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

Unless you're happy to use Blurb (which is good enough for some...) then I recommend just forget about the Lightroom book module. It seems like Adobe has changed their response a time or two since LR4 came out. My take is that they don't really have a plan, although maybe they get royalties from Blurb so that's all they'll ever do. See what they do in 5.

Hi, As you suggest in your 2nd paragraph, the Book Module in LR4 is, IMHO, nothing more than a place holder for a "coming attraction" - like a preview trailer in the movies. Right now, interesting to look at, hopefully a hint at what is to come, but for all practical purposes not currently usable for any serious purpose.

I want to print a book, but I don't want to use blurb. The company I want to use prints on 8x11 paper but that is not a one of Blurbs page sizes so I can not seem to use it.
I contacted Adobe and they said that the book module was really only meant for Blurb and that they could not help me. I was actually told to check with Blub to see if they could support me...
Does anybody know if there is anyway that I can use the blurb module for anything useful (assuming I don't want to use blurb), or is it just something pretty to look at and to anticipate as an actual usable feature in Lightroom 5?

Any plugins, or any way to create or upload a new templet?
I know this question was asked before, but it was not answered, it left off with something along the lines of 'maybe they will answer this soon' Thanks for any help. By the way, after years of reading boards, this is my first time ever posting to one.

I would like to add my support to the points already made very well and in full above. I was very happy about the arrival of the book module and much prefer staying in the application and being able to edit books within the application, i.e. without exporting and with the full benefit of quick adjustements to virtual copies. But the limitations imposed by the the restrictive template-only approach are fairly extreme. We obviously should be able to create cells - both photo and text - of any size anywhere, to add as many as we want, to be able to overlap them, and to change their size and proportions as we wish. As it is, this feels like something aimed at low-end consumers (though I am not even sure that navigating the templates is actually easier than simply dragging photos onto an empty page and being able to do whatever you want with them). One telling aspect of the templates is that often the result will only look good with the (default!) option of 'zoom to fill' - which readily assumes that the composition of the photo is easily up for grabs, while arranging pleasing page layouts for multiple photos in their original, deliberate poportions can be almost impossible. Templates should work the way they do in other modules: they should be useful for inspiration and quick editing, but should in no way restrict the artistic design and possibilities.

I would really like to be able to create completely custom page layouts from scratch in the blurb book module in Lightroom 4, and/or customize existing page layouts more fully and save as a new page layout. If I use BookSmart on the blurb.com website I would have that option, why not from within Lightroom?

I'd like to be able create custom layouts too - particularly being able to move text and image placeholders. I'd also like to see the ability to link text fields to EXIF data. Thanks.

Extremely disappointed.

I bought Lighroom 4 specifically because of its Photobook function, including the possibility to export pdf Photobooks, so I would become independent from individual photobook producers.

I had read that Adobe decided to only support Blurb (maybe getting quite some money from them for this effort to restrict their paying customers?), but given the pdf option, it still seemed better than using custom photobook software by individual vendors, which might no longer be supported in a few months/years and has no export functionality.

What utterly surprised me though are the restrictions and limitations of the Photobook module. It almost seems like Adobe is doing this on purpose to tie their users to Blurb.

How can a software like this be released
- without supporting custom (or at leas European) page sizes? You are selling this software in Europe, even at a significantly higher price than via your US website!!!
- without support for custom layouts? Even the simplest vendor-provided software solutions offer this.
- without easy and reliable support for text blocks?

What makes the situation worse were the promises many months ago that more flexibility would be provided soon (luring customers into buying LR 4) and then the complete turnaround, saying that the effort for Adobe is too much and the creation of custom templates would be too difficult for your users anyway.

If it was easy to return software for a refund, believe me I would. It's a pity that an otherwise well designed software has one module as flawed as the photobook module. As I bought it specifically for that module, the product is next to useless for me.

In the current form, Book module is useless.

Primarily because of lack of custom page sizes for JPEG/PDF books.

I could live with the fixed layouts, but the fixed pages sizes are a restriction, which makes the module utterly useless: online print shops use all kind of different paper sizes and mine doesn't offer ANY of the sizes Lightroom forces me to use.

Any book module should include the most popular sizes and ebook capability. I tried using the book module with createspace.com (Amazon) and it was a nightmare. I ended up with something usable by adding extra columns but the cover ended up a bit squeezed.

Industry standard trim sizes:

Full-color interior books:
5.5" x 8.5"
6" x 9"
6.14" x 9.21"
7" x 10"
8" x 10"
8.5" x 8.5"
8.5" x 11"

Black and white interior books:
5" x 8"
5.06 x 7.81"
5.25" x 8"
5.5" x 8.5"
6" x 9"
6.14" x 9.21"
6.69" x 9.61"
7" x 10"
7.44" x 9.69"

Hopefully a template builder will be available in LR5.

It's flexibility is badly needed....