Do you want them to be able to download photos of their choosing for good quality prints? Or do you just want them to be able to view the photos?
The Web Photo Gallery will work really well for simple viewing, and because it displays in a browser, it’s platform neutral. If I remember right, a CD burned from the Mac Finder is compatible with both Mac and Windows. You shouldn’t run into any compatibility problems at all.
If you want them to have access to higher quality image files for printing, I’d suggest just adding a folder of high quality JPEGs. If they see something they want, they can download the specific file.
I’ve done something similar, but after I created my Web Photo Gallery, I loaded the pages in an HTML editor and added more information about the pictures and the people in them. I haven’t done that for a while, and I was using the old PageMill program to do the editing. I haven’t tried it yet in Panther and InDesign. (My list of projects is getting too long!)
Carl,
Mac OS X makes hybrid CDs, that is, they can be read by both Mac and PC.
File type : use TIFF, in my opinion, it’s the best format (no quality loss due to compression).
If you want to distribute them on a CD, why not make a Web Gallery, and burn the gallery on the CD. The only thing your family will have to do is double click on INDEX.HTM inside a folder, on the CD (in PSE3).
Ray
Two additions to my first post: First I didn’t mean InDesign for editing the Web Photo Gallery pages, I meant GoLive. 🙁
Second, Ray’s suggestion to put photo quality files on the CD in TIFF is really better than JPEG, depending on the number you are going to include. TIFFs are much bigger, so you could conceivably exceed the capacity of a CD if you have a lot.
Forget it. I managed to post the same thing twice. Duh.
Beth and Ray,
I have never done a web photo gallery. I just looked it up in the help section and the directions go on for days it seems like. I haven’t any idea in that long list of things how and where I would burn the CD. I don’t understand "The only thing your family will have to do is double
click on INDEX.HTM inside a folder, on the CD (in PSE3)." and I don’t know how to explain that to my family. I either don’t have GoLive or I have it and don’t know I have it; in any case I don’t know how to use it. I do know how to get my photos into my .Mac account and on the web, but I want something they can have and keep. I guess I was thinking of making an original scan of either 300 or 600 ppi saved as a TIFF and placing that on the CD if they wanted to open that and then make a print. Then make a second image of the first of some 600-800 pixels saved as a JPEG they could click on and it would open actual size on their screen if the basic Windows software will do that. The web photo gallery sounds intriguing but it seems too complex for me and my relatives unless one of you can make it real simple.
Thank you for responding
Carl
Wouldn’t a PDF slideshow work for what you want to do? Easy to make, easy to view and easy to print — even for print-challenged Windows’ relatives.
Patti
There you go trying to use the instructions again, Carl! What have we told you about that? 🙂
The directions for the Web Photo Gallery are more complicated than just doing it. Try this:
Gather together a small group of photos – five or six for a sample, and put them in a folder called "sample gallery" or something like that. Leave it on your desktop. Create a second empty folder, named WebGalleryTest, and leave it on your desktop, too.
Open Web Photo Gallery. Now, working down from the top of the screen:
Click the arrow next to Styles and (for the experiment) choose Simple
Skip Email, you don’t need it for this.
The next area is Source Images. There’s a line with arrows that says Folder – leave it like that for now. Below that is a button that says Choose. Click on it, and you can navigate to the folder of test images on your desktop. As soon as you’ve located it, click Choose on the navigation screen.
There’s another button called Destination. Do the same thing as you did above, but navigate to your empty test folder and choose it.
Just skip the Options area for right now, and go ahead and click OK. Then, sit back and watch as Elements creates your Gallery. It’ll only take a few seconds. I think it will then open a browser and give you an automatic preview. Or, open your "WebGalleryTest" folder. You’ll see a document in there called index.htm Click on that, and your Gallery will open.
Once you’ve seen a sample of the Gallery, it’ll be easier for you to tell whether or not it’s the kind of thing you can use. If you decide you like it, there are other options that can be set. I just gave you a down and dirty guide so you can see what it’s like and how relatively simple it is to create one.
You might also want to use that same folder of samples and create a PDF slideshow with it. That’s easy, too. For my purposes, I’d stick with the Web Gallery, because I like having the thumbnails available. But my needs might be different from yours.
This topic came up at the right time, Ive a neighbor who is having his house renovated and cannot be here during the work. So I am photographing the work as it goes day by day for him. I have an album(folder) for this in iPhoto 5.
What I would like to do is to put all the pictures on a DVD. So that he can view it on his PC or on a DVD player to a Television.
Would I just select the album, then create it in iDVD? I have instructions for iPhoto 4, but not tried it in v5 yet.
