Exception!

We racked our brains this week trying to figure out why some people had smooth sailing and others had a typhoon. Or why some bug reports were simply great finds while others made no sense. Anyway, while we're hard at work on the ones that we CAN replicate and fix, Stephen walks around the corner and decides to have a moment of brilliance. He *reckons* the problem is 'xyz' and then he disappears again. And sure enough he's right. Grrr, he does that sometimes.

Well a late night, a lot of coffee and a few shorter fingernails later, and the dev team have come up with a few ways to help stop 'xyz' happening.

So just boot PJ Remix while you're online to enjoy 1.01b today. With over 40 bug tickets resolved this should be a 'safer ride'. But remember, if you've created albums that have had issues along the way, then the data for those particular products could still be troublesome, even using the more robust 1.01b.

Cheers
Danny

A fair question

Today or tomorrow we will upload the second Remix update in two weeks that consists almost entirely of "bug fixes". Some of our users would like to know why this is necessary, even if Remix is still "beta software". It’s a fair question.

Before we answer, bear in mind that we act on your bugs and suggestions really quickly. That's why we release updates every week, and any deal-breakers you uncover go straight to the head of the line.

So here goes (and sorry for the length) …

We believe professional photography as a whole is well supported by great software, starting with Photoshop.

But that’s NOT true of specialty software for the portrait and wedding sector.

There are maybe a hundred thousand photographers across North America, the UK, Ireland and Australasia. That would be a small market for a major application even if everybody got in behind it, which they haven’t! Instead we have a software vacuum that has been filled largely by well meaning but under-resourced IT enthusiasts writing software as a sideline, and individual vendors producing solutions to their own workflow problems as best they can.

We believe that’s a second-rate solution.

Our goal is to build an outstanding application, powerful enough to deliver to all wedding and portrait photographers, and their vendors, a professional solution to their image processing needs.

An example of our "path to release" is Parallels (which allows users to run Windows on Intel Macs). Parallels was released in beta form at reduced prices, as we are doing, and the program evolved through several releases before going to “final”. It was thanks to the beta testers that a great program was developed. I know. I use it, and I was a beta tester.

But here’s an interesting point. If PJ Remix ends up with as many users as Parallels had while it was still in beta, we would be very happy. What does that mean? At any given step along the way there are likely to be more bugs “as yet undiscovered”, simply because software evolves and consolidates as more users explore and use it. We wish it wasn’t so!

There is no law saying you have use beta software, or suffer its occasional frustrations, and that’s why we are so grateful to those who do it anyway!

Happy holidays - from Ian and all the PJ Team

What was that?

Wow, what happened? We've been buzzing around like flies in a bottle since our special offer went up. As you'd expect, it's generated lots of questions, lots of traffic on the forums. I got back from the States on an early morning flight this morning and found Danny already at work and looking a leetle spaced out - he made the mistake of going on line before bedtime and was still there posting at 1.30 in the morning. And IanC thought he'd take a peek at home before he had his breakfast, so he was limbered up too by the time he got to work! Just so you know, we're on the case. Keep those letters and bugs rolling in, as Dean Martin used to say. Sort of.

Cheers - Ian

View New Posts

When you log on to the forum, why not make it a habit to click "View New Posts"? If you see a question you can answer, type a quick response. There comes a magic moment in the best software when users start to dialogue amongst themselves - build a community. Trust us, that won't lessen our commitment, but it will speed up the response, and build real depth in the application itself. Not only that, reading other people's posts will increase your level of understanding for sure.

PS The forum search feature is working much better now. Why not give it a try?

PJ Remix 1.0b Released!

We have come to a great milestone in our project, PJ Remix. Today we're releasing v1.0.

And to launch in style we are offering a 48 hour Half Price Special

Here are a few fun facts about PJ Remix 1.0 Beta:

- 819 Files compile to make one executable application.
- Although we've released v1.0 today, there have been over 2500 internal revisions.
- The original name for this project was "PJ Jr".
- An estimated 15,000 hours have gone into PJ Remix ( plus beta testing, thank you people!!).
- Over 700 reported issues resolved through our feedback tracking system
- Over 17m words in 'code' ( tough to get a line count ).

