MyCanvas books and collages

[Ham1]

Hey everyone,

I wanted to start a thread here to start getting your input to our newest Book and Collage maker MyCanvas. smugmug.mycanvas.com :clap:clap

Currently they are running pretty amazing special for all SmugMug customers, just go to your "buy" button on any SmugMug gallery. Click on "Create a book" or "Create a Collage" and you will see MyCanvas there. You have GOT to check out their Premium books!! :ivar:ivar

I am looking for feedback, thoughts, suggestions, complaints etc. I am going to get one or two of the MyCanvas people to join Dgrin and support their service just like Blurb does.

We love our partners!!

Thanks,
Markham

[Ann McRae]

w00t! Holy guacamole, Ham! What a great looking vendor!:clap :clap :clap


Hey everyone,

I wanted to start a thread here to start getting your input to our newest Book and Collage maker MyCanvas. smugmug.mycanvas.com :clap:clap

Currently they are running pretty amazing special for all SmugMug customers, just go to your "buy" button on any SmugMug gallery. Click on "Create a book" or "Create a Collage" and you will see MyCanvas there. You have GOT to check out their Premium books!! :ivar:ivar

I am looking for feedback, thoughts, suggestions, complaints etc. I am going to get one or two of the MyCanvas people to join Dgrin and support their service just like Blurb does.

We love our partners!!

Thanks,
Markham

[Ham1]

w00t! Holy guacamole, Ham! What a great looking vendor!:clap :clap :clap

Yep, they look great, their products rock and they are very custom oriented.

[Elaine]

I just threw together a collage to try them out, and it was FUN!!! What a cool product! Thanks, Smuggy! :clap

[JPCanvas]

Thanks for the intro Ham and hello SmugMugers! My name's John and I'm lucky enough to be leading the team at MyCanvas. We're very excited to be bringing you our product and hope you'll find the service to be fun and the quality to be outstanding. We're proud of what we've got to offer but we're always looking to improve. So send us your comments, suggestions, questions, complaints, whatever... and we'll continue to make it a great experience.

Thanks,
JP

[aktse]

Thanks for the intro Ham and hello SmugMugers! My name's John and I'm lucky enough to be leading the team at MyCanvas. We're very excited to be bringing you our product and hope you'll find the service to be fun and the quality to be outstanding. We're proud of what we've got to offer but we're always looking to improve. So send us your comments, suggestions, questions, complaints, whatever... and we'll continue to make it a great experience.

Thanks,
JP
Instead of using blurb for this project, I decided to use your company instead for a special birthday gift for a friend. MyCanvas seems to provide a very nice product and I wanted to give you a chance.

For my friend's birthday, she decided to rented the Monterey Bay Aquarium to mark the milestone of reaching half century and being a breast cancer survivor. :thumb I photographed the event.

I'm slightly regretting the decision of using myCanvas since I've been having tons of issues.

The software keeps on crashing on me (XP box with 4gb RAM, using FF); it's as if my project is too big (40-50 pages of a book). Also, some of the photos never load when the page is selected, etc. and I can't tell what photos I selected. The photos show up in the thumbnails, but sometimes, won't appear when the page is selected.

Is it my connection speed? What type of system do I need? I see application constantly connecting to the myCanvas servers. Do I need to be on a T1 line? Do I need to use IE? Different version of flash?

Also, what size of photo does the mycanvas pulls? On some pages, it's complaining that my photo size is too small.

Basically, it's been painful and very, very, very slow. I had the birthday girl's sister here with me working on a layout/story book of the event this evening we just gave up after a few hours. We didn't stop working since the project did save itself when the application crashes. If I didn't save itself, we would have given up.

Instead, we ended up hand drawing the storybook on paper due to the speed and crashing issues.

I'm currently debating if should go back to blurb, or try mpix or whcc. :dunno

Any suggestions? :ear

[JPCanvas]

aktse, sorry about any inconvenience you may be having. We took a look and we’re not seeing any performance issues right now, but that’s not to say we may not have had any. There was a period last night where we were re-syncing some servers due to Day Light Savings time that may have affected performance. Normally, as long as you have a fast connection (cable, dsl, etc...) you should be fine. Number of pages shouldn't be an issue either; we allow some books to be printed up to 250 pages. We also work the same on IE, FF and Safari as well as PCs and MAC. Nonetheless, we’ll continue to investigate and make sure there isn't some lingering problem. BTW, what version of Flash are you using?

With regards to the size of the photo, we pull a medium size one from SmugMug when you place it on a page and for most cases this looks great on the screen. If, however, the dimensions of your photo on the page are large we automatically grab the larger size from SmugMug which takes a few seconds longer and until that larger one is grabbed you would see the medium size one on the page. Please note that regardless of what size you’re viewing on the screen we always pull the highest resolution image from SmugMug when we go to print your book.

Also you wrote “I can't tell what photos I selected”. This is a feature we're working on. We’ll indicate which photo has already been used in a project with a check mark or something similar. We’ll let you know when this and other new features are being released with our blog and newsletter.

Thanks for the feedback and as mentioned we’ll keep a close eye on this. Please check out the service again and let us know if you continue to have problems.

[aktse]

aktse, sorry about any inconvenience you may be having. We took a look and we’re not seeing any performance issues right now, but that’s not to say we may not have had any. There was a period last night where we were re-syncing some servers due to Day Light Savings time that may have affected performance. Normally, as long as you have a fast connection (cable, dsl, etc...) you should be fine....

With regards to the size of the photo, we pull a medium size one from SmugMug when you place it on a page and for most cases this looks great on the screen. If, however, the dimensions of your photo on the page are large we automatically grab the larger size from SmugMug which takes a few seconds longer and until that larger one is grabbed you would see the medium size one on the page. ...

Also you wrote “I can't tell what photos I selected”...

The performance and crashing issues might been due to the re-syncing of the server, but it was extremely frustrating since it crashed FF a few times.

I'm using 10,0,12,36.

And I could not figure out which photos I was using because the page slide would go blank on me as well as the main photo as well.

However, I'm still having resolution size warnings. Does this mean the copy that is grabbed is too small or the original is too small? I doubt that my original is too small, but I can check the sizes.

I'll let you know if I have more problems.

[JPCanvas]

Getting the resolution size warning is definitely odd; we'll take a look into that. Do you know what size the originals are? Are they full bleed images on your page?

[Ham1]

However, I'm still having resolution size warnings. Does this mean the copy that is grabbed is too small or the original is too small? I doubt that my original is too small, but I can check the sizes.

I'll let you know if I have more problems.

Can you point us to the SmugMug gallery you are using? I would like to verify the size of your photos as well.

Markham

[Grumpy_one]

Any way to enlarge the thumbnails? I'm going blind picking the photo's. I haven't had any issues with resolution or previous mentioned. Having previously checked photos that were used would be a big plus. I started to do one that Costco offer, nowhere the freedom you offer, but....I do like the cover with the square hole in the middle to view a photo that doesn't cost 349.00 dollars. I picked the nubuck for a cover, is it really that expensive? Is this a misprint? One other thing, any way to sort the thumbnails? That would be great as well. Thanks, Dave

[Ham1]

Any way to enlarge the thumbnails? I'm going blind picking the photo's. I haven't had any issues with resolution or previous mentioned. Having previously checked photos that were used would be a big plus. I started to do one that Costco offer, nowhere the freedom you offer, but....I do like the cover with the square hole in the middle to view a photo that doesn't cost 349.00 dollars. I picked the nubuck for a cover, is it really that expensive? Is this a misprint? One other thing, any way to sort the thumbnails? That would be great as well. Thanks, Dave

Hey Grumpy,

That is not a misprint. They are really high end books. We are however still accepting input on the price since this is so new. So I will accept this as a "a little too expensive" vote from you.

Sorting thumbs is a good suggestion. JP you note that?

[Grumpy_one]

Hey Grumpy,

That is not a misprint. They are really high end books. We are however still accepting input on the price since this is so new. So I will accept this as a "a little too expensive" vote from you.

Sorting thumbs is a good suggestion. JP you note that?

How about a cheap one with the hole in it. And thumbnail size too. Thanks

Oh, and a cudos here for being able to use your own photo for a background. So make an image in PS, upload it, and make it a background, that is great. Not sure if you can make this work, but a "recent" folder for recently selected backgrounds for that session. Pain to look back if you forgot the name.

[JPCanvas]

Ham - Sorting thumbnails is on the list to get done.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
Grumpy - We don't offer covers with a "cut-out", even the expensive one is not a cut-out, it's a debossed image placed on the cover. You can, however do anything you would like with regards to images on the cover with our custom covers on the 8x8 size book and those are a lot less expensive.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
I'm glad you like the background feature, I really like that one myself. A "recent" folder is a great suggestion. Increasing thumbnails is also something that has been discussed internally. Many of these types of features will role with time, just based on priorities. But getting feedback from customers like you definitely helps us prioritize. You can also give us direct feedback that will get logged quicker by using the "Feedback" link at the top of the Book Building Tool.<o:p></o:p>

[aktse]

I think most of my problems was due to the maintenance, but I think it's something that needs to be noted. At first, I thought everything was locally cached, but it seems that mostly everything is being grabbed from publicwebservices.mycanvas.com (thumbnails, sliders images, main pages, background, frames, etc.).

The auto-save works well. :thumb

The file size error occurs only on full page contain bleeding edge photo on a 11x8.5 book.

I did some screen captures, uploaded them and set the gallery to JPCanvas; I've added more of them and included the file size as well.

http://photos.apriltse.com/photos/409609784_o4zDz-M.jpg

Date Modified 2008-09-02 20:58:28
Date Taken 2008-08-01 23:02:04
Camera Canon EOS 40D
Exposure Time 0.0666s (1/15)
Aperture f/3.5
ISO 1250
Focal Length 8mm (12.8mm in 35mm)
Photo Dimensions 1944 x 1296
File Name IMG_2975_V1.jpg
File Size 860.70 K
722161_dtc5o#353195409_NaLTv (http://photos.apriltse.com/gallery/5722161_dtc5o#353195409_NaLTv)

The size warning only happens on full bleed images (have about five pages of them) and I have one page without any problems and that image is slightly larger, but not by much.

No warning:
http://photos.apriltse.com/photos/409621174_MnS9w-M.jpg

Date Modified 2008-08-16 20:29:33
Date Taken 2008-08-01 19:04:24
Camera Canon EOS 40D
Exposure Time 0.0025s (1/400)
Aperture f/2.8
ISO 1600
Focal Length 55mm (88mm in 35mm)
Photo Dimensions 2928 x 2091
File Name IMG_2410.jpg
File Size 1.07 MB

I've been pulling from four different galleries, but the two examples photos can be found here: http://photos.apriltse.com/gallery/5722161_dtc5o#353195409_NaLTv

I do have one photo that might be too small due to my cropping. What's the minimize size that I would need?

Is there any other info that I can provide?

[Grumpy_one]

Is there any loss, resolution etc., when setting a photo as a background? And how long should I expect to wait to get a product back in the mail once submitted? Shooting for Xmas, thanks

[Ham1]

I've been pulling from four different galleries, but the two examples photos can be found here: http://photos.apriltse.com/gallery/5722161_dtc5o#353195409_NaLTv

I do have one photo that might be too small due to my cropping. What's the minimize size that I would need?

Is there any other info that I can provide?

I don't know what the minimum size should be but I would think those images are very close depending on if you want a full bleed page or not.

[aktse]

I don't know what the minimum size should be but I would think those images are very close depending on if you want a full bleed page or not.

I knew they would be close, but wanted to know the limit. I'll probably go back, reprocess and do some re-cropping.

And according to one person at myCanvas -- the warning pops up if the printed size of the image would be less than 144 dpi

[fotofool]

Hi everyone. My name is Kelvin and I'm the principal product manager for MyCanvas. I'm excited to be on board.

We think we have a great product offering and look forward to working with you and SmugMug to make it even better - thanks for your feedback and suggestions. Now to answer a few questions...

Aktse is correct, we display the image resolution warning icon when the effective print resolution for that image is 144 dpi or less. We have checked your images, aktse, and the warning is displaying correctly.

Grumpy - Using an image as a background will not affect the resolution or quality. When we render a book or poster for printing we pull from the highest resolution image available. Lead time for an order is 1 to 2 weeks unless you order a premium book which will take longer.

Kelvin

[Grumpy_one]

Hi everyone. My name is Kelvin and I'm the principal product manager for MyCanvas. I'm excited to be on board.

We think we have a great product offering and look forward to working with you and SmugMug to make it even better - thanks to your feedback and suggestions. Now to answer a few questions...

Aktse is correct, we display the image resolution warning icon when the effective print resolution for that image is 144 dpi or less. We have checked your images, aktse, and the warning is displaying correctly.

