Learning Surf Photography

Blurb BookWright – A New Way to Create Your Own Book or Magazine

Just the other day I posted about the magazine I made recently using Adobe InDesign and the Blurb print on demand service, the main drawback to the whole process was having to invest money and time into learning Adobe In Design, but that’s not the case anymore, Blurb have just released a new piece of free software called BookWright which allows you to make a magazine without having to use In Design.

http://www.blurb.co.uk/bookwright

screengrab from my Windows 8 PC, the warning markings are very clear and can be easily deactivated if necessary
screen grab from my Windows 8 PC, the warning markings are very clear and can be easily deactivated if necessary

I was alerted to this by Greg Mulvaney in the comments to my Blurb magazine review post, so thanks to Greg for the tip.

I’ve downloaded the software and had a little play with it, it definitely feels more intuitive to use than In Design, and it’s powerful enough to re-create the magazine I made, the only things that I’ve missed so far is the ability to import photoshop files (not really an issue as they can be exported as jpg from Photoshop and then imported) and some of the really useful tools for aligning multiple images in In Design, but I’ve only had a 5 minute play so far.

You can download the software and a pdf with some instructions on how to use it here: http://www.blurb.co.uk/bookwright

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Ben Pascoe

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10 responses to “Blurb BookWright – A New Way to Create Your Own Book or Magazine”

  1. Review – Blurb Magazine Print On Demand Service | Learning Surf Photography

    […] UPDATE – Blurb have released some new software which makes it much easier, and cheaper, to make this style of magazine, read about it here: https://learningsurfphotography.com/blurb-bookwright-a-new-way-to-create-your-own-book-or-magazine/ […]

    Reply
  2. Greg Avatar
    Greg

    Hi Ben

    Ive just ordered a 20 page magazine to check the quality. Postage is a killer to Australia. $6AU for the magazine $12AU postage. Ouch. Hope the quality is good…

    Reply
    1. Ben Avatar
      Ben

      If it’s anything like the UK printing then I think you’ll be happy with the quality, that shipping sounds a bit excessive though.

      Reply
  3. Review – Blurb Magazine Print On Demand Service

    […] UPDATE – Blurb have released some new software which makes it much easier, and cheaper, to make this style of magazine, read about it here: https://learningsurfphotography.com/blurb-bookwright-a-new-way-to-create-your-own-book-or-magazine/ […]

    Reply
  4. Juergen Kilbinger Avatar
    Juergen Kilbinger

    can i print myself with this softwear and how i do that

    Reply
    1. Ben Pascoe Avatar
      Ben Pascoe

      Hey Juergen,
      I see on the blurb website that you can get a pdf output from bookwright, so you could probably print that yourself.
      But if you’re not going to use Blurb for printing then I’d recommend using more flexible software to create your book or magazine. Try Adobe In Design for example.
      Ben.

      Reply
      1. Juergen Kilbinger Avatar
        Juergen Kilbinger

        Thank you for your Help

        Reply
  5. Jessica Avatar
    Jessica

    Hey Ben! I saw your other post on Blurb and found that very helpful. I’m currently working on printing an art book with Blurb’s premium magazine, and I have several 2-page spreads planned. I’m wondering what your experience was with the 2-page photo spreads in your magazine. In the example spread above: did everything inside the “pink area” end up getting cut off by the gutter? (If not, how much did end up getting cut?)

    I’m wondering if I should try to duplicate part of the image along the inside edge to try and make it more seamless. What would you advise?

    Thanks!!

    Reply
    1. Ben Pascoe Avatar
      Ben Pascoe

      Hi Jessica,
      Sorry for the delay replying, it’s been hectic over the holidays as usual :)

      I never actually got the above example spread printed, it was just a quick mock up using the Bookwright software after I’d made my magazine in Indesign, I did do several double page spreads in my magazine though so I might be able to help.

      I’ve uploaded three images so you can see how much of the image a double page spread will obscure.

      I estimate, very roughly, that when the page is held as flat as you can reasonably get it without any danger of tearing the binding, the missing bit in the middle is about 10mm.

      I worked this out by measuring the length of the SUP board that crosses the two pages on the real life magazine (~59mm), then re-sizing the original image on screen so one of the other boards was the same size as in the printed magazine and measuring it again (~69mm).

      I’d say duplicating a portion of the image could get tricky – there’s no way to tell how far people will force the magazine flat, so repeating 10mm might give you ugly repeated sections in the middle, I’ve also no idea if Blurb do any sort of processing to counteract the missing bit themselves – if they do then your duplication might compound the issue.

      The solution I chose for the majority of the magazine is to make sure any double page spreads didn’t have anything going on in the centre. I think that’s the only way to make sure you’re not losing something valuable.

      If I could give one piece of advice it would be to go through lots of your favourite magazines very closely before designing your own, I wish I’d spent more time looking at well laid out magazines before doing it myself, they’ve already figured out the best way to do most layouts.

      Plus it’s a good excuse to buy and read some quality magazines.

      Reply
      1. Jessica Avatar
        Jessica

        Thanks Ben!! This is super useful. :D

        Reply

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