Photoalbum.com project

Partial Transparency is now supported!

2009-05-28T17:02:00.004-05:00

A new update to the PhotoAlbum online design tool was posted today to provide full support for partial transparency in files such as PNG format. Partial transparency is popular in artwork provided from various scrapbooking sites and is often used for things like frames or elements intended to "blend in" with any background elements.

We have updated the design tool along with the PDF creation system to now support these partially transparent files. If you have previously uploaded artwork with partial transparency then please contact us so we can reconvert your artwork, otherwise you can just upload these files again.

Transparency is recognized in artwork as it is uploaded to the design tool and the resulting images in the Your Photos tab will maintain the original transparency.

How to build a flipbook

2009-04-24T13:34:00.002-05:00

Online digital flipbooks are becoming more popular as a way to to both share your digital designs with others and a method for publishing content online. There are a number of sources for publishing digital flipbooks but most either have a cost factor involved - or they require your original content to already be in PDF format.

Using your free account with photoalbum.com and the browser based design tool, you can both create your content and share it as a beautiful online flipbook. These books can be embeded to your blog or website or even included into your ebay auctions.

To read more see this:
http://www.photoalbum.com/how_to_make_flip_book.html

Update to PhotoAlbum Design tool

2009-04-06T14:56:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the lack of postings. Some are better at blogging than others 8-)

We have updated the online design tool so that placed artwrok appears on the page at full size. So now if you upload 300 DPI images and drag and drop them to your design - they will place at the full size of the image. This will save time in not having to scale up images as has been the case in the past.

Check out this great scrapbook

2008-12-07T18:32:00.000-06:00

Here is a really nice book by one of our users:

http://tinyurl.com/6mt9c9

Site Updates in the coming days

2008-08-13T10:53:00.002-05:00

The PhotoAlbum.com website will be going through a number of changes in the coming days. We are glad to have feedback from users and are trying our best to improve the ease of use. Our plans are to include product descriptions and pricing right on the home page. We also will be providing direct links to the online design tool from each product category. This will allow you to select the kind of scrapbook or photo book that you are interested in building and to the directly open the design tool to either the templates page or to a blank page for that book size.

Also in the coming months we will be introducing a new version of the online design tool. We are planning lots of improvements to make it easier to use and give it more powerful features. I would love to get your comments about features that you would like to see.

Some people have asked for features like Drop Shadows while others have asked for integrated design of book covers with the page design. Please write your requests and either send them to me or post them as comments here.

Thanks
David

Online sharing of your photo books

2008-08-09T10:47:00.002-05:00

We are really excited about the cool new feature for building digital flipbooks of your online photo book layouts. This is a new feature that we will be developing more and more in the coming days. Right now it is a great way to see a proof of what your printed photo book will look like. They are easy to build and free.

Create your account and design your pages and then use the Publish option in the MY Designs section to create your online digital page flip book.

You have full creative control to build the design you like and then to convert that design into a electronic paper format that you can share with others.

Use your PhotoAlbum.com digital flip book for many purposes. Send them to friends and family. Got something nice you would like to sell on Ebay? Make a digital flip book of your ebay auction item and embed the flip book into the ebay auction layout.

More new Artwork

2008-07-20T20:22:00.004-05:00

We have created a section in the Image Gallery called "New Artwork" as we place new artwork we will start by putting it in this section first and then move to one of the permanent categories.

I also would love to invite users to submit their own artwork for inclusion in our image gallery. Please send me an email with the label of your artwork and you user name and indicate your permission for us to post your artwork.

Please also send us your comments about the site.

David Lewis

2008-07-17T15:22:00.024-05:00

See our upcoming Flipbook feature:

The 4 buttons at the bottom can be used to flip pages or you can grab a page and flip it by hand.
The left and right most buttons auto flip all pages to the end while the inner buttons flip one page at a time. You can click on the very right or left edge of a page to flip it and you can grab pages at the corner to flip them.

Email Notices for Print Ready PDF of your Online Digital Scrapbook are working again!

2008-07-15T16:29:00.005-05:00

Recently we have been working on new services so we can integrate design thumbnails into the main PhotoAlbum.com website and to prepare for the upcoming FlipBook capability.

