Take Time to Learn the Software and Experiment
Like many people I'm impatient to get the book ready for publishing but finally decided to take my time
and learn each system. Time spent up front learning the system reduces frustration later and results
in a better looking photo book.
So lets look closer at the two selected book layout software systems: MPIX and SmileBooks.
A Look at MPIX
MPIX provides a number of fixed layout alternatives to make things easier. Instead of using this feature
I decided to do my own custom layout.
After taking time
to learn the software I found I could do just about anything I wanted with respect to layout
with MPIX including easily creating two
page spreads. Photos could be positioned on the page to the hundredth of an inch (their software will do
positioning automatically if you choose). The backgrounds available were varied and several subtle backgrounds
were just what I wanted. The available picture frames were simple but varied, again just
what I was looking for. One
nice feature was the ability to fade the photos. This allows you to use an image for a page background and then
fade that image so it is still visible but does not compete with the main images laid over it on the page.
So what's not to like about the software? In a word sluggish. On my medium performance two processor 2 Ghz
laptop things were slower than I cared for. Sluggish but usable. Performance I was certainly willing
to live with given the ability to create layouts exactly as I wanted. So MPIX was one of the vendors I was
going to use to create a test book. I uploaded the MPIX file and waited. Results later...
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