Elements 15 PhotoBook Online Printing

[ra75888713]

TLDR: How do I print out photobooks, cards, or whatever else I create in Elements 15 using - any - online printing service.

Hello,

I just bought Elements 15 as a photo organizer and to make photobooks.  However, after having it for a few months I have been completely unable to figure out how to sort out how to get photobooks printed out by any online service.  The "Order" button which is shown in all the online manual pages - and seemed to connect directly to online services - doesn't exist in my UI.  Best I can sort out it was in previous versions of elements but not in 15.  And there is an "Export" button, but it exports as either PSE or PDF with SnapFish and a couple other services I checked out don't accept as uploads. 

I did see there is a "Edit -> Preferences -> Adobe Partner Services" menu which I thought may allow me to connect to SnapFish or some other site, but I also couldn't figure out how to actually add in any specific service.

So I am completely stuck after many, many hours.  I have googles this a thousand different ways, still haven't sorted it out.

This seems like a super straight forward functionality.  There has to be a way to do this.  How do I print out photobooks, cards, or whatever else I create in Elements 15 using - any - online printing service.

Thanks,

Ramzi

[arshla jindal]

Hi Ramzi,

Thanks for reaching out to us on Adobe forums.

Photoshop Elements no more provides support for any third party online printing service.

Adobe Partner Services in preferences controls the Sharing services visible under Share menu.

You can export the  creations in some other format and get them printed at your own end.

Hopefully this would be helpful in answering your doubts.

Thanks,

Arshla

[ra75888713]

"You can export the  creations in some other format and get them printed at your own end."

Is there anyone on this forum that can tell me how to do that? I don't care which service, which website, which company.  I just want to have a photobook that I make in elements, printed.  Is there an online printing company I can upload the PSE file (or whatever else elements can export) to?

Thanks

[MichelBParis]

ra75888713  wrote

"You can export the  creations in some other format and get them printed at your own end."

Is there anyone on this forum that can tell me how to do that? I don't care which service, which website, which company.  I just want to have a photobook that I make in elements, printed.  Is there an online printing company I can upload the PSE file (or whatever else elements can export) to?

Thanks

There is no really simple and automatic solution to transfer your project to an online printing site and that is because each site may have its own requirements. Let's start with the file formats expected by those sites:

1 - Multipage pdf. A single file in the pdf format containing all your pages (generally, the 'cover' pages must be uploaded separately

2 - Importing each page separately in an image fomat like jpeg, tiff, psd... Each site offers its own uploading procedure or plugin.

Generall all those sites also offer tools to create your composite pages (like the Organizer), either online or with a free software to create your pages on your computer and to upload the result to their site. I have been using a handful of different sites in my country; I have also ordered books from PrestoPhoto (ex Viovio) from the USA. What's interesting is that they accept a very wide  array of formats and their help files are very detailed.

So, once you have finished your book project in the organizer, you have a saved project in the .pse organizer particular format. It's neither a multipage pdf, nor a collection of separate pages. If you look at the location of that .pse file, you'll also see a subfolder containing .psd files for your first page, then others for each double page. Not what is expected by the online sites.

My suggestion:

From the organizer, select your project, choose edit in the editor, set the view to advanced.

Use the menu File >> save as. You can change the format from .pse (project) to .psd(acrobat pdf). You get a single multipage pdf with every page. That may be what is expected by the sites wanting the pdf format (the 'cover' page may have to be uploaded separately).

Another solution: instead of 'Save as' you can use 'Print' instead of 'Save as' to one of the many 'virtual pdf printers' which output a pdf file instead of sending the result to your home printer (in Windows 10 I use the 'Print to pdf' virtual printer).

Once you have the multipage .pdf, you can create separate pages. I think all sites can work with jpegs, that's the fastest way to upload the pages.

Close all in the editor. In expert mode use the menu 'File >> Open' and browse to the newly created .pdf.

All the pages are shown in the initial import dialog for multipdfs. You select all (Ctrl A) and you open all your pages... each one on .pdf format.

Since you prefer jpeg (or tiff, or psd...) use the menu File >> Process multiple files [from opened images] and you set an output folder with the desired format and quality.

Uploading your pages depends on each site requirements, generally it's an easy batch upload.

[MichelBParis]

I have posted a feature request in the feedback forum:

Elements 15 photobooks and Adobe partners. | Photoshop Family Customer Community

Feel free to add your vote.

[Kathychr88]

The problem with all of this answer is the time spent creating the photo book in Elements is wasted because every printing site I have visited the project has to be redone. When I uploaded the pdf, the order was messed up and that's a whole other learning curve. 

[slast]

I had found the same frustration but think I have a work-around.   

I have a number of photo books printed by Photobox (but as far as I can tell most services are similar). The problem I encountered was that while these will do a decent enough job of laying out pictures using their automated arrangement software they will only show uploaded photos in date or  filename order - just as these are the only options for viewing in the PSE Organiser  So if your images need to reflect a wide variety of dates or sources you may find that it is exceptionally tedious to keep moving them around. 

However it seems that if you create an Album in the PSE Organiser an additional option exists which is to show in Album order.  This allows you to move them around regardless of the filename and date. You can then export the entire album contents as new files to a new folder, giving them a common base name. This will reflect the order they are in the album. 

If you then upload THIS folder's contents to a commercial printer, it will retain the order you want when creating an albuum for printing.