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Last week we covered the iPhoto Import, Organize
and Edit modes, including the lamentable red/eggplant converter
in Edit.
Now, let's take a look at the last two modes,
both of which are oriented toward a profit center for Apple and
Kodak.
The Book mode is where you can assemble the
images in an Album into a book which can then be ordered online.
I decided to test the Book assembly process by importing from an
existing file 11 high resolution TIFF images, resized and color
corrected in Photoshop.
Six pre-designed formats are available and they
control how the book will look with very little creative leeway
for the user. I chose the Classic format and limited to one the
photos on a page. Up to four photos can be placed on a page.
Guideline boxes are available for what I thought
would be caption copy. But when I opened a page, I discovered
the image's name in the box. Selecting and retyping the text to
a caption changes the name of the image in the Album and the
Photo Library.
There seems to be no provision for headlines
plus body copy. Choosing a font for selected copy sets all the
copy in the book universally. Clearly, an iPhoto Book is
intended to be a photo album and not a coffee table publication.
When the book was finished to my satisfaction, I
moved to the Share mode and clicked on "order book."
The first book (with high-res TIFFs) took about
nine minutes to assemble. Uploading to the iPhoto site was also
leisurely, about nine minutes which I attributed to file size.
An hour later, Latoya from the Apple Store
called to tell me iPhoto had rejected my uploaded file and I
should resubmit the book. I talked with Apple's tech support (4
folks in the next two hours) and two days later got a judgment
that file size was not an issue with iPhoto.
In the meantime, I had submitted a second book,
similar in style but using low-resolution QuickTime JPGs from my
digital camera file. Uploading was a bit faster. I then called
and talked with Latoya to cancel my first book order. She said
the book had already been sent to the vendor.
Both books arrived today, eight and nine days
from their respective order. They're each beautiful and there's
no difference in image quality between the high- and low-res
versions. Amazing. The cost for each was $40.08 (including sales
tax and shipping).
Next week, we'll examine the other ways of
sharing from the iPhoto Share mode.
In a Google search for "iPhoto," I turned up the
interesting fact that iPhoto is a trademarked association of
professional photographers.
http://www.iphoto.ca/
I wonder how Apple got around that? |