9 Replies Latest reply: Mar 21, 2012 2:28 PM by Cornelia-I RSS

    Book module advanced help

    DVDmike Community Member

      I have watched the videos for the book module and while it does a lot of great things, either I am misunderstanding what is available or I am not sure that this module is really geared for professionals who make their income preparing books.

       

      First off, I use a couple of different book companies, main GraphiStudio for my books.  And I do not use Blurb.  While I am sure Blurb is nice, I do not have a large sample set of Blurb books to show my customers.  I do have many Graphi books and for me to switch would be extremely costly to create enough samples to sell to clients.  It is just out of the question.

       

      Can you export the pages of a book to .psd files?  From what I see, it looks like we have two choices, either use blurb, or export to a .pdf.  How about exporting to .jpg files?  How hard could this be to do?  If I cannot export to a high resolution image format, it is useless to me.  Really, I would prefer to be able to export each page or spread as a .psd with all of the effects as editable layers in Photoshop and the images being placed into the .psd files as smart objects.  This way, you could use the advanced features of quickly creating an album in LR and yet have the flexibility to make finishing touches in Photoshop.  These finishing touches wouldn't need to be viewable in the book module if that makes it easier.  Once I have them as .psd files, I do not need the book module to make adjustments.

       

      For Graphi books, the first printable page is the left side of a two page spread.  There is never a single page at the start or end of a book.  How can I make the first and all odd numbered pages be left side pages of two-page spreads?   Is this possible? If not, this book module is useless to me.

       

      Lastly, the sizes of books are an issue.  Can you customize the size of your book?  I could easily enter in all of the data that makes up the page size for a graphi or other manufacture's book.  It would seem a no-brainier to allow custom sizes for a professional photo application that allows for bookmaking.  So what if the templates do not match up exactly to every size.  You basically have square, landscaped, and portrait oriented templates.  It should be easy to fit the right template into a custom sized book.

       

      Adobe obviously spent a lot of time adding a lot of features to this book module.  But it appears that these features are more cosumer oriented than professional oriented if you cannot output pages as files that you can edit in another application and you cannot specify your page size.  Perhaps I just have not figured out how to do these things and if someone knows how, please enlighten me.  Until these options are added or someone tells me how to get around them, I am quite underwhelmedwith what Adobe has come up with for this book module.

        • 1. Re: Book module advanced help
          Seán McCormack CommunityMVP

          Mike, everything you've asked here has been covered recently.

           

          No PSD or JPEG output, no options for spread only designs.

           

          There will be a tool for making your own template sizes and designs.

          • 2. Re: Book module advanced help
            DVDmike Community Member

            Thanks Sean.  I figured that I was not going to be happy and as it turns out I'm not.   But I was hoping ...At any rate, this book module is useless to me in its present form.  The good news is that Lightroom is a bargain at its price.  The bad news is that it appears to be spending more time catering to hobbyists instead of professionals for the many of the newest features in this release.

            • 3. Re: Book module advanced help
              Seán McCormack CommunityMVP

              I think page and spread options should be there as options, along with left hand start pages.

              • 4. Re: Book module advanced help
                SGPSami

                I was really looking forward to the book module of LR4 but it seems like Adobe have severly limited this module and made it fairly useless for the majority of photographers who would use Lightroom 4. I myself use blurb for some of my book making but the books I print are not available in the choices. In addition why have they made the sizes a set standard! This is very infuriating, I print A3 squared, A4 squared and 8x8 and 10x10 inch books. I should be able to enter the book size manually as DVDmike suggest and then enter margins, bleed etc. I'm not asking for indesign here but a few more options would have make the module useable.

                 

                At the end of the day this should have made life soo much easier and kept loads more of my post within lightroom.

                • 5. Re: Book module advanced help
                  masplin

                  Hi Sean

                   

                  My wife uses Blurb extensively, but only uses her own layouts. You say you expect there to be custom templates so is this already in the pipeline for a future release?

                   

                  Thanks

                   

                  Mike

                  • 6. Re: Book module advanced help
                    Butch_M Community Member

                    It is no secret that I have been severely disappointed with the Book module. To the point I am not going to upgrade to Lr4 at this time. I am even at the point where I am strongly considering moving my entire workflow to Aperture. Don't get me wrong, I am a huge Lr supporter ... but I find it extremely frustrating that Adobe would implement such a backward flowing module as they have done with the Book module and expect it's users to jump through hoops to make it customizable. Even then, after I get all the templates I wish to use ... we will still only be able to output them in a single file format ... PDF ... nothing else ... Even InDesign will allow you to export pages or spreads as jpegs ...

