37. EXPLORING THE BOOK LAYOUT OPTIONS

BEFORE YOU BEGIN to create a book, it’s a good idea to place the images you want to work with inside a collection (Figure 37.1). This allows you to control the overall look and feel of the book by organizing the images in a manner that is suitable for you.

This is no different than working with a slideshow. When you move to the Book module, Lightroom will place all of the images in the selected collection into an automatic layout, which is based on the settings in the Auto Layout panel.

In the Auto Layout panel, you can see that the pages are aligned according to a specific preset (Figure 37.2). If you want to get rid of all of that preset information and start from scratch, just click on the Clear Layout button in the Auto Layout panel, and all of the images will disappear from the book layout.

At this point, you can go ahead and select one of the built-in presets and press the Auto Layout button to get everything organized the way you want it (Figure 37.3).

The Lightroom Book module designs books based on the Blurb online publishing service (blurb.com). This a great service that provides quality books in a range of sizes and formats. In the Book Settings panel at the very top of Lightroom’s Book module, you can choose the size, cover type, and paper type for your book (Figure 37.4).

The Logo Page drop-down menu allows you to select whether or not you want to include the Blurb logo at the back your book. If you remove the Blurb logo by selecting None, the cost of your book will be a little higher, but I think it’s worth it when you’re producing a book for a client. At the bottom of the Book Settings panel, you will see the Estimated Price for your book based on the selections you’ve made.

You can also publish your book as a PDF or a series of JPG exports, rather than creating a hard copy through Blurb. Just click on the Book drop-down menu in the Book Settings panel to select one of these options.

All of the images in your book collection are placed in the book layout in the main Lightroom workspace. You will also see all of your images in the filmstrip at the bottom of the window, with a marker above each picture letting you know how many times that picture has been used in your book layout (Figure 37.5).

As you look through each page of the book, you’ll notice that the images are usually much larger than you want them to be. You may also see an exclamation mark in the upper-right corner of some pages. This tells you that the resolution of the picture does not guarantee a good print at the current size (Figure 37.6).

To make the picture smaller, and thereby increase its resolution, single-click on the picture and drag the Zoom slider to the left (Figure 37.7). You can also reduce the size of the image by adjusting the Padding slider in the Cell panel (Figure 37.8).

Figure 37.1 Organize the images you want to work with into a collection.

Figure 37.2 The Auto Layout option in Lightroom’s Book module.

Figure 37.3 Selecting an Auto Layout Preset.

Figure 37.4 Book Settings for publishing a book through Blurb.com.

Figure 37.5 The filmstrip shows how many times each picture has been used in the book.

Figure 37.6 The exclamation mark warns you that the image may not print well at the current size.

Figure 37.7 Single-click on an image and adjust the Zoom slider to make the image smaller.

Figure 37.8 You can also change the size of the image on a page by adjusting the Padding slider on the Cell panel.