Aperture book v Asuka book

Hi Mark,

I am the US rep for Asukabook, so my opinions may be biased (yes, I think they're the best available 😉, but I will shoot you some straight information on the best ways to setup you files for an Asukabook.

1) Start with the asukabook blank photoshop templates and place or copy/paste your images into it. Do not ever change the resolution of the templates. It must stay at our exact specifications or they won't make it through the file checker program. When you place or copy/paste images to a PS page, the resolution will automatically be made to match the destination, so you don't really need to worry about this.

2) I, too, was hoping that the Aperture layouts would be flexible enough to allow for sizing the books for other companies, but unfortunately you can't - yet (are you listening Apple?). Professionals shouldn't be forced to order only iBooks.

3) JPG compression on the finished page should be at the highest possible quality setting (12 in PS)

4) If you are using PS CS2, you're in luck. Use the FILE: PLACE command and point to your finished images to bring them into your layout. By using the PLACE command, you bring the image in as a "smart object" which allows you to place with the sizing as much as you want. It doesn't rasterize the image until you finally flatten the layout or save it out as the final JPG. This maintains the best image quality throughout your design process.

6) Some people ask about using other programs to create layouts, and this is possible as long as the output size and resolution are EXACTLY the same as our templates. Page Gallery (from Yervant) is being updated to support the Asukabook page sizes - hopefully by March or April. Our own AutoAlbum software (from www.KubotaImageTools.com) also builds compatible pages that can be Placed using the technique I described above (except you place the entire finished layout that AutoAlbum creates, instead of single images)

Other album builder software packages are also being updated to work with Asukabooks directly.

With some hand tweaking, you could take your Aperture generated pages and place them into an Asukabook layout as well, although we haven't tested this thoroughly enough yet to provide specifics or a solid recommendation.

Hope that helps,
Kevin Kubota

Quad G5, Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Kevin,

Thanks for that, as much info as possible is always
great.

We filed out initial sample book a fortnight or so
ago, so with the extra shipping time to the UK I'm
hoping we'll see the product around the start of
March. I did pretty much as you explain, although not
the 'place' command as I wasn't familiar with that in
CS2.

To re-size once in the layout I imported larger than
required and used 'free transform' to tweek down into
size .... although I'll look into your suggestion as
I'm sure that's better/more practicle.

To date the Asuka procedure has been excellent, and
all the traffic I've ever seen on the web is positive
and compliments their quality. Comparatively speaking
the prices are also good, so I'm looking forward to
seeing the result.

Thanks again, all the best,

Mark

You're welcome. I hope you enjoy your book! BTW, we are working on a free "Album Design Tips" video which will be free to all our Asukabook users. This will cover the Place command, and other tricks to make designing quicker. It will also cover how to use other Album layout software packages (like AutoAlbum) with the Asukabook templates. We may also include info on integrated Aperture book designs as well. You'll be notified via email when it's available.

Cheers
Kevin

Hi Kevin

Sorry for asking this question on this thread, I found this message looking for information and hopefully, as rep for Asukabook, you can clarify this to me as I haven't been able to find the answer.

I registered with Asukabook and received the confirmation, and codes to start ordering. I read the information available (unfortunately not too much at this moment in my opinion) at the website and downloaded a couple of blank templates. I found that only the first and last "pages" of the templates are in PSD format, all the others are in JPG format. Is that normal? How I can desing the "interior" pages if I don't have a file with Guides for indicating visually where are the printable margins, gutter, etc.

I'm very confused right now, I hope you can help me out with this.

Thanks for your time reading this message and best regards,
Javier

Hi Javier,

Once you sign up, you can download (or we can ship you) the startup kit. There is a user guide which contains all the information you should need to get started.

Re: the pages. Yes, only the first and last need to be in PSD because they contain layers that need to be modified. All the guides, trim, gutter are on all the pages, you just need to make your guides visible by going to your VIEW menu and turning them on. This is a user preference.

Hope that helps, and please feel free to contact Karen@asukabook.com if you have any other questions. She is our service manager and a wonderful person to work with.

Best,
Kevin

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for your kind reply, yes I would love to receive your startup kit, I'll contact Karen to find out how to get it.

Also thanks regarding the pages, I got confused about that because I saw the guides when I openen the PSD but not when I opened the JPGs.

I'm very excited to try my first book and see how it looks in real life!

Best regards,

PowerPC G5 2x1.8GHZ Mac OS X (10.4.5) 2GB DDR SDRAM