Grumpy - Using an image as a background will not affect the resolution or quality. When we render a book or poster for printing we pull from the highest resolution image available. Lead time for an order is 1 to 2 weeks unless you order a premium book which will take longer.

Kelvin
Thanks Kelvin for the response. Great product so far. Dual monitor is the way to go with your software, still wish the thumbnails were adjustable. Is it me or did you guys add more content in "other content"? What other changes are you making as we speak? Thanks, Dave

One other question, I found some template pages the other day, can't find them now, I'm sure I'll find them by the time you get this, thanks. Nevermind, found it under "add more pages". Thanks anyway.

[happy-imp]

First off, I gotta say I think I'm gonna love these mycanvas books! I really like they way they look (from the pics, haven't received one yet).

But, unlike all the other merchandise you can buy, it seems (unless I'm being a total tard) that only the account holder can make the books. Is there any way that I can set up an account or authorize a client to access a certain gallery for creating a book? That would be REALLY cool to let my clients design their own books without having to give up original digital files.

Ben

[sellis]

That would be cool (letting customers design their own album)! I would love to offer my wedding clients that option. I upload the full-res files to SM so there would be no resolution issue.

One question I do have, it was mentioned that mycanvas pulls the medium sized image. Does it matter if you have them watermarked or is that only applied in the browser?

Looking forward to testing this out. I upload my album designs to SM, so I might be able to use this for parent albums if the dimensions match :thumb

How come we didn't get this as a news item? I stumbled upon it by accident when I was placing an order.

First off, I gotta say I think I'm gonna love these mycanvas books! I really like they way they look (from the pics, haven't received one yet).

But, unlike all the other merchandise you can buy, it seems (unless I'm being a total tard) that only the account holder can make the books. Is there any way that I can set up an account or authorize a client to access a certain gallery for creating a book? That would be REALLY cool to let my clients design their own books without having to give up original digital files.

Ben

[Andy]

How come we didn't get this as a news item? I stumbled upon it by accident when I was placing an order.
We'll see about that - but - but - but- you don't have our Release Notes (http://blogs.smugmug.com/release-notes/2008/10/30/buttons-and-lots-more-october-30-2008/) in your feed reader? :scratch

[Andy]

First off, I gotta say I think I'm gonna love these mycanvas books! I really like they way they look (from the pics, haven't received one yet).

But, unlike all the other merchandise you can buy, it seems (unless I'm being a total tard) that only the account holder can make the books. Is there any way that I can set up an account or authorize a client to access a certain gallery for creating a book? That would be REALLY cool to let my clients design their own books without having to give up original digital files.

BenHi, it's for logged-in account owners only for now - we'll see if one day this can be made available for visitors! :D

[Grumpy_one]

Ok, now I'm getting frustrated. The search function of the thumbnails is just wrong. What criteria is it looking for? It's not file name. I have to visually search 2-3 times over for one particular picture, and it's taking too much time and my eyes hurt. Please fix the search! Otherwise, still liking program. Cheers

edit 11-9-08: another frustrating occurrence is the thumbnails changing order after every refresh. So I have gone back to my photos in smugmug and added captions (numbers) to each photo and now I'm trying to reload the gallery, seems to be stuck on "import is still in progress". Cant import other galleries either. Must be a busy Sunday.

edit 11-10-08: ok, real problem now. I numbered the photos in smugmug by adding caption. I've tried to re-import the folder. It required several attempts being it didn't import all photos. Now it's in "import is still in progress" mode and I can't access my photos, not all of them came back from the refresh. I'm now stuck and can't move on to finish this project. I sent a message in "contact". I hope this gets resolved soon, I wanted this done today. I'm so close and now this. Thanks, Dave

[Ham1]

One question I do have, it was mentioned that mycanvas pulls the medium sized image. Does it matter if you have them watermarked or is that only applied in the browser?



Yes, the MyCanvas tool pulls a Medium image as well as it starts to render the Original. All the photos show in the tool will adjust according to the size of the image well, but if your images are watermarked on SmugMug, then they will be shown as watermarked in the MyCanvas tool.

NOTE: MyCanvas will always pull the original to print so the watermarks will not show in the books.

Markham

[Grumpy_one]

See above, thanks

edit: ok small relief, I copied the project and all photos are there and numbered. While I can't import further photos, I can now work with what I had. My original project still has "0" photos in the folder in "import already in progress" mode when ever I refresh. If I didn't find this work around, I'd probably dump this project and start a new one with another site. I hope you find a solution to this problem. Thanks, Dave

[Grumpy_one]

Yeesh, not sure of why this is happening, but I can't see the photo's in "manage pages", just the backgrounds. Having to guess what's on the pages. Tried refreshing (F5), still the same. What gives? Thanks, Dave

[RogersDA]

I have noticed a few bugs on mycanvas.
1. You should be prompted for a project name immediately so that you can quickly identify different projects that you may have not completed.

2. Most of my public galleries did not show when the import screen, even though I was logged in and choose "buy book" from a public gallery.

[aktse]

Yeesh, not sure of why this is happening, but I can't see the photo's in "manage pages", just the backgrounds. Having to guess what's on the pages. Tried refreshing (F5), still the same. What gives? Thanks, Dave Are you seeing something like this? If there was a background, it would be showing, but this is a full bleed page and it only shows the sample text (and thumbnail was missing too).
http://aktse.smugmug.com/photos/409683193_kdiut-S.jpg

I also got a bunch of missing thumbnails from time to time as well.
http://aktse.smugmug.com/photos/409912869_uPbsV-S.jpg

I'm been in contact with the myCanvas people through e-mail. For the photos missing in the slider thumbnails, this is the answer:


Here's a long winded explanation on how we save page thumbnails so you can avoid the same problem. We save the thumbnail each time we save a page and we only save a page when a change has been made and a user either navigates to another page or hits the save link. The problem is that sometimes the page thumbnails haven't completely drawn when a page is saved. When this is the case and a user selects a page the thumbnail for that page is redrawn so it looks correct. However, unless a change is made on the page and it is saved, the thumbnail will not be rewritten and the next time the project is opened the partially drawn thumbnail will be displayed.

Solution - when you make changes to a page be sure to not switch to another page or force a page save until the page thumbnail is fully drawn. In the meantime we need to make a code change to not save the page and thumbnail until the thumbnail is fully drawn.

I don't know if the same applies to the main page view as well, but it might be.

I haven't touched my project in a while (no time), but i was having issues since I couldn't tell what images I used, the thumbnail sliders images would vanish, and my main image would also disappear on me as well. It makes things a bit difficult when you can't tell what image was used :rolleyes.

The crashing problem that I first had was due to the maintenance and haven't happened again.

If you're having issues, take screen captures. It will really help myCanvas fix things... They're are very interested in getting to the root of any issues. :thumb

[Grumpy_one]

Are you seeing something like this? If there was a background, it would be showing, but this is a full bleed page and it only shows the sample text (and thumbnail was missing too).


I also got a bunch of missing thumbnails from time to time as well.


I'm been in contact with the myCanvas people through e-mail. For the photos missing in the slider thumbnails, this is the answer:


I don't know if the same applies to the main page view as well, but it might be.

I haven't touched my project in a while (no time), but i was having issues since I couldn't tell what images I used, the thumbnail sliders images would vanish, and my main image would also disappear on me as well. It makes things a bit difficult when you can't tell what image was used :rolleyes.

The crashing problem that I first had was due to the maintenance and haven't happened again.

If you're having issues, take screen captures. It will really help myCanvas fix things... They're are very interested in getting to the root of any issues. :thumb
Ya, I'm having the same issues when making changes. Can't see the pics in the page thumbnail. I'm in the tweaking mode now, I've managed some workaround's as far as thumbnail usage. I've numbered all photos in smugmug using "add caption", that seems to work well, I just use search option in MyCanvas while using smugmug as a thumbnail viewer. I'm working on a dual screen at work at it seems to work well. When I go home and try the same thing on a single screen I'm sure I'll get fustrated again. I plan to see this project through, I have too much time invested into right now. I've sent msg's through their contact page, haven't recieved a response yet. Little dissapointed. I still like the artistic freedoom. Cheers

[JPCanvas]

I have noticed a few bugs on mycanvas.
1. You should be prompted for a project name immediately so that you can quickly identify different projects that you may have not completed.

2. Most of my public galleries did not show when the import screen, even though I was logged in and choose "buy book" from a public gallery.


RogersDA, let me see if I can help with these.

#1 actually is not a bug that is the way it's supposed to work. Our intention is to get customers right into making a book before forcing them to have to name a project. We do however, allow you to provide a name for you projects anytime later in the MyProjects page of the site. I know this may not be the best experience for everyone and we will continue to evaluate.

#2 seems odd and may be a bug. But it may also have something to do with your settings in your SmugMug account. For the galleries that aren't showing up do you have them checked as "Protected" under your Security & Privacy settings in your SmugMug account? You can get to that by clicking on the "Tools" button towards the top of your gallery and then hitting the "Customize Gallery" in the drop down. On the new page that appears you can then scroll down to the Security & Privacy section. Also, if you don't mind, PM me your MyCanvas username so we can take a look to see if there is anything wrong with the account.

[JPCanvas]

Ya, I'm having the same issues when making changes. Can't see the pics in the page thumbnail. I'm in the tweaking mode now, I've managed some workaround's as far as thumbnail usage. I've numbered all photos in smugmug using "add caption", that seems to work well, I just use search option in MyCanvas while using smugmug as a thumbnail viewer. I'm working on a dual screen at work at it seems to work well. When I go home and try the same thing on a single screen I'm sure I'll get fustrated again. I plan to see this project through, I have too much time invested into right now. I've sent msg's through their contact page, haven't recieved a response yet. Little dissapointed. I still like the artistic freedoom. Cheers

Grumpy, thanks for hanging in there, sorry about any issues you may be having. Let's take a look and see what's going on. PM me your MyCanvas username and I'll get our lead support to take a look.

[RogersDA]

RogersDA, let me see if I can help with these.

#1 actually is not a bug that is the way it's supposed to work. Our intention is to get customers right into making a book before forcing them to have to name a project. We do however, allow you to provide a name for you projects anytime later in the MyProjects page of the site. I know this may not be the best experience for everyone and we will continue to evaluate.

#2 seems odd and may be a bug. But it may also have something to do with your settings in your SmugMug account. For the galleries that aren't showing up do you have them checked as "Protected" under your Security & Privacy settings in your SmugMug account? You can get to that by clicking on the "Tools" button towards the top of your gallery and then hitting the "Customize Gallery" in the drop down. On the new page that appears you can then scroll down to the Security & Privacy section. Also, if you don't mind, PM me your MyCanvas username so we can take a look to see if there is anything wrong with the account.PM sent....

Also the missing galleries are indeed right-click protected.

[Grumpy_one]

PM sent....

Also the missing galleries are indeed right-click protected.
My workaround for the right-click protection is to duplicate the photos in an unlisted gallery just for MyCanvas. I didn't want to forget to undo the right click. Hope this helps.

[RogersDA]

My workaround for the right-click protection is to duplicate the photos in an unlisted gallery just for MyCanvas. I didn't want to forget to undo the right click. Hope this helps.Yeah - that was part of the PM that I sent to John. I think that really takes away from the overall usefullness of creating a book. Imagine having to duplicate then move multiple photos fro multiple galleries - that could be quite time consuming. How many people will that affect? No idea. But, I can see people avoiding the book if that is what they had to do.

[Grumpy_one]

Yeah - that was part of the PM that I sent to John. I think that really takes away from the overall usefullness of creating a book. Imagine having to duplicate then move multiple photos fro multiple galleries - that could be quite time consuming. How many people will that affect? No idea. But, I can see people avoiding the book if that is what they had to do.

Fortunately for me I already had my folder of most of the pics for this project on a remote drive. I had started this project weeks ago on Costco's book software, and I tried shutterbugs as well, MyCanvas has the most artistic freedom of all of them. They might have a few bugs to work out, but I'm sure they'll come around as long as they keep an eye on this thread. They seem to care so far. Cheers

[fotofool]

Galleries will not show up on MyCanvas if external links are set to "no". For those of you having problems with galleries not showing up please try the following.

Customize the gallery that is not showing up so that external links is set to "yes".
Be sure to save the new settings.By the way, as far as we can tell the right-click protection setting does not affect the gallery visibility on MyCanvas. Thanks for your feedback and patience as we learn more about the settings on SmugMug and how they affect MyCanvas.

[mountainpz]

Galleries will not show up on MyCanvas if external links are set to "no". For those of you having problems with galleries not showing up please try the following.

