Digital Photographer's Software Guide - Bertemes - Net

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The Digital Photographer's Software Guide
Description
Smilebox is an online service that lets you create animated scrapbooks, photobooks,
slide shows, postcards, and greetings. To use it, you download a design, personalize it
for the occasion you have in mind by adding images, video, music and captions, and
then email it to the recipient.
There are three levels of service: a basic, free design; a premium design; and a club subscription.
Comments
Smilebox may very well appeal to scrapbookers. It has a huge number of cheerful designs
with a seasonal emphasis that changes as the year progresses. Unfortunately, it does not
give you enough control and tends to put your scrapbook together as it thinks best,
loading pictures automatically from your Windows folders. It needs a fast broadband
connection as it sends you a substantial amount of images and code. There is an initial
wait even with a 8Mbps connection.
Versions: 1.0 (2008)
OS: Windows XP
RAM: 256MB
Supported file formats: Limited formats
Price level: Premium designs $2 each, subscription $5/month or $40/year
Address: Smilebox, Inc., 8201 164th Ave NE, Suite 305, Redmond, WA 98052, United States
www.smilebox.com
Summary
More than a hobby, scrapbooking is an activity that celebrates family life, preserving its
special moments for later enjoyment. Its modern version is digital scrapbooking, either
in virtual form for sharing online or else as a design tool for printing physical scrapbooks,
often in their traditional square format. Most scrapbooking software contains
vast quantities of clipart, mainly because developers believe this is what the market
demands. Not all of it would pass muster in a design contest, but the homespun nature
of scrapbooking makes it readily accepted. Developers have kept layout and image
manipulation as easy-to-use as possible, but dedicated scrapbookers always have the
option of moving up-market to Photoshop Elements or Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo.
Another option is to use an online service such as Smilebox, but ultimately there is no
substitute for using good photographic skills at the point of origination.