Photobooks from Xara Designer Pro?

[AlterEgo]

Is it possible to use Designer Pro to put together a photobook? I find the Blurb offerings uninspiring in their quality. Bob Books offer a much better product. In addition, they have a module to allow production of a photobook, using InDesign to create a PDF, which can then be uploaded into Bob Books for printing. Can anything similar be done with Xara? Given the DTP provenance of the programme, it seems to under-utilise its potential.

[gwpriester]

I have produced two books, a non-fiction and a novel, about 200 pages each with Designer Pro X. https://www.amazon.ca/Lonely-River-V...duckgo-ffsb-20 and https://www.amazon.co.uk/Non-Swimmer...kgo-ffsb-uk-21

I did the illustration for the Lonely River Village in Xara as well. Both books were published via Amazon CreateSpace and turned out well.

CreateSpace and Ingram Spark both can create photo books at an affordable price but the quality of the photo printing is OK but not great.

The advantage to both CreateSpace and Ingram Spark is visibility on Amazon and in the case of Ingram Spark, with all independent book sellers.

[mwenz]

DTP provenance? Don't think so...

Haven't heard of Bob Books before. But there is zero reason why they will not accept a PDF from XDP. The "module" for ID is just going to facilitate setting up of page size and margin. Unless it is also like Blurb's plug-in for ID, in which case it also facilitates the upload.

As long as you know how to get their specs and apply them in XDP, there's no issue with XDP's PDF quality.

Mike

[gwpriester]

To be honest, there are features that would have made the job easier such as master pages and page numbering that you can start wherever you want. I did all my page numbers manually which with my dyslexia is always fraught with peril.

But in the end, even though Serif Page Plus had these features, because I was used to Designer Pro X, it was just easier to work around the limitations.

I exported both books in PDF/X file format and there were no problems in pre-production. CreateSpace has very specific templates and as long as you stay within the guidelines everything works out fine. CreateSpace also lets you "soft proof" your book on their website so you can make sure that everything is how you want it before you give the OK to publish.

[AlterEgo]

DTP provenance? Don't think so...

I was thinking of its roots, in the Acorn/RISC OS origins of the programme, in Publisher and Artworks, which are very obvious to those who remember those brilliant applications on that brilliant OS! Both were class leaders on any platform in those days, and both were used for DTP. I recognise that Designer Pro has moved way beyond those capabilities, especially in relation to Website design, but its roots are evident still, I think, to those with experience of RISC OS.

[AlterEgo]

Thanks for the replies. I will look into your suggestions, and see how I get on. Bob Books is not bad, in my experience, and much better than Blurb's offerings, but the flexibility of Designer is such that I want to see what it can do.