{"id":1662,"date":"2010-11-15T01:58:21","date_gmt":"2010-11-14T16:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2010-11-15\/1662"},"modified":"2010-11-15T01:58:21","modified_gmt":"2010-11-14T16:58:21","slug":"creating-photo-books-with-lightroom-indesign-and-blurb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2010-11-15\/1662","title":{"rendered":"Creating Photo Books with Lightroom, InDesign, and Blurb"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n<div class='resize_warning' id='arw1662'>\n<b>NOTE<\/b>: Images with an <img class='raw' width='19' height='18' src='\/i\/s\/red_zoomup.gif'\/> icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div style='padding:0; margin: 0 0 30px 3em; text-align:center' class='img_right'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/i\/photobook-example1.png\" width=\"386\" height=\"500\"\nclass=\"raw\"\nid=\"iphotobook_example1\"\/>\n<br\/><b>Pages Being Laid Out in Adobe InDesign<\/b><\/div>\n\n<p>In my &#8220;<a class='pt'\nhref=\"\/blog\/2010-11-07\/1655\">Namiko Candid Bride\nPortrait<\/a>&#8221; post the other day, <span class='nobr'>I mentioned<\/span> that I'd made <span class='nobr'>a photo<\/span>\nbook for my brother-in-law Shogo's wedding, and showed <span class='nobr'>a two<\/span>-page spread of\n<span class='nobr'>a photo<\/span> of his bride that <span class='nobr'>I was<\/span> proud of. <span class='nobr'>You can see<\/span> in the last photo of\nthat post <span class='nobr'>a bit<\/span> of the 80-page book <span class='nobr'>I created.<\/span> <span class='nobr'>In this post<\/span>, I'll talk\nabout the workflow <span class='nobr'>I use<\/span> to create photo books with Lightroom, InDesign,\nand Blurb.<\/p>\n\n<p>This workflow requires <span class='nobr'>Lightroom 3.<\/span> <span class='nobr'>As for InDesign<\/span>, <span class='nobr'>I use CS5<\/span>, but the\nsame workflow should work with older versions of InDesign (at least back to\nCS3 when <span class='nobr'>I created<\/span> this workflow).<\/p>\n\n<p>Before I go into the details, <span class='nobr'>I must give<\/span> some disclaimers:<\/p>\n\n<ul><li><p>I'm no expert in this, so this is what <i><span class='nobr'>I happen<\/span> to do<\/i>,\nbut <span class='nobr'>I don't<\/span> claim that it's the best method. I'll describe <i>why<\/i> I've\nmade some decisions, which may help you evaluate it for yourself. This\nworkflow does not, for example, incorporate <a\nhref=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Soft_proofing\">soft proofing<\/a> because\nit would add <span class='nobr'>a great<\/span> deal of complexity to an already kludgy workflow, and\nmy monitor's not calibrated at the moment anyway (because my\nmonitor-calibration tool suffered an ill-timed breakdown).<\/p><\/li>\n\n<li><p>My photo books tend to be complex, with each page laid out specifically\nfor the photos. Sometimes I'll have one photo across <span class='nobr'>a two<\/span>-page spread,\none photo per page, or <span class='nobr'>a mix<\/span> of <span class='nobr'>a bunch<\/span> of different sizes all on the same page. <span class='nobr'>I tend to<\/span> be guided by an idea of the story <span class='nobr'>I want<\/span> to tell, hemmed in by the reality\nof what photos <span class='nobr'>I have<\/span> available, and what photos visually &#8220;fit&#8221; the space\nconstraints of the page and each other. <span class='nobr'>If you do<\/span> <span class='nobr'>a simple<\/span> one-picture-per-page\nbook, you might not even need InDesign.<\/p><\/li>\n\n<li><p>As much as I love Adobe Lightroom, <span class='nobr'>I hate Adobe<\/span> InDesign. <span class='nobr'>It's a poorly<\/span>-thought-out kludgy inefficient troublesome bundle of frustration\nwrapped in <span class='nobr'>a bad<\/span> user interface. Maybe it's just not meant for building\nphoto books and I'm using the wrong tool for the job. <span class='nobr'>I hate it<\/span>, but <span class='nobr'>I have<\/span>\nlearned how, with great effort and much grinding of teeth, to use it to get\nthe job done.<\/p><\/li>\n\n<li><p>Books printed with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.blurb.com\/\">Blurb<\/a> can be\nvery nice, and the experience can be very smooth. However, if the\nexperience is not smooth for whatever reason, woe be to you, because Blurb\nis <span class='nobr'>a horrible<\/span> company that just doesn't <i>get<\/i> the concept of customer\nservice, and they proactively find ways to screw their customers. When\nthings go well, the quality\/cost ratio is very good, which is why <span class='nobr'>I use<\/span>\nthem, but it's also why they can afford to be so atrociously arrogant. Before\nembarking on <span class='nobr'>a project<\/span> with them, realize that you are rolling the dice and\nthat much pain may await you.<\/p><\/li>\n\n<\/ul>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\">\np.h  { font-weight:bold; font-size:140%; margin-top:50px }\np.h2 { font-weight:bold; font-size:105%; margin-top:20px }\n<\/style>\n\n<p class='h'>Overall Workflow<\/p>\n\n<!