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Post by potet on Nov 6, 2020 10:24:47 GMT
I have made my cover for my new book using the Lulu template they gave me. The dimensions are 357 x 235mm hence within the dimensions demanded : between 355.48mm and 358.65mm X between 233.36mm and 236.54mm. Yet my PDF is rejected. View Attachment The way the message is written, I have the impression they expect the PDF to be turned vertically! LOL View AttachmentIt's the wrong size. Take their template, note the size in photoshop, resize your cover, drag the template onto it and move your content, if necessary, between the guidelines. Here is what the cover looks like after I have pasted the pictures of the front, the spine and the back on the Lulu template, and before the finishing touches.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 6, 2020 11:58:04 GMT
Could you upload this PDF to Lulu as your cover please and see it it accepts it?
Disregard the quality, this is just a test using the low res picture you posted.
Thanx.
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Post by potet on Nov 6, 2020 15:01:49 GMT
Could you upload this PDF to Lulu as your cover please and see it it accepts it?
Disregard the quality, this is just a test using the low res picture you posted.
Thanx.
Thanks a lot for your help. I made the PRO program turn the 357x238.28 JPG picture into a PDF file, uploaded the file, and Lulu says there is an error. The message is the same when I use PDF995. After so many attempts with several PDF converters, my conclusion is that there is something flawed with Lulu, perhaps because of the dimensions of the book, hence the dimensions of its one-piece cover. Unless you find a solution, I'll content myself with the inferior cover : 1) writing no title for the cover 2) uploading the front cover I have created 3) supplying a simplified blurb (the Lulu version of the one I pasted was typographically mangled).
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Post by Deleted on Nov 6, 2020 15:32:16 GMT
What happened with Lulu when you uploaded the cover I added as an attachment? There's no need to convert it or anything, just upload it as is.
It specifically addresses a problem that arises when you convert the supplied Lulu template to a JPG and use it 'as is' without adjustment.
Could you attach one of the failed PDF files you mention in the last message so I can take look at it as well?
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Post by Deleted on Nov 6, 2020 16:13:42 GMT
It's the wrong size. Take their template, note the size in photoshop, resize your cover, drag the template onto it and move your content, if necessary, between the guidelines. View AttachmentHere is what the cover looks like after I have pasted the pictures of the front, the spine and the back on the Lulu template, and before the finishing touches. Your title and subtitle are too close to the blue. It almost looks cropped. Your spine text is too close to the edge. Your back cover background is not big enough.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 6, 2020 16:15:36 GMT
Thanks a lot, I'll download 'doPDF'. Meanwhile I have reached my degree of incompetence as regards compatilibily with Lulu. This is what I get. As you can see Lulu accepts my PDF file, but the proportions are wrong, although the original had those required by Lulu. View AttachmentFind your file with layers and start moving and adjusting. Hard work and annoying but necessary.
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Post by potet on Nov 6, 2020 16:39:54 GMT
Could you upload this PDF to Lulu as your cover please and see it it accepts it?
Disregard the quality, this is just a test using the low res picture you posted.
Thanx.
Oops, sorry Bizzley, I misinterpreted your previous message although it was quite clear. Silly old me. So I downloaded your attachment, and I uploaded it to Lulu - all this in a Jiffy. It worked! See! Congratulations! Could you do the same with the finished cover?
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Post by Deleted on Nov 6, 2020 16:48:25 GMT
Yes I can do the same thing with the finished cover. If it is larger than 1MB in size then you won't be able to attach it to a message though. I will PM you with my email address so you can mail it to me direct, and I can send it back to you that way as well. Alternatively you can post it on an image or file hosting site and let me have the URL.
If this second upload also works I'll write up what I did and my reasoning, so fingers crossed. PM coming.
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Post by potet on Nov 6, 2020 17:27:15 GMT
View AttachmentHere is what the cover looks like after I have pasted the pictures of the front, the spine and the back on the Lulu template, and before the finishing touches. Your title and subtitle are too close to the blue. It almost looks cropped. Your spine text is too close to the edge. Your back cover background is not big enough. Thanks for the advice. As you can see this version is not finished compared to what I showed previously.
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Post by tasmanianartist on Nov 7, 2020 2:29:12 GMT
Following the process and progress in this thread - I'm glad @bizzley is able to assist potet in this manner (I couldn't have done it hands on). I can intuit what bizzley does, so I would just follow his/her step by step instructions, without deviating. I'll keep checking and am looking forward to the write-up.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 7, 2020 17:22:46 GMT
I have the same thing happening with word processing programs, and their mysterious conversion of sizes, but I can switch over to one of the PDF converters that are designed to convert to correct size. Use the one larika suggested, or the free 'doPDF' - I've used that one for over a decade without problems. In general, it is not a good idea to take an image file (such as the Photoshop-created cover), import/insert it into a word processing program, and then proceed to make it a PDF - while it theoretically should work, it usually does not. It is a peculiarity that I have not had the inclination to investigate ... if you save your Photoshop file into a JPG, and once you have installed the PDF converter, you can then open the JPG, and 'file' - 'print' and go through the process of printing (essentially saving) the jpg as PDF (you'll have to learn the menu and settings of the PDF printer/converter). I use iMac, your process might be called slightly different names if you use PC. When you click on "Save As" is there not an option to save as a PDF in your Photoshop? I got an error like that in one hardback cover I did. I did like Maggie suggested and opened it in Photoshop and resized it to the dimensions in the error message. Saved that and re-uploaded. It worked then. Hard back covers are a pain to me. Mine still didn't look right and support didn't help at all. No Save As just Print, but it's doable.