Well to make a long story short, we broke the email notices for viewing your PDF of the design.

I am glad to say this is now fixed - it is actually improved as well. So if you click the link in the Album menu to "Order Output" you will now receive your email notice with the link to view the print ready PDF of your album.

This is actually a very nice feature as it is an easy way to create PDF files from online designs. PDF creation tools are either expensive to buy or not very useful otherwise. Using PhotoAlbum.com to create a book and then exporting that as a printready PDF is something not generally available.

New Artwork Additions to Online Designer

2008-07-14T20:14:00.004-05:00

We have created some new "Image Gallery" options in the online Scrapbook design tool. These include options like "Blends" Where we are placing various colors and shapes of blends (also called gradients or vignettes). These can be used for backgrounds or shadows.

We have also added more backgrounds and several other new categories like "Hearts". Most of the new artwork originates from vector art so it can be resized to any dimension and the final output will look great.

If you have any nice quality "original artwork" that you would like to give us rights to use on the site then please upload your artwork and drop it into a design page. Then send me an email. If we decide to add your artwork then we will give you a free printed book.

New Design Tool Update with Page Ordering

2008-06-29T18:44:00.002-05:00

We have recently updated our online design tool with several new features.

1. Uploading more file types. Now you can upload both vector and raster formats. For instance if you have a design created in another software package with both vector (text, shapes) and raster (images) and you would like to keep the high quality vector elements - then just save your design as either a PDF, EPS or PS format. These formats can be uploaded and will retain the full quality.

2. Larger thumbnails. Previously the thumbnails for uploaded images were quite small which made it difficult to determine which one to use. Now thumbnails are twice as big.

3. Page Reordering. This is a much needed feature! Now you can right click on the Page Thumbnails in the lower panel and select to move pages left or right or to the start or end. This will help to get your final album in the right order before printing.

Visit my Lens at Squidoo

2007-10-07T14:49:00.000-05:00

Squidoo is an interesting site and I've created a "Lens" there - please have a look!

www.photoalbum.com is now open!

2007-09-27T18:28:00.000-05:00

Online Scrapbooking now has a new home! www.photoalbum.com is now open in Beta mode and we are working hard to make sure our online design tool is the best it can be.

We are really enjoying the opportunity to work with all of the very talented designers that are building beautiful designs for scrapbooking. We have implemented support for both designer and user accounts. The user accounts provides a private space for uploading images and building custom designs. The designer account provides an interface to build templates that everyone can see and use in their designs.

Please come and visit and let us know what you think.

David

Skype is down - how does that effect you?

2007-08-16T12:36:00.000-05:00

We are spread all over the place and Skype has become a service we use on a constant basis. Today they say they are having software problems which puts a real crunch on us. What other web services have you come to depend on for your daily grind?

Semi finalist at TechCrunch 20

2007-08-13T09:10:00.000-05:00

PhotoAlbum.com was selected as one of the semi-finalist for the upcoming TechCrunch 20 event. We are really happy to be included in their list of startup projects to interview.

We interviewed with Jason Calacanis the originator of Weblogs Inc and currently working on www.mahalo.com the human powered search engine.

Now we wait to see if we advance to the next level!

Is LinkedIn coming Unhooked?

2007-08-05T16:31:00.000-05:00

Like many others in the business community - I find LinkedIn to be my social networking place of choice. I don't feel like I fit in at MySpace and not many of my peers have joined Facebook yet, but quite a lot are on LinkedIn.

Over the past few weeks I have noticed that LinkedIn seems to be coming unhooked. It started off that - now everytime I perform any action it askes me for my login and password - over and over again. I wrote customer service about it and they responded saying "
There is an anomaly that we are researching is not tied to a single browser type or operating system affecting a very small segment of our users" - what does this mean?

Next I started getting repeated emails from requests sent out ages ago. The same message over and over again.

Now I am trying to post a recomendation for a long time business contact. I have posted the receommendation 3 times and my friend still has not received it. I've written to customer service and so has my friend but still no answer.

Has anyone else been having similar problems?

