At Inkubook, we strive to give you all the tools to build a gorgeous book with as little effort as possible and sometimes that means helping you tweak your photos a little. So we included our photo toolbar that helps you do things like nudge photos around in a photo box or rotate them. However, the Inkubook tools won’t replace desktop image-manipulation programs like Adobe Phtoshop™, and sometimes your photos need the love that only sophisticated graphic programs can give.

The downside to most advanced image-editing programs is that they can cost hundreds of dollars. In the interest of helping you get the most bang for your buck, we will from time to time bring tools to your attention that can give you a lot of results for not a lot of moolah.

When the goal is keeping money in your wallet, you can’t do much better than free, and it just so happens that we know of a program that meets fits the bill. GIMP (or the GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free, community-built program that strives to match Photoshop feature-for-feature. You can get it for Windows, Macintosh and Linux, here.

You’ll be astounded by just how powerful this application is. It can help you execute just abut any modification to an image that you would like, such as reducing red-eye, removing unneeded details (like ol’ Cousin Rudy), and fixing perspective distortion, and those things just scratch the surface.

When you have some time to play around, give it a try. For some users, it may be a little advanced and have a steep learning curve, but if you have a little patience and an adventurous spirit, it’s worth your while to give it a shot.

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It is inevitable. You have the ideal picture for your Inkubook, but the subject is a bit off center, there is a little too much background, or maybe you’d like to cut Cousin Rudy out altogether. After all, nothing is ever really perfect. Luckily, Inkubook has a handful of tools that allow you to make basic modifications to your images right in your book. We aren’t trying to duplicate Photoshop™ here; we’re just trying to help you make drop-dead gorgeous books.

You can access the photo-editing tools simply by clicking on any image from within the editor. A set of tools will appear at the top of the screen. At any time, you can switch images with a single click.

The first set of tools on the left of the bar allow you to reposition the image within the photo box. You can move the image up, down, left, or right within the box. The fifth button with all four arrows allows you to re-center the image within the box. That comes in handy when you’ve nudged your photo too much in one direction and you think, “Dang, that’s not going to work. I’d better start over.” 

The next set of controls consists of two buttons that allow you to rotate the image within the photo box. The left button rotates 90° clockwise and the right button rotates 90° degrees counter-clockwise. Why ever would you want to rotate a photo? Well, sometimes photos come off your camera with the image lying on its side. If you make the artistic decision to leave Great-Aunt Lucille lying on her right side, we respect that. She might find it mildly offensive, though, so if you want to ensure that you continue to get that $5.00 check for your birthday, you can rotate the picture so she’s upright again.

Next are a pair of buttons with magnifying glasses on them. These allow you to resize the image. The left button will make the image smaller until the entire image appears within the photo box. For example, if you put a landscape photo in a box that’s oriented for a portrait picture, you can shrink your landscape until it spans the width of the box. (This will leave some blank space at the top and bottom of your photo box.) The right button allows you to zoom in on the image, making the visible portion larger. This can help eliminate some unwanted background and make the focal point of the photo more prominent. Take note: When enlarging a photo, it is possible to make the image so large that it will be of poor quality when printed. We warn you when you’re in danger of this happening by displaying an error icon on the image. If you see the error on one of your photos, you can scale the image back down using the left (-) resize button.

Finally, there is a trash can on the far right of the image editing toolbar. It probably won’t surprise you to find out that clicking this button will remove the current image from its photo box. By deleting the photo, you’ve returned the photo box to its original state and the background will be visible behind it in the preview screen and the printed book. (The outline of an empty photo box or text box doesn’t print in the book, so leaving one empty is like pretending it was never there at all.) At any time, you can drag another image into this box.

The image editing tools allow you to make those last-minute tweaks to make an image more perfect within your Inkubook. While we can’t get Cousin Rudy out of your life altogether, we can at least help you squeeze him out of the picture.

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I mentioned previously that we held a friends and family contest prior to opening Inkubook to the general public. We had a number of outstanding entries, but one stood out amongst the crowd as being especially creative. It was a surprise in that it was a unique use of Inkubook and a very polished work.