We live in the real world. We are releasing v1.0 as a beta knowing there are plenty of fixes and features to come, but don't get us wrong - this thing is amazing.

If you are new to PJ Remix download from http://www.photojunction.com/download.html

To get the special offer register from inside PJ Remix.

Two things remain to be said:

1. Thank you, thank you, thank you to our beta testers. We owe you a lot.

2. Tell your friends so they don't miss out on the special!

Have Fun,
Danny

Templates: Top 10

We've just released another version of PJ Remix, 0.96.

Along with 24 bug fixes we've managed to put in a lot of time on templates, so much so that we wanted to have a little fun...

Does PJ Remix have the best templates because...

10) PJ Remix can sort templates into your own collections.
9) PJ Remix can scale your thumbnails of the templates, same as your images
8) PJ Remix can preview templates full screen with a good quality preview of the layout.
7) PJ Remix exports a template collection in 2 clicks.
6) PJ Remix can import templates from PJ Retro (you need the PJ Retro Template Exporter).
5) PJ Remix can filter templates by the number of apertures on the layout (and many other attributes).
4) PJ Remix automatically saves ALL your design work into templates.
3) PJ Remix can share templates from within PJ Remix straight to a friends email address (try this feature out!)
2) PJ Remix can drop a template as a group of apertures (ie the aperture sizes and spacing are treated as absolute).
1) PJ Remix templates will fit in any size album no matter what they were created on.

Did I get the order of these wrong? Miss one out?

CAUTION: My purpose here is to give you an idea of the possibilities of the template function, and encourage you to play with it, but this is very new code. eg I just spoke to someone who couldn't use the Share Templates button. I can't replicate this, but play cautiously for now. Another thing, if you have existing templates you'll need to save the album again to create images in the templates. Finally, sorry about the image quality for PJ Retro imports, but the Retro images are fairly small to begin with.

Say Cheese!

Hi All

Team PJ always has something on the go...

On Monday a BBQ Fundraiser was held by our long time friends at GRINZ http://www.grinz.co.nz/ to support "Movember Prostate Awareness". GRINZ is a Kiwi mailing list for photographers. It looked like a few laughs and a lot of fun, wish we could have been there!

To help the cause we offered for auction the very first Remix media pack signed by Team PJ.


"eager GRINZers clamour for the "first off the press" much lauded PJRemix disc"
- photo by moi, Simon at the Bay

C'mon lads, take care of yourselves - go get a check up ;-)

Cheers
Danny

Food for thought

I spent my lunch hour reading a forum post (not here obviously!) about "the best album template software". I guess I may be preaching to the choir, but...

1. Are "clunky" and/or "badly supported" the most common descriptors for album planning software? (We know Remix is "v1.0" right now, but check out our forums - we're committed!)

2. So, why not design your albums in Photoshop? It's exceptional software, but even Adobe doesn't suggest that's a good idea. Adobe's layout software is InDesign, part of Creative Suite. Another great application - we use both ourselves.

3. But what does InDesign know about wedding and portrait photographers, their albums and their suppliers? Not enough. For example you'll look in vain for template functionality in InDesign. Just as important, photographers have very specific sales and presentation needs, and they design books, not sheets of paper. If you're not sure what I'm driving at, click here or check our feature list.

4. Almost all "album planning software" assumes the book is flushmount (un-matted). Yes, digital albums can be gorgeous - but isn't everybody doing them now? How are YOU going to differentiate as the price they command declines?

5. So how many album-planning applications can handle customisable matted albums? Three that I know of. And how many are NOT tied to a single vendor? One.

PJ's business case in five easy questions...

Cheers, Ian

New website

Hi All

We launched our new website a few hours ago and are anxiously awaiting for DNS records to be updated around the net.