Please tell me of Heaven and Hell

2007-08-03T23:51:00.000-05:00

The master gazed at the young Samurai and smiled. Then his smile turned to rolling laughter. Pointing at the young warrior he said "You ignorrant bumpkin! You presume to ask me a wise Master about Heaven or Hell? Don't waste my time - you are too ignorant to possibly comprend such things!"

The Samurai's temper flared, he strained to resit drawing his sword to take the head of this Zen master!
The master was not finished " Its quite clear that none of your lineage of loots and fools could ever understand a word of this!"

Enraged as never before the Samurai moved to rise and draw his weapon!

In that very moment the Master pointed at the Samurai and said "There open the gates of Hell!"

The Warrior froze - understanding took control - Hell was not a realm beyond his life but within him now!
He dropped to a bow of gratitude to his Master!

The Master smiled - pointed - and said "There open the gates of Heaven!"

Quality and Integrity - as a technology!

2007-08-03T23:05:00.000-05:00

Its an interesting consideration!
But for us it is our history!

Our base technology is Print Trapping - this is technology to improve commercial printing to the highest quality possible! It is technology designed to insure that print buyers receive printed pieces with the highest possible integrity!

What a lofty goal! We have devoted many years to this and it has permeated our lives! Think of it - our customers contact us about support on fine details in their printed piece that on average is about 5 thousands of an inch in size! Its mind boggling!

A human hair is larger than the width of most commercial print traps! Our software has more rules to produce quality trapping than most spread sheets use - yet is developed to run millions of times faster!

We have been developing solutions to improve the quality and integrity of printed pieces since 1988! I hope that Quality and Integrity have rubbed off on us in the process!!

Kimosetter rip

2007-08-03T22:39:00.000-05:00

We have been working like crazy on our project for developing the rip to drive the Kimosetter platesetter for Kimoto Tech. This is a project we have been working on for several years now. We really value our relationship with our partners in Japan. In my past we have worked with people in Japan and this has taught me how important it is to develop and nurture these relationships. Kimoto is a great company that clearly has its users in high regard. The reason we even have the opportunity to work with them is because the company previously providing their rip did not respond to the need of their customers.

So everyday I try to remind myself how important it is to listen to what customers need and to understand how important it is to guide development towards customer needs!

This has been a great project for us! We have a worldwide audience for it and this makes us open our thinking to this worldwide customer input. I am extremely please at how our development team has responded! We have now delivered a PS and PDF Rip solution that runs on all major platforms, Mac PPC and Intel, Windows XP and Vista - and supports both Roman and Asian languages. Wow it has been a major project!

All of this work and we only just now have released version 2!!!

Now we are working on version 3 - this is a great project - our screening scientist is working closely with the screening scientist from our friends at Artifex to implement their screening patents to work with the Kimosetter device!

It is great working with such a telented group!

Photobooks - the new way for sharing photo's

2007-08-03T20:32:00.000-05:00

HP recently reported that their Indigo division reports 2.5 million photo books and photo calendars were printed this past year on the Indigo. I think that HP has done a great job of focusing the Indigo for this market! You may ask why does this matter, well I strongly believe that it is a very important consideration.

Users are placing orders for customization photo products - like photo books. However they are not aware of how these books are produced.

The main systems used for photo book printing these days are either the sheet fed toner based systems like the Xerox Igen, the sheet fed liquid ink systems like the Kodak Nexpress or the HP Indigo, or the roll fed systems like the Xeikon sytem.

I have some strong feelings about each of these sytems.

First I am not in favor of the toner systems because I think that it is not going to hold up under long time periods! I think it is a low cost system that is fast and perfect for short term marketing programs - but I do not think that it is a safe system for storing long term memories as photo books. There are a number of companies that use this printing method for their photo books - and I hope that it will last but I seriously doubt that it will.

Next I am not in favor of roll fed sytems. Paper is equally as important as ink in proper quality and long lasting results. I belive that sheet fed systems will not suffer from stretching and curling and other problems associated with roll fed systems.

