Sorry guys, but I'm back with another question... :(
When using the One-piece cover/spine width calculation API I constantly get an error saying:
Lulu has no print plan that meets these requirements.
Is there a list of plans available for us to decide what trim size, binding type, etc we can publish? Or is there a way for us to get a better idea of what attributes aren't supported?
The project I'm working on is expecting a 8.5 X 8.5 harcover photo book similar to this.
You can find detailed information about all of our supported combinations of physical attributes, along with information about minimum and maximum page counts and per page pricing here:
At the moment the cover size calculator endpoint does not support the premium paper type that is used by our photobook studio tool. This is something that we are looking to resolve soon so that the high-quality paper books are available to our API users.
Thanks for the link Josiah, the connect section of the site has a ton of information. Wish I had seen it before...
One last question though: Would you recommend the "regular" and "Premium" paper types for printing photos? Or are these only used for text?
I only ask because I'm interested in printing photo books and as you pointed out in your last post that the high-quality paper isn't available in the API. Or have I misunderstood because this link says that publish grade paper is available?
Can I make a book with publisher grade paper, but I can't use the size calculator to find the size of the spine of the book?
The ideal paper type for photos is definitely the thicker higher-quality premium paper. The publisher grade paper is a less expensive lighter weight paper more ideal for text.
You are right, all three paper types (regular, publisher-grade, and premium) can be used through the book creation API, but the premium paper type is not yet supported for cover size calculations.
Is there a workaround for the lack of support in the Cover size calculation API for the premium paper type? Or is the only option to use saddle stitch binding because that uses a PDF twice the size of the width of the book for the cover?
We were really looking forward to providing hardcover photo books...
Thanks for the help provided so far, Josiah. It's greatly appreciated.
If you can (at least for now) decide on a small set of page counts to support, you could use the cover size calculator that we have on the site to manually query for sizes and store them on your side. You'll find this calculator near the bottom of the left side of this page: http://www.lulu.com/publish/books/
We expect that within a few weeks we will probably be able to add support for premium paper to our public API call, which will allow for programmatic querying of cover size.
When using the book spine calculator on your site, the minimum page count for a soft cover with a perfect binding and publisher grade paper is 84 pages... That's well over the amount of pages we were looking to use. I'm assuming we can't simply divide the width of the spine and calculate the size spine for other page counts, right?
For example:
The spine for book with 84 pages is 11.41 Postscript points wide (0.402 cm). So if we do the following:
(11.41pt / 84 pages) * 35 = 4.75pt
We get end up with 4.75pt. Is that the width of the spine for a book with 35 publisher grade pages?
I'm also assuming the spine widths will be the same for a 5.5" x 8.5" as it would for a 8.5" x 8.5" (the calculator doesn't support 8.5 x 8.5 publisher grade books with perfect binding).
Seems to me this project is getting a little more complicated than we first thought :D
If anyone can help with my above questions, it would be greatly appreciated.
I think you may be confusing the paper types. Publisher grade paper (which is accepted as an input to the cover size calculator) is the thinner and cheaper paper that you probably don't want to use for photo books. The premium paper is the thicker higher quality paper more appropriate for photos. These books can have as few as 20 pages.
Most likely you are correct, the properties that are most important as inputs into the cover size calculation are the binding type and paper type. The trim size shouldn't really matter.
The trim size naming is a bit confusing. Originally we only had 7.5x7.5 and 8.5x8.5 sizes, and called them "square" and "large square" respectively. That of course presented a problem when we added an even larger square trim size. On the website they are generally called "small square," "square," and "large square" while through the API (where we can't rename things for compatibility reasons) they are referred to using SQUARE, LARGE_SQUARE, and SIZE_12x12.
Sorry guys, but I'm back with another question... :(
When using the One-piece cover/spine width calculation API I constantly get an error saying:
Lulu has no print plan that meets these requirements.Is there a list of plans available for us to decide what trim size, binding type, etc we can publish? Or is there a way for us to get a better idea of what attributes aren't supported?
The project I'm working on is expecting a 8.5 X 8.5 harcover photo book similar to this.
