Provide a way to create new pages completely from scratch by laying out the position of the picture frames and text frames instead of using just the provided templates. I like to do my own layouts that match the text.
Also can we have double page layouts where they are linked and cannot be broken apart.
It's really sad to be that limited when the rest of the module works so well.
I hope there will be an easy way do quickly sketch out own templates, otherwise I don't really have use for the module.
I mean every serious photo-book-print allows own templates nowadays.
I am really disappointed that templates cannot be created or edited. I hope (but not optimistic) that this might improve before final product launch.
I am really disappointed that we now have (based on beta) an unusable book module (for me at least), a whole pile of effort on a new module...... yet basic features in the print module (such as ability to print my metatdata where I want to for Captions, titles, etc) is still crippled.
In my search for a solution to-day, rather than in 2 years time, I started to explore other current offerings, including Aperture, Booksmart, etc... but also other Adobe products. I discovered that InDesign 5.5 now has new (to me) Caption features. I have explored this feature and am pleased to finally see progress in the use of placing combined images and metadata professionally on printed (or electronic) output.
The new Caption functionality is a step forward, but looks like it is very much still first generation.
I have posted a feature request to the InDesign Forum, asking Adobe to make the Caption features within InDesign both usable and bullet proof, and then add the very same tool to all Adobe products (including Lightroom Print and Book modules) where images and metadata need to be formatted on a page, a screen, a book or for electronic output.
PS 1. There is a very good Adobe clip which describes the Caption feature (3 mins). I have a link to this referenced in the above feature request.
PS 2. The advantage of having the correct tools within Lightroom is that Capture and Print Sharpening should be applied correctly in your book, depending on image cell size and media type. Be careful if you are resizing images from Lightroom in other products (Photoshop or InDesign), as any changes to the final image resolution will wreck your sharpening decisions made in Lightroom.
PS 3. Handling and use of metadata should be standardised across the entire Adobe suite of products. There should be a cross product team empowered to get this critical toolset working in all products.
Still waiting ... but hold onto your hat ... it won't be a method to create a fluid custom page size within Lr ... you'll have to create your own templates in another app outside of Lr ... and you will have to do that for EVERY page size you use that isn't a standard Blurb book size ... you can read it here:
Isn't that a well planned, well thought out and well executed method to simplify one's workflow?
Oh, and don't get me started on the fact you can't export pages or spreads as tiff or jpeg ... so if your vendor of choice doesn't accept PDF ... you have to take another step ... outside of Lr to convert the PDF to a file format that you can submit ...
As far as I am concerned, the book module is completely unusable without flexible templates. It is like the Print Module (ie incomplete). I have now abandoned the book module and use other tools. The proposal to use externally generated templates is a fudge and not a solution. If I want to adjust a template while producing a book I have to:
1.Go To an External App
2.Develop and Test a Template
3.Import it to Lightroom (assuming this procedure will be documented).
4.Test It Again.
5.Use It (and hope you do not need to fine tune)
6. Repeat as many times as are necessary.
Instead we should be able to tweak an existing image or text box or add an image or text box (not the existing fudge with the internal dimensions of a box).
Adobe should also provide a new text box called a "metadata" box, where we can specify a metadata field (or simply allow a text box have a default metadata field).
Anyway, other than the new processing engine (and soft proofing for some), Lightroom 4 to me is about glitz (ie glamour modules). How disappointing. I live in hope,,,,,,,,,,(but getting weaker all the time).
Among the many serious bugs that Adobe managed to introduce not into the beta, but the final LR4.0 version all matters concerning SDK got down-prioritized in favour of arriving at LR4.1RC.
As their specification of book templates is so convoluted they consider this a matter of developers i.o. every customer.
I'm not quite angry ... I'm just extremely disappointed in what Adobe is offering. To the point where I have not yet purchased the upgrade to Lr 4, though I did participate in the public beta and used the 30 day trial for v4.0. This is the first time since the very first beta of Lr that I have not plunked down my cash for Lr because with each earlier version, Lightroom was worth EVERY penny in the way it impacted my workflow. This is the first time where I have not been convinced that Adobe had my best interests at heart. Currently, I'm holding off to see if there is an Introduction from Apple to a new version of Aperture in the near future ... Lr 3.6 is doing fine for me now ... but if Aperture, which I am currently using for books/albums and slideshows, shows any promise, I will move to that for my workflow.
I have no issue with the point that Blurb is the first vendor on board for the Book module, though I take great issue that the Book module was designed specifically for the Blurb business model, and Adobe expects the rest of the Universe to adopt their methodology and conform to their structure in order to participate.
The Book module should have been designed to create and export books to ANY vendor ... not a closed system.
To the point ... The Library and Develop modules do not read only Canon RAW files and expect other camera makers to conform ... the Print module does not only print to Epson printers and expect other printer firms to find a way to participate ... the Web module does not create files that only Internet Explorer can render shunning other browsers ... So why was the Book module deployed as a one-trick pony tied to a single vendor with such limitations that either take great effort to work with other vendors or options? It flies in the face of nearly everything that Adobe has developed in the past and is extremely disconcerting to say the least when trying to understand the motives and decision making behind the scenes to get us to this point.
As it stands now, the Book module is an incomplete half-measure for many users. I for one will not wait another two years just to see if there will be any improvements.
Re Applications I Use for Books. I use Blurb, Aperture and InDesign for books. I do not use Lightroom
In summary.
Blurb.
The Blurb app is very good and make a show of Adobe in terms of use of templates. I have two criticisms of the Blurb app. 1) Tedious to get images correctly on the page and preserve sharpening and 2) I have to re-enter my meta data. Obviously only works with Blurb.