--TECH-->\n<div class=\"robots-nocontent\" style=\"border: 2px solid #FF8080;\n            float: right;\n            padding: 0 1em 1em 1em;\n            margin: 10px 0 1em 1em;\n            display: inline;\">\n<p style='white-space: nowrap'><b>My Tech-Related Photography Posts<\/b><\/p>\n<ul style='margin:0; font-size:80%'>\n  <li><a href='\/blog\/lightroom-goodies\/ipad-howto2'>My Lightroom-to-iPad Workflow<\/a><\/li>\n  <li><a href='\/blog\/lightroom-goodies\/'>Lightroom Goodies<\/a> (lots of plugins)<\/li>\n  <li><a href='\/blog\/photo-tech\/color-spaces-page1\/'>Digital Image Color Spaces<\/a><\/li>\n  <li><a href='\/blog\/other-writings\/online-exif-image-data-viewer\/'>Online Exif (Image Data) Viewer<\/a><\/li>\n  <li><a href='\/blog\/photo-tech\/focus-chart\/'>Jeffrey's Autofocus Test Chart<\/a><\/li>\n  <li><a href='\/blog\/photo-tech\/calendar\/'>Photoshop Calendar-Template-Building Script<\/a><\/li>\n  <li><a href='\/blog\/lightroom-goodies\/ipad-howto'>How to Prepare Photos for an iPad<\/a><\/li>\n  <li><a href='\/blog\/photo-tech\/nef-compression\/'>A Qualitative Analysis of NEF Compression<\/a><\/li>\n  <li><a href='\/blog\/2007-08-24\/554'>Tripod Stability Tests<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style='font-size:85%; margin:10px 0 0 0'><a href=\"\/blog\/photo-tech\/\">more<\/a>...<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<!--\/TECH-->\n\n\n<p>The whole reason that a post like this is necessary is because there is\n<b>absolutely no integration between Adobe Lightroom and Adobe InDesign<\/b>,\nso we have to figure something that sort of halfway maybe hopefully works.<\/p>\n\n<p>The overall workflow is to select \/ prepare photos in Lightroom, export\nthem as developed images to new files on disk via <span class='nobr'>a publish<\/span> service, then\nlink to those images from InDesign. Because you're using <span class='nobr'>a Lightroom<\/span>\npublish service, you can continue to tweak the photos in Lightroom as you\ncraft your book, republishing them from Lightroom and having InDesign pick\nup the changes automatically.<\/p>\n\n<p>Once you've crafted your book and exported the PDF files for the cover and pages from InDesign,\nyou upload them to Blurb, order your book, and pray. And wait.<\/p>\n\n<p class='h'>Lightroom Setup<\/p>\n\n<p>My setup in Lightroom is more complex than it may seem to require,\nbut you'll see why below.<\/p>\n\n<p>First, <span class='nobr'>I create<\/span> <span class='nobr'>a normal<\/span> (non-publish) collection of the photos <span class='nobr'>I want<\/span> to\nconsider for the book. This can be <span class='nobr'>a regular<\/span> collection into which photos\nare dragged, or <span class='nobr'>a smart<\/span> collection based upon keywords, star ratings, color\nlabels, etc. <span class='nobr'>Do whatever<\/span> works best for you to identify photos that you\nmight use in the book. Name it something along the lines of &#8220;PICS FOR BOOK\nMASTER LIST&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n<p>Then, create a publish service via Lightroom's built in &#8220;Hard Drive&#8221; publish\nservice. Some of the important publish-service settings are highlighted here:<\/p>\n\n<div class='ic tight'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/i\/photobook-pubmanager.jpg\" width=\"690\" height=\"489\"\nclass=\"raw\"\nid=\"iphotobook_pubmanager\"\/><\/div>\n\n<p>The name you choose in the top section of the dialog is the name for\nyour publish service, so pick something descriptive.<\/p>\n\n<p class='h2'>Export Location<\/p>\n\n<p>Pick any folder on disk that you can also reach from InDesign. Personally, <span class='nobr'>I create<\/span> one base folder for the book\n<span class='nobr'>(e.g. &#8220;Shogo and Namiko Wedding Book&#8221;)<\/span> and within it <span class='nobr'>I create<\/span> the InDesign files,\nand a &#8220;Pics&#8221; sub-folder for the intermediate Photoshop files Lightroom will create. It's that &#8220;Pics&#8221; sub-folder\nthat <span class='nobr'>I specify<\/span> as the export location.<\/p>\n\n<p class='h2'>File Naming<\/p>\n\n\n<div class='img_right' style='padding:0; margin: 0 0 30px 2em'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/i\/photobook-filenametemplate.png\" width=\"400\" height=\"217\"\nclass=\"raw\"\nid=\"iphotobook_filenametemplate\"\/><\/div>\n\n<p>For the file-naming template, <span class='nobr'>I use one<\/span> that preserves the chronological\norder of the images because that's how <span class='nobr'>I tend<\/span> to work with images in\nLightroom, and the books <span class='nobr'>I create<\/span> tend to be stories about some event for\nwhich photos are best presented in <span class='nobr'>a generally<\/span>-chronological order. Thus, <span class='nobr'>I find it<\/span> convenient to ensure that the files created by Lightroom, which I'll\nthen drag into InDesign, are presented in chronological order by Finder\/Explorer.<\/p>\n\n<p>If I were doing a one-time export, <span class='nobr'>I could<\/span> simply use <span class='nobr'>a filename<\/span>\ntemplate with <span class='nobr'>a sequence<\/span> number, but the publish collection creates an\nongoing relationship between Lightroom and the folder collecting the\nPhotoshop files, and I'll add and remove photos over time, and will\nre-export photos as <span class='nobr'>I tweak<\/span> develop settings, so this export churn makes\nany kind of sequence number unworkable.