vacation

Summer Wanderlust

LaurenLeave a comment

summertimewanderlustWhether you’re planning a big family vacation, or a small weekend staycation during the summer break, wanderlust seems to be an epidemic during warm summer months. In the Travel and Vacation Category of the MagCloud storefront, you can find all sorts of great publications to help inspire your travel whims, help you plan your trip, or inspire you to document your family adventure when you come home. And if you don’t get to travel anywhere this summer, you can always enjoy a good read on your lunch break and take a mental vacation.

So in honor of our own summer wanderlust, today we’re featuring some of our favorite travel-inspired publications on MagCloud.

LittleIndianalittle Indiana Quarterly Magazine

little Indiana: Where to Stay, Play, and Eat in Small Indiana Towns (population 15,000 and less). Just like littleIndiana.com, the magazine takes things to a whole new level! Find information about Indiana’s restaurants with outdoor seating, mom and pop ice cream shops, a young couple that renovated a building and restored a downtown, memories of summer from a town that no longer exists, a business on the brink of closure, and plenty more! Don’t miss regular features like “From the Hoosier bookshelf” and the Indiana trivia crossword puzzle.

toandfromTo & From: The Paris Issue

To & From Magazine merges travel and lifestyle.
The newest issue features Paris, “the City of lights.”

Tourism TattlerTourism Tattler: Kenya

The July edition of Africa’s premier Travel Trade Journal features Kenya, plus articles on Business, Conservation, Events, Hospitality, Legal and Marketing issues.

BVI NewbieBVI Newbie

A quirky and colourful guide to the BVI for residents and visitors. This books uses tongue-in-cheek commentary and bubbly design elements which keep the reader entertained and at ease when the time comes to move to Nature’s Little Secrets. This handy guide book also provides step by step instruction for several unfamilliar practices and/or procedures visitors often face while in the Virgin Islands.

Don’t just read about others’ adventures, publish your own.

Rather than let those sunny summer memories fade with your suntan at the end of the summer, start planning now to chronicle your summer adventures and photos into a cool summer recap magazine, or travel photo book printed through MagCloud. You can create a personal memento in magazine format to easily share your memories with family and friends in print and digitally.

Save and scan ticket stubs, itineraries and after your trip, compile all of your pictures and memories into a Square photo book or scrapbook using Apple Aperture  or Photoshop to share with your friends and family! If you’re not a big designer or super savvy with software–not to worry–you can try out our partner Poyomi’s on-line tool for photo book design.

Need some inspiration? Check out some of these great examples published on MagCloud:

DisneylandDisney Vacation 2013

To & From Magazine merges travel and lifestyle.
The newest issue features Paris, “the City of lights.”

Hawaii Trip 2012Hawaii Trip 2012

A 8″ x 8″ book of photos from the Splonskowski family 2012 trip to Hawaii

Eternalize Summer Memories With Your Own Magazine

Lauren4 Comments

Though Summer’s heat lingers on, Labor day is just around the corner marking the unofficial end of Summer.  Whether your family took a big trip or just used the lazy afternoons to hang out together, you are sure to have plenty of memories – and pictures – you want to save.

For many, vacation photographs wind up unorganized and spread amongst their hard drives, cell phones, Instagram and Facebook–doomed to be lost in the shuffle. With that in mind, why not take an afternoon and organize your family’s vacation experience, photographs, and mementos into a summer memory magazine?

With MagCloud’s beautiful print quality and direct mail options, you can even order copies to be sent directly to grandparents, cousins and friends to enjoy.

Getting Started: Where will you create your PDF?

First, you’ll want to select a platform to design/assemble your MagCloud-ready PDF­. You can use web-based Poyomi, or software like Adobe InDesign, Quark, Apple iWork Pages, or Microsoft Word.

As you get started, you can choose to start with a pre-designed template from the software (if available), or with a plain MagCloud template available here. You may even remember a post from awhile back, when we used Apple Pages’ built-in Templates to create magazines.

Organize Your Images and Treasures

Next, gather together your vacation photographs and organize them into a single folder. Then select the images that most effectively represent your vacation experience.

