LR's book module?

[PeterAit]

Does this stink or is it me? It's so unlike the rest of LR. Do I just need to spend more time learning it? What other options are there for designing a book?

[Redcrown]

It stinks. For Blurb and Adorama just use their software. Both work great. Of course you have to export sRGB jpegs to feed them. Blurb has an on-line version and a stand-alone download.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

I did my book in LR6, and it was a royal pain. I wish I had used Blurb's software.

[Peter McLennan]

I've done several Blurb books.  InDesign is your friend.

[john beardsworth]

Does this stink or is it me? It's so unlike the rest of LR. Do I just need to spend more time learning it? What other options are there for designing a book?

Why not try learning it before making dismissive comments? It's not difficult.

Its big advantage is its integration with the rest of LR (ie simple workflow, efficiency). So if you're working on a book and tweak images in Develop or change titles or captions, those edits are automatically reflected in the book. Sure, you can acquire InDesign or learn some other app, and you can gain more flexibility over layout, but then you've got to export images from LR and get any captions over, retype them or not include them - and repeat the process if you change those pictures back in LR.

[PeterAit]

Why not try learning it before making dismissive comments? It's not difficult.

Its big advantage is its integration with the rest of LR (ie simple workflow, efficiency). So if you're working on a book and tweak images in Develop or change titles or captions, those edits are automatically reflected in the book. Sure, you can acquire InDesign or learn some other app, and you can gain more flexibility over layout, but then you've got to export images from LR and get any captions over, retype them or not include them - and repeat the process if you change those pictures back in LR.

But LR book module lacks -- or they are very well hidden -- such basic things as centering an image, making two images the same height or width, aligning images, and so on. I may turn to Publisher, which I have some familiarity with.

[luxborealis]

John and Peter are both correct. It really is surprising that a company like Adobe has not built into Lr Book some key layout features found in free online book services. But the integration with Lr’s DAM and photos and the ability to create type styles and presets and page templates is helpful.

[john beardsworth]

But LR book module lacks -- or they are very well hidden -- such basic things as centering an image, making two images the same height or width, aligning images, and so on. I may turn to Publisher, which I have some familiarity with.

What version of LR are you using, Peter? Adobe made some changes over the last years that have added flexibility over design, and while there's still the underlying layout based on "cells", you can use those for centering and alignment. So for instance, a 2 image page layout's cells are aligned by default, but since Lr7.5 you've been able to un-align them, and then align them again by dragging (there's a snap to grid). What you don't get is a more conventional approach where you select the items and then click an alignment button.

For me the biggest surprise, Terry, is that Adobe haven't enabled an Export to InDesign capability.

[PeterAit]

What version of LR are you using, Peter? Adobe made some changes over the last years that have added flexibility over design, and while there's still the underlying layout based on "cells", you can use those for centering and alignment. So for instance, a 2 image page layout's cells are aligned by default, but since Lr7.5 you've been able to un-align them, and then align them again by dragging (there's a snap to grid). What you don't get is a more conventional approach where you select the items and then click an alignment button.

For me the biggest surprise, Terry, is that Adobe haven't enabled an Export to InDesign capability.

I am on the subscription plan and use LR Classic.

[john beardsworth]

OK, then you have the latest improvements, Peter. Unless you really want to bail out, just post specific questions and a few of us can guide you.

[digitaldog]

The biggest problem for me in LR’s book module is upload to Blurb; not the best quality printing by a long shot. Motif, formally the folks printing books from Aperture did a far better job, at least when I did testing of books printed out of both products, years ago.

[JeanMichel]

Does this stink or is it me? It's so unlike the rest of LR. Do I just need to spend more time learning it? What other options are there for designing a book?

Other options would include the systems provided by higher quality digital presses companies. I design all my books, clients’ or my own, in InDesign. There really are no shortcuts to quality reproductions: first, design the book; choose and format the images, with any luck your printer will provide an ICC profile for the paper your book will be printed on - that may well require a trip to PS to convert to cmyk, soft-proof, and make a properly sized file; place that file in InDesign; and most likely end up with a correctly pre-flighted press quality PDF.

In Canada, for single or very few copies of a book, an excellent provider is Pikto (Pikto.ca). They have their own publishing software, or you can use one of their PS or InDesign templates, they provide ICC profiles, and you can choose between 4, 5 or 7 inks systems.