Customize the gallery that is not showing up so that external links is set to "yes".
Be sure to save the new settings.By the way, as far as we can tell the right-click protection setting does not affect the gallery visibility on MyCanvas. Thanks for your feedback and patience as we learn more about the settings on SmugMug and how they affect MyCanvas.

Is MyCanvas planning on offering different sizes in the future, such as panorama? I think many of us are hoping to print panoramas through SmugMug in the near future.

[fotofool]

Is MyCanvas planning on offering different sizes in the future, such as panorama? I think many of us are hoping to print panoramas through SmugMug in the near future.

We'll consider anything that our customers want. The greater the demand, the greater the consideration. What specific dimensions would you be interested in?

[mountainpz]

We'll consider anything that our customers want. The greater the demand, the greater the consideration. What specific dimensions would you be interested in?

A few different ratios between 1:3 and 1:8 would be awesome, with say 10" as the shortest dimension... Big prints!

[Grumpy_one]

So I cropped a pic I want to use to 8.5x11.5 ratio. It seems to be cropped when used as a background in the preview. Is this in fact true? Is the pic being cropped when used as a background? Thanks, Dave

[fotofool]

So I cropped a pic I want to use to 8.5x11.5 ratio. It seems to be cropped when used as a background in the preview. Is this in fact true? Is the pic being cropped when used as a background? Thanks, Dave
When a photo is used as a background we size it slightly larger than the 11x8.5 page size you see in the project editor. We do this to account for bleed when printing and trimming the pages and to also account for the gutter. So yes, you could say we are cropping images that are used as backgrounds.

Kelvin

[RogersDA]

I got it working with the external links enabled. Still, in my opinion, it would be nice to not to have to do that. If external links are disabled for a gallery then Smugmug should at least warn the user that mycanvas requires it upfront. A lot of people may not be aware of that.

Also, it would be great if we could upload our own fonts to a project for text. Not sure how feasible it is - but it would be neat.

Graphic icons on the left panels are too small to really see what that look like without dragging them to a page. Perhaps a checkbox for enabling a mouse rollover enlarged icon?

I do not see a way to allow a user to center an item on the page (horizontally, vertically, or both). That would be nice.

It would be great to be able to copy the a coordinate position; e.g., the x-y center point, the upper left corner coordinates) of an element and apply to another element, That would be handy for making element position the same way on different pages.

[black_fx_35]

When I click on the link from the SmugMug news e-mail I received yesterday (http://www.smugmug.com/prints/catalog.mg#More), the MyCanvas information shows a sweet deal as follows: "Sweet Deal: Through November 13th, 2008 get $30 off your book order! Make sure you're logged in to your SmugMug account and enter SMBook at checkout. Offer valid for one book."

I received the e-mail from SmugMug 10:21 pm EST yesterday, November 13th. So, I had 99 minutes to take advantage of this sweet deal. Any way this "sweet deal" can be made sweeter by having a bit more than an hour and a half to use it? I think that must have been a simple oversight...

[JPCanvas]

When I click on the link from the SmugMug news e-mail I received yesterday (http://www.smugmug.com/prints/catalog.mg#More), the MyCanvas information shows a sweet deal as follows: "Sweet Deal: Through November 13th, 2008 get $30 off your book order! Make sure you're logged in to your SmugMug account and enter SMBook at checkout. Offer valid for one book."

I received the e-mail from SmugMug 10:21 pm EST yesterday, November 13th. So, I had 99 minutes to take advantage of this sweet deal. Any way this "sweet deal" can be made sweeter by having a bit more than an hour and a half to use it? I think that must have been a simple oversight...

The MyCanvas promotion has been extended to 20 Nov, 2008.

[affleckphoto]

Will MyCanvas accept .pdf files designed elsewhere (i.e. Adobe Indesign) rather than the flash interface? I am very interested in the products and quality of the Premium books, however, I am unwilling to give up my current design workflow for a client's albums.

[fotofool]

Will MyCanvas accept .pdf files designed elsewhere (i.e. Adobe Indesign) rather than the flash interface? I am very interested in the products and quality of the Premium books, however, I am unwilling to give up my current design workflow for a client's albums.

MyCanvas does not currently accept .pdf files.

Kelvin

[Ham1]

When I click on the link from the SmugMug news e-mail I received yesterday (http://www.smugmug.com/prints/catalog.mg#More) (http://www.smugmug.com/prints/catalog.mg#More%29), the MyCanvas information shows a sweet deal as follows: "Sweet Deal: Through November 13th, 2008 get $30 off your book order! Make sure you're logged in to your SmugMug account and enter SMBook at checkout. Offer valid for one book."

I received the e-mail from SmugMug 10:21 pm EST yesterday, November 13th. So, I had 99 minutes to take advantage of this sweet deal. Any way this "sweet deal" can be made sweeter by having a bit more than an hour and a half to use it? I think that must have been a simple oversight...

Really sorry for getting those emails out so late. It has been updated on the site to reflect the NEW DATE!!! MyCanvas extended the expiration date to Nov 20th!! :ivar

[cutaway]

I am looking for feedback, thoughts, suggestions, complaints etc. I am going to get one or two of the MyCanvas people to join Dgrin and support their service just like Blurb does.
I created a 21 page photo book and here are some random notes in no particular order:

User experience

1. Sorting thumbnails - this has already been mentioned and acknowledged. At a minimum I would like a default sort by filename or in the order shown in the SmugMug gallery.

2. Thumbnail size - current thumbnails are too small. Having a selectable thumbnail size would be ideal. Offering small, medium, and large size thumbnails would be a start.

3. Displaying file names - sometimes it's easier to find images by name. I would like this to be an optional setting.

4. Centering - capability to center or justify an object on a page (horizontally and vertically). Also be able to center/justify relative to other objects, e.g. centering text under a photo.

5. Frames - I didn't play with the frames that much but I found it confusing. I was expecting that when I applied a frame that it would surround the edges of the photo. What I saw was a fixed size frame overlaid on the photo. I could reposition the photo behind the frame. However, it seemed that I could not fit the photo to the frame or the frame to the photo. I also couldn't see a way to resize the frame. As I said, I didn't play with this too much. If there is a way to accomplish these things, it wasn't obvious to me.

Eventually I did see the corner type frames that accomplished what I was expecting.

6. Responsiveness - I found the user interface for creating a book reasonably straightforward. As a software engineer myself I can appreciate the trade-offs between easy of use and total number of features. The main issue I had was the responsiveness of the UI. It certainly won't set any speed records. At times I found the delays in rendering pages very irritating.

7. Hangs - I experienced 3 or 4 hangs when trying to create the book. I had to close the MyCanvas window and re-start the project. Luckily I'm in the habit to save fairly often and didn't have to re-do too many things.

8. File order - The thumbnails seem to be displayed in a random order. At a minimum, I would like to see them in the same order as in the SmugMug gallery. Having other sort options would also be nice (by file name, caption, etc).

9. Search - I infered from a previous message that the search is on the caption. Since I typically don't add captions this search functionality is of little use. I'd like to have a search function that looks at file names.

Feature requests

10. Frames - I'd like a quick way to clear the selected frame. I ended having to scroll to the top of the frames section and click on the "No Frame" icon.

11. Text and photos - I'd like to be able to enter text that is linked to a photo. In other words, the photo and its text are treated as a single object when you reposition them on a page.

12. Link objects together - Similar to #8, it would be handy to have a way to link multiple objects (photo, text, etc) so that they can be repositioned as a unit. Another option might be to be able to re-size the linked objects relative to each other.

13. Saving formatting - For example, I add an image and apply a red 3pt border with a drop shadow and 80% transparancy. I would then like to be able to save those settings and then apply them to other images.

14. Apply a background to multiple pages - Applying a background to all pages is convenient but I would like to be able to specify a range or selection of pages.

15. Selectively import from smugmug - I would like to be able to select specific files to be imported into MyCanvas.

16. Help - I emailed the help desk on a Friday (early afternoon). I did receive a response late morning the following Monday. Not bad but nothing close to the outstanding SmugMug customer support. I wonder how this compares to other photo book providers.

17. Preview from SmugMug - It would be great to be able to allow customers to preview a book from a SmugMug page. I'd also want it to show my pricing.


I waited to post my thoughts until I actually received the finished book. First of all I would have liked more progress information. I felt like I placed the order and then it went into a black hole. I would like to see an approximate shipping date posted. Also an email or an update on their website as to the current status of the order (submitted, in process, shipped).

As for the book itself, I am pleased with the quality of materials and the reproduction of the images. I think it's a good value for the money. Most of the backgrounds were close enough to the previews to be acceptable. Some were darker or lighter than what I expected; nothing to warrant a reprint but noticeable.

In general, my experience was fair. I was able to put a small book together relatively quickly. There were enough tools to get the job done. However, the interface was cumbersome enough that I don't know if I would want to do a large project. If I could get access to some of the backgrounds, I could see creating the pages in Photoshop and then uploading them as full page images.

[WinsomeWorks]

At first sight, the MyCanvas books, other products, and site look truly fabulous. From what I hear, the books are great in person as well... I can't wait to have one. The site itself is handsome. So I was trying it out with the $30 discount coupon, with the idea of then making a few books for Christmas after having one "under my belt". Partly, the trial run was a good experience.... at first. (I loved that I can simply import SmugMug galleries--that part's terrific) But much of it was very frustrating. When I called MyCanvas with a question, the customer service was very friendly & first-rate. But that was before I'd gotten into the project & it was way past office hours when I ran into problems. Overall, I think the book-making and poster-making processes could be MUCH more simple for the non-programmers or computer gurus amongst us. I'm saavy enough to do fairly sophisticated photo editing in PS, have customized my SmugMug, & navigate all kinds of sites with photo printing/uploading/sharing capabilities. But I ran into many things that stumped me, so my 3-page book is still sitting there as an unfinished project. On the bright side, I did make one poster with "frame", and it's probably in the mail.... took me awhile though! Here's my list of trouble-spots:
1. Help: when I clicked on "help" when stuck, I was taken back to the homepage, & really couldn't find any help there.
2. I did contact support, but haven't heard back. I know I'm very spoiled by SmugMug's nearly immediate answers, however....
3. When making a poster, I was unable to be sure I was centering the image, and found the size ratios hard to deal with correctly. All I wanted were a couple guidelines on each side, & measurements or a centering tool. I couldn't find them and had to "eyeball it".
4. The worst problem when making the book (8X 11.5 standard photo book with 20 + pages) was that a lot of my photos distorted themselves into horizontals from vertical, etc. at various stages in the project!! This happened when I'd click & drag it into a pre-set frame-box on my book page. As soon as the image crossed the edge of the page, esp. if it was vertical, it would distort into horizontal, leaving a very bizarre & un-usable image! This happened randomly but often. Even on one page that was finished (page 2 I think), the photos distorted themselves while I was working on another page. I tried for over an hour to rectify this, but to no avail.
5. This brings me to another problem: "undo" doesn't go back enough steps. If it could take you back to the blank template of a page, it would be great! The only way I could undo a problem was to click on "remove image" (or something similar...I don't remember the exact wording). But this was exasperating because it removed not only the image but the entire photo frame-box from the page, and then I couldn't find any way to get a new, empty box back to put another photo in. (I was stuck then with only 2 photos on a page instead of the 3 that were there!) In general, I was unable to find blank templates for anything .... the "copy" and "delete" functions apply to the whole thing, not the template. If I just wanted to get rid of the whole page & start fresh w/ same template, I couldn't find a way to do that. I'm sure there's a way, but if it was that hard for me to find, there are going to be a lot of people less experienced than me having this same problem and a whole lot more! I'm very tenacious, but after working on this book for hours & ending up with 3 goofed-up pages, I wanted to run far away!
6. The above problem applied to pages too. When I went to "manage pages", I tried to find a way to create a page with the same template as page 2, NOT copy it with its photos. Couldn't get it to happen. I've been on other book-making sites & all of the processes above were very simple & just stated in plain English. For instance, elsewhere you can often just drag & drop extra pages to where you want them, or drag templates the same way.
7. In regards to the meshing between SmugMug & MyCanvas: When I first signed up with MyCanvas, the question of accessing password-protected galleries was asked, & I gave permission. But for other galleries added since, what happens? Does MyCanvas assume it's ok to access them? (fine with me, but others may wonder...) Also, there was nothing to tell me how to deal with possible additions to my SmugMug galleries... I'd like to see something on MyCanvas that automatically updates its Smug-accessed galleries, or at least tells me what I need to do. It wasn't clear what all is being accessed each time I go to MyCanvas. I'd like MyCanvas to simply have access to all my galleries anytime I go there. Maybe there's a simple "update" function, but I didn't see it.
8. Amen to others saying it's a real deterrent to have to go into Smug galleries each time you wanna use MyCanvas & customize them just for MyCanvas (allow external links, etc.). Then we have to remember to go back and re-customize them, etc. I hope you can change this. I wasn't even sure until I read this thread why some galleries weren't showing up on MC, & now a bunch of my galleries are un-protected because I had to customize them for MyCanvas.... not a good thing. In the meantime, please tell people up front of this problem so that you don't have hundreds of people wondering what's up.... I wasted a lot of time on that one.
9. Amen to everyone who mentioned the tiny thumbnails (and a lot of other tiny stuff, even the fonts on the main page). Wow-- I have fantastic vision & no glasses. I was going cross-eyed after 1/2 hour of working on MyCanvas! I even have a large, new, super-bright photo-friendly screen. For those less fortunate, my sympathies! Seems like just about everything could be about twice as big on MC, to save eyesight. I was using FF for browser. At the same time, I love the fact that captions are search-able and visible when uploaded... that is such a help & not present on some other sites.
10. It would be handy to have the # of pages that's standard (for the base price) with each type of book clearly listed. I only found this info. in one place, & only after calling to find out. It should be right on the pricing pages.