Collect any small items that you may have picked up along the way (i.e., a drink coaster with a resort’s logo, maps, airline ticket stubs, brochures from attractions, etc.). Such items can be scanned and added throughout your magazine and provide a more personal touch to the project. For example, you can use your ticket stubs from the theme park to give a different look to your family’s latest roller coaster adventure.

Order and Details

Although you have complete creative control over how you assemble your summer memory magazine, the easiest way is to assemble things is in chronological order so those enjoying your magazine can experience your vacation from start to finish. Throughout the publication you can include  quotes from your family members, or funny anecdotes – like when the duck bit the zoo keeper during his presentation.

Be sure to take the time to caption your photographs, indicating the “who, what, when, and where” of each picture. This will be helpful for others viewing your memory magazine and for you in later years when small details slip from memory.

Write a short paragraph for each of your summer highlights. Ask your children for input and have them answer questions about their favorite parts of the summer. You’ll be amazed by what they come up with and it’s always fun to look back and remember what was happening in pop culture at the time.

Some details you may want to include:

  • Favorite Summer Memory
  • Places and people you visited
  • Friends made
  • Activities and Games played
  • Movies watched
  • Books read
  • Song that was on repeat in the car
  • The silliest moment of the summer

Design Can be Daunting

When it comes to assembling your summer memory magazine, don’t worry if you don’t have a lot of design skills or experience. You can look at magazines for inspiration, simply use photos and captions for a basic layout, or even re-purpose templates that have nothing to do with this purpose. You can find inspiration anywhere, you just have to look past the content and look at the design. For example, the magazine pictured above used our Microsoft Publisher Brochure Template as a starting point for the layout. The design was a perfect way to include ample text to tell the story that went along with the photos. A few tweaks to colors and typefaces and we were able to completely transform the look of the original design..

As an additional example below, we used the layout from an Apple Pages design template for a school yearbook. With a few changes (and by deleting the extra clip art that made the layout look  “education-centric” we were able to create a casual scrapbook-style. Adding a scanned scrap of paper with Sara’s favorite memory from the water park gave the page a personalized feel.

Microsoft Word also has some great “Newsletter Templates” that are built-in to the software (Mac) or available online. Below are some samples that could be easily tweaked and used as the interior pages of your memory magazine.

No matter what software or platform you choose to create your magazine in, there are lots of sources for inspiration. So start designing and have some fun with it!

Have you created a photo magazine or book with MagCloud to commemorate and event, trip or season in your life? Tell us about it, or share your publication in the comments below!

Using Photoshop to Create a Vacation Photobook

Meghan Cordella11 Comments

Following up on last week’s blog post about using the new Book Module in Adobe Lightroom 4 to create Square MagCloud publications, today we are looking at an easy way you can use Adobe Photoshop to create a vacation photobook with MagCloud’s landscape-oriented Standard and Digest products. We’ve also added new Software-Specific Instruction Packets for Photoshop to our Getting Started page for all of our product sizes. These downloadable folders contain MagCloud-specific templates and instructions for Photoshop CS4 and newer, as well as step-by-step instructions to help you create your publication from scratch using any version of Photoshop.

1. Pick Your Photos

To get started with your photobook, the first thing you need are photos. For the photobook we’ll be creating today, all the images will be full-bleed and extend to the edge of the landscape-oriented pages. As a result, landscape-oriented images will work best for this type of book. If you wanted to use both portrait and landscape-oriented photos, then one of our Square products might be a better fit. You can find instructions for using Photoshop to create an 8″ x 8″ or 12″ x 12″ Square publication on the Getting Started page on the MagCloud website.

In addition to the orientation of your photos, the resolution is also important. We recommend using images that are 300 pixels per inch. Therefore, if you want to create a small Digest size photobook, you should use images that are at least 2550 pixels wide by 1650 pixels tall, or roughly the largest image size available from a 4 megapixel digital camera. If you want to create a larger Standard size photobook, your images will need to be higher resolution – at least 3300 pixels wide by 2550 pixels tall, or roughly the largest image size available from an 8 megapixel digital camera. If you are using high quality images from at least an 8 megapixel digital camera then your images should be fine for either size, however you can check the manual for your camera to be sure, or check the dimensions of your images in the file information on your computer.

