200mph's Posts

I have ordered two books, one a time back, one just recently and when visiting the "Recently Uploaded" or "My Books" there is no information whatsover.  What happens to the data that is displayed as "My Books" you see when you upload a book.  I do not sell my books via Blub’s online process.

This creates an uncertaintly as to whether my recently uploaded book is actually in proproduction or not.

And, with no direct access to customer support or the submission of trouble or inquiry tickets, I feel like I’m flopping around like a flounder with no access to what I recently did or the status of the books that just won’t appear as being ordered. 

Softproofing = you proof on-screen vs. printing "hard copies."

Another FYI.  You can render some pretty need graphics such as buttons, etc. in MS Power Point and bring them into your programs cut/paste.

We did an entire book with test pages in it with type from 8pt upward in both serif and sans serif style, exported the pages as .jpg, inserted into BookSmart and every line of type came out crisp, clear and sharp.  It may not appear onscreen that way, which is why we invested money in doing an experimental book where we threw in a bunch of variations, of fonts, sizing, rotated images, fades, color blocks, and alot of photo edging and border effects.  All rendered 100% accurate.

If you are just copying web images, the resolution might be too low for use in BookSmart, so ask the publishers for a copy of a hi-res version and permission.

Correct.  Any picture or text box that is left empty will allow your page to print as if it wasn’t there at all.  Of course, you have to deleted the default helper text out of the text box, otherwise it will print.  So, just make sure there are not "text goes here" messages visible for the blank print through of the background color.

Adding to the information: The book you created on your computer does not ‘time out’ in 14 days either.  The on-computer archive never ‘times out’ so if you want to make changes, recall the file, make your changes and upload to Blurb as a NEW name, as if it were a brand new book.  Viola!

C:\Documents and Settings\[yourname]\My Documents\BookSmartData\[directory]\book.xml is where the "working" file is located.  BookSmart creates this from its resources and any changes, etc. you make should be done here—NOT the ones in the program files directory. 

Suggestion: dupe with another that file before you fiddle so you can restore it.

I did the same thing and my book came out perfect.  Just remember to do both a left and right version of the page, one pointing at the other…

I think when you upload a book for printing, it is actually creating a .pdf on the fly from the templates in the .xml file, so it shouldn’t make any difference what the templates are, so long at the program accepts them upon opening BookSmart.

We already have commissions for five books based on our ability to modify the templates. 

FYI.  You can also manipulate the fonts at the bottom of the file also, even to get "justified" font columns.

Are they "headers" or are they graphic elements?  I’ve seen this issue reported before and it was some sort of graphic decoration applied to the pages.  I think you may have the same issue.

Based on my prototype book for an upcoming project, I think that "live matter" should be kept at least 1/4 inch from edges, 1/2 even better—unless, of course, it is intended to bleed off the page.

I used the same background 13×11 size image for each page and kept the good stuff 1/2 inch away.  No resulting trauma.

One Step:  Save directly as a .jpg from the application.

Two Step:  Print as a .pdf file, then convert the .pdf to .jpg.

Import the .jpg into the photo placeholder on the page.

Before I would go retrieve my backup copy, the cat, however many lives he/she had left, would be down to one!!!