Want to Make a Blurb Book?
January 23, 2008I’ve organized all the posts I’ve made regarding Blurb books and how to make custom layouts for them. This way they can be in a chronological/logical order. As I add posts regarding Blurb books I will update and link them to here so keep checking back.
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.
Here you can learn how to use the free templates I’ve provided.
If you want to learn how I created these templates or create your own in Photoshop click here.
December 31, 2007: See some pictures of how my Blurb book turned out
January 12, 2008: Learn how to put a picture across the gutter of a spread
January 17, 2008: Creating Photoshop Actions
February 5, 2008: Putting Your Custom Templates Into Booksmart
Coming Soon
- Quick tips on how to make a unique book
- A review of my Blurb book (and it’s two replacements)
- Uncommon things to add to your book
[...] The Art of Engineering « Wedding Layouts – The Ceremony 55 Years of Photos » How to Create Album Templates January 8, 2008 Update: You no longer need to follow this tutorial to make templates for Blurb. You can find my free Blurb templates and lots of other Blurb tutorials in the Want to Make a Blurb Book? link. [...]
[...] Art of Engineering « Free Blurb Templates Want to Make a Blurb Book? » How to Use the Free Blurb Templates January 23, 2008 This post along with other [...]
[...] The Art of Engineering « Creating Photoshop Actions How to Use the Free Blurb Templates » Free Blurb Templates January 22, 2008 This post along with other Blurb book tips and tutorials can be found in the “Want to Make a Blurb Book?” link. [...]
[...] The Art of Engineering « Math can be Beautiful Free Blurb Templates » Creating Photoshop Actions January 17, 2008 This post along with other Blurb book tips and tutorials can be found in the “Want to Make a Blurb Book?” link. [...]
[...] January 12, 2008 This post along with other Blurb book tips and tutorials can be found in the “Want to Make a Blurb Book?” link. Putting a photo across the gutter of a book so that none of the picture is lost is one of the [...]
[...] The Art of Engineering « They’re finally here! Wedding Layouts – Getting Ready » They’re finally here! (part 2) December 31, 2007 This post along with other Blurb book tips and tutorials can be found in the “Want to Make a Blurb Book?” link. [...]
Sorry, I promise this is the last annoying comment =3
But would you recommend getting the dust jacket laminated? Or is it a strong enough material to be able to pick up and hold and slide across tabletops often?
My family is not very polite to photo albums and they get looked at often. =P
[...] The Art of Engineering « Digital Sculpture Putting Your Custom Templates Into Booksmart February 5, 2008 This post along with other Blurb book tips and tutorials can be found in the “Want to Make a Blurb Book?” link. [...]
Hi Alyse,
Don’t worry you can ask all the questions you like! The cover is very similar to many library book covers. It is very glossy and shows crinkles (I know because I got accidentally put some crinkles in mine). It seems like it would take a lot to rip the cover but if you know it will get a lot of handling I would try to get it laminated. I would think that you could take it to any printing company like Kinkos to have that done.
Hope that helps! Let me know if you do laminate it and how it turns out.
Robin
Not to be to nosey but why did you need two replacements? Was something wrong with your blurb book, and if so did you have to pay extra for the replacements? I’m just a little worried about putting all this effort into making a book and then it coming out bad. Also have you ever heard of picaboo.com, if so what are you thoughts on it (good as blurb.com?).
Hi R,
You’re not being nosey at all. I’m working on making a full review of the books from Blurb with pictures of each one.
The main issue is the binding on the books with a lot of pages. The larger books are bound at the very edge and to keep you from seeing the binding they use glue (otherwise it would look more like a magazine).
Though I’m disappointed that I’ve been having problems with the books I still love the quality and their customer service. To return a book you just send them an e-mail and they will respond within one business day. They e-mail you UPS return labels and you don’t have to pay for a thing. They will accept a returned book no questions asked. And since I paid for the faster shipping the first time each time I get the same shipping upgrade.
I have heard of picaboo.com. I’ve never made a book through them but from the research I did before I made my honeymoon book it sounds like they are a bit lower quality when it comes to the print quality. From what I’ve read picaboo is along the same lines as a shutterfly or kodak book. The two companies I’ve heard are the best are Blurb and My Publisher (which is much more expensive). I’ve also heard that Lulu is the best for printing books that are mainly text.
You can see pictures of the problems I’ve had with my books here: http://forums.blurb.com/forums/4/topics/2042
Hope that helps,
Robin
Robin
Thanks again for all of your information and tutorials. I tried to email Blurb directly about a question I had but they haven’t emailed me back and it’s been over a month so I figured I would ask you. Anyways I was wondering if when you make a Blurb book if it will automatically be posted on the Blurb website for others to buy? I just feel uncomfortable with strangers having access to personal things (pics, letters–not that anything is dirty) that I plan to put in my book. Is there a way where it won’t be posted and I can be the only person to buy it? Thanks again!