<\/p>\n\n<p>What I do use involves creating filenames that incorporate the image\ndate and time, the image filename, and the copy name (because <span class='nobr'>I may<\/span> use\nmultiple virtual copies of the same image with different develop settings,\nsuch as color <i>vs.<\/i> B&amp;W renditions).<\/p>\n\n<p class='h2'>File Settings<\/p>\n\n<p>I've chosen to create Photoshop files in the past, but in writing this\npost <span class='nobr'>I tested<\/span> creating ZIP-compressed TIFF files, and found that they're\nabout 20% smaller, so <span class='nobr'>I may<\/span> choose TIFF files next time (assuming that\nInDesign can handle them, which <span class='nobr'>I would<\/span> expect). <span class='nobr'>In either<\/span> case, <span class='nobr'>I choose<\/span>\n<b>ProPhoto RGB<\/b> as the <a\nhref=\"\/blog\/photo-tech\/color-spaces-page1\">color\nspace<\/a>, which is the closest standard color space to what Lightroom uses\ninternally, and <span class='nobr'>I choose<\/span> 16 bits\/component. These choices conspire to\npreserve as much image quality as possible during the transfer to\nInDesign.<\/p>\n\n<p>The resulting files are big... the 200 temporary files for the images <span class='nobr'>I\nused<\/span> in the wedding book take 14 gigabytes of disk space. But it's\ntemporary; now that the book is done, <span class='nobr'>I can delete<\/span> them. <span class='nobr'>The master<\/span> image\nfiles (the out-of-camera raw files) and the Lightroom catalog can be used\nto recreate the temporary files any time, so they'll be archived along with\nthe InDesign files.<\/p>\n\n<p class='h2'>Resizing and Output Sharpening<\/p>\n\n<p>You'll note that both resizing and sharpening are disabled, because <span class='nobr'>I\nwant<\/span> to limit that kind of processing until the image is fixed within\nInDesign. InDesign will re-render and resize images anyway, so no need to\ndo in Lightroom what will eventually be negated anyway.<\/p>\n\n<p class='h2'>Metadata and Watermarking<\/p>\n\n<p>You won't use any of the image metadata (<i>Shutter speed<\/i>,\n<i>caption<\/i>, etc.) in the temporary files, so it doesn't hurt to\nminimize metadata. You'll save <span class='nobr'>a tiny<\/span> bit on disk space, but not enough\nthat <span class='nobr'>I bothered<\/span> to even think about it when doing my most-recent book.\nDoesn't matter one way or the other.<\/p>\n\n<p>Of course, you don't want to watermark photos being prepared for the\nbook; if you want to add annotations or watermarks to the in-book result,\nyou can do the watermarking within InDesign once you know exactly how the\nimage will appear in the layout.<\/p>\n\n<p style='margin-top:50px'>Once the Hard Disk publish service has been created, we then create <span class='nobr'>a\nsmart<\/span> collection within it via the context menu's &#8220;Create Published Smart\nFolder&#8221; item. Define it with one rule, &#8220;<b>Collection contains all\n<i>PICS FOR BOOK MASTER LIST<\/i><\/b>&#8221;, where the italicized portion\nreflects the name of the non-Publish collection you created earlier. This\nwill cause the new Hard Disk publish collection to mimic the non-Publish\ncollection. (Note: don't use &#8220;<b class='nobr'>... contains words...<\/b>&#8221;\nwhen defining the smart-publish-collection rule\nbecause it doesn't work in this situation; either it's <span class='nobr'>a bug<\/span> in Lightroom, or\n<span class='nobr'>I don't<\/span> understand what &#8220;contains words&#8221; is supposed to mean.)<\/p>\n\n<p>When interacting with the book-related photos in Lightroom, use only the\nnon-Publish collection... add photos to it, subtract photos from it, tweak\ndevelop settings, etc. Only when you're ready to have those changes\nreflected to the Photoshop files available to InDesign do you need to visit\nthe Hard Disk publish collection and &#8220;Publish&#8221; it.<\/p>\n\n<p>It first glance it may seem silly to use this two-collection approach,\nas opposed to just creating <span class='nobr'>a publish<\/span> collection and dragging photos into\nit, but Lightroom's <i>segmented grid<\/i> in <span class='nobr'>a publish<\/span> service &mdash; the\npartitioning of photos into separate grids for new photos, modified photos,\nunchanged photos, and to-be-deleted photos &mdash; makes an interactive back and\nforth among images really painful. For example, you might be in the\n&#8220;Published Photos&#8221; grid comparing three similar shots being considered for\n<span class='nobr'>a spot<\/span> in the book, and decide that one will stand <span class='nobr'>a better<\/span> chance with <span class='nobr'>a\nbit<\/span> of extra brightness, but after returning from develop where you made\nthat change, the image is no longer in the &#8220;Publish Photos&#8221; grid with its\ncompatriots; it's been changed, so now it appears all alone in &#8220;Modified\nPhotos to Republish&#8221;. This will drive you crazy, so it's easiest to do all\nthe real work in the non-Publish collection, publishing as needed from <span class='nobr'>a\npublish<\/span> collection whose rules cause it to mimic the non-Publish\ncollection.