The book, titled Aibi and Olive and the Cheddar Cheese Moon, is a children’s story that employs original artwork by Sarah Takhashi along with an endearing text by Zoe Ragland. It tells the tale of an adventurous girl, Aibi, who shoots down a moon of delectable cheese and strives to return it to the sky with the help (or hindrance) of her voracious feline, Olive. The result is elegant yet simple. It showcases the power of Inkubook. Something as basic as a bedtime story for your children can be turned into a beautiful and professional book that can be passed amongst friends and even through generations.

Aibi and Olive and the Cheddar Cheese Moon

by Zoe Ragland and Sarah Takahashi

Start your own Little Ones Book at Inkubook.

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Prior to launching Inkubook, we held a contest for our friends and family to give them the chance to come and check out the site and provide us with feedback. Our second-place winner Brian B. is an event producer in Indianapolis. His book was a commemorative of his daughter Emerson’s first 26 months and excelled in aesthetics and creativity. We took a few minutes to chat with Brian and get his thoughts behind the book and his inspiration.

Q. Tell us about the book.
A. The book is 26 pages featuring one page for each of the months my daughter has been alive. Each page uses a photo from that month of her life. Page one is the first day of her life with the song title “First Day of My Life” by Bright Eyes. On page two she is two months and so forth. A calendar across the bottom of the page identifies the month. Each page then has a caption that matches the photo that also happens to be a song title. I made an accompanying CD with each of the songs.

Q. Did you use any tools outside of Inkubook in the creation process?
A. I did. I used Photoshop to make the calendar banner across each photo and to place the text. Inkubook offers text, but doesn’t yet offer the font that I always use when I make something about my daughter. I call it “her” font. I then uploaded each of the images to my book and chose the full-page full-bleed template.

Q. What was your inspiration for this book?
A. It was my mother’s birthday and she doesn’t live close, so she doesn’t often get to see my daughter. I felt this was the perfect way for her to “be there” for all the stages she missed. My mom is sappy and very much into photos of her grandkids and into music, so I thought the combination would be a slam dunk.

Q. And was it?
A. It was. She cried and cried the day it came. She called the entire family to tell them about the book and CD. I’m probably going to have to order a second copy, as she will wear it out.

Q. Will you make another book?
A. Christmas is just around the corner…

Book For Grandma Sherri
Designed & Built by Brian B.

Make Your Own Baby’s First Year Inkubook

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At Inkubook, we will frequently encourage you to go make “drop-dead gorgeous” books. We acknowledge that beauty can be in the eye of the beholder, and this might be one of those cases.

I was in the process of tending to my herb garden last night when I encountered a couple of caterpillars (looks like these are Papilio polyxenes) that have set-up camp amidst my parsley. Rather than chasing them off, I decided to grab my camera. The results (a sample of which may be seen at right), I thought, were quite pleasing. One thing led to another, and I went off on a bit of a photo safari – reminiscent of the bug-catching adventures of my childhood – collecting shots of all the miniature inhabitants of my yard.

It turned out to be quite a fun activity, even for a 32-year-old. The next time the kids complain that they have nothing to do, try sending them out on miniature photo safari on their own. The results can be compiled into a fun and educational Inkubook and the next time you encounter our friend Papilio polyxenes you’ll know you’ve got some black swallowtail butterflies in the works.

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After posting about Aunt Nancy’s thirty-two-layer lemon bars, it occurred to me that some tips on photographing food would be a good series to run on Inkublog. While I am not going to jump into that now, as luck would have it I did run across a relevant article this evening that was worth sharing.

When shooting food or any other small objects, it helps to set the scene correctly. A tool that helps do so is a light tent or table-top studio that allows for soft, natural lighting and a neutral background without distractions. These can run several hundred dollars if purchased through a reputable photography supplier (and well-known and reputable is the only way to go in this market). Luckily Digital Photography School has a great tutorial on how to build one on the cheap and with readily available materials. Aunt Nancy’s lemon bars can now look better than ever. (via Lifehacker)

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Suppose you’re at Inkubook, cruising through making the family cookbook and, “whoa, hold up!” you realize you don’t have any photos of Aunt Nancy’s thirty-two layer lemon bars. You could pull the recipe out and go whip some up, but c’mon they’re thirty-two layers of lemony deliciousness. Surely Nancy’s got some snapshots of them, they’re practically her children after all.

