[godzappa]

iPhoto: GREAT

Been importing many of my photos into iPhoto today, I dont have a digital camera (well I do but its old and *gasp* serial), but have many high res scans. Some observations

Importing: iPhoto doesnt seem to want to import files at 600DPI, or over a couple megs in file size. I went through the photos I wanted to be in iPhoto and reduced the DPI to 400 (some 500) and they imported fine.

Printing: I have a Lexmark z22, I went to print 4 images onto a contact sheet, and chose photo quality on photo paper, and hit print. To my suprise (disapointment) the print was terrible, really really low quality. Waste of photo paper. The next time I tried to print, I went into advanced settings and made sure the quality was all set right (which it seemed to be without touching anything) and it started to print (onto normal paper, didnt want to waste any more) fine. I'll let you all know when I attempt a full photo print onto real paper.
A side note: Does anyone else have a z22? what kind of quality should I be expecting? I havent printed many photos with it but those I have, have quite poor quality compared to my old Epson 740, which is two or three years old and so far beats the crap out of this new Lexmark, am I doing something wrong?

The Book: Nice, really quirky at first, I wanted to drag my images onto the pages like iDVD or iMovie but this is done two ways. First of all you need to goto Organize and put all your photos into the order you want to see them, then goto book and say how many pictures you want on each page. Weird thing: Certain images arrange nice on the page while others do not, I had 2 squares and one 5x7 portrait on one page, then I decided to switch one of the square images with another one (square too) and for some reason iPhoto wanted to now arrange the page differently, and looked pretty crappy. I couldnt re-arrange the photos to how they were shown before, so I stuck the original picture back.

Question: I am whipping up a book of my recent wedding and want to know what I can do with these books font wise. iPhoto allows me to select the fonts I want to use, and I have many fonts not provided with OSX (eyewire fonts etc), but what I am concerned about is wether these fonts will appear if I get Apple to do me a book. I have gone to order book and iPhoto has compiled my project without warnings on the font, but would hate to spend 40 bucks and get a book back with messed up fonts. Anyone know if these fonts are sent to apple or if the file format is pdf (with custom fonts included in-file?)

All in all, great app, and great work by the Apple crew.

[tr]

Importing: iPhoto doesnt seem to want to import files at 600DPI, or over a couple megs in file size. I went through the photos I wanted to be in iPhoto and reduced the DPI to 400 (some 500) and they imported fine.

i've had no problem importing large files over 600 dpi. i've been importing 1000dpi tiffs, and psd files that are around 50 mb. works fine.

commenting on the book creation: i also found it very tricky. i had no idea how to put different picture as the cover of the book, then i realized you have to arrange the pics for the book using 'organize'.

also, do you have to have a cover picture for the book? there doesn't seem to be anyway around that...

tr

[flatcatch]

I took the plunge last night and ordered a book. Bottom line... iPhoto's heart is in the right place and I think its (going to be) great, but it became a damn nightmare to get a book together.

I think once I deleted a image from my book album the links/thumbnails became completely screwed up (in Book view a thumbnail for one image would display another.... deleting say, picture "A" from Organize View would delete a different picture from the Book view... some images in Organize view wouldn't even show up in Book view's pages... even if I re-added them)

I agree about the multi-image layout on the pages issue... I'm looking forward to a new iPhoto rev that allows you to reposition the images within the page. Oddly in one case where iPhoto adamantly would not allow me to re-order 4 images in One Page layout in my attempt to change the way it created the 4 image page, I found that removing the 4 images, re-adding them, re-ordering them, then re-selecting 4-Page it would change things up.

Also, my iBook 600/Combo crawls through iPhoto. I feel like I'm using my old 8500. Of course, even the new 800Mhz G4 iMacs I played with at MWSF are still a bit pokey with basic use. I'm using images from my Olympus 3040 (3.3 megapixels, SHQ JPEG) that run about 3-5 megs each. I'll be curious to see how they turn out. I feel like a guinea pig for the amount of money I dropped on this 19 page book (yeah I know, SHEESH!, but it was kind of like one of those 2am infomercial impulse buys). I have a worry that I'll be on the phone with Apple in a couple weeks after iPhoto decided to upload a book that varies entirely from what iPhoto shows on my screen.

[godzappa]

I just wish we knew wether we can use custom fonts for the books, the program allows the use of custom fonts, but I'd hate to drop the money on the book Im making to have it arrive with the fonts missing or some poor default font applied to the book.

[flatcatch]

Originally posted by godzappa:
<STRONG>I just wish we knew wether we can use custom fonts for the books, the program allows the use of custom fonts, but I'd hate to drop the money on the book Im making to have it arrive with the fonts missing or some poor default font applied to the book.</STRONG>

Thats a good point. I haven't directly installed any new fonts and chose "Bradley Hand ITC TT-Bold"... so either it is OS X standard or some other app installed it. I would imagine and HOPE that iPhoto would render the text before uploading the pages. It does take a few moments to "prepare" each page when you click to buy it. You could simply give it a shot, and if the book shows up incorrectly demand your money back + shipping expenses since it is clearly a problem on their part.