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class='h'>InDesign Setup<\/p>\n\n<p>Download the color profile for the printers that Blurb uses, <a\nhref=\"http:\/\/www.blurb.com\/downloads\/Blurb_ICC_Profile.icc\"><b>Blurb_ICC_Profile.icc<\/b><\/a>,\nand install it on your system. See &#8220;Installing the Blurb ICC Profile&#8221; on <a\nhref=\"http:\/\/www.blurb.com\/guides\/color_management\/workflow\">Blurb's\n<i>color-managed workflow<\/i> page<\/a>. Restart InDesign if it had been running.<\/p>\n\n<p>Then visit Blurb's inadequately-complete &#8220;<a\nhref=\"http:\/\/www.blurb.com\/guides\/pdf_to_book\/indesign\"><i>Using Adobe\u00ae\nInDesign\u00ae to Make <span class='nobr'>a Book<\/span><\/i><\/a>&#8221; page and download and install the &#8220;Blurb\nPDF\/X-3 Export Preset&#8221;. Also download the appropriate InDesign templates\nyou'll use for your book pages and book cover.<\/p>\n\n<p class='h2'>InDesign Color-Management Setup<\/p>\n\n\n<div class='img_right' style='padding:0; margin: 0 0 30px 2em'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/i\/photobook-indesigncolorsettings.png\" width=\"500\" height=\"451\"\nclass=\"raw\"\nid=\"iphotobook_indesigncolorsettings\"\/><\/div>\n\n<p>Within InDesign, bring up the <b>Edit &gt; Color Settings<\/b> dialog,\nand set options as shown at right. Blurb can handle two common approaches\nto color data, the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/RGB\">RGB<\/a> model\nthat camera hardware and Lightroom use, and the <a\nhref=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/CMYK_color_model\">CMYK<\/a> model often\nused by printers (including Blurb's).<\/p>\n\n<p>The general goal when converting between these models, or among\ndifferent profiles within <span class='nobr'>a model,<\/span> is to convert as few times as possible\nbecause quality is lost with each conversion. <span class='nobr'>In the end<\/span>, everything will\nhave to be converted to Blurb's CMYK profile because that represents the\n<i>final<\/i> result: ink on paper.<\/p>\n\n<p>The &#8220;Working Spaces&#8221; settings define what specific profile InDesign\nshould use for each color model while you build the book. <span class='nobr'>I chose<\/span>\n<b>ProPhoto RGB<\/b> for the RGB working space because that's the same space\nthat Lightroom uses, and the space <span class='nobr'>I chose<\/span> for the temporary image files created\nby Lightroom. This means that the color data won't have to be converted\nbetween or among spaces while it's being worked on in InDesign. <span class='nobr'>No extra<\/span> conversions means no extra loss of quality.<\/p>\n\n<p>For the CMYK working space, <span class='nobr'>I choose<\/span> the actual space that will be used\nfor printing, the &#8220;Blurb_ICC_Profile&#8221; that I'd installed above. This means\nthat color-related items that <span class='nobr'>I create<\/span> within InDesign (page backgrounds,\ntext, etc.) won't need color conversion when being prepared for shipment to\nthe printer.<\/p>\n\n\n<p>The &#8220;Color Management Policies&#8221; section defines what should be done when\nan image is imported into InDesign with color data that doesn't match the\nworking space chosen above. <span class='nobr'>I won't<\/span> have any such files (all my image files\nare being created by Lightroom with the specific intent to match my working\nspaces perfectly), but if <span class='nobr'>I were<\/span> to import some random JPEG image that\nwasn't already in my RGB working space, <span class='nobr'>I wouldn't<\/span> want it converted to some\nintermediate RGB space (my RGB working space) because it'll have to be converted later to the\noutput CMYK space for printing, so by having its profile preserved, it'll\nget converted directly to the output space when the book is exported for\nprint. That's one less conversion, so less loss of quality.<\/p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, if I were to import <span class='nobr'>a CMYK<\/span> image, <span class='nobr'>I'd want it<\/span>\nconverted directly to the output color space. There's no problem of the\nintermediate &#8220;RGB working space&#8221; as in the previous paragraph, so if <span class='nobr'>I have<\/span>\nit converted right away, it'll then be at the final output color space and\nit won't need further conversion.<\/p>\n\n<p class='h2'>InDesign Export-Template Setup<\/p>\n\n<p>Blurb provides the export preset we installed above, but it requires\nsome changes to be useful. Invoke\n\n   <span class='nobr'>&#8220;<b>File &gt; Adobe PDF Presets<\/b>&#8221;,<\/span>\n\nselect <b>Define<\/b>, then select\n\n  <span class='nobr'>&#8220;<b>Blurb PDF X-3 Export Preset<\/b>&#8221;,<\/span>\n\nand then press &#8220;Edit&#8221;. Then select the &#8220;<b>Output<\/b>&#8221; tab, and you'll be presented\nwith this dialog:<\/p>\n\n<div class='ic tight'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/i\/photobook-exportpreset.png\" width=\"602\" height=\"432\"\nclass=\"raw\"\nid=\"iphotobook_exportpreset\"\/><\/div>\n\n<p>Ensure that <i>Color Conversion<\/i> is set to <span\nclass='nobr'>&#8220;<b>Convert to Destination (Preserve Numbers)<\/b>&#8221;<\/span> and\nthat <i>Destination<\/i> is the Blurb ICC profile (which because of our\nearlier settings is also our working space, so the selection is <span\nclass='nobr'>&#8220;<b>Working CMYK - Blurb_ICC_Profile.icc<\/b>&#8221;).