He said that he is thinking of getting a Mac. So I would like to show it to him on my Mac first, and then he can see this great screen. I know he will be wanting a Mac after I get this done.
Jane
You can also make a simple web page with iPhoto.
Beth,
What parameters for the images? Should they be less than 800 pixels wide and 600 pixels tall for good viewing? Can they be any file size? Is it easy to print out of these images in this format at home or at the drug store?
What about the images for my archives? They are high-quality B&W with a lot of detail. Storage space is not an issue. I have plenty of space.
Tom,
I tried to do that once as part of a PSE course I once took now that I’m thinking about it. There’s something about having the letters after the dot just right. I tried my best to understand the instructions and then from the moderators on the .Mac forums at that time. I could not understand what it was that was needed. So I went ahead and it messed up my account so much the moderator had to go in and create a new one for me. I think I remember something about "If you ever try that again we will………..to you!"
Thanks
Carl
Carl, for the test, don’t worry about resizing at all – the software will change the images in your test folder to the correct format and automatically resize them WITHOUT making any changes to the originals. I mainly wanted you to create a small gallery as a test so you could see what you’d get by choosing that option.
Now, I did check the default size for the large images in Web Photo Gallery, and maybe you should go in and set a size so you get a better idea of what you’d be putting on a CD (if you decide on this.)
So, remember in my instructions the part of the set up screen I said you could skip? Don’t. 🙂 Instead, go into "Options" and select "Large Thumbnails" from the drop down menu, and then choose "Custom" instead of one of the preset sizes. The 800 pixel width you mentioned would be good for most monitors, but let the software choose the height by leaving "constrain proportions" checked.
The beauty of Web Photo Gallery is that you don’t have to do any resizing for each individual image. And remember, right now I’m just suggesting you test this with a few images. If you like it, there are all kinds of options for customizing galleries, and there are a lot of us who can help you tweak it.
In terms of scanning the photos for archiving – a resolution of 300ppi is usually a good target for printing an image. What you have to ask yourself is whether or not there are any of these photos that you might want to crop and then resize or print at a size larger than the original. If you’re mainly interested in being able to recreate the originals, then 300ppi is fine. There isn’t any real value to scanning at an exceptionally high resolution on general principles, but you can do the maximum optical resolution of your scanner if you’d like, especially if storage space isn’t a problem.
Last piece – If you want image files so people can print pictures, first decide whether the Web Photo Gallery will work for the viewing part. Given all of your parameters, there are some different options, but "easy viewing for computer dummies" and "high quality image files for easy printing" might mean you’ll have to set up a separate file for the high quality prints. If you do it that way, then the answer is yes, anybody could print them either at home or the drugstore. Those you might want to resize, but you first have to decide what your priority is.
No, I’m not hard to get along with on purpose, it just comes naturally. 🙂 And if this seems very disjointed, I’ve had three phones calls since I started to type and keep losing my train of thought!
Carl,
You can also put the web page made with iPhoto in your Sites folder then go to System Preferences and click Sharing>Personal Web Sharing.
When you give people the address they will have access to your page in the Sites folder.
I have never done this so there might be another step or two.
Beth,
I’m still convinced this is one of those things that look hard and are harder than it looks. I created the two files as you described and put five of my images in the "sample folder". I open PSE 3. I go to file>web photo gallery !!!OOOPPPS, its greyed out. So I think (I know that’s dangerous) that maybe I need an image opened for it to work so I open the sample folder in PSE 3, go to file>web photo gallery!!!!!OOOOPPPS, its still greyed out. I know you said not to, but I went to the directions. They said file>web photo gallery. So I went back and went file>web photo gallery!!!!OOOOPPPPSS. Still greyed out.
I’m remembering this better and better from the course I took. Hours and hours of it I did with no end result. Boy was I frustrated and its all coming back. This must be a Windows program!
Carl
OK, OK, OK, you don’t have to tell me. When something is not going right "DELETE THE PREFS"! So I did and it worked out well. I think I will do it and include the full image files for anybody that wants to print anything out. As i’m remembering it now, its getting it on the web that I couldn’t do. I could not get the extension right somehow. I still remember how upset the forum moderators were who had to go into the programs and fix things. I think they didn’t know how much trouble could be caused.
Thank you,
Carl
Does this mean I can quit hiding?! Just kidding – the truth is that I was busy thinking about how to frame my response while you were typing your last message. I assume this means you’ve got the Web Gallery going now and are reasonably happy with it? It’s really great, if I was understanding your goal. Even the really computer challenged can manage opening it and viewing the images.
Yes, getting that gallery uploaded to the web can be challenging. I think it’s good to make those moderators work hard every once in a while! It keeps them on their toes. 🙂
Keep up the good work, Carl!
