M-Photo General FAQ

Who is M-Photo?

M-Photo developed software for creating novelty ('value added') prints such as photo albums, calendars, greeting cards, posters and other print products. M-Photo sells its software as a license for unlimited use to photo-labs, print shops, quick copiers, and other services providers.

What is M-Photo Album Maker product?

The Album Maker application is used for preparing photo albums. The Album Maker is composed of two modules: end-customer version and lab version.

- The end-customer version is distributed by the owner of the software, like print shop, to home users that use it to create a photo album order.

- The lab version is used by the print shop or photo lab operator to process the album orders, prepare and send them for printing.

What is M-Photo Order Maker product?

The Order Maker application is used mainly by professional photographers to prepare complex orders for single print products. Each order can contain hundreds of photos and the photographer can create value added prints by setting different sizes, adding frames, color effect or predefined templates for each photo.

The Order Maker is distributed by the owner of the software, like photo labs, to the professional photographers that use it to prepare orders.

Orders received at the lab are processed and then  prepared and sent to print..

What is M-Photo MPR500 Pro 5 product?

The MPR500 Pro 5 is used for color correcting photos before they are printed. An operator can color correct multiple photos at the same time and achieve high level of efficiency. The color corrections tools include Auto correct, HSL sliders, color balance, brightness and contrast sliders, levels (histogram) and curves.

The MPR500 Pro 5 is integrated with the Album Maker and Order Maker products so that photos included in orders prepared by users of those products can be color corrected before printing, independently of their appearance in the page composition of album pages or individual templates.

What does the M-Photo back-office include?

M-Photo back-office includes the following items:

- Order processing modules: used to process Album Maker and Order Maker orders and create ready to print JPEG or PDF files.

- Templates creation tools: used for creating pictures frames, packages, greeting cards, and sample albums.

- Print modules: used to communicate with the printers and automate the printing process.

- Automated workflow tools: used to automatically download, load and process orders in high volume systems.

Album Maker End-customer Version FAQ

What is the price of the Album Maker end user version?

Nothing: the Album Maker end-user version is distributed freely by the owner of the software, like print shop, to the home users, by allowing the home users to download the installation file from the print shop web site or by distributing installation CDs.

How will home users benefit from using the Album Maker?

Since the Album Maker is a powerful and flexible tool that allows home users to design pages with rich graphical content but does not require any knowledge of sophisticated graphic design software like Photoshop.

Can home users print their albums at home?

No: albums prepared by the Album Maker (end-customer version) can only be printed by the photo lab that gave them the Album Maker end-customer version. The Album Maker end-customer version does not create ready-for-print PDF file: instead, it creates a zip file that can be processed and printed only by the Album Maker lab version.

Is the Album Maker web-based?

No: the Album Maker end-customer version is a desktop application and must be installed on the home computer.

How does an end-customer send the album order to the print shop?

When the home user finishes editing the album, he can either create a zip file and burn it on a CD (or copy it to a mobile memory) and bring it to the shop, or send the order over the internet (over FTP protocol). In both cases no technical knowledge or additional software is required: the Album Maker handles the zip file creation or the internet transference of the order.

Album Maker Lab Version FAQ

What is the difference between the Album Maker lab version and home version?

The Album Maker lab version integrates with the complete set of M-Photo back-office tools, so that it can process album orders created by home users, create a ready-to-print PDF file and send it to the printer. Also, the print shop using the Album Maker lab version defines the different types of products in the system and can customize the different content elements like backgrounds, sample albums, etc.

What kind of products (album types) can I define?

Print shop can define an unlimited number of products that differ in size (or orientation), binding method or content. For example, a print shop can offer the following products: A4 portrait album, A4 landscape album, 16x16 album, and A4 calendar.

Sizes are flexible as well, and print shop can define any album size it likes, and not necessarily use the standard types (A4, A5, etc).

Can a print shop use its own page backgrounds?

Yes: print shop can add more backgrounds (which are simple JPEG files) and keep or remove the default backgrounds files.

Can a print shop use its own masks / frames / effects / page templates?

Yes: print shop can add more masks (which are flattened 8-bit PNG files) and keep or remove the default masks files. A print shop can also add more frames and effects and change the default page templates using the Album Maker and MPR500 Pro 5 – please refer to 'Creating content.pdf' manual for more information.

How does a print shop create a sample album?

A sample album is actually a template album used by the home users to easily create its own designed album orders. The way to create the template album is simply by using the Album Maker lab version to create a regular album, then mark it as sample album (using the Configuration | Sample album menu). Note that when creating sample albums the print shop don't need to fill in the picture placeholders, as they will be replaced anyway with user’s selected pictures.

Can a print shop design its own look & feel of the end-customer version?

Yes: the print shop can change the picture that appears when the Album Maker is run (the 'splash screen') and the picture and text that appear next to the 'New album', 'Open album' and 'Exit' screen. Also, a print shop can change the desktop icon, the default placeholder picture and some more texts (refer to 'Create Customer Setup and Updates.pdf' manual for more details).

How does the print shop receive album orders from its customers?

The print shop customers can choose between bringing their orders on a CD (or memory card) or sending them over the internet (over FTP).

- If a customer brings an order on a CD then the order is packed as a single ZIP file and the print shop should use the 'Load album' menu to load it into the system for processing.

- If a customer sends an order over FTP then the order will be found under a folder in a dedicated base folder in the FTP server. The print shop should regularly check that folder to see if new orders arrive and once such orders appear,  just download it (using any FTP client application) and load it to the system (using 'Load album' menu). If a print shop expect high volumes of orders, though, it is better to use the automatic downloader and loader tools that will save you the checking, downloading and loading of new orders.

Once the order is loaded, a print shop can proof it (using Open Album) and then send it to processing and printing.

How does a print shop collect its payment?

Your customers pay directly to the print shop for each album order they make. The print shop can allow your customers to perform online payment directly from the Album Maker and/or offline payment (in which they pay when they get to the store or with credit-card over the phone).

Which printers does the print shop support?

M-Photo software support PDF oriented digital printers (Xerox, HP, Canon, etc) and the following minilabs: Agfa d-lab, Durst Theta and Zeta, Fuji frontier, Fujimoto SHP5080, KIS DKS, Konica Minolta QD/R, Noritsu QSS, SMI MK, Xiao Niu SM3050, Windows driver based printers and any other minilab which supports a simple hot folder.

How many PDF files are created for each order?

The system creates one PDF file for the album's inner pages, and an additional PDF file for the cover (if the cover is printed). If printing on the album back-cover is enabled then the back-cover pages can be (optionally) created in a different PDF file as well.

Does the resulting PDF file include cut-marks and margins?

Yes: the print shop can configure the size of the margins, the text on the margin (order number, page number, date, etc), cut-marks and full-bleed support for each product in the system.

Does the M-Photo software support different imposition methods?

No: the resulting PDF contains the album pages in the order the home user created them (Reader’s spread) and a print shop should use the digital printing machine "front end" imposition software (for example the third-party imposition software from Creo).