<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p>Also be sure that the &#8220;PDF\/X Output Intent Profile Name&#8221; is the same\n<span class='nobr'>&#8220;<b>Working CMYK - Blurb_ICC_Profile.icc<\/b>&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p>Perhaps update the Preset Name to indicate that you've made changes\n(e.g. &#8220;My Useful Blurb PDF X-3 Export Preset&#8221;) and press <b>OK<\/b> to save your changes.<\/p>\n\n<p class='h2'>InDesign Output Preflight Setup<\/p>\n\n<p>InDesign has a &#8220;preflight&#8221; feature such that it'll check for common\nproblems before you generate and upload your multi-gigabyte PDF to be\nprinted. <span class='nobr'>The default<\/span> preflight profile is mostly fine, but <span class='nobr'>I make<\/span> <span class='nobr'>a few<\/span>\nchanges. Open <span class='nobr'>&#8220;<b>Window &gt; Output &gt;\nPreflight<\/b>&#8221;<\/span> and create <span class='nobr'>a new<\/span> profile, &#8220;Blurb Book&#8221;, and make\nchanges as you feel appropriate. <span class='nobr'>I tend to<\/span> enable:<\/p>\n\n<table style='margin-left:2em'>\n<tr valign='baseline'><td><b>LINKS<\/b><\/td><td>&nbsp;&mdash;&nbsp;<\/td><td>Links Missing or Modified<\/td><\/tr>\n<tr valign='baseline'><td><b>IMAGES AND OBJECTS<\/b><\/td><td>&nbsp;&mdash;&nbsp;<\/td><td>Color Image Minimum Resolution: <b>150<\/b>\n     <br\/>Non-Proportional Scaling of Placed Object<\/td><\/tr>\n<tr valign='baseline'><td><b>TEXT<\/b><\/td><td>&nbsp;&mdash;&nbsp;<\/td><td>Font Missing\n<br\/>Glyph Missing<\/td><\/tr>\n<\/table>\n\n<p>I've printed huge two-page spreads at 90DPI and had it come out just\ngreat, but 150 DPI seems to be <span class='nobr'>a good<\/span> general-purpose lower bound. <span class='nobr'>If an image<\/span> ends up being scaled in the final output to 149 DPI or worse , Blurb\nwill issue <span class='nobr'>a scary<\/span>-sounding warning, but will let you print anyway. So,\nhaving the preflight check let you know before Blurb tells you at least\nprepares you for the scary warning.<\/p>\n\n<p class='h'>Build Your Book<\/p>\n\n<p>Now that things are set up, <span class='nobr'>I publish<\/span> the Photoshop files from Lightroom\nfor images <span class='nobr'>I might<\/span> use in the book. <span class='nobr'>I then look<\/span> at the thumbnails in Finder\n(&#8220;Explorer&#8221; on Windows) and drag images to InDesign and see how they work\nat that point in my book. <span class='nobr'>I won't<\/span> use every image that <span class='nobr'>I include<\/span> in the\nLightroom collection for the book, but every image <span class='nobr'>I want<\/span> to use finds its\nway to the book via the collection. When preparing the wedding book, <span class='nobr'>I'd started<\/span> with 700 images in the book-related collection, but only 200 ended\nup actually being used in the book.<\/p>\n\n<p>The InDesign templates from Blurb contain &#8220;page bleed&#8221; areas <span class='nobr'>a smidgen<\/span>\nbeyond the edge of the page so that there's no chance of having <span class='nobr'>a sliver<\/span> of\nwhite paper show through after the paper is cut where you intended to have\nan image run to the edge of the page. Thus, <span class='nobr'>a little<\/span> bit of these images is\nnecessarily lost, and for that reason <span class='nobr'>I prefer<\/span> to leave all images\nuncropped and unrotated in Lightroom, cropping and rotating within InDesign\nin <span class='nobr'>a way<\/span> that suits the specific photo's specific placement on the specific\npage. Because of this, <span class='nobr'>I end up<\/span> making <span class='nobr'>a lot<\/span> of virtual copies for the\nbook-related collection, because photos I've also used elsewhere (e.g.\npublished on my blog) may have display-ready crops already applied.<\/p>\n\n<div style='padding:0; margin: 0 0 30px 3em; text-align:center' class='img_right'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/i\/photobook-example2.png\" width=\"250\" height=\"413\"\nclass=\"raw\"\nid=\"iphotobook_example2\"\/><\/div>\n\n<p>Designing the pages is the most time-consuming part for me. Again, if\nyou do <span class='nobr'>a simple<\/span> and elegant &#8220;one photo per page&#8221; layout, as is common with\nphoto books, this'll be the easy part for you. <span class='nobr'>My books<\/span> are visually\ncomplex. (&#8220;Noisy&#8221; some might say, but they're my books, not yours. ;-))\nThey're also big... so far I've always made Blurb's <a\nhref=\"http:\/\/www.blurb.com\/create\/book\/pricing#large-landscape\">13&#8221;&times;11&#8221;\nLarge Landscape<\/a> books, which means that the screenshot at right\nrepresents more than two feet of printed width: each of the three two-page\nspreads shown in the screenshot represents two printed pages totaling\n26&#8221; (66cm) in width.