Customer Reviews

Scrapbook Factory Deluxe 2.0 [Old Version]

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is my first scrapbooking software. Unfortunately it did not live up to my expectations. For starters, the software has a few bugs and issues:

1. On "full Install" it tells you that you will need to use the 2nd CD (with the Art and Fonts) to finish installation, BUT it never asks for it. Installation completed with bare minimum artwork and the 2nd CD will not autorun in any computer I tried it on. It's very time consuming to try to find a graphic on the 2nd CD because there are too many folders!

2. The images are not "common" file names so you cannot import them to another program from the CD either. Basically - I can't use the artwork CD unless the CD is in the drive, which is not a possibility for me at all times, especially while listening to music.

3. Inserting New Pages - When the program starts it gives you the option to pick from a list of pages to use as templates for your first page. Unfortunately, once the first page is done you can't go back to pick from the templates for page 2. Your only options are to start a blank page, or duplicate the same page. This is a problem if you want one book with more than one type of page.

4. Cutesy artwork - the box that I purchased shows many examples of elegant looking scrapbook pages, but from what I can see of the artwork included, the templates are filled with cartoonish characters and designs. I was unable to find one template suitable for an adult birthday party, or adult get together. While there is a LOT of artwork, I would personally not use most of it.

If I were to say anything positive about this program, it's that it comes with many other features that it doesn't list on the box, such as a calendar maker, journal pages and label maker, etc. However I would have much rather skipped those "freebies" if it meant I got a higher quality product for what I want to use it for - no-nonsense scrapbooking. If my review was helpful please vote for it. Thank you for looking!

While I admit some of the problems people have mentioned (cutesy art, not installing 2nd CD, proprietary artwork, inserting new pages, can't copy and paste from a different program, and can open only one page at a time, THIS PROGRAM IS SIMPLY AMAZING!!!

The scrapbook pages I create are mainly MY photographs with the other nonphoto capabilities of SFD 2.0 (squares/rectangles as picture mats, text boxes, custom shapes, borders, lines, etc.). Rarely do I even think about using "clipart" in my pages.
Some of the things that are really cool about this program:

1. You can edit your layout! One of the things that's frustrating about real scrapbooking is there is no undo button. You have to be soooo careful not to mess up your layout when working with real objects.
2. Auto alignment of grouped items. What a time saver! Even lets you set equal spacing between items, horizontally or vertically.
3. Customize the shape of your photo, circle, oval, rounded corners, heart, arrow, etc., over 20 shapes available, plus flip and rotate.
4. Add a border to your photo, two tools: one is similar to MS word insert arrow options adds a line border (any color, varying thickness, varying styles) and the other is to make the border from Nova's clipart or ANY other graphic or photo.
5. Edit your photo. Amazingly powerful for a $29.95 program! Adjust color, focus, tone; fix flaws (clone tool, red eye redux, dust/scratch tool); paint tools; and special effects tools (blur, emboss, grainy paper, pixelate, antique, tile, puzzle, 40 effects in all)
6. Lighten or darken the photo, great for watermarking!
7. Dual-layered page (foreground and background) effects you apply on one layer don't affect the other.
8. MS Word-type spellchecker, very powerful!
9. Export your complete project as a graphic file.
10. Put your completed project on a CD and share it with family and friends.
11. Create a label for your CD.
12. Prints OUTSTANDING 12 x 12 pages with a wide format printer like the Canon i9000 and Epsons's 12 x 12 matte photo paper, absolutely stunning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Check some examples at http://organizedscrapbooks.com/modules.php?name=coppermine&cat=18480

I tell you, if you like digital scrapbooking, THIS PROGRAM IS FOR YOU. It is so easy and fun to use!

Some of the things that are NOT cool about this program:

1. Cannot cut and paste from another program. You must save the graphic/photo to your hard drive and use the insert graphic from file option. I am scrapbooking my 22-year Air Force career and I like to capture pics of places I visited over the years from the Internet (e.g., reenlisted on the USS Arizona Memorial and wanted one of their pictures as my background)
2. I created subfolders under the default graphic file location and added the graphics/photos from disc 2, but there evidently is an SFD-imposed limit on the number of subfolders. I don't recall the number (about 20) but once you exceed that limit, SFD doesn't see the extra folders when you insert a graphic from the SFD library (default graphic file location).
3. SFD doesn't support transparent backgrounds. One of their graphics from the second disc is a torn page, but there is white space to the right of the tear. So you can't send the torn page to the front and have a different colored background other than white, or you see the torn page, white space, and the colored background. It doesn't look like a torn piece overlaying another piece at all unless you leave a white background.
4. No search feature for the graphics!