2. Create Pages in Photoshop

To create each page in your photobook, including the front and back covers, open the image you want to use in Photoshop and go to Image > Image Size. Make sure that the boxes are checked next to “Constrain Proportions” and “Resample Image”, select “Bicubic Sharper” from the dropdown menu, and set the Resolution to 300 pixels/inch. If you are creating a Digest size publication, set the width to 8.5 inches. If this causes the height to drop to less than 5.5 inches, then set the height to be 5.5 inches. Note that this will cause the width to be greater than 8.5 inches, but the image will be cropped to compensate for this in the next step. Similarly, if you are creating a Standard size publication, set the width to 11 inches. If doing so causes the height to drop to less than 8.5 inches, then set the height to 8.5 inches and allow the width to go above 11 inches. When you are finished, click OK.

Next, go to Image > Canvas Size. Select “inches” from the dropdown menu, if it’s not selected already. If you are creating a Digest size publication, set the Width to 8.5 inches and the Height to 5.5 inches. If you are creating a Standard size publication, set the Width to 11 inches and the Height to 8.5 inches. Click OK, and when you are warned that some clipping will occur, click the button to Proceed.

If you would like to add any text over your full-page image, like a title on the cover page, you can do so now using the text tool. Keep in mind that Digest publications will have 0.125″ trimmed off the top and bottom edges, and 0.25″ trimmed off the outside edge (the right, in the case of the cover), and since the trim can vary slightly in either direction, it’s best to keep any text at least 0.25″ inside of this trim line. Similarly, landscape-oriented Standard publications are trimmed 0.125″ on all sides, and also have holes punched on the inside edge for the Wire-O binding (the left, in the case of the cover). Therefore, if you are creating a Standard size photobook, it’s a good idea to keep text 0.25″ inside the trim line on the top, bottom and outside edge and 0.5″ inside the trim line on the inside edge for this size of publication. If you will be adding a lot of content, it may be helpful to add guides to remind yourself where the trim will occur.

When you are happy with the look of your page, go to File > Save As. Select “JPEG” from the Format dropdown menu and make sure that the box next to “Embed Color Profile” is checked. Your color profile may be something other than the sRGB profile shown in the screenshot at right, but embedding your color profile will help ensure that our Indigo presses are able to reproduce your images with the best color possible no matter what color profile they use. Select a name for your file and choose where you want it to be saved on your computer, then click Save. I recommend saving all your page files to a new folder and naming your files numerically, with the cover as Page001.jpg, the inside front cover Page002.jpg, and so on, as this will make it easier to create your final PDF. In the JPEG Options window that appears next, select “Maximum” from the Quality dropdown menu and select the radio button next to “Baseline (Standard)” under Format Options, then click OK.

Repeat these steps for each of the pages in your photobook, resizing and cropping one image for each page. If you want to include pages in your book that don’t include an image, as I did on the inside front and back covers in my publications, take a look at the templates and instructions in the downloadable Instruction Packets on the our Getting Started page. These instructions and templates start with a blank document in Photoshop, rather than modifying an existing image file.

3. Combine Pages into a MagCloud-Ready PDF

Once you’ve created all of the pages for your photobook, it’s time to combine these pages into a single multipage PDF using Adobe Acrobat Pro. Open Acrobat and go to File > Create File > Merge Files into a Single PDF. Click the button to Add Files and select all the page JPEGs you just created. Sort the files alphabetically by name to put the pages in numerical order, or use the Move Up/Move Down buttons to rearrange the order of the files. When you are happy with the order, select the largest file icon on the far right where it says File Size and click Combine Files. When prompted, choose a name for your final PDF and click Save. Your PDF is now ready to upload to MagCloud!

If you don’t have Adobe Acrobat Pro, an alternative method is to use Adobe’s subscription-based CreatePDF service either online or within Adobe Reader to convert your JPEG files to PDFs and combine them. The other option is to save your pages as PDF files out of Photoshop instead of JPEGs, and then combine these single page PDFs into one multipage PDF using a PDF viewer like Apple’s Preview. You can find instructions to do this in the Instruction Packets on the Getting Started page. The downside to this method is that it will result in a PDF that is much larger than the method using JPEG files, and you may be in danger of going over MagCloud’s 300MB file upload limit.