<\/p>\n\n<p>So far, I've always gone with premium paper, and with ImageWrap\nhard-cover binding. I've been very happy with the quality of Blurb's\nprinting and binding.<\/p>\n\n<p>(Blurb offers <b>three<\/b> types of paper to choose from, but offers only <b>one<\/b>\nprinter color profile. You don't need to know much about color management\nto know that this indicates that they have no clue about it, or that they\nhave <span class='nobr'>a clue<\/span> and just don't care. But hey, they're printing <i>your<\/i> books, not <i>theirs<\/i>,\nso why should <i>they<\/i> care?)<\/p>\n\n<p>Be sure to keep in mind that except for the first and last page, every page is part\nof <span class='nobr'>a two<\/span>-page spread, and so design each page realizing what else will and\nwon't be visible when the reader is viewing the page. <span class='nobr'>For someone<\/span> like me who\nlays out each spread depending on what story and images are in play at that point\nin the book, <span class='nobr'>I try to<\/span> have natural breaks in the story happen at <span class='nobr'>a page<\/span> turn,\nnot between two pages that are visible at the same time. <span class='nobr'>In the wedding<\/span> book,\ntransitions between events of the day &mdash; the <a href=\"\/blog\/2010-10-03\/1629\">chapel ceremony<\/a>,\nthe outside flower-petal toss and photo op, the <a href=\"\/blog\/2010-10-04\/1630\">small welcome reception<\/a>,\nthe <a href=\"\/blog\/2010-10-05\/1631\">start of the banquet<\/a>,\nthe <a href=\"\/blog\/2010-10-07\/1633\">cutting of the cake<\/a>, etc. &mdash; all happen at the turn\nof <span class='nobr'>a page.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p>And because I really do like the <a class='pt'\nhref=\"\/blog\/2010-11-07\/1655\">bride\nportrait<\/a> that <span class='nobr'>I posed<\/span> the other day, I'll show again here how it appeared as <span class='nobr'>a two<\/span>-page spread in the book...<\/p>\n\n\n<div class='ic tight'><a name=\"2\" href=\"\/i\/JF7_038809_04_2P.jpg\"\n><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/i\/JF7_038809_04_2P_sm.jpg\" width=\"690\" height=\"294\"\nalt=\"Wedding of Shogo and Namiko -- Nagoya, Aichi, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/\"\nclass=\"raw\"\nid=\"i038809_04_2P\"\nindexhint=\"left\"\nstyle=\"border:solid 1px #333; margin-bottom:5px\"\ntitle=\"Wedding of Shogo and Namiko -- Nagoya, Aichi, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/\"\/><\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n<p>... and in the InDesign page-layout window, as the last full two-page spread:<\/p>\n\n<div class='ic tight'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/i\/photobook-example3.png\" width=\"325\" height=\"500\"\nclass=\"raw\"\nid=\"iphotobook_example3\"\/><\/div>\n\n<p>(For the final page of the book, <span class='nobr'>I threw<\/span> in <span class='nobr'>a picture<\/span> of Fumie and me\nthat we had enlisted <span class='nobr'>a passer<\/span>-by to take as we returned to our hotel after the\nwedding. <span class='nobr'>Not being<\/span> in any of my own photos that <span class='nobr'>I took<\/span> at the wedding, <span class='nobr'>I wanted<\/span> to appear in the book at least once.)<\/p>\n\n<p class='h'>Build Your Cover<\/p>\n\n<p>One thing I've learned when creating the PDF for the cover is that the\nmarks for the spine are fairly vague. Unlike the edge of the paper, which\nis <span class='nobr'>a clean<\/span> crisp well-defined cut, the spine-to-cover transition is <span class='nobr'>a\ngeneral<\/span> curve over <span class='nobr'>a couple<\/span> of millimeters on either side. Furthermore, the\npart of the cover right next to the spine can have <span class='nobr'>a centimeter<\/span>-wide\nconcave indent running down the height of the cover... it's hard to\ndescribe, but <span class='nobr'>I suppose<\/span> it's part of the binding, and it lends <span class='nobr'>a nice<\/span> &#8220;real\nbook&#8221; feeling to the result, but you've got to be prepared for it and not\nput the title text or anything else important there.<\/p>\n\n<p>Here's what the cover design for the wedding book looks like in InDesign:<\/p>\n\n<div class='ic tight'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/i\/photobook-cover.png\" width=\"709\" height=\"341\"\nclass=\"raw\"\nid=\"iphotobook_cover\"\/><\/div>\n\n<p>The front cover is on the right, of course, with the back cover on the\nleft. The outer-most red box is the edge of the page-bleed area, and\nrepresents the edge of the information sent to the printer. <span class='nobr'>The black<\/span> box\njust inside represents about where the paper will be cut (I've found this\nto be very accurate with Blurb), while the pinkish inner lines represent\n&#8220;safe text&#8221; areas that absolutely won't get lopped off during page cutting. <span class='nobr'>All of these<\/span> guide lines are within InDesign, and won't actually be sent to\nthe printer, of course.