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Help loading yearbook with Issuu

Forums: Questions and Answers About Building Your Site
Created on: 08/14/08 01:52 PM Views: 3295 Replies: 24
Thursday, August 14, 2008 at 1:52 PM

I am trying to load our yearbook on the site using Issuu. I have scanned a few pages to try it out. I can't seem to save them all one pdf. They are all separate files on my desktop right now. Can someone please tell me how to scan/save the pages so i can upload to ISSUU. Thank you. I am using MAC

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Thursday, August 14, 2008 at 2:40 PM - Response #1

Hello Thana,

We had success geting our entire yearbook online using ISSUU at 83PHS.com.

ISSUU does a nicer job of displaying the yearbook and allowing classmates to flip thru than any of the other sites we tried.

ISSUU only accepts PDF files and is a bit quirky as to the versions of PDF that it will accept.

To make it work you need to combine all of the images of your pages into a single pdf file.

The pages will flip nicer if you optimize each of the original images of your yearbook pages for fast web viewing. Resave each year book page image as a 72dpi tiff file. Photoshop can easily automate this for all the pages.

Import all the pages as a group into adobe acrobat.
Save the single acrobat file optimized for compatibility with the older Acrobat version 5.

Issuu often chokes if you skip that last step. Issuu has trouble reading version 9 of adobe acrobat.

If you dont have Photshop CS3 and Adobe Acrobat Professional 9, you can download 30 day evals for free off of the Adobe website.

Getting the yearbook online was extraordinarily helpful in generating interest on our site and getting more classmates to register.

--Chris

83PHS.com

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Thursday, August 14, 2008 at 3:10 PM - Response #2

Yikes! It sounds pretty complicated--I might have to get one of my kids to do it!!

OK, So I need photoshop CS3 and Acrobat Pro 9. Do I need these to save the scans to a single PDF file? That is the step that I am having problems with.

I did see your sight and that is where I got the idea. I actually sent an email through your site as well.

THANK YOU!

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Thursday, August 14, 2008 at 4:49 PM - Response #3

Thana,

Please dont let the extra steps deter your enthusiasm. People really like the online yearbook. I think you will find it is time well spent.

For starters, skip the photshop steps and try combining all your images into a single pdf document.

There are lots of different ways to do that. One of the easier methods is to use Acrobat Pro 9.

Open Acrobat 9 Pro. From the file menu choose "combine".
Then select the sub-menu that says "Merge files into a single pdf".

You can then drag and drop the page images from your year book. Click the "combine" button and you have your yearbook done as a pdf.

Save the pdf file and you are 99%done.
Issuu currently chokes of many pdf files created by Acrobat9.

So do one extra step. Choose save as from the Acrobat menu and change the "save as type" from adobe pdf to "adobe pdf optimized"

On the next screen click the settings button. Click the button where it says "make compatible with" and choose Acrobat version 5. Click Save.

You will then have a file that is likely to work fine with Issuu.

We used the same setup to share our collection of old school newspapers. Response has been tremendous.

Its been great fun to bring some of the old dusty archives back to life and share them again with everyone online.

Brad Switzer has done a fantastic job of helping us with classcreator along the way.

--Chris
83PHS.com

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Thursday, August 14, 2008 at 5:45 PM - Response #4

Thank you! I'll start scanning. I have to take this in steps as i don't have any large blocks of time.

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Wednesday, August 20, 2008 at 2:15 PM - Response #5

Are there any companies that scan yearbooks for people and convert into pdf?

Thanks-

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Wednesday, August 20, 2008 at 6:03 PM - Response #6

You might try Kinkos. It is time consuming, i'm doing it in blocks of 10 pages just so i don't go insane.

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Wednesday, August 20, 2008 at 8:14 PM - Response #7

Hello Chip,

Yes - there are many companies out there that will scan your yearbook and turn it into a pdf.

Putting the yearbook online , as we did on 83PHs.com had a tremendously positive impact on our registrations and ticket sales for the reunion.

Once the yearbook is turned into a pdf, displaying it on the web in a friendly format that people will really like becomes the challenge.

After reviewing several sites we ended up using ISSUU.com as an addition to class creator. ISSU really shines when you zoom to full screen mode and browse the yearbook.

We are adding yearbooks from the earlier high school years and our junior high year books as well. The downloadable versions of our yearbooks are searchable pdf files. Its kind of cool to be able to type part of a name and have it jump to that page in the yearbook.
Most people just flip thru and browse them.

I think that providing content like that is a great way to share the memories and will draw many more classmates to the site.

That said - here are some specific tips that will help the most to improve your online yearbook.

1) Allow the yearbook to be disassembled for the scan. The year book can always be rebound after the scans.

