthetics. Topics covered will include: Introduction to design and how it applies to the world of self- promotion; an overview of typography; a breakdown of the photo book format and it’s typical contents; and a discussion of image sequence and it’s importance.

Next, Chad Jennings, VP of Design and founding employee at Blurb, provides a detailed step-by-step demonstration on how to make, publish, share, and sell commercial-quality books using Blurb’s creative publishing platform. Whether you want to make a killer portfolio, client deliverable, or the next great American photography book, this session shows and tells you what you need to know about BookSmart, Blurb’s free book layout software: Blurb’s web tools; and what you need to get started or hone your bookmaking chops. Part inspiration, part instruction, you’ll get some great tips straight from Blurb’s top designer.

Topics covered:

• Introduction and overview on Blurb’s creative publishing platform
• How to use Adobe Photoshop to prepare your images
• The whys of design planning and what to think about before
starting your book
• Basic as well as advanced tricks using Blurb’s BookSmart software
• Color management and the Blurb platform
• Online marketing tools and our Set Your Price program
• How to create your own custom layouts in Adobe Photoshop and
InDesign
• Pacing and sequencing of your book, including effective use of
white space
• Utilizing sample and inspirational books created by professional
photographers

Hope to see you there. Wed, Sept 18. 2:00-5:00 pm. Sign-up Here.

By Chad   Posted in Happenings   August 25, 2008 – 5:48 pm
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We’re so Web 2.0*

One of the staples of today’s Web 2.0 companies is the existence of Guitar Hero or Rock Band in the office** (we have both, thank you very much), and frequent jam sessions with an adult beverage or two. It’s like the evolution of the foosball table I suppose. (Yes, we have one of those too.)

Anyway, BusinessWeek Small Business wrote a story on entrepreneurs boosting company morale, and Blurb was featured for our Rock Band jam sessions. Truth be told, these sessions have been less frequent of late, but maybe a little love from a national business magazine will help inspire us to rock out more often.

Of course if you’re in the Bay Area this weekend you can get plenty of inspiration from real-life rockers at the SF Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival in Golden Gate Park. The lineup includes Beck, Radiohead, Wilco, Tom Petty, Cake, Jack Johnson, Ben Harper, Steve Winwood, Primus and about 60 other bands. Good times, hopefully we’ll see ya out there.

*Yes, we’re poking fun at ourselves.

**This trend may have actually jumped the shark already, but if that’s the case we’ll just play ironically.

By Mike   Posted in Blurb In The News   August 22, 2008 – 3:40 pm
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