Well, that's a lot of info. & will probably come across as way-too-picky., but I hope you'll understand I only took the time to write it out because I gather the end product from MyCanvas is going to be well worth it. And I truly hope with some user-friendly improvements, lots more folks will want to take advantage of the new partnership. There are gazillions of fantastic photographers here who'd love nothing better than to see their works in books & posters, etc. Looking forward to my poster, and will work on my book some more. Any help (especially for the distortion problem & adding page templates) would be grandly appreciated.

[fotofool]

Thanks for taking the time to write such detailed feedback, WinsomeWorks and cutaway! We're listening and making improvements as quickly as we can to make MyCanvas a truly outstanding product. We think we have a great start but recognize we still have a ways to go.

Sorting photos, allowing users to increase the size of the thumbnails and marking and hiding used photos is high on our priority list.
Filenames usually show up fine but there are some digital cameras where the camera name shows up rather than the filename. We're looking into this and have a list of items like this that we need to work with SmugMug to resolve.
Search works with whatever is displayed under the photos, captions or filenames.
Centering - if you select multiple objects by dragging the mouse or control clicking, an alignment feature is displayed that allows you to align the objects to each other. We do not yet, however, have the ability to align objects to the page. You can, however, turn on the grid to see where you are on the page. Holding down the mouse button on an object will display its x,y coordinates, holding down the mouse button on the rotation icon will display the rotation angle and holding down the mouse button on the sizing icons will display its size.
Multiple objects can be selected as described above so that they can be aligned, moved, sized, deleted, rotated and have drop shadow, borders, frames, etc. applied to them all at once. Sometimes they need to be similar type objects for some of the functionality to be available. For instance if an image and text object are selected, font options will not appear on the toolbar.
Frames - there are several differnt types of frames and masks - when applied the frames move and size along with the image. Some only maintain the same aspect ratio while others will stretch.
We are continually striving to improve performance which can be a real challenge when working with many, very large images over the internet.
Yes, help takes you back to the site where you need to use the navigation to find the help you are looking for. We definitely have plans to improve the help navigation and experience.
We are working to resolve the rotating and stretching images bug. It has to do with digital cameras and their settings to automatically rotate the images or not.
There should be at least 50 undos on a page. If you're not seeing that please PM me.
If you don't like the photo you have in an image box. Just drag another one onto it and it will be replaced with the new one. With this feature you can create you own templates. Drag photos onto the page and arrange them however you like. You can also apply borders, frames, drop shadows, etc. Once you've done that copy the page and voila you've created your own template. Just drag new photos into the image wells.
If you want to add new templates that we've created just click on the "Pages" dropdown on the top menu and you'll see all the page templates arranged by theme. You can select one or many to insert into your book just after the page that you have selected. We have plans to make it easy to switch layouts on an existing page.
Once you've accepted the content submission agreement you will notice that when uploading photos from your computer or linking back to SmugMug that it references the agreement you have accepted at the bottom of the import dialog box. You can either refresh one or all of your galleries at once or you can import new galleries at any time.
Yes, because this is a new partnership with SmugMug there are a few things we need to get ironed out regarding your gallery settings so that galleries and photos show up. The solutions we have provided are intented to be temporary work-arounds until we can resolve it through our integration.
Thanks to your feedback the number of pages included in the base price should be included in our next role. Nice catch. We had it at one time but it was accidentally left out when we changed to a different format.
Thanks again for the terrific feedback. Please keep it coming so we can make this a fantastic offering. At the same we appreciate the positive comments as well...they provide great encouragement.

Kelvin

[Montec]

I love this!

Created a book already and will order it shortly, just waiting on some input about text being placed in the book and then order.

I know it is already a priority but you really need to make the thumbnails for images that have already been used marked somehow...wow that was frustrating :)

I look forward to the book and already have plans for many more!

One question: The branding on the last page...is that necessary, can we remove it? Please say yes.

[fotofool]

I love this!

Created a book already and will order it shortly, just waiting on some input about text being placed in the book and then order.

I know it is already a priority but you really need to make the thumbnails for images that have already been used marked somehow...wow that was frustrating :)

I look forward to the book and already have plans for many more!

One question: The branding on the last page...is that necessary, can we remove it? Please say yes.

Thanks, Montec.

I've PM'd you about the branding.

[mdimbler]

Can anyone tell me if our Smugmug accounts carry over into a MyCanvas account? or do I need to sign up for a separate account?

[JPCanvas]

Can anyone tell me if our Smugmug accounts carry over into a MyCanvas account? or do I need to sign up for a separate account?

You do need to sign up for a separate MyCanvas account but it is free. You will be able to bring your photos accross from SmugMug to MyCanvas.

[WinsomeWorks]

I'm wondering if there's any chance some of us could have a raincheck on our book coupon so that the coupon would be good until after the problem with photo distortion/rotation gets fixed on MyCanvas? I had gotten to the 3rd page or so of a project, but could not finish it because of this problem. And according to your answer on this, there's really nothing I can do to fix it myself. I understand what you're saying the problem is... with certain cameras that internally rotate, etc. (incidentally, I'm usually using an Olympus E-500) Fortunatately, my project wasn't a rush.... but I'd love to do some more before Christmas. Any chance of one coupon for the first project? And is there any hope for the rotation problem?

I should also mention that I did get a support ticket back from MyCanvas, which was partially about the rotation problem. The answer was completely different from the one I received here on SmugMug. It was clear to me after reading that answer that the person answering from MyCanvas was not at all aware of the problem. They thought it was something I was doing, such as trying to put a horizontal pic in a vertical frame. Most of the frames on the book I was working on were either round or square, as were the ones I had trouble with... and even had they been another shape, images should simply crop where the frame cuts them off.

So anyway, I understand that this person didn't know of the internal nature of the problem, but that tells me that everyone working on support there should be informed right away. Also, as I mentioned before, there should be an easily visible note about the problem so that people don't spend eons trying to fix something that can't be fixed on their end. (perhaps you've already done this-- I haven't checked). The Evolt series has been quite popular, so I imagine there are lots of people getting baffled by this. This is another issue I've never run into on any other book-making sites, so someone out there has some programming answers to it.

Well, I really appreciated the answers I got here & hope I can get back to my project sometime-- I'm not sure how long projects are saved? I'm not sure how I will refer to the how-to answers here while on MyCanvas... guess I could print them out. Ok, well, keep us posted!! --Anna Lisa

[thenimirra]

I can't seem to get this feature to work. I was using my MacBook Pro laptop (which may be causing the issue) but I couldn't access any of the photos in my smugmug galleries to put into the collage. Anyone having this issue and your solutions for it as well? :dunno

[fotofool]

I'm wondering if there's any chance some of us could have a raincheck on our book coupon so that the coupon would be good until after the problem with photo distortion/rotation gets fixed on MyCanvas? I had gotten to the 3rd page or so of a project, but could not finish it because of this problem. And according to your answer on this, there's really nothing I can do to fix it myself. I understand what you're saying the problem is... with certain cameras that internally rotate, etc. (incidentally, I'm usually using an Olympus E-500) Fortunatately, my project wasn't a rush.... but I'd love to do some more before Christmas. Any chance of one coupon for the first project? And is there any hope for the rotation problem?

I should also mention that I did get a support ticket back from MyCanvas, which was partially about the rotation problem. The answer was completely different from the one I received here on SmugMug. It was clear to me after reading that answer that the person answering from MyCanvas was not at all aware of the problem. They thought it was something I was doing, such as trying to put a horizontal pic in a vertical frame. Most of the frames on the book I was working on were either round or square, as were the ones I had trouble with... and even had they been another shape, images should simply crop where the frame cuts them off.

So anyway, I understand that this person didn't know of the internal nature of the problem, but that tells me that everyone working on support there should be informed right away. Also, as I mentioned before, there should be an easily visible note about the problem so that people don't spend eons trying to fix something that can't be fixed on their end. (perhaps you've already done this-- I haven't checked). The Evolt series has been quite popular, so I imagine there are lots of people getting baffled by this. This is another issue I've never run into on any other book-making sites, so someone out there has some programming answers to it.

Well, I really appreciated the answers I got here & hope I can get back to my project sometime-- I'm not sure how long projects are saved? I'm not sure how I will refer to the how-to answers here while on MyCanvas... guess I could print them out. Ok, well, keep us posted!! --Anna Lisa

There are a couple of solutions for fixing the rotated/stretched photo problem. They are:

You don't need to do anything and we'll fix it when we render your photos for printing.
You can PM us your username with the projects and pages where you're seeing the problem and we'll fix it so they display and print correctly
You should be able to fix it yourself by replacing the problem photos on SmugMug by deleting them and uploading replacement photos. You will need to refresh your gallery on MyCanvas to pull in the newly uploaded photos. Then you will need to drag the photos onto the images on your pages to replace the rotated/stretched photos.Thanks to your feedback our customer support team will be briefed tomorrow on this rotated/stretched photo problem. PM me.

[WinsomeWorks]

There are a couple of solutions for fixing the rotated/stretched photo problem. They are:
You don't need to do anything and we'll fix it when we render your photos for printing.
You can PM us your username with the projects and pages where you're seeing the problem and we'll fix it so they display and print correctly
You should be able to fix it yourself by replacing the problem photos on SmugMug by deleting them and uploading replacement photos. You will need to refresh your gallery on MyCanvas to pull in the newly uploaded photos. Then you will need to drag the photos onto the images on your pages to replace the rotated/stretched photos.Thanks to your feedback our customer support team will be briefed tomorrow on this rotated/stretched photo problem. PM me.


Sorry, I don't know how to PM someone.... couldn't find it! So, hopefully it'll get seen here. Well, hmmm, the above solutions present a whole host of problems. First of all, I really wasn't able to create the book at all with this rotation problem going on. I mean, to do anything at all, I'd need to have my photos at the correct orientation in their frames on the page-- because at that point, I'd want to crop them certain ways, change frame sizes, arrange on the page, etc. I don't see how you would do all that for me! I only had one project, and this problem was happening on all its pages-- as I said, I only got to 2 or 3 pages because it became so impossible to work with.

Secondly, I'm not sure what you mean by replacing "problem" photos on SmugMug. None of the photos had any problem-- I don't know what the problem is! I think the problem was the worst with any photo that happened to be vertically oriented. But, goodness, especially with portraits, anyone is going to have gazillions of vertically oriented photos they'll want to use. And furthermore, if I were to replace certain photos, what would I replace them with? There's no problem with them until I try to use them in MyCanvas. In most cases, I'm simply using original files that were unloaded from my camera card to folders on my computer as jpgs. Then I've uploaded them to SmugMug. That's it. I edit some photos as PSDs in PS (CS2) and then save as Jpgs and put them back in the same folder & upload them. As far as I know though, none of the photos I had trouble with had been edited.

Now and then I may have photos that need to be rotated in SmugMug-- i.e., I shot it vertically and for whatever reason, it remained horizontal when taken from the camera card. So I might simply rotate it in SmugMug once it's uploaded there. Again, though, I don't know that this was the case w/ any photos in question. So, I'm just not clear on what "replacement photos" I'd use.

But at any rate, there's really no way of working on a project like these books if you can't work with the photos themselves. Another thing people will want to do when they're arranging pages & photos is zoom in or out. If the photo is all distorted, there's no way to see what it will look like.

