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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Printing photos

Ragnes - Jun 18, 2006 - 12:19 am

I am trying to make a photo directory with about 6 photos per page with captions. There will probably be about 8-10 pages in the book.

I'm trying to figure out how to arrange the photos on each page.
Then I'd like to take it to Office Max or a similar place for them to print it on their printers since theirs are of better quality than mine. If I copy the pictures to Appleworks Word Processing, then I'm afraid the computer at the store won't be able to read it since it is a pc. Can you recommend a program for me to work with as I transfer my photos? Mozilla's Composer perhaps? Or Text Editor? Or some other program? Does iPhoto have anything that might be helpful?

I bought the computer about two years ago and I have access to all the software that came with the computer.
I have an eMac 10.3.9 and iPhoto 4.0.3

Thanks for any help you can give to me.
Ragnes

earthsaver - Jun 18, 2006 - 11:57 am

Why not just use the Book feature of iPhoto?

- Ben

earthsaver - Jun 18, 2006 - 11:58 am

Also, if you go another route, regardless of the application you choose to do the layout, you can always print to PDF.

Ragnes - Jun 18, 2006 - 4:45 pm

Ben, thanks for letting me know of other options I might take. It seems like I try different routes and each time I run into one kind of problem or another. I'm just not sure which one is the best one to pursue. From your response, it sounds like the Book feature of iPhoto would be good to learn.

Under the photos, it says Import, Organize, Edit, Book. If I click on Book, then the photos are arranged on the different pages. Sometimes there is one picture on a page and sometimes there are four. I'd like to have about six photos on a page and I'd like to arrange them myself. Sometimes I can move the photos from one page to another, but basically, the photos/program seems to have a mind of its own when I start moving photos. If I move one photo to be above another, the two photos trade places instead. When I look at the themes, Yearbook is the closest to what I'm wanting, but there is far too much white space and not enough space devoted to photos.

Would you tell me if there is something else I can do so that I can arrange six photos per page and write names under each photo?

Thanks,
Ragnes
eMac 10.3.9
iPhoto 4.0.3

earthsaver - Jun 18, 2006 - 6:36 pm

Sounds to me like you need your photos to be smaller, so more will fit on a page. I'm not too familiar with iPhoto's book building features, so I'm going to reopen your question.

Ragnes - Jun 18, 2006 - 10:54 pm

Ben, thanks for your help and for knowing when to pass my question along. I always appreciate it when someone who doesn't know something simply says so as you did. This site is a great service for those of us who are trying to learn various software programs.
Thanks again,
Ragnes

grggary - Jun 19, 2006 - 12:54 am

Hi. I hope you don't mind if I jump in here. Personally, Apple has lots of nifty apps bundled with the OS that are great. iPhoto is very cool and does a great job of organizing your pictures and has lots of neat options.
But.
iPhoto is really more of a photo management tool than anything and if I was you and wanted all kinds of creative freedom, I would use a page layout program for the task at hand. That way you have full creative freedom and upon completion, just tell the page to print and instead of hitting the Print button, press the PDF button and tell it to save as PDF. Then you have a file that can be transferred electronically to your print shop.
I'm not sure what kind of page layout programs you have, but something like Adobe InDesign, QuarkXPress, PageMaker, Ready-Set-Go or anything along those lines will work fine and give you complete control from the blank page on up. I wouldn't recommend trying it in a Word Processor because they have a LOT of limitations when it comes to design and layout.
Anyway, my two-cents' worth...
Gary

Ragnes - Jun 19, 2006 - 11:14 am

Gary, thanks for jumping in. I went to my Macintosh HD and looked under applications. I didn't recognize any programs as ones you had mentioned. So two follow up questions. Do you know of any page layout programs that commonly come with an eMac? I expect there aren't, but before I purchase one, I'd like to double check. Second question is, Assuming I don't find a program hidden someplace inside my computer, would you be willing to recommend a software program for me to purchase? The two criteria I have is that I'd like something simple to learn and hopefully relatively inexpensive.
I don't need something that does it all. Do you have any suggestions?
Thanks,
Ragnes

Ragnes - Jun 19, 2006 - 10:00 pm

I would like to update this question. I just found out that my brother might have last years copy of Apples Pages that he's willing to give to me IF IF IF he can find it. He just purchased this years version. I'm wondering if you know how easy that software program is to learn. Or is there another one that is much simpler.

Related question: I just ordered Dreamweaver so I can learn to make better webpages. I'd been using Mozilla's Composer. On Wikipedia, I just read that Dreamweaver uses a layout engine similar to a Desk Top Publishing program. From that same article, I got the impression that page layout programs are similar to desktop publishing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop...shing_software

I had been assuming that I would still need a page layout program even after my Dreamweaver program arrives. Would you agree?

Right now I am trying to create a page like a yearbook with about 6 photos per page and the name of the person under each photo.

I appreciate whatever advise you can give to me. If you can't answer all my questions, please go ahead and answer the ones you know and leave the rest.

Thanks,
Ragnes
eMac 10.3.9

grggary - Jun 19, 2006 - 11:03 pm

I've never played with that particular program so I'm not sure about its ease of use. It sounds like Pages is more of a word processor, and although page layout is possible in word processors, they do have their limitations. Here's a review: http://www.macworld.com/2006/01/revi...ges2/index.php
If you get it, go ahead and give it a try and if it works for your purposes, problem solved.
If you want to do a little research into some affordable page layout programs check out some of the following links. Some of it is shareware you could download and start working in immediately. Take a minute to investigate and then you decide.

http://www.macworld.com/2006/03/revi...hop2/index.php

http://www.pure-mac.com/dtp.html

http://www.webbuyersguide.com/bguide...oCategory_E_45

http://www.macworld.com/2005/11/revi...r103/index.php

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention http://www.macworld.com/2005/06/revi...ncs2/index.php but that's a bit of overkill for you. It's what I use at work, and at home, but the price may be a bit prohibitive unless you do the type of work I do for a living.

As far as Dreamweaver goes, I I just got the program yesterday, so I'm afraid I'm not the expert you're looking for on that topic. Give me a week ;-)

Hope some of this info is helpful to you. I'll re-open the ticket to see what the others have to say about Dreamweaver.
Thanks!
Gary

EdtheMacDyer - Jun 20, 2006 - 11:16 am

On Dreamweaver - I've used the program for a few years and while it's great, it is probably overkill these days- but it won't fail you. Try TacoHTML, or NVue, shareware/freeware editors.

Personally, I just blog or spit out simple iWeb stuff.

On Pages, it's great, but the export to HTML is a drag. Can't even really export it's own templates that well. That said, I enjoy exporting to PDF for distributing newsletters and the like.

Back to iPhoto - the book thing is awesome. Haven't used it in a while, but my wife and I made up mother's day gift books a few years ago which turned out great.

Ragnes - Jun 20, 2006 - 1:39 pm

Greg, thanks for letting me know about the websites. They give me much more information about the kinds of software that are available and what I might buy. I hadn't realized the variety from which I could choose. Thanks for your help.

Ragnes

Ragnes - Jun 20, 2006 - 1:44 pm

Ed, thanks for letting me know about Dreamweaver and how it doesn't export well to HTML. That's the kind of information I'm looking for. I'll have to try those iPhoto books sometime.
Becky

EdtheMacDyer - Jul 10, 2006 - 3:37 pm

It was actually Pages that I said didn't export to HTML very well. Dreamweaver, while probably overkill for you, is an excellent app. Enjoy.

Ragnes - Jul 12, 2006 - 11:04 pm

Thanks for the clarification. I actually understood what you said. I just wrote it wrong.