Creating a Book: Free Lightroom Tutorial

Topics covered in this Lightroom tutorial:

The Book module, Editing page layout, Deleting pages, Exporting a book as a PDF

Exercise Preview

Exercise Overview

In this exercise, we will use Lightroom’s Book module, a handy workspace for designing photo books. Before exporting to PDF you’ll prepare a collection of photos for uploading to an integrated service called Blurb, which creates printed books from photos that you may later purchase.

Creating a Book

1. Make sure you’re in the Library module.

2. In the Collections panel on the left, expand the USA collection set and click Wyoming. (If you don’t see these collections, complete exercises 1A–1C to import these photos and create these collections.)

3. At the top, click on the Book tab to enter the Book module.

4. In the Book Settings panel on the right-hand side, set:

   Book:	Blurb
   Size:	Standard Landscape
   Cover:	Hardcover Image Wrap

5. In the Toolbar at the bottom center of the book layout preview, drag the Thumbnails slider all the way to the left. If you don’t see the slider, make sure you’re in Multi-Page View .

   NOTE: And if you don’t see any of those things, go to View > Show Toolbar.

6. In the Auto Layout panel on the right, click the Auto Layout button.

7. If you do NOT currently have the below setup, and instead have several blank or additional pages, follow the steps below the screenshot:

   

   If you don’t have this general layout, complete the following:

   • At the top, click the Clear Book button.
   • Go back to the Library module.
   • In the Catalog panel, select Wyoming.
   • Click on the Book tab again. That oughta do it!

8. At the top of the book layout preview, double–click the Front Cover photo. (It should be the Wyoming Motel photo.)

9. At the bottom right corner of the preview, click on the down arrow to change the page layout.

10. From the Modify Cover options that appear, click the layout shown below (located about halfway down the list).

    

Page Layout

1. Click on the Front photo (the Wyoming Motel).

2. Set the Zoom level to 12%.

3. Drag the photo down to reposition it so that only the word Wyoming and the head above it is visible.

4. Below the photo, click into the text box and type the following text:

   Photos of Wyoming
   © YourName Year

   To type the copyright © symbol, use Opt−G (Mac) or Alt−0169 (Windows).

5. Select all the text (Cmd–A (Mac) or Ctrl–A (Windows)).

6. On the right, in the Type panel (you may need to scroll down to see it), set the Size to 35 pt.

7. Click the Align center icon .

8. At the bottom left of the screen, switch to Multi-Page View .

9. Double–click on Page 11 (the tourist family photo with the number 11 underneath it) to view this page in Single Page View.

10. Let’s give the photo more margin so it has breathing room around the edges. At the bottom right of the preview, click on the down arrow to modify the page layout.

11. From the Modify Page options that appear, keep 1 Photo selected and underneath it click on the first layout (it has white space around the photo placeholder). Easy!

Deleting Pages

Let’s group the two wildflower photos together so they make a 2-page spread.

1. Switch back to Multi-Page View .

2. Drag the yellow wildflowers photo from Page 29 to Page 28.

3. Drag the light purple wildflowers photo from Page 27 to Page 29.

4. Click on Page 26, then Shift–click on Page 27.

5. Ctrl–Click (Mac) or Right–click (Windows) on the selected pages and choose Remove Pages.

Exporting as PDF

Blurb is integrated into Lightroom and is capable of setting up a book, creating it, and making it available for purchase. The Send Book to Blurb button is located at the bottom right. On the bottom left is the Export Book to PDF button, which allows you to save the entire book to your computer so you can preview it before sending it to print.

1. Click the Export Book to PDF button.

2. Navigate to the Desktop.

3. Name it Wyoming Book and click Save. Lightroom will start exporting the book to the Desktop. The progress is shown at the top left next to the Lightroom logo.

4. When Lightroom finishes rendering the PDF, minimize Lightroom and go to the Desktop.

5. Notice that two PDF files were exported to the Desktop:
   • Wyoming Book Cover
   • Wyoming Book

   The cover is exported as a separate file because it will be printed on different stock than the rest of the book.

6. Double–click Wyoming Book.pdf to open it.

7. The book should open in Adobe Acrobat. (If it didn’t, open Adobe Acrobat then open the book by going to File > Open.)

8. Go to View > Page Display > Two Page View to see the pages displayed next to each other.

9. Go to View > Page Display > Show Cover Page in Two Page View (only if it is not already checked on). This will make it so the first page is on its own like it will be in the book.

10. Use the Up Arrow key and Down Arrow key to flip through your book.

    And that’s how to create and export books in Lightroom!