Ok, I'll find my username and let you know, if someone can tell me how to PM someone (guessing that means private mail, right?) I've just never run into the need to do that on DGrin before.... Thanks! (ps-- actually I think I used the same name I have here-- WinsomeWorks)

--Anna Lisa

[fotofool]

Sorry, I don't know how to PM someone.... couldn't find it! So, hopefully it'll get seen here. Well, hmmm, the above solutions present a whole host of problems. First of all, I really wasn't able to create the book at all with this rotation problem going on. I mean, to do anything at all, I'd need to have my photos at the correct orientation in their frames on the page-- because at that point, I'd want to crop them certain ways, change frame sizes, arrange on the page, etc. I don't see how you would do all that for me! I only had one project, and this problem was happening on all its pages-- as I said, I only got to 2 or 3 pages because it became so impossible to work with.

Secondly, I'm not sure what you mean by replacing "problem" photos on SmugMug. None of the photos had any problem-- I don't know what the problem is! I think the problem was the worst with any photo that happened to be vertically oriented. But, goodness, especially with portraits, anyone is going to have gazillions of vertically oriented photos they'll want to use. And furthermore, if I were to replace certain photos, what would I replace them with? There's no problem with them until I try to use them in MyCanvas. In most cases, I'm simply using original files that were unloaded from my camera card to folders on my computer as jpgs. Then I've uploaded them to SmugMug. That's it. I edit some photos as PSDs in PS (CS2) and then save as Jpgs and put them back in the same folder & upload them. As far as I know though, none of the photos I had trouble with had been edited.

Now and then I may have photos that need to be rotated in SmugMug-- i.e., I shot it vertically and for whatever reason, it remained horizontal when taken from the camera card. So I might simply rotate it in SmugMug once it's uploaded there. Again, though, I don't know that this was the case w/ any photos in question. So, I'm just not clear on what "replacement photos" I'd use.

But at any rate, there's really no way of working on a project like these books if you can't work with the photos themselves. Another thing people will want to do when they're arranging pages & photos is zoom in or out. If the photo is all distorted, there's no way to see what it will look like.

Ok, I'll find my username and let you know, if someone can tell me how to PM someone (guessing that means private mail, right?) I've just never run into the need to do that on DGrin before.... Thanks! (ps-- actually I think I used the same name I have here-- WinsomeWorks)

--Anna Lisa

We're taking a look at your projects now.

To private message someone just click on their username and you'll see an option to send a private message.

[fotofool]

Sorry, I don't know how to PM someone.... couldn't find it! So, hopefully it'll get seen here. Well, hmmm, the above solutions present a whole host of problems. First of all, I really wasn't able to create the book at all with this rotation problem going on. I mean, to do anything at all, I'd need to have my photos at the correct orientation in their frames on the page-- because at that point, I'd want to crop them certain ways, change frame sizes, arrange on the page, etc. I don't see how you would do all that for me! I only had one project, and this problem was happening on all its pages-- as I said, I only got to 2 or 3 pages because it became so impossible to work with.

Secondly, I'm not sure what you mean by replacing "problem" photos on SmugMug. None of the photos had any problem-- I don't know what the problem is! I think the problem was the worst with any photo that happened to be vertically oriented. But, goodness, especially with portraits, anyone is going to have gazillions of vertically oriented photos they'll want to use. And furthermore, if I were to replace certain photos, what would I replace them with? There's no problem with them until I try to use them in MyCanvas. In most cases, I'm simply using original files that were unloaded from my camera card to folders on my computer as jpgs. Then I've uploaded them to SmugMug. That's it. I edit some photos as PSDs in PS (CS2) and then save as Jpgs and put them back in the same folder & upload them. As far as I know though, none of the photos I had trouble with had been edited.

Now and then I may have photos that need to be rotated in SmugMug-- i.e., I shot it vertically and for whatever reason, it remained horizontal when taken from the camera card. So I might simply rotate it in SmugMug once it's uploaded there. Again, though, I don't know that this was the case w/ any photos in question. So, I'm just not clear on what "replacement photos" I'd use.

But at any rate, there's really no way of working on a project like these books if you can't work with the photos themselves. Another thing people will want to do when they're arranging pages & photos is zoom in or out. If the photo is all distorted, there's no way to see what it will look like.

Ok, I'll find my username and let you know, if someone can tell me how to PM someone (guessing that means private mail, right?) I've just never run into the need to do that on DGrin before.... Thanks! (ps-- actually I think I used the same name I have here-- WinsomeWorks)

--Anna Lisa

Anna Lisa,

We refreshed your SmugMug albums on MyCanvas and it appears that it fixed the rotated thumbnail and image problems. You'll just need to drag the updated thumbnails back onto your pages to see the corrected images. If you see any other rotated image problems please PM or email me and we'll take a look.

Kelvin

[smurfy]

I just wanted to give a bit of feedback to the My Canvas folks, and inquire of any wedding photographers who may have tried them for albums.

I just put together a book (in two hours, since that $30 coupon was discovered just before it expired), and found I needed way more time to learn the software than I was given. The backgrounds didn't go away (lilies or some type of stem) when I put my own backgrounds in, and the help section was not coming up when I clicked on it. I wanted to do nine or sixteen detail shots on a page, but found no layouts to allow it. I agree with the others about thumbnail sizes, and having an option for them to be hidden once used would be good. Don't worry about people not building a book because they have to name it. You are after a pro market with your prices and stated quality, and pros make a lot of books. They need to name them right away to find them later.

Pricing seems fine for the basic book, but quite high for the premium. If you want to compete with album makers that cater to wedding photographers, such as Asuka or Zookbinders, you could offer a laminated photo cover in larger than 8X8 (thats a parent album, not a couple's), offer presentation boxes with anything over $100, not an extra $50 for the sleave thing if the book is already over $300.00. (how about a less -expensive- to -make presentation box, like Asuka offers with every product? ) We just can't make much of a profit with such a high initial cost to the photographer. And I hesitate to order a premium book without seeing it at a trade show or somewhere...I searched and searched for reviews of your product but only found it was an ancestry site before, and no pro photographers had posted any reviews of the quality of the printing and binding. Since I trust Smugmug, and the little book to test you out is only costing me $8.00 in shipping, I'll give it a go. But since my problem with some bookmakers has been the quality in full-bleed double-page panoramas, an 8X8 book isn't going to totally reassure me before using it for a larger wedding album.

Most of my younger couples want laminate photo covers in larger sizes, or a leather cover with the name and date in a choice of font style on the lower right. If choosing a photo opening on the cover and leather "frame", I present it to them with a plate easel for display. Just a thought for you.

Please e-mail your clients that their order was received. It's unnernving to give credit card info on line and get no acknowlegment of an order.

I did receive a shipping notice, but it had no link to the UPS site next to the tracking number. Perhaps you could add that as well.

I'd love to hear if anyone has received a premium book from My Canvas, especially in comparison with other pro album makers. Thanks!

[Montec]

All good points Smurfy, I am in the same position as you. Waiting to see how my test album rates as far as quality, shipping times etc.

I agree they need a better order confirmation process after the sale. I am hoping I get a notice with tracking number when it is shipped.

I think they have some growing pains right now and they are doing their best to sort that out. So far communications here on DGrin have been very good. Their websites help system is lacking. I sent a query that was not answered for several days and when I replied to it said that it could not process my request because it came from an incorrect email address...I just gave up on that as I had my question answered here...something needs to be sorted out there for sure.

I have positive feelings about this company. Hopefully they can pull it off and offer an alternative to the Blurb, MPix style of books.

Pricing on the high end books does present a bit of a problem for my clientele. I service the lower end market mostly and they would never spend $700 on an album which is the minimum I could charge after expenses. I think I would go with Asuka at this price level.

The branding needs to have the option to be removed before I would use them for clients as well, this is good for consumer products but not for anyone re-selling them to customers. I don't want to have to explain why I just charged them $700 for a book that cost me $350.

[JPCanvas]

All good points Smurfy, I am in the same position as you. Waiting to see how my test album rates as far as quality, shipping times etc.

I agree they need a better order confirmation process after the sale. I am hoping I get a notice with tracking number when it is shipped.

I think they have some growing pains right now and they are doing their best to sort that out. So far communications here on DGrin have been very good. Their websites help system is lacking. I sent a query that was not answered for several days and when I replied to it said that it could not process my request because it came from an incorrect email address...I just gave up on that as I had my question answered here...something needs to be sorted out there for sure.

I have positive feelings about this company. Hopefully they can pull it off and offer an alternative to the Blurb, MPix style of books.

Pricing on the high end books does present a bit of a problem for my clientele. I service the lower end market mostly and they would never spend $700 on an album which is the minimum I could charge after expenses. I think I would go with Asuka at this price level.

The branding needs to have the option to be removed before I would use them for clients as well, this is good for consumer products but not for anyone re-selling them to customers. I don't want to have to explain why I just charged them $700 for a book that cost me $350.

Montec, Smurfy and others, thanks for your feedback. It's always good to hear what is important to the community and I'm glad many of you are giving us a test drive. We've been working hard to produce a quality product/service but also know that we can always improve on it. Better order confirmation and online help are just some of the things we'll continue to improve on. We're also looking at ways to help the pros meet the demands of your customers with regards to pricing, layouts, branding, etc... But please do continue to send us your feedback, we take it very serious. You also can always get feedback to us faster thru our feedback link at the top of our Book Editor.

[Ham1]

I don't know if anyone knows it or not yet, but MyCanvas offers Calendars as well. Just go directly to: smugmug.mycanvas.com to see them.

I would LOVE feedback from anyone that makes a calendar.

Markham

[Sunnyvalejohn]

I will hopefully be trying a calendar out shortly and will let you know! Thanks for the great new offerings here!
Cheers,
John

I don't know if anyone knows it or not yet, but MyCanvas offers Calendars as well. Just go directly to: smugmug.mycanvas.com to see them.

I would LOVE feedback from anyone that makes a calendar.

Markham

[Montec]

I don't know if anyone knows it or not yet, but MyCanvas offers Calendars as well. Just go directly to: smugmug.mycanvas.com to see them.

I would LOVE feedback from anyone that makes a calendar.

Markham

I just went and created one, Wow! best calendar software interface I have used to date.:thumb

Still need to get that used images indicator worked out tho...for someone as thick as me I easily forget what images I have used :huh

[fotofool]

I just went and created one, Wow! best calendar software interface I have used to date.:thumb

Still need to get that used images indicator worked out tho...for someone as thick as me I easily forget what images I have used :huh

We're making good progress on building the images used indicator as well as being able to display larger thumbnails.

Thanks again for the feedback.

[Grumpy_one]

I don't see the extra cost for expediting a shipment. How much extra cost is there? I'm waiting to receive the first one to see if I need to make any changes for the half dozen or so I'll be ordering. I hope it gets here quickly. It did ship today. Thanks.

[Montec]

I don't see the extra cost for expediting a shipment. How much extra cost is there? I'm waiting to receive the first one to see if I need to make any changes for the half dozen or so I'll be ordering. I hope it gets here quickly. It did ship today. Thanks.

I must say I am a bit concerned about this as well. I ordered Blurb book after I ordered this one and I have already received it. I have no idea where this one is in the process.

[AndrewT]

I just received my first photo book. Great quality printing and a quick turn around.

But as a canadian customer, I have to say we are very disappointed by our experience with UPS. To accept delivery of the $50 book (including the $9 shipping), we had to pay UPS a $20 brokerage fee!

I have made several purchases from the US, so I would not have been surprised being charged by Customs Canada to recover the sales taxes (13%), but in this case the UPS brokerage fee was exhorbitant.

It's a nice book but definitely not worth $70. This experience will surely make us think twice about using a U.S. company for photo finishing.

Does Smugmug have plans to affiliate itself with a canadian firm in the future?

[Montec]

But as a canadian customer, I have to say we are very disappointed by our experience with UPS. To accept delivery of the $50 book (including the $9 shipping), we had to pay UPS a $20 brokerage fee!


You must get items shipped by Air, not Ground. Air shipping by UPS does not incur the huge brokerage fees as ground shipping does. I learned this lesson the hard way, $20 items and $30 brokerage fees. :scratch

[fotofool]

I don't see the extra cost for expediting a shipment. How much extra cost is there? I'm waiting to receive the first one to see if I need to make any changes for the half dozen or so I'll be ordering. I hope it gets here quickly. It did ship today. Thanks.

You can go to your cart and view the standard shipping price then recalculate it for expedited shipping.

[durazzi]

Blurb offers a feature where I can offer my finished projects to other people, for a profit to me. Similar to smugmug's pro pricing, acutally. I don't see it with mycanvas, but is it available? If not, is it possible to get? After doing all that work to create a book, I'd like to be able to share in the profit of referring people to the product. Would be especially nice for wedding photogs I'd think.

