The Blurb plug-in for Adobe InDesign allows you to create a blank template for your Blurb books, in the correct size and format we require. All you have to do is add your content and upload the PDF to Blurb.
Using the plug-in will give you the best possible print results, so if you have InDesign Creative Cloud (CC) 2021 or newer, we highly recommend you download and install the plug-in.
If you have previous Blurb InDesign projects and want to open them in the plug-in see our instructions.
The Blurb plug-in for InDesign only works with InDesign CC 2021 and newer. If you're using an older InDesign version than CC 2021 you'll need to manually size your files using our PDF specifications then upload the PDFs using our PDF uploader.
Below are some tips for using the plug-in.
1. Installing the Plug-in
Go to the download page for the Blurb Plug-in for Adobe InDesign. Download the specific Plug-in for your version of InDesign and choose Save As to save the file. Close InDesign, locate the downloaded plug-in installer, double-click, then follow the install instructions.
Things to remember when installing the plug-in:
- You will need to have administrative permissions to install the plug-in (this is the default setting on most systems).
- InDesign should not be running during installation of the plug-in.
If you are unable to install the plug-in, contact Support for help.
2. Using the Plug-in
Watch the short intro video to get started. Once the plug-in has been successfully installed, the Blurb InDesign Plugin (Blurb Book Creator) can be found at the bottom of the INDESIGN FILE menu
Follow the steps below to create, review and upload your project:
- Step 1 – Click on the Create New Book button.
- Step 2 - Book Details – Enter the title of your project and your author name. Select a book trim size, paper type and cover option. You may also elect to create an iPad aspect ratio ebook from scratch from within the plug-in. Enter an estimated page count. (You can change the page count later).
- Step 3a – Create your pages template.
- Click on Create Pages Template which will open a template ready for you to design.
- Be sure to place all of your art on the "Your Design Goes Here" layer. The "Instruction Layer" is simply to provide help and guides and will not be exported to your final project. You may, if you wish, hide or delete this layer if it becomes distracting.
- Step 3b – Create your cover template.
- Once the pages design is complete and you know the exact page count of your book, return to the Plugin (FILE->BLURB BOOK CREATOR).
- Enter the final page count into the Number of Pages from Step 2.
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Click on Create Cover Template and a cover template will open for you to design.
If you would like to reopen a previously created template, simply click on the Pencil Icon to re-open the linked template to edit. - Step 3c – Creating a design for ebook. To ensure the quality of your ebook we recommend not using the following:
- Multimedia (Video or Audio assets)
- Manipulated text (stretching, drop-caps, scaling, text on paths)
- Page Linking (Table of Contents, Footnotes, Indices).
- Text Container borders or fills
- Inline Graphics
- Step 4 – Review, upload and order your book.
- Once your pages and then Cover designs are complete, return to the Plugin (FILE-> BLURB BOOK CREATOR) and select Upload Book.
- Your file will begin the preflight process and then open your default PDF viewer.
- You will then be directed to your Book Detail Page where you can then place an order for your newly uploaded book
3. Follow this checklist to ensure your PDFs pass preflight
- Watch our short introductory video to see of all of the great ways to use the plugin.
- Do not modify the template dimensions after creating your templates.
- Be sure to create your Cover template AFTER you finish your Pages design and know your exact page count.
- Save your documents to a permanent location. For the plug-in to keep track of your projects, do not manually move the files to other folders, or the links will be lost.
- Review your final exported PDFs with Adobe Acrobat or Reader prior to uploading.
4. Advanced Plugin Tools
Replace an already created template.
- If you decide to replace an already created template with a new one, select the Page Icon and you can create an entirely new template to replace a current one.
- If you click this button by mistake, or would like to re-link your old file, simply click on the link icon to re-link it to the existing project.
Relinking an already created template.
- If you've moved your existing file or somehow the link to your template has been lost, select the chain link Icon to relink your template. Be sure to link the correct Pages and Cover templates or they may fail preflight.
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