New Blurb BookSmart™ Beta Upgrade Now Available. Offers improved font capabilities, full bleed covers, new templates
Blurb, the creative book publishing service, today announced that its new BookSmart™ beta release is available for download at www.blurb.com. Version 1.3 of the BookSmart™ application enables Blurb customers to use any font installed on their computers, plus offers a new vertical book option specifically designed to showcase business books and blogs, full bleed dust jackets, and four new ready-to-customize cookbook themes.
These new features follow Blurb’s successful first phase beta testing of BookSmart™, Blurb’s trademark software that transforms digital content into professional quality coffee-table books. “The number one request from our beta users has been for more font support,” says Eileen Gittins, founder and CEO of Blurb. “People feel strongly about their fonts, so we knew we had to come up with a solution that would enable our customers to use virtually anything they had installed on their PC or Mac. This latest release from Blurb delivers on that need with our new freestyle font support. How great is that?”
These new text enhancements will also be featured in Blurb’s upcoming blog-to&n#45;book launch. Select bloggers will shortly beta test Blurb’s Blog Slurper, which automatically turns blogs into bookstore-quality books, a process Blurb calls “Bookify.”
BookSmart™ 1.3 runs on a Mac or PC and is free to try; users pay only when they publish. Each book is then printed on demand, in any quantity – whether that’s one for a gift, a couple dozen for family members, or several thousand to reach a wide audience. Popular book types include conference books, portfolio books, travel books, cookbooks, photo books, blog books, and more. Books cost as little as $29.95 for a single copy of a 40-page hardcover 8”x10” book, custom dust jacket included.
About Blurb®
Blurb® is a creative publishing and marketing platform that unleashes the creative genius inside everyone. Blurb’s platform makes it easy to design, publish, market and sell professional-quality books, using the Blurb Bookify™ online bookmaking tool, Blurb’s free, award-winning Blurb BookSmart® app or by using Blurb’s PDF to Book workflow. Blurb’s bookstore and online marketing tools enable customers to market and sell their books, and keep 100% of their profit. Blurb’s social and community features allow customers to create and share Blurb books among friends and colleagues with ease.
Blurb was founded by Eileen Gittins in 2005, and includes a team of design, Internet and media veterans who share a passion for helping people bring their stories to life. In 2010, Blurb shipped over 1.4 million books to 69 countries. In 2010, Blurb was ranked the fastest growing media company on the Inc. 500. Blurb is based in San Francisco with offices in London. For more info, visit www.blurb.com.