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Hi,

I am trying to use Publisher to make a book for printing (through Blurb). To do this, I need to follow their page size specifications and export to a PDF to send to them. They suggest making the cover last. 

I need to follow their page size specifications and export to a PDF to send to them. I have almost done the internals (approx 100 pages) in publisher, now trying to add the cover.

Blurb's website suggests that the pages of the book need to be 24.447 cm x 20.955 cm. I have done this.

The cover will need to be a different size, as it is a "wrap around". Their specs are 52.59cm x 22.8cm.

I have set up a second master page with these specs, but now have hit a problem.

The first page in Publisher is a right page when I try to add the cover, it gives me a another right page (as a new page 1) and a left page  (a new page 2), making my "real page 1 a page 3. 

What I need to do is have a page 1 and 2 as the wrap around cover, then a blank page 3, then the real page 1. 

To add to the complexity, I need the "real page 1" to be shown as such with the automatic page numbering I am using, not showing as page 3.

Any advice would be very welcome.

Oh, and happy christmas to all - I am not really expecting an answer for the next few days, but thought I would ask!

Garry

affinity publisher - after adding cover.JPG

affinity publisher - before adding cover.JPG

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I think this video will address starting page numbers where you want: 

 

 

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B| (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum)

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Garry, I think you might have to put the cover in a separate document and stitch the two together – plenty of resources on the web –before you send the whole thing off.
I’ve never tried this myself so I have no idea how well it works. Whether Blurb will accept the result is another question too.
Hopefully someone else will come up with a better solution (you’re not the only one asking about Blurb in the forum).

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Garry, I'm hitting the same problem with Blurb (for the book). I'm not at the cover page yet.  When you say "Blurb's website suggests that the pages of the book need to be 24.447 cm x 20.955 cm. I have done this.", can you tell me the original document setup you used ? I have tried many different document setups and I always get Blurb message that my PDF has the wrong dimensions.

Thanks in advance

Alain

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Maybe it helps to see how they treat that for Indesign here. Aka ...

Quote

...
7. Upload your Blurb PDF/X-3 files to blurb.com.

* Go to our Upload PDFs page and click the blue Continue button.

* Enter the appropriate details about your book size and cover. Click Continue.
* Enter your book’s details and click the blue Next button.
* At this stage you are ready to upload both your cover PDF and your pages PDF. You must first upload your cover PDF before uploading your pages PDF. This process can take up to a few hours to complete depending on your Internet connection. You must keep your browser window open during upload. When preflight is complete, we’ll send you an email.

NOTE:Your cover PDF and pages PDF must both be uploaded to begin the preflight process.
...

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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I did a Blurb trade paperback quite successfully a while ago, but using their own software. I'm now keen to do some books using Publisher, and thought I'd got the hang of their specs, but this thread has made me wary!

As far as I could make out from the Blub specs (and as implied in the quote above), the cover and the body of the book are two completely distinct PDFs that are uploaded as separate files, so there should be no need to struggle to produce them from a common Publisher document, or to stitch two PDF files together before uploading.

So am I missing something here?

 

 

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Hi Alain,

Sorry for the delay in responding. I used Blurb's specification calculator (australian site is https://au.blurb.com/make/pdf_to_book/booksize_calculator#book-attributes). The size is dependent, it seems, on the size of your book (especially for the cover). I have noted - and appreciated - the comments of others on this thread - I haven't yet reached the stage of trying to upload yet.

Garry

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  • 5 months later...

I need a template for what American book publishers call a US Trade Paperback, 6 inches by 9 inches.  I can't believe Publisher wouldn't have a template for it, but I don't see anything I recognize as the correct size. I wrote the first edition of my book The Writing Teacher's ABCs at leanpub.com, where  6x9 is one of the standard sizes.

Sorry I don't know what the metric equivalent  of 6x9 is. (I have measuring sticks in inches, points, picas and agate, nothing metric.)

 

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> save it as a Template

... or just as a new, custom "My Preset" which doesn't stick to a specific .afpub on your disk and which you even can edit when using it before creating the new document.

macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1

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3 hours ago, Linda Aragoni said:

I need a template for what American book publishers call a US Trade Paperback, 6 inches by 9 inches.  I can't believe Publisher wouldn't have a template for it, but I don't see anything I recognize as the correct size. I wrote the first edition of my book The Writing Teacher's ABCs at leanpub.com, where  6x9 is one of the standard sizes.

Sorry I don't know what the metric equivalent  of 6x9 is. (I have measuring sticks in inches, points, picas and agate, nothing metric.)

 

Not sure what kind of template you need. Make a page size 6 x 9 and you are done. Add pages as you need them. I would recommend working in spreads as you will see how it will look when the book is open. 

The only thing you would need a template for is the cover if it is a perfect bound book. Thickness of the spine would be determined by the weight of the paper used and how many pages it is. Whoever is doing binding will be able to tell you the spine size. So if the spine is going to be .125" then it is some simple math. 6" + 6" + .125" x 9 = 12.125" x 9"

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4 hours ago, Linda Aragoni said:

I can't believe Publisher wouldn't have a template for it, but I don't see anything I recognize as the correct size.

Actually you can use any of the existing "New..." presets and adjust its dimensions according to your needs. At that moment you also might want to set its other layout- and print-relevant options: color, margin and bleed.

It doesn't matter what preset you choose as a start for your customized preset, either print or photo, web or architecture. They all offer the same variety of adjustable options. Some are saved with unit inch, some in mm and others with pixels. As soon you switch the unit via the pull-down menu the software automatically converts the currently entered values.

macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1

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Thanks, tomaso, for pointing me in the right direction. I thought there had to be a way to change the dimensions but I couldn't locate it. Reading the Publisher screens (white on black is awfully hard to read) and I unless I greatly increase the view size, I have no idea what the icons are supposed to represent.

 

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Linda, the interface supports you with little text info pop-ups when you hover with your mouse over an icon. You can set them to appear immediately, without the default delay of a few seconds. It's in the same section of the app prefs where you toogle the dark/light interface.

1234218362_tooltipdark.jpg.3cbc5f880d41cb37f6e62cdd6b044c60.jpg  

1007911968_tooltiplight.jpg.c28b5888392dc581d648841f67b56469.jpg

 

995565960_tooltipdelay.jpg.405c1563643c65fa9ef6d84cd6c23fdf.jpg

macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1

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