Luckily, Inkubook’s got you covered, with a handy Invite feature. Just click the “Invite Button” on your Home Page, Editor, or Preview page (a sample is on the right). A new window will open where you can add Nancy’s email address (Inkubook can even help you pull it from your Gmail, Yahoo, or LiveMail contacts) and a custom message about that lemon bar picture you need. In no time flat, Nancy will get an email with a shortcut to the family cookboook on Inkubook and a place to submit her photos. She can also preview the book, provide feedback through discussions, and even submit more recipes (like her thirty-three layer banana cream pie – oh the spectacle!). Anything she submits will automatically appear in your editor and you’ll be notified of the submissions through the Activity Summary on your Home Page.

It is a great way to get friends and family to collaborate around a project and to make sure you get all of the pictures and stories you need to build a drop-dead gorgeous book – with as many layers as you’d like.

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Ever since we kicked off the building of Inkubook, I have been looking for more and more excuses to get my camera out and start shooting. After all great looking photo books start with great looking photos. The reward has been that the desire to shoot photos has gotten me out to some events that I otherwise would not have attended. In what will be a recurring feature on the Inkublog, I will suggest some opportunities to get out and capture some great shots. To kick things off though, I would love to know what you plan on photographing. Drop a note in the comments and share what your plans are for the coming weekend and the moments you hope to capture.

As for me, I plan on attending the Indiana Microbrewers Festival, because beer and hot days always make for good pictures. If you happen to live in any of the following places, here are some suggestions for what could become your next Inkubook.

• Chicago, IL – Pitchfork Music Festival – The best Indie rock show of the year.
• New York – Siren Music Festival – Stephen Malkmus, Ted Leo, and mermaids.
• San Francisco – Tour de Fat – Bikes and Beer on parade.
• Tampa – The Rays vs. The Jays – The hottest team in baseball followed by an MC Hammer concert (MC Hammer, people!)
• Atlanta – B*ATL – Three words: Civil War Reenactment
• Dallas – Rat Snakes to Rattlers: Live Texas Snakes – Features a snake scavenger hunt. Which is terrifying.
• Columbus – Ohio Strobists Meet at the House of Nightmares – Bring your camera and photograph in a haunted warehouse.
• Toronto – The Virgin Suicides Brawl! – Good old clean Roller Derby fun.
• Col Agnel, France – The site of the only Hors Catégorie (HC) climb in Sunday’s stage 15 of the Tour de France. If you are there, I envy you tremendously.

Of course, you can use any excuse to snap some great pictures for your Inkubook. Even if it is just a quaint picnic on the back porch.

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It is with great pleasure that we announce Inkubook is officially live and open for business. Since there’s already a great description on the About Us Page, I’ll paraphrase that:

Inkubook is an easy-to-use online photo book creation service that enables people to make drop-dead gorgeous photo books in minutes. With Inkubook, it’s simple to upload photos and then drag-and-drop them onto creative layouts to make a fantastic book. Inkubook creators can invite friends to contribute text and photos, which makes collaborative book-making fast and fun.

Inkubook is the result of throwing the experience of the world’s largest print-on-demand and self publishing company together with some truly gifted technical minds and telling them, “Create a cutting-edge and compelling service to create photo books. Oh, and make it easy to use and fun.” The resulting website is a place where anyone can produce a stunning book in no time flat. It is all online and Microsoft Silverlight gives it some sizzle.

There’s plenty more to say, but I’d just as soon have you check it out yourself. Seeing is believing, after all. Go make something gorgeous: Inkubook.

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That sound is everyone at Inkubook working diligently to launch a new version of our application. Today the Inkubook office has been reminiscent of the monkey house at the zoo-all busy and crazy but without some of the more unsavory monkey-house hijinks. If you visit the site today, you will most likely see the screen to the right. That is because the site is down as we roll out the new version in preparation for our official launch tomorrow.

In the little more than three months since we did our initial beta launch, we have taken everything that was built in Silverlight 1.0 and rebuilt it in Silverlight 2.0. For us that meant a lot of long nights and a lot of pizza delivery. For our customers, that means better text handling and zippier performance in addition to a glitzier and more attractive UI in a number of areas of the site. We’ll be providing you with more in-depth details once the site is back up and we are ready to announce it to the world, but I figured I should give you a quick heads up here. Hopefully you’ll stop when we’re live to kick the tires and see what’s new.

We’re all very excited to get things of the ground, and I promise we have quite a few surprises up our sleeves that will change the way that you think about your photos and photo books.

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