2) If possible, obtain an unsigned copy of the yearbook from your school.

3) Scan the book at two resolutions (low resolution for fast web viewing) and high resolution for printing,name badges individual shots, enlargements, etc)

4) Dont use consumer grade scanners. Since you are generally only going to do this once, it is counterproductive to compromise the image quality by using the low end scanners that you might see at Staples, Office Max, or Kinkos.

5)Have some fun with the pictures once the basic scans are complete. You can extract most of the individual yearbook pictures and post them in the online profiles, print photoname badges,use them for photo flip shows or in videos.

A good example of the video possibilities is on 83PHS.com, about halfway down the page. That video was constructed from the individual yearbook shots and presented in a fun way that people liked.

We made all of the images available online so that other classmates with some creativity will contribute even better versions in the future.

Your are welcome to email me for details on the pricing if you would like to have your yearbook scanned and placed online. The end result can be similar to what you see on 83PHS.com.

--Chris
reunion@83PHS.com

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Wednesday, August 20, 2008 at 8:47 PM - Response #8

I have scanned half of our yearbook-and would like to upload it and see how it is going to look with issuu before i conitnue. How long does it take to upload to issuu. I am worried because i don't have a professional scanner and i can't take the book apart because i had to borrow it.

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Wednesday, August 20, 2008 at 9:15 PM - Response #9

Chris,

Thanks for the reply. I would be interested in getting a price to have our yearbook scanned and placed online. I can easily get a new copy that could taken apart. Please email me details.

Thanks again-

Chip Keller
chip.keller@gmail.com

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Tuesday, August 26, 2008 at 3:31 PM - Response #10

I am brand new at this site. I want to set up a page with our 30 year reunion book but have no idea how to do it. You are talking about a program or something called Issuu. What is that?

Is there any other way to accomplish putting a yearbook or reunion book on our web site? What you are describing seems complicated for a beginner (I have no idea what you are talking about in your thread).

I thought this site made it easy to put this all together but it does not seem that is the case. Help me out if you can or please direct me to a source that can.

Thanks,

Bruce Eskander
SPHS72

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Tuesday, August 26, 2008 at 5:18 PM - Response #11

Hi Bruce,

I was able to do it and it ended up being much easier than i thought, however, i think it is because i am on MAC. If you have MAC with leopard, converting multiple pdfs to a single document is very easy-just click and drag. There was no need to download any software or sign up for free trials.

I scanned the yearbook using an HP all in one scanner and i think it looks fine. It is definitely time consuming. I saved each page as a single pdf and then just clicked and dragged them into the master document. That part was about 90% of the work. Once completed, I uploaded to ISSUU (the upload takes about 1 minute per page) and then embedded it in the site. Having the single pages also allowed me to crop out senior portraits and upload those into classmates profiles.

Hope this helps!

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Tuesday, August 26, 2008 at 7:15 PM - Response #12

Hi Thanna,
I still don't know what that program is. But....I finally found out how to use the photo button in edit mode to download photos or scanned pages.

It seems to work fine as long as I add pages in order by making sure my cursor is at the bottom of the page and I make sure I use the anchor edit button to lock each photo or page in its place. I have never done this before and just figured it out trial and error.

Here is my final question: what is the difference with what I have been doing and what you are describing if any at all?

My page is at www.sphs72.com (see the reunion book page).

Thanks,

Bruce

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Tuesday, August 26, 2008 at 7:19 PM - Response #13

Hi again, Thana,

Sorry I spelled your name wrong before. What is ISSUU?
I have a MacBook Pro and Leopard but have only had it for about 1 month. So this is all new to me.

Bruce

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Wednesday, August 27, 2008 at 12:13 AM - Response #14

Hi Bruce

I'm not sure what you're doing, but here is he link to the apple site where you can see how i did it. I used preview as described in the video. Let me know if you have questions after you view it.

http://www.apple.com/business/theater/#tutorial=mergepdf

Issuu.com is a third party publishing website. Once your yearbook PDF is complete, you can upload it to ISSUU and then copy the source code into your website.

Thana

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Thursday, August 28, 2008 at 6:42 AM - Response #15

I just scanned all of the pages into TIF's and then used Photoshop to cut out the individual images in JPG's and uploaded them. Basically took 3 days (most of a weekend) to knock out about 650 pictures but the results have been well accepted.

I'm lucky my wife didn't kill me.

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Thursday, August 28, 2008 at 12:41 PM - Response #16

Yep, i loaded the six hour version of Pride and Prejudice and watched while i scanned page after page of the yearbooks. i decided not to include the portraits of other classes (we had over 550 in each class) and i still have about 40% left to do, but i uploaded all of our senior portraits and that is keeping the natives happy until i can do the rest.