[cwoodard]

I am trying very hard to make some calendars for Christmas. The features offered are great. But I keep having trouble with my images disappearing. I am trying to set images as background images and sometimes they show up, and sometimes they just end up being blank white pages. Sometimes they USED to show up, but then later they don't. I can't figure out what's going on, and it makes me sad :P

[fotofool]

I am trying very hard to make some calendars for Christmas. The features offered are great. But I keep having trouble with my images disappearing. I am trying to set images as background images and sometimes they show up, and sometimes they just end up being blank white pages. Sometimes they USED to show up, but then later they don't. I can't figure out what's going on, and it makes me sad :P

Please PM me your MyCanvas username and we'll take a look.

[unknownphotography]

So is there any other offer at this time? I see that the coupon expired on the 20th.

[cwoodard]

So is there any other offer at this time? I see that the coupon expired on the 20th.

Right on their website! Until Dec 24, save 20% on all products.

[fotofool]

We are currently exploring a pro offering and would like to get input from pros with clients. How can we best reach out to the pro on SmugMug to get this input? How many of you would like to create products for your clients vs. allowing your clients to create products from the photos you have taken for them?

Please let me know if you are willing answer some questions or take a survey to help us better understand what you would like in such an offering?

Thanks, Kelvin

[Ham1]

Blurb offers a feature where I can offer my finished projects to other people, for a profit to me. Similar to smugmug's pro pricing, acutally. I don't see it with mycanvas, but is it available? If not, is it possible to get? After doing all that work to create a book, I'd like to be able to share in the profit of referring people to the product. Would be especially nice for wedding photogs I'd think.

This is currently not available, but we definitely want to offer this in the future. I don't have an ETA for it, but it is on our todo list.

Markham

[Ham1]

Does Smugmug have plans to affiliate itself with a canadian firm in the future?

We don't currently have any plans for this, sorry. We would like to but we have our hands full as it is working with US based suppliers.

[Ann McRae]

See this post (http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=977600&postcount=34) for details.

ann

[cwoodard]

It would be nice if, when we imported photos from Smugmug, we could tell My Canvas to only import photos with a certain keyword or keywords.

[Ann McRae]

As well, I supposedly imported all of my photos, but they are not all available to me. And I cannot figure out how to import the galleries that are missing.

And, further to the bug report above, the program just shut down on me and I had started making calendar 2 (ie lost work this time). Should I switch from safari to something else?
Anyone else with these instability issues?

ann

[lisap]

I just received my first photo book. Great quality printing and a quick turn around.

But as a canadian customer, I have to say we are very disappointed by our experience with UPS. To accept delivery of the $50 book (including the $9 shipping), we had to pay UPS a $20 brokerage fee!

I have made several purchases from the US, so I would not have been surprised being charged by Customs Canada to recover the sales taxes (13%), but in this case the UPS brokerage fee was exhorbitant.

It's a nice book but definitely not worth $70. This experience will surely make us think twice about using a U.S. company for photo finishing.

Does Smugmug have plans to affiliate itself with a canadian firm in the future?

My experience has been that UPS is one of the worst to use to get things from the U.S. to Canada from a cost perspective. Unfortunately, most of the U.S. based suppliers I use seem to use UPS and most don't offer the USPS option. :( Also, I agree with Montec that Ground is worse than Air.

I ordered a book and a large poster using the promo codes to test out the MyCanvas services. (with the discounts, how could I not try it out!!) :)

I really loved the templates that I was able to use to make the book. And the paper quality was very nice. I wasn't as pleased with the outside of the book. It doesn't seem to be stuck on very well at the spine and detracts from the higher quality of what's inside. I showed it off to some friends who have seen other books I have made and they had pretty much the same comments. Also, it didn't seem to be as carefully packaged as the other book making company I've used.

It was nice to see my photos in as large a size as the poster I made. :) I did a 24X36 poster portrait style and put two of my sunrise photos on it (one above the other). The print was very nice. There does seem to be some sort of shadow around each picture that I first thought might be an intentional drop shadow, but I don't think so. It just sort of stops part way at the bottom of each photos. I'm still very happy with the poster though. I can't wait to frame it and hang it up on my wall!! :)

I was going to try out a calendar, but I think unfortunately the cost of shipping will deter me from using the service again. :( As I mentioned, it's not something specific only to MyCanvas, but to many of the U.S. based suppliers I use.

-- Lisa P.

[Ann McRae]

I've heard the same thing about UPS - air rather than ground and you avoid the extra brokerage fees.

When having used equipment sent, USPS has been great. But I have had big delays with USPS ground for photo delivery from Smugmug. However, when I use the International 2 day option, and the package ships FedEx, all is smooth and quick.

The company I work for ships everything we make, and almost all of it internationally. We use FedEx. UPS almost always causes problems, particularly for customers shipping things to us from the US - customs delays are almost guaranteed!

I think the only way to cope with shipping in to Canada is to place large orders so that the cost is distributed over many items, and to choose air shipping. If you are only making one of, then several companies within Canada provide these services (Costco, Don' Photo, London Drugs, etc.) Of course, the ability to slurp them from Smugmug is missing.

[fotofool]

As well, I supposedly imported all of my photos, but they are not all available to me. And I cannot figure out how to import the galleries that are missing.

And, further to the bug report above, the program just shut down on me and I had started making calendar 2 (ie lost work this time). Should I switch from safari to something else?
Anyone else with these instability issues?

ann

Try the following when galleries aren't showing up:

Customize the gallery that is not showing up by setting external links to "yes".
If you see your galleries but no photos are coming in set Hide owner to "no"

[Ann McRae]

Try the following when galleries aren't showing up:

Customize the gallery that is not showing up by setting external links to "yes".
If you see your galleries but no photos are coming in set Hide owner to "no"


Okay, will check those things.

Problems I reported yesterday are not here today - things are working beautifully.

Thanks for the support.

ann

[klinquist]

I just thought you'd like to know that my MyCanvas calendar I ordered came out *amazing*... it doesn't come out in this quick photo, but all the pictures look fantastic and the calendar paper quality and such is awesome!

I'll be ordering half a dozen more for Christmas gifts :).

http://klinquist.smugmug.com/photos/429940723_zkrLH-XL.jpg

[Ham1]

I just went and created one, Wow! best calendar software interface I have used to date.:thumb

Still need to get that used images indicator worked out tho...for someone as thick as me I easily forget what images I have used :huh

We just got back my calendar I created and it is really great huh?!

Looks like we are going to make it more prominent on SmugMug. Just need MyCanvas now to allow customers to choose their own month start date! :thumb

[smurfy]

The '"trial" book arrived promptly and I was impressed with the print quality. The cover is a bit underwelming, but it's probably due to laminating or glossy jackets being common for bookmakers like Blurb, Picaboo and others, and without the lamination the eye tells the brain that something is wrong. But the print quality is nice, though the cover was easily marked with fingerprints that were hard to remove.

Now that I'm working on a serious (leather) wedding album in mycanvas, the program is really growing on me. Lots of versatility, and the bugs are worth it to create such beautiful results.

"Bugs" I'd like to respectfully request you work on:

1. I had to reimport pics after saving and shutting down the project. It restored the pics I had "cleared" and cleared the ones I'd imported.

2. Double page spreads are something I like to include in wedding albums, but need a way to view both pages at once, while able to edit at least one of them, to create these panoramas.

3 Slow processing...several times my computer said the script had stopped while it was "thinking"

4. Hide used thumnails.

5. Are there font style choices for the cover? (The 11X14 leather) I couldn't figure out how to change the cover font. I understand embossing is different than printing , but could you make at least a script font available in addition to the block lettering? Would you also please offer a choice of silver emobssing instead of gold, and allow the font to be moved to another place on the cover, specifically the lower right corner?

6. Remove branding for all pro smugmug account holders? Or in the meantime while you work on it, at least shrink it dramatically-it's huge and not too pretty. If you must put your branding, make it smaller and less conspicuous. ( A gentle whisper, not a shout.)

In conclusion, I look forward to trying mycanvas for this 11 X 14 wedding album and will keep let you all know how it comes out. Thanks for your hard work in making it more user friendly and filling the needs of pro photogs and serious hobbyists alike. I will copy some of this message on the feedback tool, but also wanted to post these comments here for the dg community, as I learn from others questions and comments and figure someone else might also benefit from answers to "bugs" the mycanvas support team may post here.



smurfy
http://godburnphotos.smugmug.com/

[Montec]

I got mine today as well.

The branding is a total deal breaker for me. It is the entire last page with a direct link to the prices. I will not give this to the people who ordered it and will re-do the book at Blurb.

Paper quality is good but not up to par with Blurb's new premium paper offering. My last MPix book was very good as well. I would rate the print/paper quality on par with the Blurb standard paper.

The cover is nice, but I really am spoiled by the wrap around printed dust jackets. Sorry..but this plain simulated leather look just doesn't cut it for me.

It also seems very 'light'. I have a similar sized Blurb book that feels much heavier and sturdier. I would compare these books with those from ShutterFly, I have several from them for family fun shoots and sporting events and they look and feel very similar.

On a positive note I loved design interface, even with the minor bugs that I am sure will be fixed.

I will probably continue with Blurb books for now, especially with their new paper. I would like to see a sample of their high end books, will not spend money to test it out. I have been using Asuka for books in this price range and they sent me a sample book for free...I have since purchased several.

Just my opinion. A bit disappointed as I thought we were going to get some better quality than what we already had with Blurb and others...I see no reason to switch at this juncture.

Don't take this wrong, They are good quality but certainly not better.

[ploeckl]

Hi,

I ordered a 24x18 collage which I received today. Unfortunately the print cut off little slices from each of the four sides of hte project, which created especially problems with the bottom side, where it cut a few milimeters from the text (which makes the cut therefore very visible). Since I never saw a warning about that on project site and the preview function shows the collage fine (i.e. without the cutoffs), I wanted to ask whether that's a problem with my specific project or with collages in general ?

(I also contacted customer support through the online form about this)

[fotofool]

Hi,

I ordered a 24x18 collage which I received today. Unfortunately the print cut off little slices from each of the four sides of hte project, which created especially problems with the bottom side, where it cut a few milimeters from the text (which makes the cut therefore very visible). Since I never saw a warning about that on project site and the preview function shows the collage fine (i.e. without the cutoffs), I wanted to ask whether that's a problem with my specific project or with collages in general ?

(I also contacted customer support through the online form about this)

Ploeck,

This sounds like a problem we probably need to address. Please PM me your username for MyCanvas or order number and I'll take a look to determine what we can do.

Thanks for the feedback.
Kelvin

[lifeinfocus]

Thanks, Montec.

I've PM'd you about the branding.

Can you tell us in the forum what the reply was?

Also, since MyCanvas also accepts uploading of files from Picasa, what advantage is there to upload via Smugmug? Is it a matter of convenience or discount in pricing? Is it a matter of better integration?

Thanks, Phil

[lifeinfocus]

We are currently exploring a pro offering and would like to get input from pros with clients. How can we best reach out to the pro on SmugMug to get this input? How many of you would like to create products for your clients vs. allowing your clients to create products from the photos you have taken for them?

Please let me know if you are willing answer some questions or take a survey to help us better understand what you would like in such an offering?

Thanks, Kelvin

We want to create the books for them and then allow them to access the project as final review. We will make final adjustments and then go to print.

Phil

[Grumpy_one]

Kudos to the MyCanvas support team: Kelvin and Lorilee. The family I sent the books to were knocked out. They loved the book. Thanks again for the support. Dave

[Ann McRae]

I want to thank the support people at MYCanvas for the help that they provided when I was ordering my calendars. I had an issue regarding the shipping that was showing up on my order, and the MyCanvas support people found a workaround for me. They were punctual in replying, and helpful.


Unfortunately, I have HUGE 'BUT' to report. I made 5 different calendars. I ordered 15 copies each of two of them, and 1 copy each of the other three. I placed the order for all at the same time. Four of the five shipped at the same time from one location, the other shipped separately. UPS has tried to deliver a portion them - now, the good news here is that they came very quickly, ahead of schedule (ground shipping was the only choice to Canada).

The bad news is that they must have been shipped in separate packages. Each single calendar has $19.95 brokerage fee, and the package of 15 has $33.95 brokerage fee. That is a total of $95 and I still expect a package with the other 15 - so I guess another $33.95. This adds about $4 to the cost of each calendar.

I am really disappointed with this. By ordering at the same time, I expected a single delivery - a single set of brokerage fees. $20/single calendar is just unbelievable.

FWIW, I just used Imagekind to order a framed print for my sister-in-law. Final print/frame size is 32" by 20" or so, FedEx 2 day shipping on it was $32.00 and there will be no additional brokerage fees on it.

Please, MyCanvas, change your freight company. If you don't I will not use your service again.