I have only had this product two days and I absolutlly love it! I am not creative and do not like spending a lot of time doing a scrapbook and this is the answer to all my prayers! I can make quick cute pages is seconds, print them out and stick them in the book! Awesome!
It is worth spending my money on ink and photo paper instead of all the scrapbook stuff you have to buy and store somewhere in your house away from kids etc..
I highly recommend this product.

I've been using print shop for years, it has many bugs (still) so I was pretty excited to try this program. Unfortunatly I was really dissappointed. The graphics were OK but there is no way to search through them, you have to open a file and just scroll through all the graphics until you find one you might like, this becomes extemly time consuming. It did come with 2 extra disks of graphics but I don't have the patience to look through all the folders then open a CD and look through more. There is also no way to keep 2 pages open at the same time, so you can't jump back and see what you used on a previous page. Some of the starter pages are pretty cute but I really don't see myself using this program much anymore, I'll go back to Print Shop even with all it's glitches.

At last, a product that produces as advertised - even better.
I read all the reviews before purchasing and they were all positive so thought I'd give it a try. I received it within 24 hours and downloaded it (so easy) and have been playing with it ever since. It is the most user friendly program I have ever tried - I purchased it mainly for use with my scrapbooking, however, am finding that I will be able to use it for a multitude of projects - well worth the price - I recommend it at the highest level.

This is a great idea for a program, but they still need to work out the bugs. My biggest problem? Everytime I close the program, it adds a greenish tinge to my photos -- so anytime I want to print a page, I have to open it, re-crop all the photos, and then print. If for any reason I have to close the program before I'm ready to print, I have to do this all over again. I've spoken with tech support on this issue and they ARE able to repruduce this bug, but they offer no patch for it as yet. What use is a photo program if it ruins the photos before printing?

What is more, some of the buttons on my tool bar work all the time and some only work some of the time. Some don't work at all. I was given no explaination by tech support for why this might be happening.

I also agree that the art is WAY to cartoonish. Most of it I'll never ever use.

It's frustrating that you cannot open more than one page at a time -- so if I want to cut&paste something from one page to another I have to open page 1, cut, close the page, open page 2, paste, close the page, open page 1 again. It would make more sense if you could move back and forth between pages.

Overall, I love the idea for this program, but it still needs A LOT of work.

I got this scrapbook program for Christmas, but I wasn't able to use it until sometime later because it wouldn't install on our computer. But we found out that it was something else, not the Scrapbook program, and we got it installed.

Initially I was disappointed because there were only a few pre-done templates to fit a certain subject (such as a vacation template about something other than the beach). But when I found out how easy it is to make new templates, it was all right.

It's so easy to crop photos and make them look really cool, and I was not disappointed with this software. My recommendation? Buy it!

Of the scrapbook applications I've played with, this one is a favorite. It has straight-forward features and it produces handsome scrapbook pages and other simple projects with a generous variety of clipart, borders, and fonts. Frustrations include 1) the inability to crop the clip-art (only photographs can be cropped) and 2) the inability to do anything interesting with color-changing and clipart. i.e. If you change the color of a piece of clipart, it doesn't "colorize" (turn into shades of the color you picked). Instead, it does an opaque fill of the clipart, leaving just a blank silhouette. At this point, the 'Undo' features are very handy! In any event, provided you have another application to do anything subtle with your clip-art or your photographs, this application is fantastic for fun, simple pasteboard projects where you create layouts and print or save. Even the HTML export seems reliable. I wouldn't call this application excellent, but it's quite good!

I loved version 1.0 of Scrapbook Factory Deluxe, but this new version makes substantial improvements. Lots of neat embellishments and new projects and also the ability to make CD scrapbooks which I think is really cool. I really like this new version.

My husband is our household's primary computer user. He's always controlled computer time in our home the way most men control the remote. But now he has a fight on his hands.

He bought me Scrapbook Factory Deluxe on Amazon.com a few weeks ago. Big mistake for him because I can't put it down. I'm finally doing something with the gobs of pictures we have of the kids - both old pictures and new digital pictures - and I'm producing really terrific albums and scrapbooks.

The software has pretty much everything needed to make scrapbooks every bit as nice as the handmade kind I've made in the past, and there are tons of templates for everything from vacations to weddings to christenings to camping trips. It's really very well done.

I highly recommend Scrapbook Factory if you want to do more with your pictures than just keep them in boxes in the basement or on your hard disk. It's definitely a good investment.