Customer Reviews

Creative Digital Scrapbooking: Designing Keepsakes on Your Computer

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
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Once, scrapbooking was a totally low tech hobby. No computers in sight. But Murray tells what massive cheap disks and RAM and scanners, and fast CPUs and high bandwidth have done to create a digital version of the hobby.

You can regard the book as a long exposition of how to use Paint Shop Pro in a domestic context. The example images that she provides are often of family events. She writes in a reassuring, nontechnical manner for you. The key tips she supplies are not really about a sequence of steps in Paint Shop to achieve a desired effect. These are of secondary importance. Instead, she writes about what makes a great image. How you should capture what inspires you or your family. The advice is timeless and could have been given about a traditional scrapbook.

The main qualitative difference now is in how you can publish your scrapbook on the Internet, so others can enjoy your work. One of the main drivers of the hobby's growth.

This book wasn't quite what I expected, but it is a very good value if you are looking for a "manual" for digital scrapbooking, similar to other computer software books you may find in print. It includes a lot of good scrapbook design basics (if you don't already have a lot of good materials around the how to's of scrapbook page layout and design). I don't much care for detailed instructions on using a single piece of software (the Author uses Paint Shop Pro), but there is a good appendix of available web resources for digital scrapping and photo printing. It is loaded with pictures and Tips callouts. Not necessarily a book you can use as a quick resource, more along the lines of a tutorial as you are learning the subject.

This book is not just about scrapbooking on your computer. It is also great for creative inspiration. Unlike other books about digital scrapbooking the author, Katherine Murray, has included many useful ideas, tips and checklists that will jumpstart your creativity. This is not to say that the book does not thoroughly cover digital scrapbooking. Throughout the book Murray has numerous step-by-step examples of everything from creating digital background papers for your scrapbook pages to making a slide show of your finished scrapbook.

Before you even turn on your computer, Murray discusses the planning of your scrapbook. She helps you decide on a theme and style based on the story you want to tell. To help you, Murray has included a Digital Scrapbook Project Plan worksheet. Next, she covers what tools you will need for your digital workshop area. She talks about features to look for when choosing image editing software. Although she discusses this in a general context, most of the step-by-step examples in the book are for Jasc Paint Shop Pro.

Now that you have a plan for your scrapbook, Murray begins to explore page design. She discusses the use of color and how to choose a main, secondary and accent color for your pages. There is a step-by-step example of adding digital texture to a background paper.

Next, you are ready for your photos. Murray discusses digital photography and digital cameras. She offers good tips for photo taking and discusses organizing photos on your computer. Fixing and enhancing photos is a dominant feature of digital scrapbooking and Murray gives many step-by-step examples. She demonstrates how to resize and crop your photos and how to correct contrast, color and red eye.

Text and journaling is the next step in designing your page. Murray discusses choosing a font that will compliment your theme. She tells you where to find freeware and shareware fonts and how to install the fonts. She also covers the creative aspects of journaling. She has many inspirational ideas and writing tips.

Murray talks about how to use pre-made embellishments and how to make your own digital embellishments. She discusses thoroughly how to scan everyday objects and turn them into embellishments with Paint Shop Pro. She also covers other resources for embellishments such as clipart and stickers.

Sharing your scrapbook pages with others is another dominant feature of digital scrapbooking. Murray demonstrates step-by-step how to prepare your pages for email, CD, print and the web. But before you push the Print button, Murray helps you to evaluate your pages using her Page Layout Checklist and Page Rating Checklist.

The last part of the book is about archiving your photos and scrapbook pages with Jasc Paint Shop Photo Album and Adobe Photoshop Album. She shows you how to use keywords to organize and archived images. There is also an extensive resource section at the back of the book.

Katherine Murray is the author of many how-to books on digital photography, computers and many other subjects. She lives in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Book is published in square format, hard to hold to read but book fulfills the stated purpose of focusing on digital scrapbooking. If you have purchased Jasc products such as Paint Shop Pro then the "how-to's" are useful. If you are using different image editing software, the principles are the same but not the details. Book includes mini-interviews with many of the well known & published experts of the scrapbooking world. With reference to various products, book felt a bit commercial. Author clearly is an expert and shares her expertise with novices.

Though getting a bit old (2005 copyright in my copy) and some of the programs mentioned have had several new versions, this is still a very nice introduction to digital scrapbooking.

The design itself is a standout: many of the introductory and divider pages and the covers are examples of digital scrapbook pages and all are very well done. Many other scrapbook pages are used as samples throughout the book. Literally the book practices what it preaches. Overall the design is very appealing and pulls you immediately into the spirit of scrapbooking.

The author's approach is well thought out. She begins, unsurprisingly with an introduction. Then moves into the actual basics of digital scrapbooking with a well-done chapter on the history of the craft, getting ready for the digital way and so on.

Murray's style is non-technical and oriented toward the fun of doing and sharing. Very nice style.

Next in order are planning, design, image enhancement, working with words, creating and using embellishments (a super-important and vital chapter for my typical male brain), creating your page, sharing your scrapbook and utility chapters on protecteing your files, suggestions for scrapbook themes and a couple of chapters on resources.

Overall, this is a fun, inspirational easy-to-follow guide to the craft (and in many hands, art) of digital scrapbooking. Well worth it.

Jerry

When the baby was born we took about a roll of pictures a day. That was a long time ago, and the pictures were slides. Now I go look at the slides and the glue has come off, the slides are peeling apart and they tend to stick in the projector.

Digital cameras are probably worse. You've got to get the image out of the camera so you can take more pictures. You can keep them in some kind of digital storage, like on your hard drive - until it crashes or you upgrade the computer. Better is to produce a scrapbook that you can print out, pass along to the kids, keep in a file, and look it the pictures together.

Producing a scrapbook is an interesting project in its own right - if nothing else you get to go look at the pictures again. But you really get to put the story together. The result can be quite attractive, especially if you use some of the special papers and other things that are available.

This book is a how-to, a tutorial on putting the scrapbooks together. It is an introductory level book talking about the first plans through final production. The format doesn't lend itself to being a reference book, but by the time you're finished your first scrapbook or two, you probably won't need a reference book.

This book was great for me because I am a beginner, and I needed step-by-step instructions. It was easy to understand- not too wordy. This book is a must-buy for people interested in starting digital scrapbooking.