How to Print a WordPress Blog Book
Do you have a blog on WordPress where you have published posts and pictures of your life, family or travels? After you have invested so much time and effort into your blog wouldn’t it be great to be able to capture all of that content into a physical book for yourself or for others?
With PixxiBook, making a blog book is quick and effortless, just enter your blog URL to get started. It does only take a few minutes and you can see a full preview of your book before you buy. Otherwise, read on to learn the finer points on how you can print your own book from your WordPress blog using PixxiBook.
Overview
WordPress is the most popular blogging platform. Some WordPress blogs are self-hosted — you own the domain and run the WordPress CMS yourself — and those work exactly the same way here as blogs hosted on wordpress.com, WPEngine, Edublogs or anywhere else. You don’t need a plugin, an export file, or access to your database: the address of your blog is enough.
Blog Book Layout
With its limitless range of themes and plugins, WordPress is suitable for all kinds of blogs and every site can appear unique. With this in mind, you may think it difficult to transform such varied content into a book however WordPress is at its core a Content Management System and it is the structured content that will form the heart of the book.
So if you have a WordPress travel blog, crafting blog, cooking blog, wedding blog, child rearing blog, house building blog, car renovation blog, family blog, (you get the idea), or any other, it already has all the makings of a beautiful book. Our Real Book layout can transform all sorts of content into a beautiful hardcover book.
Checkout our Book Gallery for this and other example books derived from WordPress blogs.
Content
Selection
Already when you create your blog post you have curated your collection of photos and images, choosing only the best, the most significant. So too your prose is tuned just so. The same content is perfect for a book but the form of a blog and the form of a book are very different. It is a good starting point.
The more structured your blog is, the easier it will be to select which posts you wish to include in your book. PixxiBook allows selection by date range, by category, as well as post by post, so a single year, a single trip, or one category out of a long running blog can each become their own book.
Your book will have the posts ordered by date, just as they are on your blog. If you wish to adjust the order that the articles are presented, you can correct the published date in the WordPress post editor.
Photos and Images
Print has a resolution 4 to 8 times higher than the average browser display so make sure that your blog contains high resolution variants of all of your photos. WordPress will automatically provide lower resolution variants for web presentation while we will use the highest resolution originals.
Keeping a Printed Archive
Blogs do not last forever. Hosting lapses, platforms shut down, and a site that is not renewed can disappear along with years of writing and photographs. A printed book is the one copy of your blog that does not depend on a server still being there, and unlike a database backup or an export file it can be read by anyone, without any software at all.
If you are winding down a WordPress blog, or moving it somewhere new, printing it first is a good way to keep what was written before the old site goes away.
Administration
Plugins and Passwords
Most blogs will automatically be ready for printing with no effort. If you have made alterations to your WordPress blog via customisations or sophisticated plugins, we might run into some minor roadbumps.
Read also about general preparation of your blog for printing.
Make sure your blog is publicly accessible so that anyone can view it without any special permissions or password. From your blog’s Admin Dashboard, head to Settings, then Privacy and select “Public”. You can reset it to “Private” after you have made your book if you need to.
Common Questions
Can I print a self-hosted WordPress blog?
Yes. Self-hosted WordPress blogs and blogs on wordpress.com are both fully supported, along with other WordPress hosts. You only need the address of the blog.
Do I need a plugin or an export file?
No. PixxiBook reads your blog from its public web address, so there is nothing to install and nothing to export.
Can I choose which posts go into the book?
Yes. You can select posts by date range, by category, or individually, so you can print a single trip or a single year rather than the whole blog.
Does my blog have to be public?
It needs to be publicly readable while we make the book. You can set it back to private afterwards.
Will my photos be sharp enough in print?
Print needs 4 to 8 times the resolution of a screen. We use the highest resolution original of each photo that your blog provides.
All Ready!
In most cases there is nothing to do - your WordPress blog can be automatically transformed into a book. You can freely create your preview to ensure that it looks good. If there’s any problems, you can modify your blog and re-run the book maker, or contact the PixxiBook team for more help.
Start now from the WordPress blog book page, or read our step by step guide to printing your blog book with PixxiBook.