Apple apps.
I have held off for the moment getting too committed to Apple apps because a) I am mainly a Windows user and b) hoping that 4.1 would have progressed the critical issues (not optimistic at all, at all now). I think their implementation of metadata text fields is superb and should be a model for all field placement by Adobe on a book, print, slideshow or web page and in their product suite Lightroom, Photoshop and InDesign)
InDesign.
I have done books using Ver 5 and 5.5. I found version 5 to be extremely hard work and tedious. I found major improvements with ver 5.5 (use of Caption tool avoids double entry of data plus drag and drop of image preserves native ppi and so preserves sharpening..as long as you do not re-scale inside InDesign). I was delighted to see the Caption tool within InDesign. Finally, Adobe gives us access to our metadata. However, several aspects re implementation of the Caption tool within InDesign are seriously clunky (especially in relation to layers and groups). I can write a paper on that subject and have posted suggestions to Adobe on the specifics. I am happy to reply to any queries.
I think it would be very nice if any company can produce its own custom templates for LR. For example local book-maker companies. Do you plan to publish APIs or procedures to allow this?
I really love you new Book module and I think this could get even more...
I am just trying out the new book module and really like it very much. there are nice templates and graphics. however, i hope to see proper layouting options added in the final version.
For example:
- to create my own templates like it is possible in the print module.
I was asking myself why did adobe not take this nice aproach of picture packages over to the new book module?
For clear voting i opened separate, additional Feature requests close to this topic
the book module was very welcome to mee, making books often.
I must say, that i was disappointed when the beta 4 showed up.
The book module is far to ristrictive for creative use. You May have the oppertunity to free movement of the "picture- and textboxes". This means Rotate, Overlay for other frames, individual frames on a pic and things like this.
I'm loving Lightroom 4 so far, and I really love the idea of the new "book" feature. One thing that would make my life a lot easier is to have more size options, possibly even being able to create custom sizes. I most frequently use 8x8 or 10x10 albums. It would also be nice to be able to export each page as a .jpg for sending to album companies like Miller's or Cypress.
* the book module is frustratingly half-finished without the ability to add your own templates.
* the new basic panel controls make it harder to start from a neutral point, create some problems regarding intuitive and predictable editing, and have/had issues, e.g., with clarity. One could have had better IQ without changing everything in an attempt to achieve Revel integration.
* performance has been an issue and according to user reports there is still quite some work to do.
I realize that two of the above points are off-topic in this topic, but had the book module been complete, I may have found a way to tolerate the other issues (or just use PV 2010).
I'm not ruling out upgrading to LR4 at some point, but it isn't a very urgent upgrade at all, given the (AFAIC) unnecessary changes to the basic panel controls, the lack of attractive features (book module not there yet) and the fact that nothing has been done towards the most popular feature request by far that even beats the uproar about the lack of LR4 performance.
Book module: With the latest update of LR4, it's great you can now export your book as .jpeg. But please, we need custom sizes in stead of the fixed ones you can choose from now, or at least a book size in a 2/3 ratio! All pro cameras shoot in 2/3 so we need a book that can hold full page photos without losing parts of the image!
When working in the book module, I should be able to:
1 - Positon a text window anywhere I want
2 - Position a photo anywhere I want
3 - Size the text window to any dimension I want so long as the page can handle it
4 - Size the photo window to any dimension I want so long as the page allows it
5 - Use the provided frames on any dimension text or photo window I want
7 - Create and save my own page templates
8 - Be able to share page templates (has adobe thought of having a free market for saved templates provided by people)
9 - Import shared page templates from the free market
The pring module already has the built structure (the way you can organize a print page) that might be borrowed for the book module to provide the functionality of one through 4 above.
Even though the LR Book Module has 180 or so templates, it never seems to have the one I want. Prior to LR 4, I used Blurb's BookSmart SW to create Blurb books and was hoping LR would at least have all the templates that ship with BookSmart. However it seems they do not. For example I can't find a LR template for a 3 photo page with 2 landscape and 1 portrait which is a mainstay of my books. So, here is my requst:
1) At a minumum include in LR all the templates that come with Blurb's BookSmart SW.
2) Allow us to create our own templates from scratch
3) Allow us to create our won templates by modifying a pre-exisitng template.
Perhaps allow LR to import templates from BookSmart including both those that shipped with BookSmart or were created by the use using BookSmart (thus avoiding the need for Adobe to build a template editor from scratch right away). As the BookSmart SW is free to end users this is a similar concept to using Google Maps in LR3 while the Adobe folks built their own mapping SW that showed up in LR4.
In the Book module of LR4, using option PDF, one is supposed to be able to "PDF Export options include size, resolution, color profile and output sharpening" but I cannot find any of these either on the LR4 'page' or during 'export book to PDF'. In particular I want to use a page size that is not specific to Blurb (I want US letter in landscape format). Is this feature not yet working or what?
I gave up on the LR4 book module and went over to using LR4's publish function which links to Blurb's Booksmart. And, until LR4 fixes its Book module I shall have to give up on using any printer other than Blurb. This means I also have to give on on printing books that are US-letter sized. Its seems Adobe and Blurb are a little too close for comfort. Too bad, since LR is so brilliant in most other ways.
I wanted to chime in on this since I do a ton of book layout. I currently use Fotofusion but it's a huge mess especially their port to Mac. Not only do they need to make the layouts flexible, they need to allow other features such as custom logo watermarking placement, size, rotation and alpha per page. In addition to JPEG quality, there needs to be an alternate option for max file size.
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