Aperture Users Network

There might have been a time when the photographer’s job was simply the capturing of an image, but today’s photographer is responsible for vastly more than just tripping a shutter. More and more the shooter is also the graphic designer, book publisher, multimedia maven and IT specialist.

Aperture’s always provided the photographer with tools for creating books, in fact the custom books in Aperture and the sibling iPhoto were rather groundbreaking, allowing for the quick creation of hardcover or softcover books, with shipping directly by mail. The book creation abilities of Aperture even include a powerful set of layout tools that allow photographers to create custom page layouts. (This is something we find most people don’t realize, but just about every element on an Aperture page can be modified and it’s easy to add elements to pages.)

The one (major) limitation of Aperture 1.5’s book creation tools has been removed with Aperture 2.0—it’s now possible to create books of any size, not just books conforming to Apple’s online book ordering service. You can’t place an order from Apple with a custom book design but you can print them out as PDFs and use them with any number of custom book creation services.

This is a huge change as the previous system limited photographers to producing books only of a certain size and shape, which meant that photos in Aperture usually had to be exported to be used with many of the custom book producers. Being able to create custom book sizes will open Aperture up to a whole world of custom book possibilities, including some of the higher-end book printing services often used by wedding and portrait photographers.

More creative services equals more revenue, and so Aperture 2 is poised to help photographers increase not only their productivity (by allowing them to work inside one program instead of using Aperture to manage images and another tool to lay out photos for books) but their profit as well (since producing books can bring huge revenue into a studio).

Although many Aperture users haven’t taken advantage of the book creation tools (because of the previous limitations) many don’t realize how easy it is to create a new book from scratch and to print it via PDF. Book creation’s a snap, especially in Aperture 2, and creating a book to a custom size is just as simple. You’re just a few clicks from creating a masterpiece.

Self Publishing

The first step in custom book creation is to select a group of images (by clicking on a project or album) and selecting the “Book” choice from under the toolbar’s “New” dropdown menu or selecting File>New>Book (to create a book from scratch with no images chosen for placement) or New>From Selection>Book (to create a book with the currently selected photos as ready to place in the book.)



There are two different behaviors in Aperture when creating a book depending on what you do right before you create a new book. If you’ve selected a Project or Album without clicking on a photo inside that Project or Album first, telling Aperture to make you a new book will do so with all the images in the Project or Album included. If you’ve clicked on a single image first though, Aperture will ask you if you want to create a book with only the single image or with all the images. Select no images or more than one image and the whole group is selected.

One thing to remember is that Aperture’s book mode is really a different Viewer mode. Think of it as an Album with benefits. This confuses many users the first time they click on a Book and then switch the Viewer mode to Browser Only (through the menus or by press “V”) and their book seems to disappear. Simply switch back to Viewer Only or Browser and Viewer to bring back the book layout.



The trick to creating a custom book size in Aperture is to select the Custom option from the “Book Type” drop down menu. From the resulting dialog box, which will be blank if you’ve never created a custom book) click the “New Theme” button.



In the New Custom Book dialog box, enter the dimensions for a new book size. This can be used later when making new books (the books created here will be added to the list of available sizes in that previously blank dialog box. Enter page width and heights, image spacing (the padding between images on a page) as well as page margins.

Keep in mind that since these Aperture books can be any size, they can be used for non-book purposes as well. We’ve set up these books to do things like create picture packages combining images of several sizes.

Once the custom book dimensions are set up the book is laid out with dummy pages, though these can all be changed and rearranged.

Page Layout




The trick to customizing the layout of pages is to use the page editing tools, starting with the Edit Layout button. Clicking this button switches from image placement to page layout mode, and enables the rest of the page editing tools. Any page, including those that were auto-created by Aperture or blank pages created by pressing the the “+” icon below the Pages panel. . Any page can be deleted by pressing the “-” button.







The next button below the Pages pane (the “Set Master Page” button) provides shortcuts to the master pages. Selecting any of these will change the current page layout to the selected master page. It’s also possible to display and edit the master pages using the gear-shaped “Action” menu next to the Set Master Pages menu is the “Book Actions” icon.

The Book Actions menu has several important tools, including the “Show Master Pages” item, which reveals Aperture’s master pages, allowing you to customize the pages from which you create subsequent pages as well as the tools to reapply masters (good if you want to undo any changes you might have made), and the settings to autoflow images into the pages you’ve created.

Output Possibilities

Once books are laid out and it’s possible to print them via PDF, which is the key to get them to to book producers or to create these books on your own printers. This small change in the program will unlock many new possibilities for photographers.