Which brings me to another question. Can i edit/add the second half of my yearbook to the part already on ISSUU or do i have to upload a whole new yearbook PDF? Anybody know? i didn't see a lot of help options in ISSUU.

Thana

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Sunday, August 31, 2008 at 9:22 PM - Response #17

Hi Thana,

Sounds like you are making great progress.
Issuu currently does not allow you to modify or download documents that have been uploaded.

To make it work, you need to upload your new document,regenerate the embed code and then delete the old document.

--Chris
reunion@83phs.com

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Sunday, September 7, 2008 at 6:09 PM - Response #18

chris - I just sent you a separate email on this subject. hope you're able to advise!

thanks, Rachael

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Tuesday, September 16, 2008 at 11:43 AM - Response #19

I just finished doing mine. Or at least most of it. I scanned my yearbook pages which came out as jpg format then converted them to pdf using acrobat then merged them all into one file using a little free program called pdf helper.
Then uploaded the single merged pdf to issuu and everything worked fine. You can check it out at www.classcreator.com/hope-ar-1973

Good luck.

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Tuesday, September 16, 2008 at 12:53 PM - Response #20

Long story...hurricane in Madison, Indiana...electricity but no internet. No school...no electricity. At the library... Want to work on my yearbook project, but don't want to screw up.

I have Window 98 and a Lexmark scanner. How do I proceed? Do I label each scan by the page number of the book? Some pages are double...will ISSUU line up the scans?

What dpi do I use?

Thanks,
K

Will return to the library later.

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Tuesday, September 16, 2008 at 12:54 PM - Response #21

Long story...hurricane in Madison, Indiana...electricity but no internet. No school...no electricity. At the library... Want to work on my yearbook project, but don't want to screw up.

I have Window 98 and a Lexmark scanner. How do I proceed? Do I label each scan by the page number of the book? Some pages are double...will ISSUU line up the scans?

What dpi do I use?
I printed out the previous responses. Will read and learn more. Probably still need help. I also printed out the ISSUU info page which I just found.
Thanks,
K

Will return to the library later.

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Edited 09/16/08 1:03 PM
Friday, October 2, 2009 at 4:47 PM - Response #22

hello there,
i was reading thru this post and saw the ISSUU stuff.
went to ur site phs83.com and i must say im impressed.
the zoom feature is what m looking for and i want to try it.
did you pay for their services or is this service free.
ur response is much appreciated

thank you,
Georg

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Sunday, October 18, 2009 at 9:33 PM - Response #23

Thana,

I'm currently working on our 50th year reunion and have a few things going, nothing fancy, but it's working. I want to do turning pages and have done everything up to uploading to Issus. Their site doesn't appear very helpful or very clear, I've tried to follow the instructions, but I can't even get to the place where I can upload my pdf file. Would you be willing to help me in this regard? I'm a Mac user also.

Thanks in advance,

Robert

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Monday, October 19, 2009 at 9:12 PM - Response #24

Hi Robert,

I just finished working on our own yearbook and I would like to share some tips with you.
I'm assuming the combined PDF file is ready for upload. Like everyone said, when u've finished making the PDF file ur about 95% done.

1)go to issuu.com
2)create an account (this is very important otherwise you won't be able to do the upload.
3)the site sends you a confirmation email. Keep the email as it contains your login credentials to their site.
4)login to the site using the credentials from the email
5)once logged in, refer to the upper right hand corner of the page and look for the link "UPLOAD DOCUMENT"
6) click that link and it will send you to another page.
7) the next page starts with 2 tabs by giving you the option of "Upload a file" or "Upload many files"
Choose "Upload a file" (i think this is the default, but just make sure anyway)
Cool The next info required would be the pdf location, click on the browse button and do your search for the PDF accordingly.
9) the following questions should be easy for you.
10) i suggest you supply as much info as you can on the blanks and click "more options" on the section of "Media" "Publishing" and "Sharing options" and carefully select the options available.
11) Once you've carefully reviewed this page click the "Upload File" button.
12) This page is very picky and will ask all sorts of info so make sure you fill in the boxes correctly and completely. (I found out the hard way)

once you've completed the upload go back to the home page and click the link "My library". This takes a while so be patient. If you see the file you've uploaded then that confirms upload success.

once u've confirmed upload success, highlight that file in your library, (marked by a light blue box surrounding the chosen file), then click "embed" which is in the upper middle part of the page in between "Statistics" and "copy Link".

Grab the embed code copy and paste it onto your website accordingly.

try out these instructions and see if it works.

good luck
georg

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