Book module questions

[dominique.gascon]

Lightroom Version Number

11.1

Operating System

1. Windows 10

My regular supplier was bought-out by a competitor and I lost their efficient App. I decided to test LR's book module by trying to replicate an existing book (it gave me specific results to achieve). I have few questions:

• How to create 2 (or more) identically sized cells and distribute them uniformly in either direction on a page? As for as I can tell, it is all done free hand and it is nearly impossible to produce a neat uniform layout.
• Photo captions: They are more difficult to align; the guides available for the regular cells don’t seem to exist and the cells will not snap to the grid.
• Is there a way around the lack of horizontal scrolling when zooming? The text is often so small a full-page resolution that it is nearly impossible to read what you type. the bug has been reported on the Adobe forums in 2015, and abundantly discussed since then, but still present in LR v11.
• Can I upload a book to Blurb.ca? My Blurb.ca sign-in is not recognized at Blurb.com.

As anyone tried Blurb’s stand-alone App (BookWright)? It is more user friendly and powerful than LR’s book module, specially with regards to the positioning/dimensioning of containers and its text abilities. I have some questions and I am not sure that I will get an answer from their support.

 

[Rob_Cullen]

How to create 2 (or more) identically sized cells and distribute them uniformly in either direction on a page? As for as I can tell, it is all done free hand and it is nearly impossible to produce a neat uniform layout.

Apologies for the screen-clips, but they might be helpful.
Use one of the Page Templates (eg. Two photos) as a starting point. Then you can resize or move cells (freehand). Having [Snap to Grid] turned 'on' is helpful.

Also you can select multiple Cells (hold Ctrl) and move or adjust the cell margins in sync-

Photo captions: They are more difficult to align; the guides available for the regular cells don’t seem to exist and the cells will not snap to the grid.

Not sure I understand this problem for you!. I find you need to select the Photo Cell first, then check the [Photo Text] and the Text cell auto aligns at the base(default) of the photo. Then you have adjustments in the Text panel for [Offset] [Under] [Above] etc.

Is there a way around the lack of horizontal scrolling when zooming?

Not that I know of. Rick Flohr (Adobe) acknowledged the problem and I believe has logged it for attention.

Can I upload a book to Blurb.ca? My Blurb.ca sign-in is not recognized at Blurb.com.

I believe so. I never question 'where' Blurb exists. I simply [Send to Blurb] . I do know that I have had books printed in Australia (home) and USA without my intervention! Lr-Classic will automatically connect you to Blurb when you send a book in the Book Module.

more user friendly and powerful than LR’s book module, specially with regards to the positioning/dimensioning of containers and its text abilities.

I have looked at, but not tried, the BookWright app. To use it you would need to Export all your photos to a folder from where you would then upload them to BookWright. That is a 'downside'.
You might find that the Lr-Classic module is more capable than you think for positioning cells, etc.
A couple of info links-
BOOK NEW CELL PLACEMENT OPTIONS AUG 2018
! BEST PAGE-How to Make a Photo Book
And a layout hint-
BOOK PHOTO METADATA on OTHER PAGE (RHC)

 

[prbimages]

[H]As anyone tried Blurb’s stand-alone App (BookWright)? It is more user friendly and powerful than LR’s book module, specially with regards to the positioning/dimensioning of containers and its text abilities. I have some questions and I am not sure that I will get an answer from their support.

Rob (above) seems to be our resident expert on the Lightroom Classic Book module, so pay attention to what he says. For my part, I have made a few attempts to get started with the LrC Book module but every time I have given up in disgust. I don't know if the problem is the Book module or me, but it seems extremely non-intuitive, and most of the time I just cannot get it to do what I want.

However, I have made a few books using Blurb's BookWright, and I like it a lot. It seems to give the control I want while still being reasonably flexible and easy to use. I wouldn't claim to be an expert, but feel free to ask any questions and I'll do my best to respond.

As Rob points out, one disadvantage of using BookWright is that it is not as well-integrated with Lightroom. There is an option to upload images directly from your Adobe Cloud storage, but I haven't really used this myself, so cannot comment on how well that works. Instead, I create a Publish service in Lightroom Classic and "publish" the photos I want to be in the book to a directory on my hard drive, from which I upload them into BookWright. If I edit an image, I need to remember to re-publish and then re-upload it.

 

[clee01l]

As Rob points out, one disadvantage of using BookWright is that it is not as well-integrated with Lightroom. There is an option to upload images directly from your Adobe Cloud storage, but I haven't really used this myself, so cannot comment on how well that works. Instead, I create a Publish service in Lightroom Classic and "publish" the photos I want to be in the book to a directory on my hard drive, from which I upload them into BookWright. If I edit an image, I need to remember to re-publish and then re-upload it.

Both of these Lightroom Apps achieve the images selected part of the Book making process by exporting the selected images to a location in Working storage as temporary files If you want to use Lightroom or Classic, with BookWright, you simple Ned to do this step manually. In LrC you can specify your app to be called in the Export dialog so that it opens automatically when the export completes.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[dominique.gascon]

Thanks for the replies; I will look at Rob Cullens' suggestions upon my return after New Year and I will report.

 

[dominique.gascon]

Thanks for the replies.

I had actually seen most of the links provided by Rob Cullen(+ others) and I figured out by myself the basics of the module, although at time, the unWindow like logic of Adobe (even after using LR since version 3) still escapes me. For instance, I did not see the positioning tool for the photo text cells in the right pane, expecting a pop up menu instead!
I still find it difficult to create an uniform look (i.e. cell spacing, margins, etc. ) specially if you follow a structured layout (magazine style) instead of a free style layout, often favoured in the tutorials. For instance, I tried, but got only approximate results, to distribute 3 photocells horizontally and there is no simple way to do it. I tried to increase the grid size to have more manageable grid counts (i.e cell 15x10 blocks instead of 120x80), but I could not get the + = shortcuts working, or the command in the drop down menu, so that put an end to this idea.

I will probably stick to the Blurb software, more intuitive and more powerful, its only drawback (a minor one IMHO) being its lack of integration with LR.

 

[Rob_Cullen]

to distribute 3 photocells horizontally and there is no simple way to do it.

You do know there are page templates for 3 cells?
Are you scrolling down the page of templates to see all the templates available?
There are many 3-cell templates from which to choose.
And a simple select all cells ( Hold [Ctrl] ) and apply some 'Padding' 'Resize', 'Move' - all done!
All the best for 2022.

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