More control over templates
In the future is it planned for the user to have more control over templates? Such as being able to move around photo boxes and texts boxes within a page and be able to resize them? The only problem I find with BookSmart is for the work I do I seem limited to my choices with templates and in my head I have lots of template ideas I’d like to use to make my books much better. Thanks. Dave
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I agree! I wish there was more leeway for custom pages—I’d rather not use someone else’s templates.
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i just discovered booksmart and am thinking about using it rather than mpix. i like the software and many of the design options, but i am frustrated that i can’t resize photo boxes and text boxes, like i can in mpix. i came on the forum to see if there was anything i was missing in terms of making this possible, but i guess not. it might be back to mpix for me…
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Well it would be even nicer if there was some response from the Blurl people here. I might have to look into mpix myself.
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Hey I’d like to be able to link two pages together so if I added a page it wouldn’t separate them. (I know booksmart would have to add a page to make it even—but the tech can would on that part) Keep Smiling
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Hey all –
We understand that BookSmart’s predesigned layouts while simplifying the experience can be limiting to advanced customers. We are exploring ways as you suggest to provide more control and flexibility over the layouts and creating layouts from scratch. I can’t promise a time line at this point. A good handful of people do use Photoshop and InDesign to create their own layouts as well, but we also recognize that isn’t the best solution for all.
pictureme – thanks, another good suggestion on “locking spreads” together. Maybe a preference to add two pages instead of one at a time?
Thanks – Chad, VP Design
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I also would like to create my own pages. We used Image Station last year and it was great. You could put a photo and text anywhere and any size on the page. But they have closed down their site. I know it can be done in Photoshop or other software but being able to edit on the fly was wonderful. And we could share the book amongst family and friends and if they wanted a copy could order it.
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I too have used mpix and the templates and upload time are great! But the book covers are not attractive and they don’t offer book jackets. It would be great to add the functionality of mpix with the book jackets offered by Blurb.
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Hi Feja – Just a note – You can easily share your completed books with friends and family using Blurb as well. Once your book is complete you can keep it private simply hit the Announce button or go ahead and make it public in the bookstore. Cheers, Chad
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i have a question about margins here. it is not possible to to do a page without margins ?
why didnt you left the blank layout for skillful users ? i think its a really big problem.
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I am glad to hear that other people have experienced the same frustrations about limitations with the layouts. For me, it was the 4 picture per page layout on Booksmart that I wasn’t satisfied with. For my pictures, the pictures that bleed together look messy. I wanted a 4 picture layout with a narrow (1/8") gutter (space in between the photos) and a margin around the photos. But I still wanted the photos to be relatively large on the page. I started to do my own layouts in Photoshop, but after a few pages, realized that it wasn’t necessarily the best program to use. I recently discovered the program InDesign which is definitely the more appropriate way to crop your photos exactly how you want to. It would be great if BookSmart allowed users more flexibility with cropping/designing an entire page, like what InDesign allows you to do.
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Yeah, I need far more flexibility. I shoot a lot of my photos vertically and I am limited here by the the tyranny of the pre-conceived notion of the landscape orientation. I’d like to be able to turn them to the vertical or landscape aspect. I like the service very much and the promise of the great product. I would also like to see transparencies of an overlayed photo which would need the ability to drag 2 photos into the frames. Thanks for your good work and I will continue to try to use Booksmart in the future. John
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If you need more flexablitity…go into photoshop, create a new document that is the size of your b ook (8×10 for instance) at 300 or higher dpi, and lay everything out yourself. then import it into blurb as a full bleed page. it works much much better that way, now you have all the freedom int he world for your lay out designs. hey, its not like we are paying for the program blurb supplies anyways…use your imagination and come up with something.
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Here is a quick and dirty way to size your images in Booksmart. (1) Select your background on a full bleed photo page (2) Drag and drop the photo onto the page (3) Select one of the "do not crop" options for the image (4) Increase, decrease and move the image in the full page layout. This works in all the layout windows. If there is a frame on the layout, the border will shrink to fit the photo when you size it smaller than the frame. This is not the best option because you can not crop the image inside the boundaries of the frame but it is one step closer to a controlled image layout. Hope this helps
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I was just starting to make my first photo/poem book and noticed I couldn’t change the size or move them around. Pity, because I can’t use Blurb then. I’m very particular as it comes to lay outs and none of them really satisfy me. The other day I made two books on Photo Tools and they have a beautiful program with free use of the lay outs, you can ajust anything per page and the print is beautiful, but you can’t sell your book through them, it’s just for personal use. Oh well, seems I just have to wait till Blurb’s loosen up it’s templates.
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Titia, what is Photo Tools? What is the URL. I like blurb but I am also frustrated with the lack of flexibility with the program.
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Does anyone know what is that program Photo tools that Titia mentioned?
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Some other interesting sites
www.picaboo.com/photobooks/index.html
www.photoinpress.ca
Jack
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Sorry, only half of the response came through:
I believe the url for the Photo Tools site Titia was referring to is -
www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=29
Jack
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Sorry, I haven’t been around for a long time and didn’t see all the replies. The site I’m referring to is http://www.phototools.nl/ but it is only in Dutch, alas and they have no sales facility. One can only order a book if I send them the link, but then you pay directly to Phototools and I won’t get paid. So it merely is for one’s own use. But for you, to take a peek at it, here’s the link to my books The program they use (you have to download it too, just like here) looks very much the same as the one on Blurb, but you can move every thing around to your own liking. Like I said before, I can’t do anything with the templates on this site, because I use poetry along with my photos as you can see. Titia
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Well it seems the link to my books isn’t working. One can only see them, when they have an account of their own (which is free). Sorry.
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