<\/p>\n\n<p>Because there are no specific borders that clearly separate the front\ncover from the spine from the back cover during actual printing, <span class='nobr'>I have the<\/span>\nfront-cover image overlap to the back cover, and then blend into <span class='nobr'>a second<\/span>\nback-cover image. Or, <span class='nobr'>I use one<\/span> large image that spans the whole thing in\nsuch <span class='nobr'>a way<\/span> that it also looks good as just the front cover. Either method\nensures that the front cover, when viewed by itself, is whole and complete,\nand doesn't have <span class='nobr'>a sliver<\/span> of some separate spline image on it.<\/p>\n\n<p>Just for a change of pace, here's an example of <span class='nobr'>a cover<\/span> that uses one\nimage to span both front and back, from <span class='nobr'>a book<\/span> <span class='nobr'>I made<\/span> last year to\ncommemorate the first-time gathering of all my folks' grandkids (which, to my\nboy Anthony, means all <a href=\"\/blog\/2009-07-31\/1273\">his\ncousins<\/a>, at least until Shogo and Namiko get busy).<\/p>\n\n<div class='ic tight'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/i\/photobook-cousinscover.png\" width=\"690\" height=\"296\"\nid=\"iphotobook_cousinscover\"\/><\/div>\n\n<p>The &#8220;half&#8221; in the title refers to\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2009-07-31\/1273\">my brother's wife being pregnant<\/a> at the time with\ntheir #3, who turned out three months later to be <a href=\"\/blog\/2009-11-26\/1375\">Claire<\/a>. <span class='nobr'>The lake is<\/span> behind my folks' place, where the kids spent much time\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2009-08-02\/1276\">throwing rocks<\/a>, and occasionally\ngoing for <a href=\"\/blog\/2009-08-27\/1299\">boat rides<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<p>When you first pick up the book, you see only the front cover with the\nbench and the oars, but when you eventually notice the back cover, you\nrealize that you can open it wide and view the whole thing. <span class='nobr'>It's a nice<\/span>\neffect if you can find an image that works.<\/p>\n\n<p class='h'>Export, Upload, and Order Your Book<\/p>\n\n<p>Once you've got things squared away in InDesign, you'll export the cover\nto one PDF file, and the pages collectively to another. These can be very large... <span class='nobr'>I was pushing<\/span> the two-gigabyte PDF file-size limit with the 600 images in the\n160-page &#8220;cousins&#8221; book.<\/p>\n\n<p>Once you order your book from Blurb, the order sits in <span class='nobr'>a queue<\/span> doing nothing until\nyour turn comes around for the printing to happen, and in my experience\nthat queue-sitting lasts about <span class='nobr'>a week.<\/span> Blurb gives you an estimate before\nyou finalize your order.<\/p>\n\n<p>Blurb makes it very clear that once the order has been submitted,\nnothing short of the heat death of the universe can cause any change to be\nmade. Make sure you understand this before placing your order. <span class='nobr'>It's just one<\/span> example of Blurb's arrogance... the order is just sitting in <span class='nobr'>a queue<\/span>\nand one would surmise that, say, updating the ship-to address would not be\n<span class='nobr'>a difficult<\/span> enterprise. <span class='nobr'>I would<\/span> have liked to have had that option: when <span class='nobr'>I\nordered<\/span> the &#8220;cousins&#8221; book last year, Blurb missed the expected-print date\nby <span class='nobr'>a couple<\/span> of days, and in the end it arrived at my folks' place <span class='nobr'>a few<\/span>\nhours after <span class='nobr'>I had<\/span> left to return to Japan.<\/p>\n\n<p>Or, perhaps, a reasonable company would allow you to cancel an order\n(even if only for future credit)... doing so would mean that everyone\nbehind you in the queue gets bumped up <span class='nobr'>a notch,<\/span> so everyone would be\npleased, but Blurb doesn't allow it. They don't allow you to replace <span class='nobr'>a PDF<\/span>\nfile to correct <span class='nobr'>a misspelling<\/span> you notice <span class='nobr'>a bit<\/span> too late, even if the\npage-count remains unchanged. Once an order has been placed, you have\nabsolutely no further control until the book arrives in your hands.<\/p>\n\n<p>[ <b>Update Jan 7, 2011<\/b>: Blurb's director of customer service let me know\nthat they actually have a <a href=\"http:\/\/blurb.custhelp.com\/app\/answers\/detail\/a_id\/174\">one-hour window<\/a> in which\nthe order can be canceled. <span class='nobr'>I would<\/span> be curious to know why the order can be canceled during just that\nfirst hour (because they hold it back for an hour?) and not right up to the moment when it's loaded into\nthe print queue.. ]<\/p>\n\n<p>Again, they make this clear ahead of time, so you can decide to take\nyour business elsewhere if you don't like it. <span class='nobr'>No one likes<\/span> it, of course\n&mdash; Blurb has <b>absolutely no clue<\/b> about good customer service\n&mdash; but there aren't many other options for <span class='nobr'>a large<\/span> portion of their\nproduct selection.<\/p>\n\n<p class='h'>Receive Your Book<\/p>\n\n<p>So, the angels have finally sung and the book is in your hands.\nDepending on which back-end printer Blurb used, the book might come with <span class='nobr'>a\nbar<\/span>-code sticker on the back cover and shrink wrapping all around, or not.