R
Hi R!
No under your profile you have the chose to make the book public or not. They have an option for allowing people to preview and another option for allowing people to buy the book or not. I didn’t want people to be able to buy my book either.
Robin
Hi Robin: I have downloaded your templates and would like to use them for a simple format where all single images will be precisely centered on the pages. Do I have to use the rulers on the pages each time or is there a simpler way that can be repeated without using the rulers. Sorry if i missed this in an earlier blog entry, but I haven’t found anything on this. Thanks for your help with this. Bernie
Hi Robin,
I dont know if you’ve covered this in any of your helpful hints but as you seem to be so eperienced and friendly I wondered if I could ask you a different technical question! When making your Blurb book what colour space/profile did you work in? And did you need to do any conversions etc. Your images seem to have been printed perfectly, just the binding that has been a problem, so I wondered if you had to do a lot of work to achieve great results? Many thanks!
Harriet
Robin,
I’m getting ready to make my wedding photobook and am wondering about the paper quality of the blurb books. How thick is the paper? Is it as thin as a magazine or more like a true coffee table book. Thanks
Josh
Thanks so much for all of the information! Super helpful. Question for Robin or anyone else out there:
do you prefer InDesign or Photoshop? Why? I am fairly comfortable with both and am not sure which I should use. My first guess is that if there is a lot of text to use InDesign; lots of pictures – use Photoshop? Other thoughts/opinions? Thanks!
–Kristian
hi,
How is the quality of the text in the printed book? I would be afraid to see the text become pixelated…
Thanks for the great blog, I have found your articles and templates very helpful. Unfortunately the folks at blurb seem not to have a good understanding of the importance of correct and consistent documentation.
For instance according to their documentation and using your templates the image size, at 300ppi, for every page in a landscape 10×8 book is 2880×2472. Unfortunately, their BookSmart software wants the images to be 2888×2475! and it seems their technical support recommend that as the size to use, rather than whatever they post in their website. Go figure.
I wonder if you have had any issues or notice this. [Note: you might have not noticed anything is amiss because by default BookSmart will resize your image to their required size.]
You might need to redo your templates so that they fit
with their real size or talk to them to find out more about the issue. I haven’t checked any of the other book sizes.
Below is an excerpt of the email conversation I have had with them. You might have more luck.
Rafa
[===> Please enter your reply below this line Please enter your reply above this line <===]
Blurb Support wrote:
[===> Please enter your reply below this line Please enter your reply above this line <===]
Issue
General Support: Other
Discussion Thread
Response (Jay) 05/12/2008 01:56 PM
Hello Rafael,
Thanks for your message. Please go by the information you found when using your booksmart software, as it should be the most reliable. This means that you will need to re-size your images, sorry about that.
Please also know that there is a NO CROP tool included to your booksmart software, that you might find handy. Here’s how to locate it:
With your booksmart software open, please bring up an image that you want to make sure is not cropped to your main viewing screen and click on it, making sure the image is highlighted.
Next, right over top of your photo should be a set of tools labeled: PHOTO TOOLS. Please look for the 4 small boxes that are linked together and choose the third one, (it looks like a square centered inside of a square). Clciking on that box will make sure that your images do not get cropped.
I hope this helps.
Also, have you read our blog post about creating two page spreads? It’s here if you need it:
http://blurberatiblog.com/index.php/2006/11/15/create-a-full-bleed-spread-across-2-pages/
Thanks again,
Jay
Customer Support
http://www.blurb.com
Customer 05/11/2008 01:26 PM
Message from user sent through blurb.com follows.
=================================================================
CONTACT BLURB SUPPORT
=================================================================
User question:
To whom it may concern,
I have a question regarding the size of full bleed images.
I have spent a couple of hours going over the information in your pages and blog as well as the forum pages and I find a lot of conflicting information with the result that I’m still confused.
In particular I’m trying to create a Landscape 10×8 book.
According to http://blurberatiblog.com/index.php/2007/04/24/look-no-further-for-full-bleed-page-specs/
For Standard Landscape 10×8 pages:
9.6 inches wide by 8.24 inches high
24.4 x 20.9 cm
At your recommended 300DPI the resulting images are
2880×2472.
I processed all my images to that size only to find out that the BookSmart application (v1.9.5) for the same size book requires images that are 2888×2475!.
Now all my images are smaller that the expected size and they get either resized by BookSmart or the crop and layout is not precise and no longer controlled by me which is critical because all my images are double spread and therefore I have been very careful with sizing and placement to take care of the binding gutter.
Why the discrepancy? What should be the correct full bleed image size? I’d appreciate you’d let me know and also could you please make sure the information you publish is consistent with the requirements of your application?