I want any other Canadians to be aware of this issue - both the multi package shipping and the extra brokerage fees due as a result of your choosing UPS.

ann

[Andy]

Please, MyCanvas, change your freight company. If you don't I will not use your service again.

Ann, this is ugh, terrible. I hope MyCanvas does the right thing for you (SmugMug would, in a heartbeat, if the charges were via Smuggy).... let me know how you make out, ok?

[Montec]

I want any other Canadians to be aware of this issue - both the multi package shipping and the extra brokerage fees due as a result of your choosing UPS.

ann

Hi Ann, I am painfully aware of the outrageous UPS brokerage fees. There is a workaround by using 2 day air shipping and they don't apply the brokerage fees. But the shipping fees are higher.

I am with you, I will not use any companies services that only provides UPS shipping. FedEx to Canada and no fees...what gives UPS??

[Ann McRae]

Hi Ann, I am painfully aware of the outrageous UPS brokerage fees. There is a workaround by using 2 day air shipping and they don't apply the brokerage fees. But the shipping fees are higher.

I am with you, I will not use any companies services that only provides UPS shipping. FedEx to Canada and no fees...what gives UPS??


Thanks to your earlier posts, I knew to expect brokerage fees. However, the problem was compounded by MyCanvas shipping the items as 5 separate packages...5 brokerage fees! Painful! I was not given the choice of 2 day air - I would have taken that and paid rather than have this mess!

Andy - I will let you know, of course. I know how smuggie would handle it - thats why I am here, ya know. Having owned a customer centered business before, I appreciate good customer service.

ann

[Ann McRae]

Well, I have not heard a word from MyCanvas, either here, in response to my PM or my email to their support desk.
UPS was supposed to re-deliver yesterday, and didn't.
So I am waiting and wondering, both about using MyCanvas again and about what my calendars look like, should UPS choose to deliver them!

ann

[Allen]

It is extremely frustrating not knowing which thumbs have already been used.
Please add some kind of highlight on used thumbs.
Thanks

[Ann McRae]

Email response from MyCanvas - indicates that they are switching carriers next year. No response regarding this particular order. UPS still has not arrived to redeliver, and the 800 number does not provide an option for following up.


I am now officially POd!

Well, I have not heard a word from MyCanvas, either here, in response to my PM or my email to their support desk.
UPS was supposed to re-deliver yesterday, and didn't.
So I am waiting and wondering, both about using MyCanvas again and about what my calendars look like, should UPS choose to deliver them!

ann

[JPCanvas]

Kudos to the MyCanvas support team: Kelvin and Lorilee. The family I sent the books to were knocked out. They loved the book. Thanks again for the support. Dave

Hi everyone, hope you're enjoying the holidays.

Grumpy, thanks for the 'Kudos', very much appreciated! Kelvin and Lorilee as well as the rest of the team are really focused on customer issues. Although we strive to, we don't always get it right 100% the first time, but if you give us a little time when there is an issue we can usually work it out. And I'm really glad the family liked them, we love to hear that stuff.

Phil, the choice between SmugMug and Picasa is a personal one but there are certainly advantages of one over the other. As far as MyCanvas, yes we accept photos from both but I would say we're better integrated with SmugMug and we will offer discounts in partnership with smugmug on occasion. Also as you know they're a great bunch of guys and if there is ever any issue to resolve you can be sure that we'll figure it out quickly between us and SmugMug.

Allen, good news, your feature request to have used photos marked is a feature that we'll be launching soon. That was one of our biggest requests. Another was larger thumbnail sizes; we addressed that one about a week ago. In the tool on the left hand side at the bottom of your photos you'll now see you can switch between two different thumbnail sizes.

Ann, looks like we've still got an issue with your shipments. Sorry for the mess. I'm not going to make any excuses but UPS ground is a pain to Canada. It's a known issue and we'll be looking into alternatives. In the meantime please PM me your MyCanvas username and your email and we'll work something out.

[JPCanvas]

I just thought you'd like to know that my MyCanvas calendar I ordered came out *amazing*... it doesn't come out in this quick photo, but all the pictures look fantastic and the calendar paper quality and such is awesome!

I'll be ordering half a dozen more for Christmas gifts :).


Thanks klinquist...glad you liked the product. We always love hearing this feedback! We're always adding new features so please keep checking it out and let us know what you think.

John

[LaFlacaD]

Apologies if this has already been addressed as I have not reviewed the entire thread. Is there any way to import the pictures from smugmug without the watermark or do I have to remove the watermark from the gallery before I import it.

[Ann McRae]

Apologies if this has already been addressed as I have not reviewed the entire thread. Is there any way to import the pictures from smugmug without the watermark or do I have to remove the watermark from the gallery before I import it.


Smugmug watermarks do not come with the photos. If you add your watermark before you upload then you would need to remove it. Otherwise, you are good to go straight from your galleries!

ann

[SorryButIGottaComplain]

Thanks klinquist...glad you liked the product. We always love hearing this feedback! We're always adding new features so please keep checking it out and let us know what you think.

John

Had a very hard time with image corruption. Seemed better when I loaded images directly into MyCanvas. Pages weren't loading well at all. Killed every process that I didn't need (mostly photographic related processes - I need to just buy Adobe again using a little of this a little of that is no way to optimize workflow and evidently some of these processes may have been interfering with MyCanvas). Its working very quickly now. Cool software... if there was a tips and tricks for MyCanvas, could someone point me to it?

Also cleared out my browser cache... it didn't seem very full at all... but maybe it helped and would help others.

[JPCanvas]

Cool software... if there was a tips and tricks for MyCanvas, could someone point me to it?

Glad you're liking the service and thanks for the feedback. From any page on the site, if you go to the "Learn More" link at the top you can then check out the "Tutorials". There are seven basic ones each only about 30 seconds to 2 minutes long. These are basically getting started videos but pretty informative. In the "Tutorials" you also have an option to check out our Blog. This has more in-depth tips and tricks.

[GrininTYO]

Hi,
I went through the whole thread but I don't think this has been asked, so let me ask here. Can I use my local fonts when making a book or just select from a list of available fonts? More importantly, how is UNICODE support?
I want to create a multilingual book En/Jp and En/Es so the use of local fonts and Unicode support are kind of deal breakers for me...

[fotofool]

Hi,
I went through the whole thread but I don't think this has been asked, so let me ask here. Can I use my local fonts when making a book or just select from a list of available fonts? More importantly, how is UNICODE support?
I want to create a multilingual book En/Jp and En/Es so the use of local fonts and Unicode support are kind of deal breakers for me...


You can add text directly in the tool by selecting from a list of available fonts. The list is composed of TrueType fonts that are based on Unicode and support all European ISO languages with the exception of Cyrillic. Unfortunately local fonts can only be used if you create an image with the font and upload it to use in the tool.

[Marlowe]

Hi, I've just tried the MyCanvas Calendar and I can't seem to import photos from a particular Smugmug Album. When the import window comes up it is listing only a fraction of my available Smugmug albums. Have I missed something entirely? I no longer have these photos on my computer -they are only in this one gallery! I've switched it from a private to a public gallery but it still won't show.

Thanks
Jon

[Marlowe]

Nevermind, I found that I had "External Links" set to "no" within the "customize gallery".:rolleyes
All is working fine now!
Jon

[blue_dolphin]

I just signed up on the forum to give a big thumbs up for the MyCanvas calendars. I was going to use Shutterfly as I have in the past but decided to do a search here to see if Smugmug had any calendar options this year. I ordered and received a couple of sets of calendars for friends and family and I couldn't be more pleased with them.

I really appreciated the design flexibility - the possibilities are pretty much endless. It was a pleasure to be able to pull photos in from all my Smugmug galleries without having to upload the photos to another site. I found the controls to zoom, crop, rotate, frame, align, adjust translucency, format text, etc. to be both useful and pretty intuitive. I liked being able to duplicate a project so I could easily customize the calendars for different people without starting over from scratch.

The flash interface was a little slow and crashed the browser a few times on the old memory starved iMac I was using but quite OK on my new one (with 4 GB RAM!).

Processing and shipping was prompt and I appreciated the e-mail shipping notification. I liked that the calendars were individually shrink wrapped in plastic. The calendars themselves look great. Layouts and colors very accurate to what I saw on the screen. The photos look beautiful! My friends think I should sell the calendars (I am absolutely not a pro)!

Now that we're getting to the end of January, the option to begin the calendar with other months (as offered by Shutterfly) would be nice. And as others have mentioned, some way to mark the thumbnails to indicate images that have already been used would be helpful.

I have no relationship with these folks - just a happy customer.

[manbou]

I put together a wedding album on MyCanvas, and, call me crazy, but I'd like to see the actual printed pages in my hands before ordering them bound in a $400 leather cover and $50 slipcase.

Anyone know if MyCanvas will let you order unbound proof pages for a minimal fee before you spend lots of cash on a premium album? :ear

[Andy]

I put together a wedding album on MyCanvas, and, call me crazy, but I'd like to see the actual printed pages in my hands before ordering them bound in a $400 leather cover and $50 slipcase.

Anyone know if MyCanvas will let you order unbound proof pages for a minimal fee before you spend lots of cash on a premium album? :ear
I don't know the answer to this, I'm sorry - did you write them?

[manbou]

I don't know the answer to this, I'm sorry - did you write them?
Just used the contact form on their site. I'll see what they say.

[Montec]

I put together a wedding album on MyCanvas, and, call me crazy, but I'd like to see the actual printed pages in my hands before ordering them bound in a $400 leather cover and $50 slipcase.

Anyone know if MyCanvas will let you order unbound proof pages for a minimal fee before you spend lots of cash on a premium album? :ear

I know some like Asuka give you a PDF proof. Maybe they can provide that for you?

[manbou]

MyCanvas emailed me. They said that I should just buy the album first with the least-expensive cover, and if I am satisfied with that, then I can order it again with the expensive cover. Apparently, getting the unbound pages is not an option.

[JPCanvas]

I put together a wedding album on MyCanvas, and, call me crazy, but I'd like to see the actual printed pages in my hands before ordering them bound in a $400 leather cover and $50 slipcase.

Anyone know if MyCanvas will let you order unbound proof pages for a minimal fee before you spend lots of cash on a premium album? :ear

Manbou, unfortunately we don't offer unbound pages at this time. However, we are working to offer proof books in the very near future.

[fotofool]

I just signed up on the forum to give a big thumbs up for the MyCanvas calendars. I was going to use Shutterfly as I have in the past but decided to do a search here to see if Smugmug had any calendar options this year. I ordered and received a couple of sets of calendars for friends and family and I couldn't be more pleased with them.

I really appreciated the design flexibility - the possibilities are pretty much endless. It was a pleasure to be able to pull photos in from all my Smugmug galleries without having to upload the photos to another site. I found the controls to zoom, crop, rotate, frame, align, adjust translucency, format text, etc. to be both useful and pretty intuitive. I liked being able to duplicate a project so I could easily customize the calendars for different people without starting over from scratch.

The flash interface was a little slow and crashed the browser a few times on the old memory starved iMac I was using but quite OK on my new one (with 4 GB RAM!).

Processing and shipping was prompt and I appreciated the e-mail shipping notification. I liked that the calendars were individually shrink wrapped in plastic. The calendars themselves look great. Layouts and colors very accurate to what I saw on the screen. The photos look beautiful! My friends think I should sell the calendars (I am absolutely not a pro)!

Now that we're getting to the end of January, the option to begin the calendar with other months (as offered by Shutterfly) would be nice. And as others have mentioned, some way to mark the thumbnails to indicate images that have already been used would be helpful.

I have no relationship with these folks - just a happy customer.

Thanks for the feedback, blue-dolphin. We continue making changes and updates as quickly as we can and take into account the feedback we receive as we make those changes.

Just yesterday we rolled checkmarks for used photos and the ability to hide those used photos. When you mouse over a checkmark you can even see the pages in your project that the photo is used on.

We also rolled a color picker/eye dropper that allows you to select any color on the page to apply to text, text boxes and photo border colors. You will also be able to pick background colors the same way very soon.

Sometime in February we also plan to allow users to select a starting month for their calendars.

[fotofool]

I got mine today as well.

The branding is a total deal breaker for me. It is the entire last page with a direct link to the prices. I will not give this to the people who ordered it and will re-do the book at Blurb.

Paper quality is good but not up to par with Blurb's new premium paper offering. My last MPix book was very good as well. I would rate the print/paper quality on par with the Blurb standard paper.

The cover is nice, but I really am spoiled by the wrap around printed dust jackets. Sorry..but this plain simulated leather look just doesn't cut it for me.