So this leaves us with either the Kodak Nexpress or the HP Indigo. This is a more difficult decision for me. I have a long time background with Hell, Heildelberg, and now Kodak. The Nexpress was developed by close friends of mine that I have known for many years and I know that they have put great work and effort into that product. I believe that it is well designed and well done. On the contrary I also am aware that the Indigo was not developed with the same level of quality in the begining - it was a project that was only focused on "selling stock".

However - things are now different! The Nexpress project has been the subject of transfer from one group to another and has been trying to find a niche! The Indigo on the other hand has cleanly landed in the HP camp. HP has clearly defined the photo market as a well defined market and has done everything it can to make the Indigo the premier solution for this market.

The HP Indigo is capable of printing on very high quality sheet fed paper, so you will not have stretching and shearing problems associated with roll fed. The Indigo uses liquid ink rather than toner, so there will not be problems of transfer (where one page sticks and transfers to the page above it in a book) nor will there be problems of fading since liquid inks are much more stable, and lastly (and most importantly) liquid inks are more vibrant with much better color gamut!

HP has also done a great job of developing software that offers the best possible color control and quality. For instance the toner based systems are much lower resolution than ink based sytems.

I will write more later about the importance of taking advantage of of all of the capabilities of these systems! Our company has many years of experience working in the printing industry and we will not short cut quality for speed or profit. We know how to provide quality with out cutting corners and I look forward to describing this for you.

So as a result of this PhotoAlbum.com has selected the HP Indigo as the printer of choice! We will not print our products on any other printer! ( We are not associated with HP in any way - in fact they don't even know we exist!) I do have some good friends at HP (Marc if you read this - please accept my apology) but in general we have nothing to gain by selecting them and more to lose by having to pay more for printing on their system than the cheaper products from the others - but our main gain is providing our customers a better product!

David Lewis

Esko Graphics and Artwork systems combine

2007-08-03T20:17:00.000-05:00

Well an interesting combination! Esko and Artworks join forces. This combination brings together the strongest and most far reaching technology and marketing organizations in the packaging market place and the desktop design market place.

In todays market commercial printing is on the decline and desktop design and package printing are the growing segments of typical printing. I think this is a great move between these two companies. While the press indicates that Esko has bought Artworks, I suspect otherwise. Esko is a shell of its past, spun off and owned by vulture capital. While Artworks has grown and made strategic acquisitions like Enfocus. I think Artwork will end up in control here - and well they should.

Artworks is a market driven company. Heavily into controlling their markets and developing for their markets. Esko will gve them almost a complete lock on the packaging market place.

Technorati

2007-08-01T17:30:00.001-05:00

www.photoalbum.com nearing opening day

2007-08-01T16:09:00.000-05:00

This is the first blog posting and my name is David Lewis. I am the founder of Photoalbum.com.

Our highly talented group of deverlopers have been working on this project for more than a year now and we are nearing opening day. All of us here want to welcome you to visit the site and try out the Online Photoalbum Design tool. It is a fully featured design tool written to work directly in your browser through the Flash Player. With it you can build extensive designs starting either from a blank page or using one of the many "QuickPage" designs that we will be publishing.

Building a photo album can be as easy as uploading your images using the easy multi-Image uploader, select QuickPage designs, and drag and drop your images into the placeholders. But this is just the begining!

Photoalbum.com supports all kinds of image formats, including vector formats like EPS and PDF. Photoalbum.com has an extensive set of fonts for both text and headlines. There are drawing tools for various shapes and color picker to colorize.

All elements can be freely positioned, scaled and rotated. Images can be cropped. Transparent areas are supported as well as layering to produce creative and beautiful designs.

Once your album has been created then you can order printed copies of the album as a hard bound Photo Book. Unlike other web sites that produce Photo Books by converting designs to lossy JPEG images for each page - PhotoAlbum.com converts your designs directly to PDF. Vector elements such as eps or fonts remain as high resolution shapes guaranteeing unsurpassed quality.

The scrapbooking community we hope will find Photoalbum.com to be a great place for Digital Scrapbooking. We are anxious to have Scrapbook Designers join us to create QuickPages. We can set a user account to a special mode to allow the designers to build and publish QuickPage templates using the Online Photoalbum Design tool.

To visit the site and get started building your online photoalbum then click here:
http://www.photoalbum.com/