Book Design and Imaging
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Have you looked into this topic related to custom full-bleed topics such as, here: Blurberati Blog – “Look no further for full bleed page specs…” Other topic in Blurberati Blog, important and useful procedure especially after working with InDesign pieces, here: “Importing PDF: exporting your layout (pieces) from Adobe CS3 (apps.) into BookSmart..” Hope that helps. |
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Hi, Yes, I’ve seen all of those. They don’t give the values that are actually needed when starting a new book. They just give you the total page sizes in inches and cm. If you plug those values straight into ID you’ll get the wrong page size! I’ve set out all the correct values above – so no need to get a calculator out and work out the number of pixels, or trying to subtract 1/8" or 1/4" from the page sizes – plenty of room to mess that up. It’s all shown clearly above in my post. I hope one of the Staff makes this a sticky or takes what I’ve written and adds it to the information. |
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cbnewwham, Ah, I see where you are driving at and aim for “accuracy” set up in InDesign app for BookSmart. I am in middle of this project, where I create full-bleed layout in InDesign based on what Blurb staff’s tip, the ones I provided you with the frame of references to these link, etc. I wonder if that ‘fuzzy, jazzy’ JPG looks with text on many JPG pages on BookSmart caused by inaccurate page size. I would really think that this has nothing to do with InDesign (and Photoshop) apps. It has a lot do with BookSmart’s failure to “interpret” image format set by Photoshop, where I see all of garbage inaccurate look of text. The images on all other pages looks very nice, but not so great with text. Is it because of BookSmart fail to understand Photoshop’s rasterized text in an image, which not appear as crisp as actual text in the PDF. The text entered in InDesign is stored in a separate layer in the PDF and is only converted to an image before it is run through the press. Under this impression, the text in an image converted to a bitmapped file, and then converted to a JPG before being inserted into PDF as a page? Some data will inevitably be lost during the JPG compression, especially if the original image with the text also a JPG. That is precisely what is happening with BookSmart not able to interpret the information or data based on that JPG file converted to accommodate BookSmart’s specs requirement from Photoshop/InDesign. I really like to see that Blurb should accept high resolution PDF submission as opposed to GO through the miserable process through BookSmart for that matter. I will take a note about your accurate full-bleed set up specs in InDesign for my 13 by 11 hard cover project and in the future as well. Thanks for your heads up and help. |
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That’s ok – glad to help. I found after I’d written the post that one of my projects was incorrectly sized because I’d subtracted 1/8" instead of 1/4" of the height when I plugged the values into InDesign to start with. So it was good to get it all sorted out. As for text, I have come to the conclusion it probably is not the jpegs or booksmart that are at fault. I think it is the printer. I cannot comment on the output from the HP Indigo printer as I have not done a book that uses that printer. However, I have done a 7×7 book that uses the IGen 3 and the text has fuzzies caused by the printing screen (presumably during the RIP). You have no doubt seen my comparison in this posting. I should think BookSmart is putting the jpegs straight into the file stream as-is. If your text is created at 300DPI then there will be no jaggies (it should be no different to vector-based text) and if your jpeg compression is low (I always set mine to the maximum value – 100% or 12 in photoshop) then there will be no artifacts. The upshot is, sending an InDesign PDF (if it was possible) probably won’t make much difference. However, as I said, I haven’t seen what the Indigo produces, so I can only comment on the IGen output and say that Blurb needs to tweak it because there is no reason the text should have fuzzies on it. See my comparison for proof of that.
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Hello cbnewwham. I’m starting to design my book which will be portrait 8×10 in size and I’m using Indesign. I will use your suggested sizes for the total size and bleed numbers. One question: When I’m placing full bleed pictures in the document to I size it to fill out to the bleed marks or just the page marks? Any info would be appreciated. Regards, |
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Hi First, Thanks to cbnewwham for this info. I have successfully produced a book from InDesign using these templates and some other info about JPEG export and double page layout. To answer Johann’s question: in InDesign make sure your photos go to the BLEED marks around the pages to ensure that you get the full bleed. Note that you may have to view single pages versus "facing pages" to get this perfectly right for images that only take up one page. |
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Try this: Using Indesign, create a 10" x 10" doc with one inch bleeds on all sides. Place a black rectangle on the page, that is sized to include the added bleed. Then export the page to a jpeg. You’ll find that the resulting image is 10×10, i.e the bleed makes no difference in the export – it is completely ignored! So, unless I am doing something wrong, I think you need to set the InDesign page dimensions to include the bleed you need in booksmart, and set the InDesign bleed to zero. Best regards, Johnj |
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Hi all. Helpful thread this. Just wanted to ask about text settings when exporting to PDF. Do you suggest or does Blurb require the conversion of all text to outlines? I am using two fonts in my book which are not in the standard set and one of which I may have trouble embedding. Or, as I see you have to pull the pages apart in Photoshop, does it not matter?
Thanks Alfie |
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Hi there |
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The only ones that I have found so far are just a rough page guide. thinking of upgrading from using lightroom as the templates there are not adjustable enough |
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It’s annoying that in their effort to make Blurb simple for beginners, they make it more complex than a traditional printing house for pro users. All we really need is an industry standard spec sheet. It would take someone at Blurb a few minutes to put one together. |
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Blurb has an InDesign script that will do the page setup for you. If you want to use photoshop you can find templates in psd format here. https://sites.google.com/site/ps2blurb/Home/ps2blurb I didn’t make pocket or trade book templates. They didn’t exist at the time. If you need them and ask nicely, I might add them to the site. Mike |
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Hi thanks for your help. |
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Info: InDesign Page Sizes and Bleeds
