This is first in a series of photo book software reviews. This one focuses on Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 (Adobe PSE). I know from an informal survey I conducted of Photo Book Girl readers on photo editing, that PSE is one of the more popular software programs. So, I decided to give it a try first. If you’d like to read the overview of where I’m going with this series check out my introductory post on using external software to make your photo book layouts.
Because I have Adobe Photoshop CS (the pricier version of the program), I hadn’t really taken a look at its more economical cousin. We’re talking $699.00 versus $69.00. Yes – big difference so it’s definitely worth checking out right? I was excited to hear from a Facebook fan that PSE has a photo book function, but a bit puzzled when I downloaded the free 30-day trial and only saw 5 choices in book sizes when I opened the program. Further, I was surprised to see branded options from Kodak Gallery and Shutterfly but just a few size options under each. (b/t/w Shutterfly bought Kodak Gallery as the latter filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.)
I kept looking around for an option within the program to create a custom size. I was planning to make a photo book for my baby illustrating words from one of my favorite lullabies that I sing to him. I had decided on a portrait book measuring 8.5 inches wide x 11 inches tall. I Googled for an answer and found out that you can’t use the photo book tool to make custom sizes – only the fixed sizes you see listed above. My only option then to use this program and make a custom size, was to create each page as a single layout (versus making the entire book in a single file using the drag and drop function – typical of a photo book company’s free software.) This is what I was excited about, so it was quite disappointing to find that the options were so limited. Note that you can print any of the above sizes on your own desktop printer if you choose. I prefer to print using a photo book service.
Making a Photo Book using a PSE Template
Let’s assume for purposes of this review that you want to use one of the sizes featured. I selected one from the 8×8 Shutterfly options.
You load your photos to the Organizer in an Album and then add the photos to the Album. The selected photos will show up in the Project Bin which runs along the bottom of the workspace. When you’ve dragged and dropped your photos in and tweaked your layouts, you can then choose to print on your own printer or send the book to Shutterfly or another company to print. Note the option to switch from Basic Mode to Advanced mode in the lower right corner above the Project Bin. The advanced mode opens up a set of tools which allow you to make more complex changes to your design.
In terms of what I would normally look for in photo book software, there are some nice features. You can add drop shadows and use any font on your computer. You can also create warped text (text that curves around an object or is stretched out or altered in some way) which is not common for most photo book companies’ software. Other than that, there isn’t much of significant use to someone wanting to use this software primarily for photo book creation unless you are okay with making individual pages.
Making a Photo Book Creating Your Own Custom Sized Layouts and Templates
As mentioned above since I wanted to create my own custom-sized book, I was only able to use the software as a design tool to make single pages. In that way it’s not very different from creating my own pages in Adobe Photoshop CS, which is fine, but not quite the same as building a book using the photo company’s software. I’m basically trying to find external software that works most similarly to the free software offered by the photo book companies. Since I was designing a spread, if my book is to be 8.5 x 11 inches, then my spread has to measure twice the width – so my resulting document size is 16 x 11 inches.
Pretty much the only advantage I can see to using PSE is the Project Bin. You can drag photos from the Project Bin up onto the workspace and it will appear in a separate layer. For those familiar with Photoshop CS, you have to open each file you plan to place in the layout separately, which can get time consuming. Unless you are very organized and know what photos you want to use on which layout, sorting through all that and opening the files can be tedious. (Although note there is an Adobe program called Adobe Bridge which can help organize your multitudes of photo files. Going into detail about Adobe Bridge is not the subject of this review, but I wanted to let you know it’s there.) With PSE and its Project Bin, you can load all the photos you plan to use and then drag and drop them in layers. The layers function which is the key feature of both Photoshop products enables you to turn on or off the layer so you can toggle between them to see if you want to keep that layer or not. It is helpful once you get used to creating layouts in layers.
Outside of photo book creation, another positive for PSE is the ability to edit your photos within the program. PSE is a popular tool for post processing digital images.
Anyway after finding out that I couldn’t use the photo book tool to create my layouts, I had doubts about continuing, but I decided to go ahead and use the program to finish my book anyway. I saved each layout it in the highest quality jpeg format allowed and uploaded them as individual spreads to Artscow – the company I’d chosen for this project. Then I selected the full bleed layout so my image would take up the entire spread. Don’t forget if you plan to create your own pages in an outside program, I recommend making a test page first before doing all your layouts. Upload the test layout to your company of choice. Then run the preview and make sure the layout turns out as expected. That way you don’t waste time creating all the pages only to find out you need to move all the text further away from the edges for example.
If you like the digital scrapbook look, and you’re looking for lots of built in themes and backgrounds, there aren’t many provided within the software. You can however go to digital scrapbooking sites to download lots of free fonts, clip art and backgrounds. Just make sure they are offered for download at 300 dpi so they will reproduce well.
