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Post by tasmanianartist on Apr 12, 2020 6:38:05 GMT
Lockdown upside ... time to look at Lulu Beta - I've managed to look around a bit - tho I have no PDF to upload, or anything else, just checking out the new look ... and pricing - some of what has been priced to put off anyone in the 'old system', is now closer to affordable (e.g. full colour 6x9 800 page novel). Somewhere it says that in time existing books will be transferred to the new system........
That aside ... would I now be forced to start some sort of calculations to do with spine? I downloaded a template of sorts for the sample book in brackets above, and the template gives me a spine size - but the template just gives me a 0.25 inch for a minimum of 24 pages - what am I supposed to do with that - multiply that by something to arrive at a spine width for 800 pages? I'm no Einstein!!! And I have neither Adobe Indesign nor Adobe Photoshop ... that was the whole idea behind Lulu in the first place - supply word doc or PDF for text, make cover online with their wizard - might as well marry a publishing house. I'm also aware of differing paper thicknesses from country to country (buff, etc), and the formula for one country's paper used at the printers, gives a different thickness in another country's printer, with the 'foldover' between spine and front/back cover then either slipping onto the spine, or onto the front/back cover. Been there done that - resulting in a number of giveaways with 'slight printing error' because the spine calculation for US paper wasn't right for Australian paper ... doh. I'm glad I did what I did when I did it - wouldn't want to embark upon that epic translation project of 30+ books now ... confusing ...
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Post by tasmanianartist on Apr 12, 2020 6:42:45 GMT
Has anyone 'transferred' an existing book from the old Lulu system to the new Beta system? What I mean is: download the PDF from the old Lulu system (including cover PDF), and uploading it into the new Beta system? And if so, what were the results / hickups? I might dabble with that and see what I can break ...
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Post by tasmanianartist on Apr 12, 2020 7:35:45 GMT
Yeiks ... :-( ... the interior PDF 'might' be okay (taken from existing Lulu files, downloaded, and uploaded to Beta), but the cover - yeiks again - the cover PDF in the projects list does not fit the same size book in Beta ... huh? Why not? And trying to 'create' a cover with the downloaded jpg files - think again - so limiting - no way the 'color scheme' can be turned off to have the cover show my image in its full glory. The original wizard was so genius ... this is a bit of a dog's breakfast, with no options for personal design - I don't like either of the 4 cover options of this beta wizard - can't go past 'download print ready files', so that's about it for me ... dunno where to leave feedback on my experience with Lulu ... fb PM probably.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Apr 12, 2020 11:51:27 GMT
Yeiks ... :-( ... the interior PDF 'might' be okay (taken from existing Lulu files, downloaded, and uploaded to Beta), but the cover - yeiks again - the cover PDF in the projects list does not fit the same size book in Beta ... huh? Why not? And trying to 'create' a cover with the downloaded jpg files - think again - so limiting - no way the 'color scheme' can be turned off to have the cover show my image in its full glory. The original wizard was so genius ... this is a bit of a dog's breakfast, with no options for personal design - I don't like either of the 4 cover options of this beta wizard - can't go past 'download print ready files', so that's about it for me ... dunno where to leave feedback on my experience with Lulu ... fb PM probably. For a Beta version, it may not show all options like the old cover designer, though having no access I have no way of knowing.
Paul does have an account on this site so you can message him.
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paul
Junior Reader
Posts: 21
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Post by paul on Apr 13, 2020 20:53:11 GMT
First, the beta isn't behind an invite. We've just been selective about sharing the link. At this point, we'll be going into a full launch soon, so I encourage anyone interested to send me a message and I'll send the link.
Our templates will all come in a 'bundle' now that includes sized page files for PDF and Word, export setting for InDesign, and a spec sheet with spine calculation
I'm not sure what you mean here. But it doesn't matter. One of the major improvements we've made is to standardize spine sizes no matter paper weight. Slippage on the spine has historically been an issue with something like 1% of 1% of cover files and that very small margin of error will be almost entirely gone now. Allowing of course for the occasion error in handling at the printer.
When you upload your interior file, we'll create an exact template for your cover, so you won't have to do anything more than download the template and use it to spec out your cover file The cover creator you'll see in Beta is...mediocre. There's a new one in the works, but I think it will be ready shortly after we actually launch the site. Of course, this is a big deal for a lot of users, so you'll see plenty of messaging on the site and by email about it.
All Lulu projects will be migrated to the new site. Of course, pushing thousands and thousands of projects to our new serves will create some issues, but we'll address those as they arise.
Also, using the beta will prompt you multiple times to leave feedback. You can also use the link in the footer labeled 'Feedback'
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Apr 13, 2020 21:38:51 GMT
Paul,
Thank you for the clarification.
Migration issues, I still wake up some nights over ten years later due to "Migration Issues" at my last tech job.
Glad I have my original doc and cover files just in case.
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Post by tasmanianartist on May 7, 2020 5:33:35 GMT
Just looked at the new-look Lulu - and 'my projects' ... to my horror I found that all my photo books have gone - they have vanished ... they have simply tossed them away ... I'm disgusted.
Some announcement says:
Products Deprecated With our updates, Lulu took the opportunity to evaluate the Products we offer and make some changes. This includes retiring a few of our least used project sizes. Here’s a complete list of products no longer available from Lulu:
Large Landscape Photo Book (12.75 x 10.75 in) Large Square Photo Book (12 x 12 in) Premium Calendar (13.5 x 19 in)
Along with these product specifications leaving Lulu, a couple of additional options are changing:
Landscape (9 x 7 in) will no longer be available with Saddle Stitch binding Comic Book and Magazine (6.63 x 10.25 in) will only use Coated, Premium paper
Any projects using the above specifications will no longer be available for printing on Lulu.com.
I hope they're just delayed in being migrated ... ... tho I have the sinking feeling that they've just done away with them.
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