Blog in Print

I spent quite some time researching and seeking out ways to EASILY have my blog converted to print for posterity. So many stories contained within these electronic walls, even if they are somewhat sporadic of late.

I first started off with Blurb, which offered the most control in the way of formatting the layout. However – 1. this was NOT user friendly, and 2. it slurped up the WHOLE blog in its entirety in one hit, not allowing for any filters to be applied beforehand. One then had to remove the posts that you didn’t want to include (this takes a while if you have been blogging for years).

Next I went to Blog2Print. Hear the angels chorus. It allows limited formatting options for layout BUT filters the dates you put in, if like me you only wanted to print a one year at a time.

Let me point out that blog photos are generally reduced in resolution for web viewing, so not optimum for printing. There is a way around this – if you want gloriously large images you can one by one replace the images you have used with the full sized ones from your computer. Did I do this? NO.

I have now printed FOUR years of blog books and the family adores them….

I did blog in 08/09 I think but the posts sporadic and not worthy of collating.

One can choose the colour of the cover and a pattern. Can also choose a photo to put on the front AND the back. I picked my favourite of the kids for each year and the annual Christmas shot for the the back.

The front page inside the cover also allows for a short dedication or few words (not pictured) for a little bit of literary prose to sum up the year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The layout seems to vary from book to book and sometimes the pics are slightly out of order from the text…but I’m not overly worried. As you can see the images aren’t big, they are as big as they can be given their resolution.

I have printed the comments usually (you can ask it to NOT include them) as some of the best bits are there.

As you can see I still ended up with pretty hearty looking books, which was another reason why I decided I wasn’t overly fussed about making the layout all pretty. I think each year has cost around $100-145 to print, which as I have hardly printed a photo in the past four years, pretty cheap. If I never ever print or scrapbook again, these stories are saved.

And…they take up so little space on the shelf opposed to the regular old (albeit much loved) scrapbook album. These really have cemented in me that I will be doing digital and printed albums from now on, even just the regular yearly gathering of photos (a great many of which don’t ever make it to the public blog by their very nature!) which I have spoken about before.

We love our blog books,the kids and husband often get them out and peruse, and I often go searching for something I know I have included to check on date etc.

Do let me know if you have any experiences in transferring your blog to print, and if you have used any different company.

the face behind cattle - kids - chaos

one of the great added, unexpected bonuses about blogging is the friendships formed. Slightly unconventional, but still, its wonderful becoming friends with people, while like minded, one would ordinarily never ever meet.  Like my mates over at Simple Aussie Girls. :-)

Another one, not living quite so far away, while I have never met face to face, our worlds aren't so far apart, having several mutual acquaintances, and in the same industry. Like all bloggers I guess, her face isn't seen much around her blog, being behind the camera most times. So imagine my delight when I finally caught up on some essential bush reading, The Queensland Country Life, and found this lovely person photographed not once but TWICE in her role as show president (and Champion Photographer) of her area.

For Old Nev, who wasn't able to buy a paper (must have been sold out to the rest of her adoring fans :-) and anyone else who wanted to see a shirt and necklace previously mentioned on Fiona's blog. Because we care about the important things in life obviously (snickery-snort!)

and againOld Nev, if you want the originals to paste into your scrapbook :-) please email me your postal address to thequietlifeqld (at) yahoo (dot) com (dot) au. You know the drill, put the @ and . where applicable.  

And folks, please do pop by Fiona's blog and say hi. And tell her how you like her shirt. :-)