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Post by potet on Nov 7, 2020 19:30:35 GMT
PHOTOSHOPNow I feel so silly. Imagine, among all the formats offered by Photoshop to save a file, there is one for PDF! My mistake was to go to the print program, and opt for a virtual printer. The Photoshop PDF file was readily accepted by Lulu! This matter being settled I had to struggle with the various metadata demanded, but this is another story. Here is the Photoshop PDF option in "Save as": I did not notice it before. Why? I don't know. My eyes must have seen it, but my brain did not register its presence. So, Bizzley, thank you so much for your help. I don't need it now, and I wish I hadn't wasted your time.
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Post by BlueAndGold on Nov 7, 2020 22:27:42 GMT
HAHAHAHA!! It's not like any of us have never missed a menu item! Yay! I'm glad the problem is solved!
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Post by JesusNinja on Nov 7, 2020 22:58:00 GMT
Yeah it's there. You can also "save as" a jpeg. So you can keep on the desktop and check it out or send it by email to someone for advice. That's what I did with Ron and Maggie. Whenever I'm finished working on a cover I click save as and choose the Photoshop file, and then save one as a Pdf. Glad you figured it out You only need the virtual printer for the interior. Everything else is included in Photoshop.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 8, 2020 1:01:00 GMT
PHOTOSHOPNow I feel so silly. Imagine, among all the formats offered by Photoshop to save a file, there is one for PDF! My mistake was to go to the print program, and opt for a virtual printer. The Photoshop PDF file was readily accepted by Lulu! This matter being settled I had to struggle with the various metadata demanded, but this is another story. So, Bizzley, thank you so much for your help. I don't need it now, and I wish I hadn't wasted your time. I'm glad you got this sorted out in the end and you certainly didn't waste my time, I confirmed a few things along the way that helped me clarify the way you can use the free software method I posted before to create covers via Graphic\Art software rather than WP\DTP. I agree with tasmanianartist that mixing the two methods by importing a large JPG into a WP program is more trouble than it's worth, I think it has to be one or the other i.e. created wholly graphically including the text in something like Photoshop or GIMP or starting from a blank page in Word or Wordperfect and following the measurements given in the Template to create various layers. I believe this second method can lead to compatibility problems with Lulu when saving off the PDF such as embedding fonts or flattening layers, unless that is the person doing so has a good idea of what can happen and either has the knowledge or the software to handle such events. The graphic approach is also fraught, even when using Adobe's own software, something you can see by converting a supplied PDF Lulu template to JPG and then immediately converting it back to a PDF as you don't necessarily end up with identical PDFs! The problem seems to lie with how the Height and Width of a JPG relates to the Dots Per Inch (DPI) value of that JPG. The Template PDF Lulu supplies is really just a single large JPG stored inside a PDF 'wrapper' at a resolution of 300DPI, and you can use software to either extract that JPG as-is or other software to convert the PDF to a JPG automatically. The extraction method is best as you are doing nothing to the JPG inside but you do get a JPG that could be too big to use as a Layer to build your cover over unless you (say) halve the size of it. The same goes for the conversion method but here a lot of software, including Adobe's, will 'helpfully' reduce the Height and Width while keeping the ratio between them the same and change the DPI value as well so it all looks the same. This is where things get confusing e.g. a 1200x1200 JPG at 300DPI is physically 4x4 inches in size but then a 400x400 JPG at 100 DPI is also physically 4x4 inches in size even though it's a smaller picture!
Yes it does make your head spin so to cut a long story short if you do take the Lulu template and either extract or convert it to a JPG to use in a graphics program then the easiest way to start from a solid base is to first create a blank canvas of the size of the cover dimensions (most software will let you create an image based on inches and centimetres rather than pixel sizes) then next change the DPI value to something you can comfortably use like 200DPI. After changing the DPI make sure the blank canvas is still the same size in inches or cms as you created then Paste the JPG you obtained from the Template into that as your Background layer and Resize it so it fits the boundaries perfectly. When you've created your cover save off the JPG and convert it to a PDF however you want and then, before sending it to Lulu, check that the Height and Width of this PDF are exactly the same size as the Total Document Size Height and Width as stated on the Template. Phew
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