Question: Using Lightroom 5.0 to export a book to Blurb

[Mike Buckley]

I am brand new at using Lightroom and have only used the Book module. I have selected the Standard Landscape size, which is 10" (25cm) wide x 8" (20cm) tall. However, the display of the page is not remotely that aspect ratio. Similarly, when exporting the book to a PDF, the PDF is not the proper aspect ratio. As a result, images that are supposed to be full-bleed (printed to the edge of the page on all sides with no margins) are displayed in the Book Module and in the exported PDF as having a margin at the top and bottom. Considering that I am starting with a Lightroom page display that is clearly not the same aspect ratio as the pages in the book, how am I to know how the book is to be printed?

I have contacted Adobe support about this. My query has been elevated once to a guy that I had to explain what an aspect ratio is. (I was very grateful that he was both smart and polite enough to ask.) He took remote control of my computer and saw that, indeed, the aspect ratio displayed in Lightroom and in the PDF is not the aspect ratio of the book. He has now escalated this situation to a higher level and I will wait to hear from Adobe.

In the mean time, any ideas?

[Digital]

Mike, as a LR user I do not use the Book Module therefore I can not help you out. However you did the most logical thing in contacting Adobe.
One thing about Adobe is they will work with you to resolve your issue. I know that when I downloaded CS6 last week.
Hope your issue gets resolved.

Bruce

[pnodrog]

Great I was waiting for someone to try out using lightroom for blurb. I prepared a book for Blurb before I had lightroom and used a free desktop publishing program called scribus. A bit of a learning curve to set up the pages to correct size, margins , bleed and colour profile/PDF spec that blurb wanted but I was delighted with the result.

I now use scribus regularly to prepare brochures etc. Adobe indesign is supported by blurb who will proved templates for it. Using desktop publishing software and outputting PDF files gives you the option of printing on a high quality business photocopier/printer without any logo embedded and if you use silk or other high quality paper the results can be surprisingly good. However for bound copies I think I would always use blurb.

Keep us informed I think there will be a number of us wanting to know how it all works out.

P.S. Go online to Blurb they may have updated templates for lightroom.

[Mike Buckley]

One thing about Adobe is they will work with you to resolve your issue.

I hope so. I would have felt better if I had received at least an automated email acknowledging my contact of Support a week ago.

[Mike Buckley]

Great I was waiting for someone to try out using lightroom for blurb.

I'm happy to be your guinea pig, L. Paul.

I'm very familiar with Scribus. I used it a few years ago to create an 1100-page eBook that I sold for a couple of years.

Blurb doesn't have any Lightroom templates. Instead, they have their own free software that you can download to your computer. I've explored both apps and will post later about the differences between them.

The blurb logo can be limited to the last page whether using Lightroom or Blurb. For that, you save about 20% if I remember correctly.

[pnodrog]

Thanks Mike delighted to have a guinea pig.

[Mike Buckley]

I have selected the Standard Landscape size, which is 10" (25cm) wide x 8" (20cm) tall. However, the display of the page [in Lightroom] is not remotely that aspect ratio...how am I to know how the book is to be printed?

I now have the answer to my question quoted above: The good news is that the aspect ratio being displayed by Lightroom (and Blurb's BookSmart software) is accurate. In fact, the absolute measurements of the display on my monitor are very close to the size of the actual book, so close that I can immediately decide whether a particular photo is being displayed at a satisfactory size using the particular format that I have selected. This is VERY good news!

The bad news is that the information about the book size provided at Blurb's web site is a lie that should be immediately corrected. I have now received a small test book that I created using Blurb's BookSmart and the book is exactly 8" x 9 1/2" (20cm x 24cm), not 8" x 10" (20cm x 25cm). Exactly. How Blurb can describe a book as being 25cm when it is actually 24cm is completely beyond me. The web site does not say that it is about that size; it says that that is the size. If the correct information had been provided at Blurb's website, I would have been saved hours of time.

By the way, it has now been four complete business days that I have been waiting for Adobe to get back to me. That was after spending time with two people in customer support who were very nice and trying to be very helpful but knew less about their product than I did after having used it for a few hours. And I'm a slow learner when it comes to learning how to use software.

[Mike Buckley]

A full write-up containing tips and information relating to everything that I learned from creating the test book can be viewed here.

[Mike Buckley]

One thing about Adobe is they will work with you to resolve your issue.

I am very unimpressed with Adobe. I initially used an online chat to communicate with the first person at Adobe's support and then to the person that my issue was escalated to. Neither of them knew the meaning of an aspect ratio, which is crucial to my problem. My issue was unresolved so it was escalated again and I had to wait for someone to get back to me.

Nearly four weeks later, I finally received an email from the next support person. The email made no attempt whatsoever to address my issue. Instead, it provided a link to a written and video tutorial, both of which I had reviewed several times before contacting support and neither of which addressed my issue.

I learned on my own, with no help from Blurb or Adobe, that the problem is that both companies are providing information that the book I am using is 10 x 8. That's inaccurate information; the book is actually 9 1/2 x 8. Now that I know that, I realize that the Lightroom software displays pages that are reasonably close to the aspect ratio of the physical page.

I would not have known that if I hadn't purchased a book from Blurb. I explained that to my contact at Adobe Support but this experience leaves me skeptical enough to believe that the information will not be put to good use.