It also seems very 'light'. I have a similar sized Blurb book that feels much heavier and sturdier. I would compare these books with those from ShutterFly, I have several from them for family fun shoots and sporting events and they look and feel very similar.

On a positive note I loved design interface, even with the minor bugs that I am sure will be fixed.

I will probably continue with Blurb books for now, especially with their new paper. I would like to see a sample of their high end books, will not spend money to test it out. I have been using Asuka for books in this price range and they sent me a sample book for free...I have since purchased several.

Just my opinion. A bit disappointed as I thought we were going to get some better quality than what we already had with Blurb and others...I see no reason to switch at this juncture.

Don't take this wrong, They are good quality but certainly not better.

Montec and other professionals, I think you'll be happy to hear that we will soon be launching the ability for professionals to turn off the branding page on printed books and calendars. In addition you will also be able to turn off the branding page and any references to pricing when sharing an electronic version of the project with a client.

Unfortunately, Montec, the cover you ordered is our entry level product and is not intended for the professional photography market. Please try not to judge all our books and covers by this particular product. We have flush mount and hinge books with much higher quality and heavier weight paper. These books include a range of cover options such as genuine leather. The flush mount books use a very heavy paper/card stock for the pages.

[michael lawrence]

Not to mention a bit pricey... I would hope service would be faster for the money. Guess I will look elsewhere for my poster sized photos...

[JPCanvas]

Not to mention a bit pricey... I would hope service would be faster for the money. Guess I will look elsewhere for my poster sized photos...

Michael, sorry to hear you were disappointed with the pricing and processing times. For what it's worth, if you look closely at our prices and process times for our entry level books (nuba, bonded leather, etc...) I think you'll find that we are right in line with most other book publishers. In fact you'll see that our price per page in most cases is much lower than others. With regards to our premium books, yes you are correcct, they are more expensive and do take longer but they are individually hand crafted and you won't find them at other suppliers. With posters we use a high quality fujifilm at a high resolution. Many will use lower quality paper and resolution output to reduce the costs. We typically get great feedback on our final products. I hope this helps and that you'll consider using us but I certainly understand if you choose another option. There's lots to choose from out there.

[JPCanvas]

Canadian MyCanvas users, I just want to give you a heads up. We're currently working on some tax/legal issues with orders from and shipments to Canada. I'm not going to go into details because the laws are confusing and I'm not a lawyer (although we've got many good ones working here) but the result is that we have temporarily suspended CA orders/shipments. This issue should be worked out shortly and we'll notify you once it is. I'm terribly sorry for any inconvenience this may cause some of you. Feel free to PM me or contact us for more details.

[manbou]

Got my wedding album recently from MyCanvas. It was one of the more expensive ones, so I expected the quality would be very high.

The overall binding and page thickness was fine. But I have some suggestions for improvements:

(1) I would like to see an option to choose coated pages (like with a textured matte or semigloss finish), maybe with gold coloring on the edges of the pages themselves. I have seen wedding albums with this kind of coating and edging and they look and feel "professional". The uncoated pages in my MyCanvas album, while nice and thick, have kind of a plain look and feel to them that doesn't really seem right for a wedding album.

(2) I would also like the cover photo to be somehow "embedded" in the cover and not just be pasted onto the cover material as a separate piece of paper.

(3) Please, give us more options to customize the fonts on the cover!

(4) Let ordinary customers have the option to exclude your advertising page. Charge me more, I don't care, but my wife and I shouldn't have to carry your advertising in our own family heirloom.

Thanks.

[JPCanvas]

Got my wedding album recently from MyCanvas. It was one of the more expensive ones, so I expected the quality would be very high.

The overall binding and page thickness was fine. But I have some suggestions for improvements:

(1) I would like to see an option to choose coated pages (like with a textured matte or semigloss finish), maybe with gold coloring on the edges of the pages themselves. I have seen wedding albums with this kind of coating and edging and they look and feel "professional". The uncoated pages in my MyCanvas album, while nice and thick, have kind of a plain look and feel to them that doesn't really seem right for a wedding album.

(2) I would also like the cover photo to be somehow "embedded" in the cover and not just be pasted onto the cover material as a separate piece of paper.

(3) Please, give us more options to customize the fonts on the cover!

(4) Let ordinary customers have the option to exclude your advertising page. Charge me more, I don't care, but my wife and I shouldn't have to carry your advertising in our own family heirloom.

Thanks.

Manbou, thanks for the detailed feedback. We'll definitely take these into consideration. BTW, we do give the option now to remove our branding. We launched that a few weeks ago based mainly on feedback we got from customers like yourself.

Thanks again,
John

[ExposeTheMoment]

I want to know how your 400.00 album compares to a FinaoOne Album. I can buy a Finao album for less than 400. I mean no disrespect, but I cannot believe your 400.00 album beats the quality of a Finao.

[fotofool]

I want to know how your 400.00 album compares to a FinaoOne Album. I can buy a Finao album for less than 400. I mean no disrespect, but I cannot believe your 400.00 album beats the quality of a Finao.

I'm not an aficionado on FinaoOne Albums so I would have a hard time comparing our products directly to theirs. However, I can provide you with some details about our albums. We have two different sized genuine leather premium albums with a base price of $349.

The 11x8.5 album cover is made from genuine Nubuck leather, a top-grain cattle rawhide leather which has been sanded or buffed to produce a velvet-like surface. Nubuck is far more durable than the less expensive suede. This album uses the layflat hinge binding and can contain up to 250 pages.
The 8x8 album cover is made from genuine leather and can include a debossed image and foil stamping. It is a flush mount album consisting of up to 80, heavy stock, matted pages.Both albums are individually hand crafted.

[Pindy]

Just received my first book. The fit and finish of the nuba is nice. The printed pages look good and the color seems pretty on. I have noticed a slight darkening overall compared to the same photos I have printed through EZprints (or was it Bay?). You can actually see the darkening in the MyCanvas interface when you have SmugMug up on a second monitor.

I would like to be able to alter the preset layouts for a page with the photos in situ. Also, i would like to be able to remove a photo from a frame so that it goes back to the thumbnails pane without the frame being deleted. Furthermore, I want to see thumbnails in their natural orientation. How difficult it is to fill a book not knowing the orientation or your source material!

Your alignment tools need to be improved with respect to aligning photos not to each other but relative to the corners of the pages. I often want to take 4 landscape photos and "inflate" them equally to be as large as they can be on the page without touching.

The fact you can share and let others see and buy your books is the main reason I went with MyCanvas and number two reason is the SmugMug partnership. Both of those are huge. Keep up the good work.

[fotofool]

Just received my first book. The fit and finish of the nuba is nice. The printed pages look good and the color seems pretty on. I have noticed a slight darkening overall compared to the same photos I have printed through EZprints (or was it Bay?). You can actually see the darkening in the MyCanvas interface when you have SmugMug up on a second monitor.

I would like to be able to alter the preset layouts for a page with the photos in situ. Also, i would like to be able to remove a photo from a frame so that it goes back to the thumbnails pane without the frame being deleted. Furthermore, I want to see thumbnails in their natural orientation. How difficult it is to fill a book not knowing the orientation or your source material!

Your alignment tools need to be improved with respect to aligning photos not to each other but relative to the corners of the pages. I often want to take 4 landscape photos and "inflate" them equally to be as large as they can be on the page without touching.

The fact you can share and let others see and buy your books is the main reason I went with MyCanvas and number two reason is the SmugMug partnership. Both of those are huge. Keep up the good work.

Thanks for the feedback, Pindy.

We should be pulling thumbnails across the same way you have them set up on SmugMug. You may need to customize your gallery and set the thumbnails to "original" if they are set at square. That way you will be able to see their orientation. Unfortunately you may not be able to see the changes immediately on MyCanvas since SmugMug has temporarily shut down the connection authorization feature to work out some issues.

We definitely need to add the ability to align objects to the page and not just to each other. This and the ability to remove an image from a frame are both on our long list of improvements and new features.

I'm not clear on what you mean by the following request. "I would like to be able to alter the preset layouts for a page with the photos in situ." Do you mean that you'd like to be able to make your own layouts and add those custom layouts to the "Layouts" tab?

By the way, you should watch for our new "swap photos" feature that is expected to roll later this week.

Thanks again for the feedback,
Kelvin

[Pindy]

I'm not clear on what you mean by the following request. "I would like to be able to alter the preset layouts for a page with the photos in situ." Do you mean that you'd like to be able to make your own layouts and add those custom layouts to the "Layouts" tab?

What I mean is I want to change from one layout preset to another and keep the chosen photos in relative positions. So if page 13 is a 4-up portrait layout, I want to be able to swap out the layout preset to, say, another 4-up and have the photos I've chosen for that page populate the frames of the layout I'm swapping in its place. Make sense?

[fotofool]

What I mean is I want to change from one layout preset to another and keep the chosen photos in relative positions. So if page 13 is a 4-up portrait layout, I want to be able to swap out the layout preset to, say, another 4-up and have the photos I've chosen for that page populate the frames of the layout I'm swapping in its place. Make sense?

Excellent description...I'm perfectly clear on what you're saying now. This is a very reasonable request but may not be as easy to implement as it sounds. Right now we use some logic to place photos in layouts based on size and orientation so that is part of the reason photos don't always keep their relative position. I'm sure we can find ways to improve how we position the photos but in the meantime, because we don't know exactly how someone wants their photos positioned, we have added photo swapping.

The photo swapping feature allows you to easily swap one photo with another to quickly rearrange your photos in the desired relative position. I expect this feature to launch today or early next week.

[Morgaine]

I was wondering if you offer the heavy stock paper in the larger albums. I looked through the site and noticed this type of paper mounting is only available for the 8x8.

[fotofool]

I was wondering if you offer the heavy stock paper in the larger albums. I looked through the site and noticed this type of paper mounting is only available for the 8x8.

Yes, I'm sorry but we currently only offer the board book binding as an 8x8.

[Robinivich]

It's been the better part of a year since you guys posted about your tax/legal issues with orders from Canada, any luck getting that one resolved? Or am I going to have to work around that one?

[fotofool]

It's been the better part of a year since you guys posted about your tax/legal issues with orders from Canada, any luck getting that one resolved? Or am I going to have to work around that one?

There is a new possibility on the horizon but it may take months to get implemented. This is a fairly complex solution and is dependent on several factors so it is possible that it won't end up being implemented. I wish I could go into more details but I can't.

Kelvin

[jachang]

We are currently exploring a pro offering and would like to get input from pros with clients. How can we best reach out to the pro on SmugMug to get this input? How many of you would like to create products for your clients vs. allowing your clients to create products from the photos you have taken for them?

Please let me know if you are willing answer some questions or take a survey to help us better understand what you would like in such an offering?

Thanks, Kelvin

It has been over a year since you mentioned the possibility of a pro offering. Any progress on this yet? I have had to buy several of my books and then turn around and ship them to clients, causing "double" shipping charges.

I really would love to see a pro offering--soon!! Pretty please?

If we could then add the books into our SmugMug pricing under merchandise, that would be perfect. I keep having people want to "order" my book, but there's no way for them to order it unless I don't make any profit.

I know I have the option to use Blurb for this, but I really love My Canvas!:lust

[LCKatMPN]

Hey everyone,

I wanted to start a thread here to start getting your input to our newest Book and Collage maker MyCanvas. smugmug.mycanvas.com :clap:clap

Currently they are running pretty amazing special for all SmugMug customers, just go to your "buy" button on any SmugMug gallery. Click on "Create a book" or "Create a Collage" and you will see MyCanvas there. You have GOT to check out their Premium books!! :ivar:ivar

I am looking for feedback, thoughts, suggestions, complaints etc. I am going to get one or two of the MyCanvas people to join Dgrin and support their service just like Blurb does.



We love our partners!!

Thanks,
Markham

Had a few moments to search and explore and tried taking a look at MyCanvas. Got past the authorization, but no further. Then, I got a message that SmugMug couldn't authorize the site (but it already had). Then I was authorized again, but couldn't get further. With more time I will check out the tutorial. The last thing I need right now, though, is to get frustrated over something that looks intuitive but isn't. Good luck withit.

[David P]

JPCanvas said in April 2009 that they were working on tax issues so they could ship to Canada soon and it is still not sorted out??? Smugmug does not seem to have any problem dealing with Canada. Come on its not that complicated!

[Photobycate]

Sorry to say that last year I had a calendar made by MyCanvas and they were horrible, just horrible. The color was completely off as was the image alignment. They reprinted three times and three times the calendar was a disaster. I received a refund from them and went back to using Kodak to create and print my calendars as I did this year too and they are beautiful. It's a shame our customers cannot create calendars and cards though our SmugMug websites. That would bring in a good bit of revenue.