[UPDATE 1: Adobe Bridge is also another good option for combining your Photoshop files into a single multipage PDF. After you’ve created your pages, open Bridge and select all the page files. Click on the Adobe Bridge “Output” workspace and choose the PDF output option and the relevant page size for the product you are creating. Set the Layout to 1 column and 1 row, and make all margins 0″, then click Save. This will export a PDF that is ready to upload to MagCloud. Thanks to our reader Chane for this tip!]

[UPDATE 2: CreatePDF converts JPEG files to 72 dpi PDF files, which results in PDFs that are roughly 4x the dimensions they should be. Therefore, if you will be using CreatePDF to create your multipage PDF, it would be best to export your page files from Photoshop as PDF files. Note that CreatePDF only allows you to combine 10 files at a time, so you will need to combine your PDFs in groups of 10 and then recombine those. Thanks to our reader Jeffrey for these tips!]

You can see the photobooks I created in Photoshop and Acrobat Pro using these instructions on the MagCloud website: Digest and Standard

Travel Photo Tricks and Tips

Patty1 Comment

Vacationing this summer? Whether you’re flying internationally or driving just a few hours away, we want to help make every moment of your trip a little more memorable.

As promised in our Summer Fun with MagCloud blog post, we’ve got some great tricks and tips to help you capture your summer memories through photography.

Hitting the Beach

As fun as they are, beaches can prove to be tricky for photo opps! Some points to remember when capturing your fun in the sun:

  • Try shooting closer to sundown: Not only will there be less people there, but the sun will be at an angle that produces great shadows and colors.
  • Try black and white: This can completely change the mood and feel of a shot. It’s great for overcast or dull days, too.

For more beach tips, check out this helpful blog post!

Picnic-Perfect Pics

Family picnics make fantastic photos! When hanging out at the park and snapping shots between bites of potato salad, remember a couple of basic things:

  • Location, location, location: Picking a spot in the sun or the shade will make for a beautiful lighting situation!
  • Useful props: Place wax paper or white shower curtain between the sun and your subjects. This will diffuse the light and soften the shadows.

Check out even more ways to make your family picnic memorable by reading the full post from Olympus cameras here.

Making Vacation Last, Digitally

Shooting perfect shots of vacation can take some talent, even with your new digital camera! Bad vacation photographs get thrown away, while great shots can create a lifetime of memories. Remember these tips:

  • Power up: Nothing is worse than wanting to snap that perfect picture, and realizing your battery is dead!
  • Don’t be afraid to crop: Cropping a photo can change an average photo into a dramatic one, especially if you crop “off center.”
  • Rule of thirds: When you are lining up that beautiful church, amazing sunset or one-of a kid safari shot keep in mind composition and the rule of thirds dividing your photo into thirds both vertically and horizontally with the key subject at the intersection point.  Newer smartphones make this particularly easy to do with their Grid settings.
  • Put your own spin on landmarks and well-known sites: Rather than take the usual straight on shot of the Eiffel Tower consider taking it from underneath looking straight up, take a lush jungle shot in the rain, or shoot the crowd below from the top of the Empire State Building.  Don’t be afraid to take unique shots or see things as the locales do.
  • Go for contrast and color: Boat sales against a blue sky, a garden of wildflowers, colorful mailboxes on a cobblestone street all make for interesting travel shots with pops of color.

Here’s a few other tips to get you inspired.

We’re curious about your best vacation photos – what are some tricks and tips you’ve learned along the way? Please share with us in the comments below!

Summer Fun with MagCloud

Patty2 Comments

Over the next six weeks we’ll be sharing blog posts that discuss how to use MagCloud to plan vacations, create excitement for family reunions, capture all your summer memories and more.

First up is creating MagCloud published photo books directly from your iPad with the Poyomi Photo Book application. This iPad application makes it easy to create photo books while on the go–select photos, design your book, order, and have MagCloud print and deliver them before you even get home from your vacation.

Step 1: Select your Photos

Poyomi’s app makes it easy to choose photos for your book from your iPad albums including your camera roll and iCloud PhotoStream, or import them from third party websites such as Flickr, Facebook, Picasa, SmugMug and Dropbox.  Simply upload your photos to the Poyomi Book Editor by selecting the specific photos you want to include in your book.

