Free Blurb Templates
January 22, 2008This post along with other Blurb book tips and tutorials can be found in the “Want to Make a Blurb Book?” link.
With all the interest in people wanting to learn how to create their own templates for Blurb books I’ve decided to make some templates available for download. I’ve created templates in Photoshop and InDesign for all the different sizes of books available through Blurb.
Below are downloadable zip files each containing both a Photoshop and InDesign template.
Download the 7×7″ book templates
Download the 8×10″ (portrait) book templates
Download the 10×8″ (landscape) book templates
Download the 13×11″ book templates
The Photoshop templates are saved as .tiff files and the InDesign files were exported as .inx files (InDesign XML Interchange Documents) so everyone should be able to open them not matter what version of Photoshop or InDesign they have.
Leave a comment if you are having trouble opening the files or if you like these templates.
I will have a tutorial on how to use these templates tomorrow in case you’re lost.
Update 1/22/08: Sorry, I’ve re-zipped the files because I forgot to put the center guides on the InDesign files. Just download the current version to get the new files if need be.
Update 1/26/08: The 8×10 and 10×8 horizontal center guide weren’t exactly on center. Download the current version or you can center the guides yourself.
Oh my gosh! I feel like I just found the biggest diamond on the internet! I have so much to do tonight but I just sat here instead and read almost your entire blog! I can’t believe how helpful you are, how knowledgeable you are and how willing to share all you know! Most people charge lots of money for this information! I just found the world of blurb books and am so excited to try making my own layouts! thank you again and again for this amazing help! can i ask… how did you get so good at photoshop? i’m teaching myself and although i’ve made great strides, i’m still an infant in my knowledge! keep writing! you have a new fan!
[...] Art of Engineering « Free Blurb Templates How to Use the Free Blurb Templates January 23, 2008 Here’s a quick guide on how to [...]
[...] First, download the free templates for the size book you are looking to make. I’ve created both Photoshop and InDesign files for each book. [...]
Wow thanks Jodie! I’m glad you like my blog. I put a lot of hard work into it but I’m never going to charge people for the information.
I’m really not that great at Photoshop, there are a lot of people who know more than me. I have taught myself by using the help section, once in a while buying a magazine, and googling a lot.
I plan on writing a “Photoshop 101″ series where I’ll go over the basic tools so that may help you.
Just keep learning Photoshop little by little by working on different projects. That way learning different techniques are more ingrained in your memory. You can learn all the techniques you want but you need to understand how to use them in a real project. While I was working on my albums I learned things I never had to know before because I’d never really made an album before.
Good luck and let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for future posts!
Robin
Great job!
Thanks for the effort.
Thanks for making these!! I really appreciate it
)
The BookSmart templates were starting to drive me a bit crazy
Many many thanks, Robin. Your skill and generosity are greatly appreciated – thanks for sharing the wealth!!
Thanks for posting these, but for some reason I can’t download the 13″ x 11″. It says the link may be expired or downloaded too many times. Any suggestions?
Thanks for letting me know Jessica!
My file sharing service requires me to put in a number of days the files can be shared. I put in 500 days but obviously that didn’t work. So I’ve relinked the files.
Good luck on your book!
Robin
Thanks so much for the templates. I have been hearing lots about Blurb printing and books in my groups so came to check it out. Thought your templates might help the process along. You have a wonderful blog that you’ve really put some time and effort into. Thanks for sharing what you’ve learned by trial and error with the rest of us. I’ll be interested to check back and see what your new Photo Shop 101 looks like. Keep up the good work! And by the way, your book turned out marvelous!
I am very new to the whole photoshop and blurb thing. So I was wondering after you create templates in photoshop how do you get them to the blurb website to to print/buy your book? Do you somehow transfer them to the blub program booksmart, if so how? Thanks so much, your website has been a lot of help!
I’m so glad that you published these tutorials! I LOVE YOU FOR IT!!!!!!!!!
I just downloaded the trial of Photoshop to see if I could use it (I’ve used InDesign a billion times when I was on the yearbook staff at my school) and it’s very comparable to InDesign. The only real reason I want to use photoshop instead of the layouts is because I can’t justify the text in Booksmart! But I also love that I can do my own headers and footers and it’s a very good thing I was in year book because that REALLY taught me that it’s important to make a backup before you change everything and to be organized!
One question though, when I’m putting them into Booksmart, am I supposed to split them into two images? Or is there a way to just copy the whole spread?
THANK YOU ×21348728345289356247856!
-Alyse
Lol disregard my question, I really should have read that last post of yours about the actions! =P Sorry!
