I need some help in surveying wedding album design SW

Qarik · August 18, 2009

it appears that there are not many main stream or well known ones. I designed an album recently in PS elements and it took a long time. I am positive there must be some good SW out there to drastically reduce the effort needed in resizing pictures, creating template, adding borders, etc. I see that some work on top of PS, some are stand alone, some are expensive, some are free...

So what do you guys use?

I am going to bite the bullet and pick up PS CS4 so the ones that run on top of that are fine. I do want one that more geared towards album specifically but not averse to trying a more general design tool if the learning curve is not high. (I get that feeling with indesign or quark?). Also I run on a Mac.

Can you give me a suggestion and tell me:

1) is it geared toward albums?
2) is it stand alone?
3) what kind of output does it give?
4) how is it regarded?
5) learning curve?

Thanks in advance.:clap

aktse · August 18, 2009

If you want something fast and easy, take a look at fotofusion by lumapix?

The learning curve is next to nothing, and if you're lazy or just don't want to design things, there are companies that sell layout templates for this. It's a stand along app that is gear toward page designs.

edited: I made these as 8x10 wedding gifts; these were snapshots taken by a few guest at a wedding with a cheap camera (2 megapixel resolution), and I turned them into this:

They're not wedding albums, but you can get an idea about what you can do...

Check the website for more things examples.

Scott_Quier · August 18, 2009

+1 on the FotoFusion. I've actually done a couple or three albums using this product.

For me, the learning curve is almost as easy as April has indicated but that's probably because she's so much smarter than I am. The people there are easy to deal with. I was having some problems with an early release of V4. They have a forum. I posted about the problem. Got a response from one of the senior people in the design/development end of the business. The next day I had a copy of an interim build for testing to see if it addressed my problem (yeah, they made me an informal tester).

If you get the "extreme" version creating single page and full spread layouts is a snap. I'm not sure, but I don't think you can create the full layout in the other editions. I know the size of the output (pixel dimensions) is limited in the other two editions.

If you do a seach of DGrin, I'm pretty sure urbanaries posed much the same question not so long ago.

Darren Troy C · August 18, 2009

Blurb ( http://www.blurb.com/ )

Finao ( http://www.finaoonline.com/ )

Graphistudio ( http://www.graphistudio.com/en/products/Book/index.html )

Shima · August 18, 2009

Ok so started playing around w/ the trial of the Lumapix FotoFusion and I'm really digging it... might have to end up buying this. But first I need to settle on an album printing company... thankfully the Chicago SMUG tonight we're meeting with one of the local album makers, maybe they'll have some stuff I like at a price point that works for my clients... we shall have to wait and see!

Just wanted to say thanks to people for the FotoFusion mentions, it's pretty cool and super easy to work with.

Qarik · August 18, 2009

I looked at fotofusion..looked pretty good but I run on a mac and currently fototfusion does not run natively on a mac (have to run double OS which I want to avoid). Scott I will try to find her thread.

Qarik · August 18, 2009

okay I just got the Adobe Design Premium bundle for $300 + $40 "expedite" fee at Stanford book store. It has indesign so I will give that shot 1st. I was looking at the Kubota tools as a back up.

Swartzy · August 20, 2009

For unlimited potential in all areas including cards, storyboards, page layouts, albums, collages, you name it....Album DS is by far my choice. All that stuff you pay big bucks for from Graphic Authority and like companies, you can create it all yourself with this program. To top it off....no matter what size sheet, card, or storyboard you create, they may be resized for a different album manufacturer with the click of a button....everything stays proportionate. I would not be without this program..period. Works directly in PS so all your tools are readily available.

http://www.albumds.com/site/

Shima · August 21, 2009

Scott_Quier wrote:

+1 on the FotoFusion. I've actually done a couple or three albums using this product.

For me, the learning curve is almost as easy as April has indicated but that's probably because she's so much smarter than I am. The people there are easy to deal with. I was having some problems with an early release of V4. They have a forum. I posted about the problem. Got a response from one of the senior people in the design/development end of the business. The next day I had a copy of an interim build for testing to see if it addressed my problem (yeah, they made me an informal tester).

If you get the "extreme" version creating single page and full spread layouts is a snap. I'm not sure, but I don't think you can create the full layout in the other editions. I know the size of the output (pixel dimensions) is limited in the other two editions.

If you do a seach of DGrin, I'm pretty sure urbanaries posed much the same question not so long ago.

I got the extreme version earlier this week and love it.

Just a few examples of some pages I've made with it already (those above were designed at 10x10 two page spreads)

Moogle Pepper · August 22, 2009

Swartzy wrote:

For unlimited potential in all areas including cards, storyboards, page layouts, albums, collages, you name it....Album DS is by far my choice. All that stuff you pay big bucks for from Graphic Authority and like companies, you can create it all yourself with this program. To top it off....no matter what size sheet, card, or storyboard you create, they may be resized for a different album manufacturer with the click of a button....everything stays proportionate. I would not be without this program..period. Works directly in PS so all your tools are readily available.

http://www.albumds.com/site/

How does that compare to Shima's and Scott's enjoyment of fotofusion?

Shima · August 22, 2009

Moogle Pepper wrote:

How does that compare to Shima's and Scott's enjoyment of fotofusion?

I have no experience with Album DS but I glanced at the site and the software is 350... whereas the Pro version of FotoFusion is 300. One difference between the two though is that there is native support for Mac with Album DS, where as FotoFusion requires you run Parallels or VMWare to use the software on a Mac (I'm on a PC so it's a moot point for me).

Moogle Pepper · August 22, 2009

Oh. That settles that one for me!

Since I am on a mac!

I need some help in surveying wedding album design SW

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