 

Step 2: Organize Your Photos

The Book Editor lets you organize the photos in your book by date taken, alphabetically or you can drag and drop them to create a custom arrangement.

You can also add captions, rotate images and ensure your photos print as large as possible by favoriting them.

 

Step 3: Design Your Book

Poyomi allows you to select from four of the MagCloud product types–Letter (aka MagCloud Standard), Digest, Digest Landscape and Small Square. You can also choose your binding type either Saddle Stitch Binding or Perfect Binding for books over 20 pages.

Poyomi’s design features include four color schemes for the inside of the book, as well as multiple type face colors for the cover title of the book.  Title your book and choose a wrap around cover photo or individual photos for the front and back of your book.

The Book Editor also allows you to crop and select portions of the cover and back photos for the perfect look.

 

Step 4: Preview Your Book

All that’s left is previewing and making final adjustments to your book.  You can write a brief intro to your book including using one of your travel photos as a background image, as well as creating a brief closing note to go at the end of the book.

Once you’ve previewed your entire book simply tap “Finish”.

 

Finished!

That’s it in a few easy steps you’ve created a travel photo book on your iPad without ever leaving your beach chair.

Poyomi gives you the option to save your book to your Poyomi account for editing when you get home or you can create a personal home page where friends and family can preview and order copies of your book. Finally you can purchase it directly from your iPad with a credit card or via a PayPal account.

 

How can you imagine using Poyomi’s Photo Book iPad app this summer?  Let us know in the comments section below.

Summer Festivals Galore!

PattyLeave a comment

Summer is a great time for vacations and relaxation. It’s also the season for many music festivals and film festivals. For the behind-the-scene teams that organize these events, it’s hard work right up until that last note is played and the final credits are rolling.

At MagCloud, we’re here to help make sure your event goes off without a hitch. We can make you confident that your printed programs, brochures and handouts are of the highest quality without breaking the bank.

Get started and create a PDF file of your publication, easily upload it to http://www.magcloud.com, preview your work, then select your print options. It’s that easy! It costs $0.20 per page and note that all orders for 20 or more print copies receive a 25% discount off the productions costs. Plus you can make the same PDF available in digital format for festival goers who want to enjoy the program on their mobile device or computer.

One of the perks of using MagCloud is that the connection you create with your audience doesn’t have to end at the event. We encourage you to publish a post-event roundup and share it out with festival goers via mail, email or your favorite social network. It’s taking that extra step that will bring people back next year, and it’ll be a fun, unique way to remember the festival long after the summer fades.

Need more details on what the process actually entails? We’ve got you covered. Remember, if you ever run into trouble or just need to learn more, you can always visit our Ask MagCloud page or find us on our social media channels (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn).

Wishing everyone a happy, fun-filled and rockin’ summer!

Vacationing with MagCloud

Patty2 Comments

Memorial Day is a welcome beacon that summer is around the corner. As you finalize your plans for summer, MagCloud wants to provide you with a way to capture all of those special memories and experiences – whether it’s a staycation near home, a road trip to the national park or a getaway to an exotic locale.

How are you chronicling this precious time? Some of us may remember those family gatherings in front of the carousel slide projector or the bulky albums our parents put together after every trip. Now with MagCloud, you can create a personal memento in magazine format to easily share your memories with family and friends in print and digitally.

Here are a few tips and tools to assist you through the process:

  • If you’re creating a simple photo magazine, below are a few tips and resources to “prep” your images before publishing.
    • To produce a quality publication, make sure all images have a resolution of at least 300 pixels per inch.
    • If you’re looking for photo editing tools but don’t have access to Photoshop, check out GIMP (free software that features most of the capabilities that Photoshop offers) or any of these additional photo editing tools.
    • Short on time or not comfortable with design tools? Give Poyomi and turn the photo sets into a magazine without using a design program.
    • Need inspiration? Browse through some of our travel and vacation magazines.

Have you ever used MagCloud to create a magazine of memories? It’s even a great way to commemorate a school year, a birth, a wedding and more. With MagCloud’s digital publishing and print-on-demand capabilities, it’s never been easier or more budget-friendly to capture the special moments in life.