P: Ability to create custom book templates/sizes from scratch

What I don't get is why Adobe and Blurb went half-$!@$%.

1. You've limited book options. Not all sizes are in there.
2. You sort of allow custom layouts, but not really. You can make the layout smaller only and you can only adjust it from the center.
3. Yeah, the PDF option???? Who's that for?

Besides that, it's such a convenience to make a book in LR.

But why limit it? Why?

I would love to have a better book module in lightroom. I offer wedding albums to clients and like to completely stay within lightroom to edit the album. I wish there was a way to build your own templates and put photos anywhere. I also would like the option to export as a spread instead of individual pages.

Lightroom is a fantastic tool in my workflow, and it would be great if there would be an easy way to create custom sized books. I'm printing most of the photos with an epson 4800 in different formats, or using other services than blurb (as probably most of lightroom users). So now - it is extremely inconvenient trying to modify the .lua profiles or exporting the photos to other applications like acdsee fotoslate.

Adding this simple 'custom size book' feature would improve lightroom as a tool for many photographers and book designers.

The integration with blurb is fantastic, but you are limiting your great book module to a blurb book module, which for most users doesn't make sense.

Is it possible to include 'custom sized books' option in the near update to lightroom?

I've been an avid Lightroom user since the first beta. And I recently took a class that helped me see the importance of making photo books for my clients. However, when I tried to make a photo book in Lightroom, I discovered that most online clients gave me much more ability to customize my layout that Lightroom. And I'm currently considering a switch to Aperture since finding that it handles this need to fully customize photo pages and spreads with ease.

I was very excited about the ability to add gps data to images a long time before Lightroom existed and had this embedded in my workflow. I purchased various tools based on their ability to handle gps data. Now, if I need a gps tag I simply take a photo with my iPhone. I set my cameras to UTC, irrespective of what part of the world I may be in, so it is always easy to reverse geo tag any image. I have a bunch of gps devices, some quite expensive, collecting dust in a dark corner somewhere.

I think Smart PreViews are a smart move for lots of reasons. Maybe some day they may provide the basis for an enterprise and properly networked version of Lightroom with a real database back end.

I am very critical of the incompleteness of the Print and Book module because these are basic workflow needs. Kudos to Adobe for releasing the iPad module in Ver 5 (even though in my view it is incomplete and really a beta test drive for hopefully more mature functionality in LR 6). If the rating flags were included I could use this app, as it stands LR mobile is just a pretty a icon on my iPad. How
frustrating.

Actually I do make use the MAP module and am satisfied with it's implementation. I geo-encode all my images. I was doing this way prior the introduction of the Map Module using external software (I capture tracklog data with a WBT202 device and use GeoSetter SW to add coordinates and location keywords to image files). The map module can do pretty much the same thing although it doesn't have quite as many bells and whistles. Out of habit I continue using my old workflow but have replicated it with the Map Module to see if it worked. Even though I don't use the Map Module to do the actual encoding, I do use it for finding my images and tweaking locations.

I 100% agree about the need for Metadata management capability in the LR Mobile, but before that they need to expand to the Android OS (I think this first release is Apple only). I do find it quite puzzling that the main usage of LR (as an image management tool) was not included in V1. But, this certainly now answers the question of "why did they bother with smart previews" a release ago. Obviously LR Mobile was on the drawing board and this was a critical component to make it work. They already had "Export from catalog" and "Import from Catalog" so I'm not sure what the road block was in including Library module functionality (or at least keywords, rating and ranking) in V1.

Thanks for the detailed response. I have got past the point where I have any expectations in this area.

It is fairly sad that the Blurb standalone software is better than the Adobe book module in most respects. I suspect a lot more money has been spent on the Adobe Book module, but in my view their application architect got it wrong, so a lot of money wasted.

I also think a service provider should do a job properly or not do it at all. Half baked software is worse than half baked food.

I do not know who was looking for Maps module, but possible the same MBA was in on this. If the effort to produce the map modudule was invested in the book module then maybe we would have a book module which drives throughput. As far as I am concerned, these modules just bloat the basic app.

I know it is early days for the ipad module, but why have all the Develop features in a machine which is hardware constrained and ignore the very basic Library features, especially ranking, which the ipad has the potential to do a good job. So, the iPad module is also a non runner for me. I am not overly upset about this, I can bring a MacAir when I need to. I assume it will evolve with time, as solid state devices become the norm. Right now I only use the Library, Develop and occasionally the Print Module.

The best present I could hope for in LR 6 would be add real world usability to the Print Module, Book Module and the Library component of the iPad module. Version 7 can explore new modules again if the marketing people need to tick a few more boxes.

Obviously Adobe has had bigger fish to fry, such as creating and launching the Creative Cloud (no small undertaking) - then weathering the outrage from photographers related to the price of the Cloud (now re-mediated by the Photographers subscription plan).

I have no insights into Adobe (although I worked for them for 4 years in the 90's) but my speculation goes like this.

1) Adobe decided to compete with other consumer image SW products in the non standard output arena and decided to do books and web.

2) As Adobe is not a "printing" lab, they needed a partner to do the actual printing.

3) They did some research and were able to cut the best deal with Blurb. Perhaps with constraints and restrictions (exclusivity for a number of years?). But certainly with estimates of the new business Blurb would get (what's in it for Blurb)

4) To meet the next release date for LR, they slammed together what they could in the short amount of time available as most of the time had slipped away negotiating with Blurb and probably other vendors. Anyone who's worked on projects for big corporations know what I'm talking about on this one.

5) Uptake by users was not as vigorous as anticipated (perhaps due in part to the weak implementation).

6) Some Harvard MBA was brought in and did an analysis that determined in this day and age of everything "Cloud" and "Kindle", the market for physical books was not likely to grow very much and that this was not the place for continued investment, especially as it may take resources away from the development and launch of the CC and other projects centered around electronic delivery of media

7) CC launched and as with all such things has taken the best part of a year for the dust to settle

8) Now, (several years after Book Module first appeared), usage has not increased (self fulfilling prophecy from consultant?) and Blurb is pissed that the work they put into the book module implementation has not resulted in the expected new revenue. So, even if Adobe approached them with Part B, they may not be interested in throwing good money after bad. And, Adobe may be thinking the same thing.

9) Result: Don't expect much (if anything)

Anyway - That's the screen play as I image it played out.

I have given up on Adobe on this one. They have all the tools to make this very slick.

We have all the metadata in the Lightroom catelog, but cannot place it properly on the printed page in the Print Module.

We get tiny incremental improvements to the book module, but Adobe do not seem to be prepared to address the elephant in the room, which is.... allow text boxes and image boxes to be placed as the user wishes on a book page and allow these book pages to be used as a template. Ok... the intial design of the book module may have been flawed from this perspective to get a sub optimal (I am been gentle) product to market, but there has been ample opportunity to correct this by now.

I'd like to point out that, in Lightroom 4 beta, allowing a book to be exported as a PDF is probably worthless. As most book publishers manage to have unique book sizes, only Blurb has the sizes in the current book module. This wouldn't be worth diddly as a PDF sent to another publisher. Please consider either incorporating proper templates for more book publishers or allowing plugins from those publishers that will let the user determine where they want their book produced. Did you notice that Blurb uses CMYK?????? Not nice when coming from ProPhoto RGB.