Getting the build log to paper

01 Oct 2010   book   buildlog   tools

This won’t be the most obvious topic for a first post for a builder log for a kit airplane, but since the ability to eventually get a nice print copy of my build log after the airplane is completed, that functionality is pretty important to me. Since Wordpress is a pretty heavily used platform, I figured there would probably be tools available to make my ultimate dream of a nice book version of the builder log.

I’m happy to say I have already found at least one method to get a book of the process. For any builders using Wordpress to track your building process, hopefully this will be as useful to you as I hope it will be to me.

The first step in the process is to create a PDF of the build log. While there are probably other services available, I did find one called ‘BlogBooker’. This service takes an export from the wordpress site and turns it into a PDF file, pictures and all.  This PDF file includes a full table of contents and has a variety of options available to customize the output. For anyone using Live Journal or Blogger, this site also works for those blog packages.

Having a PDF version of the entire project is pretty nice on its own, however, the real goal is to have a print version of the project. BlogBooker includes links to a few companies that will print the generated PDF into a nice book format. I’ve only taken a look at Lulu, and I haven’t seen the quality of the work from them yet, however, it looks like they have very nice pricing for creating a book out of the PDF. They have options for hard cover and soft cover books with a variety of bindings - sounds like pretty much exactly what I have in mind.

There is a limit to the size of the books that can be published, so I’m expecting to end up with multiple volumes before I’m done. Maybe I’ll plan from the start to do a book for each sub-kit of the project.

For the record, this post is primarily here just to remind me of a couple tools when I get closer to the point of needing it. I’m not getting anything for linking to these sites, other than some form of extra memory. Hopefully this can help someone out.

Happy Building!