Message edited by Soap Creative 2 years ago
Josiah Gore – 2 years ago
You can find detailed information about all of our supported combinations of physical attributes, along with information about minimum and maximum page counts and per page pricing here:
http://connect.lulu.com/t5/Product-Information/Book-Product-Information/ta-p/82791
At the moment the cover size calculator endpoint does not support the premium paper type that is used by our photobook studio tool. This is something that we are looking to resolve soon so that the high-quality paper books are available to our API users.
Soap Creative – 2 years ago
Thanks for the link Josiah, the connect section of the site has a ton of information. Wish I had seen it before...
One last question though: Would you recommend the "regular" and "Premium" paper types for printing photos? Or are these only used for text?
I only ask because I'm interested in printing photo books and as you pointed out in your last post that the high-quality paper isn't available in the API. Or have I misunderstood because this link says that publish grade paper is available?
Can I make a book with publisher grade paper, but I can't use the size calculator to find the size of the spine of the book?
Josiah Gore – 2 years ago
The ideal paper type for photos is definitely the thicker higher-quality premium paper. The publisher grade paper is a less expensive lighter weight paper more ideal for text.
You are right, all three paper types (regular, publisher-grade, and premium) can be used through the book creation API, but the premium paper type is not yet supported for cover size calculations.
Soap Creative – 2 years ago
Hey Josiah, thanks for the reply.
Is there a workaround for the lack of support in the Cover size calculation API for the premium paper type? Or is the only option to use saddle stitch binding because that uses a PDF twice the size of the width of the book for the cover?
We were really looking forward to providing hardcover photo books...
Thanks for the help provided so far, Josiah. It's greatly appreciated.
Josiah Gore – 2 years ago
If you can (at least for now) decide on a small set of page counts to support, you could use the cover size calculator that we have on the site to manually query for sizes and store them on your side. You'll find this calculator near the bottom of the left side of this page: http://www.lulu.com/publish/books/
We expect that within a few weeks we will probably be able to add support for premium paper to our public API call, which will allow for programmatic querying of cover size.
Soap Creative – 2 years ago
When using the book spine calculator on your site, the minimum page count for a soft cover with a perfect binding and publisher grade paper is 84 pages... That's well over the amount of pages we were looking to use. I'm assuming we can't simply divide the width of the spine and calculate the size spine for other page counts, right?
For example:
The spine for book with 84 pages is 11.41 Postscript points wide (0.402 cm). So if we do the following:
(11.41pt / 84 pages) * 35 = 4.75ptWe get end up with
4.75pt. Is that the width of the spine for a book with 35 publisher grade pages?I'm also assuming the spine widths will be the same for a 5.5" x 8.5" as it would for a 8.5" x 8.5" (the calculator doesn't support 8.5 x 8.5 publisher grade books with perfect binding).
Seems to me this project is getting a little more complicated than we first thought :D
If anyone can help with my above questions, it would be greatly appreciated.
Josiah Gore – 2 years ago
I think you may be confusing the paper types. Publisher grade paper (which is accepted as an input to the cover size calculator) is the thinner and cheaper paper that you probably don't want to use for photo books. The premium paper is the thicker higher quality paper more appropriate for photos. These books can have as few as 20 pages.
Soap Creative – 2 years ago
Oh, sorry Josiah. You're right!
It doesn't matter what I enter in the "Size" drop-down right? The spine width will be the same wether it is "Large Landscape" or "Large Square"?
Note: I noticed that the "large square" in the calculator is 12" x 12"... but on this page it's 8.5" x 8.5"...
Josiah Gore – 2 years ago
Most likely you are correct, the properties that are most important as inputs into the cover size calculation are the binding type and paper type. The trim size shouldn't really matter.
The trim size naming is a bit confusing. Originally we only had 7.5x7.5 and 8.5x8.5 sizes, and called them "square" and "large square" respectively. That of course presented a problem when we added an even larger square trim size. On the website they are generally called "small square," "square," and "large square" while through the API (where we can't rename things for compatibility reasons) they are referred to using SQUARE, LARGE_SQUARE, and SIZE_12x12.