[bradr]

I got my first book yesterday in the mail. It was shipped 2 days after upload and arrived 3 days later.

Overall, I am quite pleased. It is a handsome item. The linen cover has a nice feel to it. It has matching end papers (the inside back cover has the Apple logo on it with "Created on a Macintosh" at the bottom). The photo quality was good. I thought a couple of pictures were a bit dark, but on the whole, it turned out very nicely. :-)

Brad

[malson]

Hey Brad...could you post some pictures of the book. I've seen the Apple promo stuff, but I want to see what the thing actually looks like. Thanks...

[bradr]

As requested... check out:

http://homepage.mac.com/rudacb/Demos/PhotoAlbum19.html

It's a quick look at the book I had made.

Brad

[godzappa]

Great pics Bradr!

I think I will order my book tomorrow, I may use custom fonts, if so will let you all know if my book arrives screwed up or not

[packley]

My book arrived in the mail today, too. The quality ws great. Like the other guy said, one or two pictures seemed a little dark, but nothing that ruined the pictures. Overall, I was very impressed.

I'd post photos or video, but I've already given it as a gift... Sorry

[godzappa]

How much was the shipping?

I wonder if the books will be sent from the US or within Canada, would like to avoid paying customs fees

-edit- ACK just setup one click and all so I got the shipping to Canada, 14.99 US, thats over 23 bucks shipping alone. D'OH

[ 01-16-2002: Message edited by: godzappa ]

[rjc3]

thanks for posting your pics. is it just me or are the photos not centered properly? it looks light they are all way over on the right side of the page. perhaps this service works best with horizontally orientated pics? otherwise this looks very good.

[bradr]

The Portfolio layout puts the photos along the outside edge. Other layouts center them and "Storybook" puts them all over the place.

Brad

[jed]

How many pages? Can you add/subtract within a range? What's the range? I'm thinking of doing one but I'm waiting to see how fonts come out.

[typoon]

Nice Pics , The book seems to be very nice. Looks like it would make a Great gift Idea.

BTW Cute dog.

[Archangel]

Originally posted by bradr:
<STRONG>As requested... check out:

http://homepage.mac.com/rudacb/Demos/PhotoAlbum19.html

It's a quick look at the book I had made.

Brad</STRONG>

That does look nice! Could you tell us how much that book set you back? I have a bunch of pics I would very much like published, but I would like an idea of price (including S&H). TIA,

[bradr]

The book pictured is a standard 10 page book. (only 4 pages shown) It runs 29.99. I am in Virginia, so tax was $1.84, and shipping was $7.00 and some change.

It's a bit pricy, but would be really nice for a good vacation album, or weddings, anniversary albums. More keepsake type pictures.

[Hydra]

I made a book of 50 pages with 100 pictures from a NY-CA cross country road trip with my brother (and my Porsche Boxster S- had to brag there -sorry) a few months ago. I went with a portfolio style with a blue linen cover. I just received it this afternoon and am completely satisfied with the finished product. The pages look like what you have in a good quality textbook and the full-bleed looks really nice too. It looks very professional and was worth the $150 or so.

Jerry C.

[Archangel]

Looks like it be prohibitively expensive for us poor college students. I wonder if prices will drop later.

[godzappa]

The book I had set up would have ended up costing 85 dollars canadian (11 page book) which is steap, but also I am sure customs would want me to pay the bloody government MORE money , perhaps an extra 25-35 dollars, so I've decided not to bother, can make a nice album in InDesign and buy the hardcover book shell anywhere for a fraction of the price.

If Apple start supplying the books from within Canada so the price isnt doubled via shipping and custom duty, then I will certainly get a book or two

[SeSawaya]

So am I right that it WONT print on both sides of the page???

Just wondering

[bleen]

I ordered some pictures of iPhoto, and I was very very impressed on how the pictures turned out.

I was curious about the fonts as well, I have some rare fonts that would be cool to use in a book, but would it turn out.

Also about the shipping, I was amazed!!!!!!!!! I ordered about 40 pictures (5x7, 8x10, 4x6...). I ordered it early wednesday morning. I got an email that they were printed and being mailed off wedneday evening. And got them in the mail today (friday). They came in 2 envlopes with the Apple Logo and text "your pictures are here."

[jed]

godzappa, where can you buy a hardcover shell? I am interested in doing this on my own and it'd be great if I could do it myself.

Also, does anyone know if they print on both sides of the page?

[bradr]

No. The books are only printed on one side of the page.

[godzappa]

I am pretty sure its only printed on one side of the page Jed.

As for hardcover books which can be used, I have yet to go looking for them at the moment, but am sure arts and crafts and art stores have something like this, I know back in my college days some students made their own sketch books with nice outer "shells" and pages from a variety of sources.

When I go to find some for use with my homemade (el cheapo ) book I will let you know what I find and where I found it.

[Boondoggle]

iPhoto creates PDF files of book pages with fonts, and that is what is sent to the printer. I used some quirky fonts with no problems.

One of the benefits of Quartz.