<\/p>\n\n<p>The wedding books I ordered last month had the bar-code sticker and the\nshrink wrap. <span class='nobr'>The shrink<\/span> wrap is sort of nice for something you'll be\npresenting as <span class='nobr'>a gift.<\/span>.. it really makes it feel <i>new<\/i> and\n<i>special<\/i>... but the bar-code sticker is <i>inside<\/i> the shrink\nwrap, stuck to the newly-printed image-wrap cover of your book.<\/p>\n\n<p>You're supposed to lift up the corner with your fingernail to remove it,\nbut the mere act of trying to get under the corner of the sticker can ruin\nthe cover. <a href=\"http:\/\/forums.blurb.com\/forums\/1\/topics\/4436#posts-20142\">This comment<\/a>\nfrom <span class='nobr'>a couple<\/span> of years ago pretty much sums it up:<\/p>\n\n<div style='margin: 0 8em 30px 4em; font-style:italic'><span class='nobr'>I just<\/span> received <span class='nobr'>a book<\/span> today and it did have the infamous\nsticker on it. Even after carefully removing the sticker, <span class='nobr'>I was left<\/span> with\nso much glue residue that the book is ruined as <span class='nobr'>a gift.<\/span> Seems like an\nincredible oversight for <span class='nobr'>a company<\/span> which produces <span class='nobr'>a very<\/span> nice product<\/div>\n\n<p>But it's not an &#8220;oversight&#8221;... Blurb has been doing this for years, and\ntheir own forums are filled with customers blowing gaskets over this\nmind-numbingly stupid move. Blurb doesn't warn you ahead of time about the\npotential for <span class='nobr'>a cover<\/span>-ruining sticker, and since not all their printers put\nthe stickers, you never know whether your order will be cursed with them. <span class='nobr'>It's like a<\/span> top-level chef preparing <span class='nobr'>a fine<\/span> meal for you, right at your table,\nbut then sneezing on it with <span class='nobr'>a smile<\/span> while presenting it to you.<\/p>\n\n<p>When I first got the wedding books, <span class='nobr'>I was surprised<\/span> by the stickers\nbecause they were my first order to have them, but <span class='nobr'>I wasn't<\/span> fazed by them\nuntil <span class='nobr'>I realized<\/span> that they were <i>under<\/i> the shrink wrapping. <span class='nobr'>I didn't<\/span>\nwant to give the books as gifts with the sticker (and hence the potential\nfor damage) still attached, but <span class='nobr'>I also<\/span> didn't want to remove the shrink\nwrapping because <span class='nobr'>I felt<\/span> it added <span class='nobr'>a nice<\/span> touch as <span class='nobr'>a gift.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p>So here's what I did: I made a small hole in the shrink wrap and used <span class='nobr'>a\nsharp<\/span> box cutter to <i>very carefully<\/i> grab the edge of the sticker &mdash; never touching the book cover &mdash;\nlifting it up and <i>very carefully<\/i> drawing it away from the cover and\nthrough the hole, like <span class='nobr'>a surgeon<\/span> removing <span class='nobr'>a gall<\/span> bladder.<\/p>\n\n<p>I'd ordered six copies, one for myself and five as gifts, so <span class='nobr'>I had<\/span> to repeat\nthat procedure for five copies. Thankfully, it came out okay for each one.<\/p>\n\n<div class='ic'><a name=\"043909\" href=\"\/i\/JF7_043909.jpg\"\n><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/i\/JF7_043909_sm.jpg\" width=\"690\" height=\"459\"\nalt=\"Checking Out Their Own Wedding -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/\"\nid=\"i043909\"\ntitle=\"Checking Out Their Own Wedding -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/\"\/><\/a>\n<br\/><span class=\"camera-info robots-nocontent\">Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 36 mm &mdash; <sup>1<\/sup><big>\/<\/big>125 sec, <span class='f'>f<\/span>\/5, ISO 2000 &mdash;\n<a href=\"\/imageinfo.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Fregex.info%2Fi%2FJF7_043909.jpg\">map &amp; image data<\/a> &mdash; <a href=\"\/blog\/proximity\/i\/JF7_043909.jpg\">nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n<br\/><span class='caption'>Checking Out Their Own Wedding<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n<p>So, for better or for worse, this is how <span class='nobr'>I currently<\/span> produce photo books. <span class='nobr'>I hope this<\/span> explanation is useful to someone.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In my \"Namiko Candid Bride Portrait\" post the other day, I mentioned that I'd made a photo book for my brother-in-law Shogo's wedding, and showed a two-page spread of a photo of his bride that I was proud of. You can see in the last photo of that post a bit of the 80-page book I created. In this post, I'll talk about the workflow I use to create photo books with Lightroom, InDesign, and Blurb.<\/p> <p>This workflow requires Lightroom 3. As for InDesign, I use CS5, but the same workflow should work with older versions of InDesign (at least [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,13,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1662"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1662\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}