                     

                    Is there another Adobe application that places such limits on their users? Is there another Adobe application that forces users to create custom sized documents using a separate external application? Is there another module in Lr that places such limits on users?

                     

                    Kevin Tieskoetter, the engineer that designed the Book module, stated in Sean's blog,

                     

                    "We also knew that the most important part of the book module was going to be workflow polish; we needed to make it simple and straightforward, and easy-to-use features take a lot more time to develop than complex ones do."


                    What good is all that workflow polish and straightforward, easy-to-use features if the user can't export the book in a file format that their printers/labs can use? Where is "workflow polish" when you have to spend so much valuable time creating custom templates in an external application and no ability to do so within the module itself?

                     

                    When I want to create a custom book size in Aperture 3, I simply type in the page dimensions and the margins I want ... and lay out the book ... then I also can export it to TIFF or jpeg as well as PDF ... When so many folks consider that Apple works under such a restrictive philosophy ... why is it that Adobe is the one that is placing such limitations on it's users?

                     

                    As it stands now ... the Book module is not a workflow solution for any user who wishes to use their traditional book printers ... it's just more work.

                    • 7. Re: Book module advanced help
                      DVDmike Community Member

                      Its obvious to me that they missed the mark with this module in a way that really lowers the bar for Lightroom.  Up until V4, I really thought that the program was a bargain and something far more advanced that what the competition has to offer.  For me, there really are not many new features of V4 that would make it a must have upgrade except for a well implemented Book module and the continued updates to ACR.  I upgraded to V4 if only to continue to receive ARC updates.  The $79 was worth it for me just for this because I have no plans on upgrading to Photoshop CS6 or any other CS6 product after it is released.  I am really not sold on the new sliders in the Develop module and while things such as soft-proofing are nice, I can do this in Photoshop anyway.  In the end, I did upgrade to V4, but only because of the price and because I will continue to recieve ACR updates.  I am just thankful that LR is not part of the suite and its not priced like the other standalone products that are contained in the suites.  But the book module is geared to hobbyists. 

                      • 8. Re: Book module advanced help
                        Butch_M Community Member

                        DVDmike wrote:

                         

                        Its obvious to me that they missed the mark with this module in a way that really lowers the bar for Lightroom.

                         

                        Exactly ... with each prior version of Lr, I was ecstatic to upgrade immediately ... Lr 4 ... not so much.

                         

                        I really do like Lr ... each new version offered exceptional work saving must-have features and capabilities that saved me countless hours ... with this version, except for the Develop modue ... the cup is nearly empty in that respect ... While I appreciate the hard work that the ACR team put into the RAW processing, it seems as though the Lr team offering for balance of the app was either totally ignored or stunted.

                         

                        The new features in Library are quite unremarkable. Likewise for the Print module. Soft proofing is nice, but for RGB output, I was able to exist without it. The Slideshow and Web modules languish untouched for two versions and fall way behind opther options that have been available for some time ... The addition of the Maps module is a benefit for some users, though I don't consider it as something I can't live without. and ... of course I totally agree that the Book module is a half-measure at best and a sad joke at worst ... at least for any type of custom use ...

                         

                        In my mind, for what we are getting in this round, it's no wonder that there was a significant price reduction when you consider what is being offered .... it can easily be considered an utter disappointment for many reasons ... well short of the mark that we have been accustomed to from Adobe.

                        • 9. Re: Book module advanced help
                          Cornelia-I Community Member

                          Should you have any hope left that Adobe might listen to feature request, you might consider to vote for http://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/lr4_request_for_book_module-4vlfu

                          or any of the other many requests there if you search for "book module".

                           

                           

                          Butch_M wrote:

                           

                          DVDmike wrote:

                           

                          Its obvious to me that they missed the mark with this module in a way that really lowers the bar for Lightroom.

                           

                          ... of course I totally agree that the Book module is a half-measure at best and a sad joke at worst ... at least for any type of custom use ...

                           

                          In my mind, for what we are getting in this round, it's no wonder that there was a significant price reduction when you consider what is being offered .... it can easily be considered an utter disappointment for many reasons ... well short of the mark that we have been accustomed to from Adobe.

                          Well said. Especially if you factor in the amount of bugs introduced in the final LR4.0, which were NOT present in LR4-beta...

                           

                          Cornelia