Sincerely,
Robin,
Love the books. I am in process of finally putting my wedding pictures into a book. I have downloaded your templates; however, when I open the .inx, an error message comes up saying “This is not a valid InDesign Interchange Document.” So, I tried to open the .tif file and Photoshop does not open. It comes up in Preview. Whatever that is? I have a Mac, and as you can see I basically know absolutely nothing about it. Any help would be appreciated. Thank You!
Feeling Frustrated,
Crystal
Hi Robin–I found your website today by doing a web search. I just made my first Blurb books the other day using only their templates, but now I am so, so excited to try again w/ yours.
First, however, a (stupid) question. Can I use your templates w/ Photoshop Elements? Or do I need regular Photoshop? I have PE version 2.0 (which is fairly old), but I would be willing to buy the newer version (6.0, I believe) if it would allow me to use your tools.
Thanks so much!
Hi Melissa ~ As far as I know you should be able to use these templates in Elements. I’m not sure about version 2 or not though since that’s pretty old. I do know that version 6 is supposed to be easier to use than previous versions. Hope that helps. Have fun!
[...] I found them to be pretty limiting and ended up designing most of my pages in Photoshop. I used custom made templates that are essentially blank canvases with correct page dimensions and handy rulers. This way I can [...]
Robin,
Do you mind telling me want the name of the Fonts on the cover of your Wedding Book and Honeymoon book are?
Thanks
Kurt
It’s called “the King & Queen” from dafonts and it’s for free!
How about the font you used for your names…
That’s just Arial Black.
Thanks for the templates and great tutorials.
Keep up the good work!
Felix
Me again…Monika wasnt the right Font, so I wanted to try one last time…It is the font on the 1st pageof your “Wedding Layouts-Getting Ready” post on Jan 6,2008
by Kurt September 14, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Hi Robin;
Just wanted to let you know how much I’ve appreciated your time and effort in doing up the templates, especially the two page spread. I used your method on some pages in a sports photography book that I just published, and it worked perfectly. I look forward to using it in the future.
Murray
Hi Robin,
A little note from the Netherlands. I am not so fond of Blurbbooks, although I just LOVE your tutorial on how to make your own.
I hope you don’t mind, but I used it as a base to make a book with a total different printservice. After doing this I got questions on how I did it, so I wrote my own tut for this printservice, in Dutch.
So I wrote it myself, but it is based on your tut. My friends do not speak or understand English so well, that’s the main reason.
Of course your site is mentioned in de tut-pdf I made.
I hope you don’t mind.
Yours,
Mijke
I just wanted to thank you, your layouts are awesome and I did my own wedding album as a present to my husband (after 4.5 years) Thank you, thank you, thank you. Your blog is awesome. Keep up the good work
Robin,
I noticed that you use photoshop. Do you think Photoshop Elements 7 would suffice? Thanks!
R – You can do almost everything in Photoshop Elements but I do know that some versions don’t allow you to see the grid lines so I’d do some research on that before you buy a version. Otherwise my templates won’t be very helpful.
thank you, your site was a lot of help.
Hi Robin,
Just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to create such a great tool. I’ve used it extensively in my first photo book.
Kevin.
Photo Book- create your own custom photo book at http://www.familymemories.com/ – it’s easy and the results are truly professional with the print quality andf the binding – you can use this software to create wedding books, baby books, photo books, and portfolio books.
Thank you for taking time to create your tutorial, it has been very helpful. However, I’m a bit confused about the gutter size. How do you determine what gutter size to use? I’m making a book that has 134 pages, can I use .25 as my gutter size. I noticed that your books are over 200 pages and I wasn’t sure if your technique will work for my book because it’s smaller in terms of the number of pages.
[...] actually come up with a pretty decent theme which I call life cycles. I started playing around with some InDesign templates I found on the Internet. Then nothing. You could say that I haven’t made any more thinking into this since my last [...]
I have a question about blurb books, but maybe you can answer.. I need a book maker who DOES NOT SLAP THEIR LOGO’S ONTO the finished product. The finished product needs to be absolutely logo free and only contain MY INFORMATION.. Do you know if this fit blurb, or is there (and this bothers me) a phone number I can call to talk to them ???
[...] URL : http://theartofengineering.wordpress.com/2008/01/23/want-to-make-a-blurb-book/ [...]
Hi Robin,
I am in the process of creating a Blurb book and was wondering how can I create a blank template in powerpoint using the page specifics of a Blurb book. I need to create a ppt page template since it is easier for me to work on it either at work on on the train. DO you have any suggestions?
Thanks
[...] I found them to be pretty limiting and ended up designing most of my pages in Photoshop. I used custom made templates that are essentially blank canvases with correct page dimensions and handy rulers. This way I can [...]
[...] [...]
The http://www.blurb.com/create/book/htmab link no longer works; or rather, the PDF is gone. Does anyone still have the file? I’ve been looking for it all over google and no luck.
Thanks a lot for the superb templates!!
Regards,
Edwin