R & Alyse,
I just created a tutorial showing how to put your pages into Booksmart. Check it out: http://theartofengineering.wordpress.com/2008/02/05/putting-your-custom-templates-into-booksmart/
Thanks NW Lady,
I think the Photoshop 101 tutorials will start out very basic but hopefully get a little challenging. I have a wide range of people visiting the blog so I don’t want to leave anyone out. If there’s anything in particular you’d like to see let me know.
Thanks,
Robin
Robin
I just wanted to let you know how thankful I am for your website. Your tips have and will continue to save me from frustration and giving up! Keep up the great work, we all appreciate it!
R
Looks like the 10×8 link is busted
Can’t download 8 X 10 landscape. Get message that says link is invalid, or expired, or exceeded download limit. Is there another way to get it? Can you send as an email attachment. Thanks.
Thanks Carl and Sam.
I will have them up and working again tonight. It looks like I’m going to have to give my file service company a call that this doesn’t keep happening. Sorry for the inconvience.
Robin
Hello Robin,
I have been working on creating some Blurb books, but have not yet published them. Coming across your blog and terrific information, tutorials, etc. will I’m sure help me a lot in finally getting my first book published! I downloaded all but the 10×8 landscape template because a message pops up like the above post:
“We’re sorry, there was an error retrieving the shared file. The file cannot be accessed because the link is invalid, the share has expired, or the share has exceeded its download limit.” Just curious if this has been resolved or will be soon. I’m thinking this must be the most popular book size and that is the first book size I will try and publish. Thank you so much for all this wonderful information and inspiration!
Carolyn
None of te templates can be d/l. All the links result in an error message ” We’re sorry, there was an error retrieving the shared file.
The file cannot be accessed because the link is invalid, the share has expired, or the share has exceeded its download limit.”
I also cannot download the templates. I have a 7″ X 7″ book nearly completed for a Photographic Book Class at our local college. I am concerned about the gutter issue. If I size my Photoshop files to 2063 X 2067 pixels, have I allowed for the gutter? If I center an image on that page, will it be centered in the finished book? If it will not, how much should I move the image?
The company I had for the file sharing had very strict limits to the amount of people that could download the files so cancelled their services last night. I will look into trying some free online services tonight. Hopefully, everything will be back up and working shortly.
Judy ~ At a full 300 pixels/in (recommended) each page would be 2108px wide and 2070px high including a gutter of 1/8 inch. You need to center the picture on the part of the page that does not include the gutter. This post should help explain what I mean:
http://theartofengineering.wordpress.com/2008/01/23/how-to-use-the-free-blurb-templates/
Robin – thank you for doing all this! I’m eagerly awaiting the return of the 10×8 template grouping! Am working on a book and would very much like to use your templates for it.
If you need some very short term housing of these zips while you research another server, please let me know.
Amber
Robin,I’ve read your blog with keen interest since I find the Blurb standard templates extremely limiting. I have created one photo book on Sharedink which provides you with templates for total flexibility. The quality of their books is great, however,it is a professional photographer’s quality site with prices to match so I prefer to use that site for special books.
I’ve tried to download your templates but I get a Sorry message with a number of possible reasons. I will keep trying but thought you might have an answer as to why that is happening.
Thanks for all your help!
Dave
So, I tried to click and download the templates, but there was an error. Just thought you should know.
Sorry, the links are working right now everyone. I need to find another place to host them. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Amber could you e-mail the info on that file storage. theaoeblog at gmail dot com Thanks!
Will be happy to host these for you if you like. Have sent you an email.
Everything should be up and running again. Let me know if you have any problems!
What is the best way to incorporate text into these photoshop jpgs? I have complicated set-ups with columns and special characters (fractions, stars, etc.)for a photo filled cookbook. It’s the quality of the text that worries me. I tried importing text into photoshop – not too great – please help.
How big is the text and what kind of typeface are you using? Did you make sure you have everything at 300dpi? Is the text pixelated in Photoshop or the preview mode of Booksmart? Booksmart doesn’t give a high quality preview but the final product will look that same as it does in Photoshop. I put the text in directly through Photoshop using the text cursor. According to people on the Blurb forums you can get slightly higher quality text if you go through the trouble of doing it all in InDesign and then use Photoshop to convert it to a jpeg. If you do some searches on the forum and blog you will find some directions for this.
Thanks. My text was not in 300dpi. changed that – but…not exactly pixelated, but not as crisp as I want it – I will look for some more input in the forums. Thanks so much for your advice. You are a caring person, giving freely. Rarely seen any more. Your tutorials on formatting are fantastic. Thanks again.