Summary
Adobe PSE is great program for photo editing, but just okay for creating photo book layouts. If the photo book tool weren’t just limited to the five sizes currently provided, I would be more interested in using the program to design my books, but as it is now, it’s not quite what I’m looking for so the search continues. If you’re looking for a good photo editor and just occasionally want to make your own layouts, then you may consider PSE a good option as it is way more affordable than its professional cousin Adobe Photoshop CS. After I get to reviewing more companies, I’ll do more comparisons among the different companies. Stay tuned for the next software review!
| Software |
Retail $$ | Pros | Cons | Compatibility |
| Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 |
$69.00 | Project bin keeps your photos readily accessible as compared to Photoshop CS; Work in layers to easily toggle on and off changes or additions; Good for photo editing | Specific photo book tool with layouts and templates only works in very limited sizes; Can’t use tool for custom sizes – limited to creating single pages for export; Not a lot of themes and backgrounds | PC & MacFREE Trial Available |
Do you use PSE for your photo book layouts? Share your tips or comments below!
I use PSE for all my digital scrapbooking and photo books. When reading your review, I had to agree with everything you said, but I have found ways to work around all of them. I think PSE is a photo editing tool that has been forced into a digital scrapbook software and so it is by no means perfect. I think the BIGGEST advantage to using PSE to do your layouts is that you can then order and re-order from any company out there to get your printing done. I recently suffered from this when, against my better judgement, I built a book in MyPublisher’s software. I had issues with their printing and they just pissed me off. I was so mad that I was bound to this company for re-ordering a replacement copy or additonal copies, that I just spent the past 2 days re-creating the 100 page book in PSE. I like the new book a lot more and I can “shop” it around for the best price and features.
I will admit that using Photo Book companies online software is a bit easier, but that can still take a lot of time in perfecting the book and there is always a learing curve with each new company you try. Since I already know how to use PSE, I don’t have the learning curve issue.
To work around the inability of PSE to have one file for the whole book, I went out and spent $80 for an external hard drive. I have a file naming structure so I can keep track of my books. I name the file 2009 Photo Book (or something like that) and then I put inside that file, a psd file (to hold the photo shop elements editable files and a jpg file for the finished printable files. I start by creating a page in the size I want and with 300 dpi and I name it Page_1 and then there is a function that allows you to duplicate the page. I do that over and over again naming the page the next numerical number. If I ever come across a page I want to add at a later date, I name it,for example, Page_1A to keep them in order.
I like that I can be totally creative with PSE and even after several years and several upgrades to the software, I still find new tricks. I have downloaded (on that same external hard drive), tons of free backgrounds and elements that I have found on the Internet. I also bought a few kits when I find something at a great deal. There are litearlly hundreds of designers and scrapbooking websites out there and plenty of freebies.
I like that with PSE I can do a lot of things that I can’t in the proprietary softwares of Photo Book companies. For instance, I can cut out people from the background, I can use transparencies, I can place photos anywhere I want, I can use any font (I must have several hundred), and I be totally creative!
My advice to anyone looking to use PSE is, you have to be “digitally orgainzed”, have an external hard drive or cloud space, and be computer proficient. But, you will be able to unleash your full creativity and if you need help, there are tons of web sites with tutorials, tips and help specifically for PSE.
I hope that Adobe takes into account how many people are using their software to do digital scrapbooking and finds some way to design the software to better accomodate us. I just answered a lengthy survey for them on my usage of PSE, so maybe something will happen. Until then, I will continue using PSE!
Hi Michael,
Thank you for your detailed comment. Your comments will be helpful to other readers as well as you definitely have more experience using PSE than me. I agree with you that there are ways to work around everything. I do that all the time when I am trying a new company’s software and find that they don’t offer a feature that I’ve grown accustomed to. At this stage of my photo book making however, I’m looking for software that will help make me most efficient in designing my books and from trying so many companies now, I have a long list of features that are must haves for me. You sound like you are very organized! I still have several software programs to check out so I’m excited to see what I find! Stay tuned!
That was the review that I needed!… Thanks!
PSE also comes with Organizer. It’s very similar to Adobe Bridge, that you mentioned in your review, but much easier to use. You can see thumbnails of everything, rate photos, tag them for sorting, create albums or collections, etc. It’s a built in component and an excellent feature of PSE.
The sort of software that’s right for you will depend on how much expertise you’ve got got, how detail-oriented you’re, and how much time you’d like to devote to digital scrapbooking. Additional experienced scrapbookers that need complete management over every aspect of their pages can presumably like photo editing software for its editing capabilities. A beginning scrapbooker would possibly like digital scrapbooking software, since it can sometimes be easier to learn.
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