InDesign is becoming more and more popular for album design work, however, we do not recommend it for new designers. Unless you know your stuff with InDesign and consider yourself an InDesign master, don’t use it… There are more variables and settings to check with InDesign. Wrong settings and improperly sized linked images are easy to miss and are common problems we have seen with inexperienced (and even some experienced) users… We have also experienced more problems with file corruptions during upload with improperly exported or converted InDesign files. Let this serve as your warning, use InDesign at your own risk.

Finao have an excellent point, and you won’t be surprised if I agree and maybe add to what they’re saying.

InDesign and Photoshop don’t design “real” physical products (and generally the tools that are based on them don’t either). Instead they’re entirely dependent on the user to create a design that complies with all the producer’s requirements, whether that be a book, a magazine, a poster, an album or whatever.

One of the major problems album manufacturers can have is when the orders they receive are not “ready for production”. Here’s a great example.

I believe photographers are familiar with the problem with respect to labs, but in fact it’s far more difficult for album manufacturers. As one example, Asuka’s File Checker is an attempt to address it, by stopping users from sending problematic orders.

And that’s why PJ has built-in presets for both labs and album manufacturers. Not very sexy but very practical.

There is a lot to choosing an album design tool but getting orders to your album manufacturer and lab that are accurate, complete and ready for production is an important consideration.

Warm regards, Danny

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Remix can export HD slide shows … or iPhone slide shows … or … why not customise?

Just have a play with the Movie Size pop-up on the slide show settings window. My favourite is Custom, so I’m not stuck with the pre-sets.

Cheers, Ian

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So what about all the quirky bugs, even in the latest version? Also running latest version of OS X. Used to work in the software industry, and this program is buggy!

Fair comment, although we may need to agree to differ

Here’s our take on it (I also posted about reliability while Remix was still in beta).

Version 1.25 in PJ Support’s experience is very stable. The few bugs in it (no deal breakers) were fixed in v1.26 … which is a beta with heaps of new features … and inevitably, a few new bugs!

If you want stability, stick with the (latest) final version. It’ll be stable and pretty bug-free. But if you stick to finals there’s a bit of a dilemma: any bugs there are won’t be fixed for you until the next final comes out. Unless there are deal breakers of course.

If you want to play with the latest features go for the betas, expect a few bugs – and prompter bug fixes – and accept our heartfelt thanks for helping to make the program even better.

Here’s a real-world observation. There are a few good reasons why PJ may be buggier than some: small user base … very ambitious software … cross-platform … constant development … Which of these would you have us give up on?

I’m proud of what Team PJ have done, and we’re all very grateful to our users, who’ve helped them do it with their feedback and patience. Check out the release notes and look at what they’ve achieved.

Cheers, Ian

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We’ll blog about a few more features over the next few days. First up, a new right-click function…

Try right-clicking on an image in the Event window or on the album layout. You’ll notice we’ve added a new option to the Right-click menu called “Show in Finder” (Explorer on Windows) which reveals the location of the original hi-res version of the image in your Finder/Explorer.

Cheers, Nigel

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“It’s an irony of our modern lives that while technology is continually invented that saves us time, we use that time to do more and more things, and so our lives are more fast-paced and hectic than ever.”

The 10 Essential Rules for Slowing Down and Enjoying Life More

Sounds like a good idea. We must try it sometime.

Cheers, Ian

PS Stephen should try it too by the look of it!

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PJ Remix 1.26b has been released with a stack of new features (and I do mean a stack – here are the release notes).

Here’s a short movie Nigel and I recorded to introduce the main new features – text functionality, importing PSDs as templates and images, and creating proof sheets.

(make sure to click ‘full screen’ - bottom right hand corner - after the movie starts)

We’ll give you the low down on some more new features in 1.26b throughout this week so stay tuned.

Cheers, Danny

PS using 1.26b? Let us know what you think.

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Danny and Stephen spilled some beans on Twitter here and here. We leaked a couple of features here on The Junction, and they’ve even popped up on our Facebook page.

If you missed all of that, think Text, PSD file functionality, and proof sheets and the usual tweaks and fixes…

It’s been a while coming, but for all you geeks and enthusiasts who’ve opted to accept beta updates, we’re releasing PJ 1.26b today. (It’ll notify you of the new version when you open PJ Remix.)

We’d love to know what you think - more details to follow.

Cheers, Danny

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Sometimes the templates they buy have limitations: ugly, clumsy, can’t be edited, hard to sort through or fit your photos into, suit a different style of photography or whatever. So some people get dissatisfied and move on to more powerful design tools.

Creative freedom is great, and you get all the flexibility and control you want - but it takes time, especially if you’re not disciplined.

So a new challenge shows up on your radar – the need to increase your productivity and define your style … you might start thinking about creating you own templates.

And I imagine this is cyclical in a way. A pendulum effect. Even experienced designers get tempted by the ease-of-use of templates and conversely people are inspired to leave the template nest and spread their wings.

My point is you probably need both, and if you can find both in the same piece of software, chances are you’re onto a winner. And yes you can!

Photojunction isn’t template-driven, it’s template-friendly. It’s a free-design tool that saves templates automatically from everything you do. And we’ve spent a lot of time on tools to help you edit, organise, filter and share them.

There’s a lot to choosing an album design tool, and maximising both creativity and productivity is a major factor.

Warm regards, Danny

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This online ad for a beat-up washing machine has gone viral (be sure to read some of the comments.)

Imagine getting that sort of response on your blog!

Thanks for the heads-up Raktim.

Cheers, Nigel

PS We saw an ad on Trade Me last year for a red paper clip. It fetched over $200.

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Noticed by our friends at ALT, who just won a Webby for justaddnewzealanders.com. They’re asking for more money, d’you think?

Cheers, Ian

PS While while we’re having fun, there are more to enjoy here and here. There’s no shortage of creativity out there.

And since we just mentioned New Zealand, if you know Flight of the Conchords you just might like The Topp Twins.

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