Hey Robin — Thanks for the fabulous blog. I downloaded your templates, very cool. Laid out 80 pages in two days, and have come back here looking for some clues to a small glitch: As the poster immediately above has found, I too have had problems with text. 14pt sans serif does not look very crisp in the JPG I have exported directly from InDesign. I put the text in in InDesign, and made a JPG which looks preety god in Potoshop, but not perfect. When I re-imported the text into InDesign, there was a substantial reduction in quality, even with display prefs at high. I am using a 30″ apple display. But here’s my specific concern: you say you can do it (the layout) all in ID and then use Photoshop to convert to jpeg and get higher values. Am I missing a step here? I thought you exported the JPG files out of ID? Is there some other file export from ID which I can open in PS? Thanks! I’m sure you’re super busy, and I will look elsewhere on the web, but hoping you have a moment to answer . . .
Okay, Sean again, after more experimentation about type. I made a JPG from a page in ID in four ways: EPS, PDF, JPG (baseline) and JPG (progressive), and the latter two were best, magnified up to 400% in photoshop. Then, in PS, I used my text tool to make an exact copy of 13pt gill sans text, so I could compare the text in PS with the text in the JPGs from ID. There was virtually no difference. So the text exported from ID into PS in a JPG is the same as the text entered directly in photoshop. If, as you say, the Blurb document preview is not the best, but still has whatever you see in photoshop, then I’m ready to make my book. But there is this lingering IF . . . Why doesn’t the JPG I have made in ID look as good in ID when I bring it back in, even in high def display??? I’m still willing to experiment for $30 or so. I’ll probably go for the hardcover book to take advantage of the better presses, although now that I say this I realize I will order one book in softcover and the other in hardcover to see the difference with my own eyes.
Hey Robin — this is me for the third time, sorry. But I found a link to a very comprehensive comparison of Lulu vs. Blurb vs. MyPublisher which specifically addresses the text problems in printing. Unfortunately, Blurb did not come off very well in the comparisons of text quality. Here’s the link: http://www.daepublishing.com/pod/PODExposed.html
HI,
I do not have photoshop or InDesign, but I have GIMP (open source, like photoshop, but free.) Can I load your templates into GIMP? I want to make a 2 page spread.
i just get a blank screen im using a mac does this make any differnce
Hi, I’m wondering about the bleed area and size of your template.
If the template has a guide to show the bleed area then why is the document smaller to start with? Doesn’t that mean bleed is taken into account twice?
Also if I go for a 7″ book (from blurb) does that mean a single page will actually be 6 7/8″ if 1/8″ is trimmed for bleed?
Robin,
You are probably busy with your move but I need help.I am having trouble downloading the free templates. The one I am interested in is the 8X10 Landscape. None of them work for me. They are just a black screen when I go to open up the download, no GUIDE LINES on them. Any explanation for that?
Thanks for your help.
Donna
I am trying to use your wonderful two page template cut in half for a full bleed single page. My concern is that the picture and text will be centered on each page instead of being closer to the outer edge of the page as it is in the blurb templates. Do you have the dimensions of the left and right borders (border=blank unused space). I realize that the (left page) left border should be equal to the (right page) right border and there should also be equal blank space from the center guides on each page. What have you found to work best for your blank space dimensions for an 8×10 landscape single page bleed? Again, I know the image and text should not be centered on a single page bleed.
Your templates are fantastic, and are just what I was looking for. I have a couple of questions that perhaps you can help with.
1. I’m puzzled by the size of the pages in the 10×8 landscape templates. The pages come up as 9.6 inches wide and 8.24 inches in height. I must be missing something because it seems they should be 10.24 inches in width. I’m assuming the answer is that the binding will steal some of that width?
2. I’ve tried the Photoshop templates successfully, but I’ve got lots of text, so thought I might prefer the Indesign templates. But I don’t have a lot of experience placing photos in Indesign. Do I have to pre-crop the photo at the correct size and 300dpi before I import it? When I try placing the file straight from the photoshop psd file, I get just a small corner of my photo, so it seems the photo is too big to fit on the page. Can you point me to any good tutorials for placing photos into Indesign?
Does anyone know the answer to a pretty straightforward question? If I change the template file, how can I get the changes to cascade through to all the other files I have created from that template? I use INDESIGN to create a large set ofleaflets from one template, and I am just looking for ways to save time when I want to make changes.
Thanks,
I’m not very familiar with InDesign but did you make the changes to your master? If you make changes to the master all of layouts based on it will change accordingly. Hope that helps.
Robin
i’m assuming you can use the template for the cover shot as well?
Corey,
No the covers are different sizes. Blurb has that info on their website (or there is a link in the how to make your own template post). The new hard covers are different, previously you weren’t able to put a picture on the spine. Hope that helps!
great of you to put those templates out there. Are the covers the same size as the pages? what do you recommend for doing covers
Thanks again
S
sorry just saw the post above mine….
S
I downloaded the templates but the grid lines aren’t showing up. It’s just all black. Do you know what’s wrong?
Jennifer,
Make sure you have your guide lines/grid lines on under the View tab. Otherwise, what version of Photoshop are you using?
Thank you so much for sharing your work! I’ve been needing to make templates and just couldn’t find the time to do so. You’ve saved me so much time. Blessings to you!
Thank you for your website
I made with photoshop backgrounds for myspace and youtube and even more
my backgrounds:http://tinyurl.com/5ajonc
take care and thank you again!
Based on the dimensions of your 7X7 PhotoShop page, I created an 5X8 page for the newest book size, B/W Text. I did this because the templates provided are great for straight block text, but I think people publishing poetry want more control of their text on a page.
Creating this page immediately raises questions about margins, and headers & footers. It’s a fun project. Thanks for giving me the head start.
- Fabini
I have made several photo/text Blurb books using BookSmart’s standard layout and have found them to be very restrictive. So I was delighted to find your web site offering templates using Photoshop.
Can you suggest which version of Photoshop would be suitable for me to purchase? I am not a professional photographer or writer, I just enjoy tinkering with my digital photos and making Blurb book gifts for my friends and family. So, I would like to buy a version which is not too complex and yet would be suitable for using your templates and creating my own once I got familiar with the program. Of course I would also like to keep the cost of the software as low as possible while still retaining the features I need.
Your advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance,
Martin
[...] free Photoshop and InDesign templates for Blurb’s four sizes of [...]
Martin,
Photoshop Elements or Lightroom would probably be the best for you. They are similar to the full CS3 version but for a much, much lower price. Unless you need the technical features you don’t need the full version. The only reason I have it actually is because I bought the CS3 Suite for a deep discount when I was a student.
Good luck with your book!
Robin
Fantastic postings! Already created 3 blurb albums and became “frustrated” every time about the missing templates…. will defenitely try your suggestions and free template next time. One question: I only find 1 (double page) template in the 13 x 11 download. Is that for the internal pages? Do you also provide a free template for the cover of this booksize? Thanks a lot!
I was unable to view the grid lines, even though I can put pictures on it. I tried re-downloading, and seeing if I could alter the view, but that didn’t seem to help. My version of Adobe PhotoShop is Elements 4.0
Do you know what I should do?
Thanks
Hi,
Thanks for the templates, great! Do you have any suggestions for getting the color right? I found a website where you can download the color profile which I did but the one book I made through Blurb still doesn’t match what I see on my screen. Any info is appreciated.
Lori
Manon – No I don’t have a cover template because the front and back cover and the spin are not allowed to be imported as one big picture. I just created a new Photoshop file, sized it to the cover size (provided by Blurb) and used that.
Sammy – I’m sorry I don’t think the grid lines work in Photoshop Elements. I could be wrong about that though…
Lori – I downloaded the color profile for the printer that Blurb uses. There are a bunch of discussions about this on Blurb’s forums. I got the color profile from one of the posters on there. I would take the time to look up what color profile I have but I’m not sure that Blurb even uses that same printer as they did when I made my book (I think I heard they were going to switch). So you’d find your most recent information on the forums.
Good luck on your books everyone!
Robin
[...] at the same time. If you’re very creative I highly recommend downloading some templates from The Art of Engineering blog. She has released them in both TIFF and InDesign file formats. These templates allow for [...]
Hi Robin,
thanks for the template.
I have once read from some of your writings that you even did wordings in the photoshop file… just would like to clarify
1) May I know if blurb just use jpg output for the printing (even I do all wordings in booksmart software)? (you know, text in jpg (bitmap) is totally different from software like illustrator (which handles vector images)
2) from your exp in publishing books by blurb, do you print all books by just making all text in psd file then export to jpg and align the image in booksmart? the text quality output like handled by vector?
Thanks so much!!
thanks so much!
Wow, thanks! I’m new to InDesign and I wanted to use it primarily for just this, so thanks saving me at least one headache!
I love your blog. It has been very helpfull in getting me started.
How do you go about cutting your images in half to get them ready for blurb?
I created an action, actually two actions in PS one that crops for left side and the other for the right. It changes Canvas size by putting 50% in width, relative unchecked; anchor pulled to left to crop for the left half and pulled to the right for the right side.
Is there an easier way of doing this? I would like to save the right side and then the left in one action while preserving my original file. Thanks in advance.
Good morning,
Do you have the template for a 5.83″ x 8.27″ landscape book?
I would like to do a 32 pages coffee book with section sewn in 16 and would like to have more info on the way to do it.
Thank you for your reply,
Kind regards,
Sandrine
Robin,
I am extremely new to photoshop and I have downloaded your templates. I was able to enter text into my photoshop document but have no clue as to how to put pictures within the template. If you could please email me with the help that would be great. Thanks!
Jessica
None of the downloads appear to work anymore