You may already be able to access to our new site http://www.photojunction.com

If so, let us know what you think. If not please do check back tomorrow.

Cheers
Danny

p.s. The new site has our online guide for PJ Remix.
p.p.s We'll announce this officially via to our mailing list tomorrow.

Tantalisingly close

The stress balls had a bit of a thrashing today, with the following all looking tantalisingly close: Importing PJ Retro templates • Importing and exporting Remix templates • Single-sided templates • Filterable template collections. Plus the new website will go live next week, so you'll have detailed online support. Sorry, we ran out of time to do a demo movie of the Collection Builder. Have a great weekend.

Bounce

Hi All

I just wanted to paint the scene here at PJ HQ...
The Developers, Designers, and Support all walking around with the new office toys; stress balls! I saw two developers playing a make-shift game of ping pong with them last night (I say fair enough after sorting out so many bugs last week.) These stress balls have been a big hit.

So if you're feeling any of the following; jaded, dog-tired, pooped, spent, haggard, fraught or maybe just bored, go buy a stress ball they're worth every penny.

A more relaxed
Danny

PS To add a comment (always welcome) go to blog.photojunction.com

Another fruitful week

There are two rather nice new features in the update we've just released. First, as I said yesterday, you can now specify a page size and design digital (un-matted) albums for vendors who don’t actively support PJ Remix.

Second, you'll find the first expression of our Collection Builder. Display a Group, Collection or Folder in the Event window ("filter" them if you wish). Then click on the "More" button at the top of the screen and try "building a collection" (click Yes, No or Skip). Don't miss the count at the bottom left of the screen which shows how many images are left to decide upon. Hit Escape when you're done. You'll notice that you can also invoke the Collection Builder when adding a new Collection.

The Collection Builder GUI is still a bit undercooked and there are bells and whistles to add, but see how you go with no more help than that! Danny and I will try to get a movie out tomorrow.

Also of note, unofficial resources for Asuka and Kambara. (Select Check For Updates in the Help menu - PJ menu on Mac.) And did I mention *49* bug fixes! Another new record.

Thanks, keep 'em coming and all the best from all of us - Ian.

Checked out the forum?

Only a small proportion of our testers have signed up to the forum so far, but it's a busy place - over 273 posts on 121 topics at last count. With more new features due out in today's release, it's a good place to be.

Why not check it our now? Anyone can read, but you'll need to register to post.

Remix DIY

PJ Remix now has a new vendor - Remix DIY! Remix DIY Album Resources and Lab Settings are designed to help you create digital (un-matted) albums using vendors who don’t actively support PJ Remix.

For more information click here.

Geek Critique

"Are you CRAZY?" That's what you should say to people who beta test software.

It takes a special breed to want to get into Geek Critique. It's so !@#$ frustrating! I sent ELEVEN Bug/Feedback reports yesterday (my personal record - I counted 'em), but at least I got to frustrate the dev team as much as they frustrated me. (Not really - they're my mates.) If YOU have had a frustrating time testing, we who are about to code salute you. What we're doing together is build cool software - thank you.

Ian
PS We're not too proud to ask. If you see the potential, or love the way it is, or the way it's going to be... Please, tell a friend - bump a post - encourage your vendor.

Thank you

We've been reviewing your recent feedback, and we certainly need to say thanks. Besides the inevitable fixes, there have been some very thoughtful suggestions. We apologise for not replying personally to everyone, but if you've written it, we've read it. TBH we could spend a lot of time on the net right now, and get a lot less done. Please understand we're knocking things off as far as we can. If you've made a suggestion you'd like to get a wider airing, please do leave a post on our forum.

A good point made on the forum is that the first thing some people may want to do is open their Retro client files. So you know, there is currently no way to import PJFs from PJ Retro into PJ Remix and this is not on our development schedule (technically speaking, there is not enough data in a Retro file to build a Remix import). However we are actively working on template importing so that your designs can be transferred.

With thanks from the PJ Developers

0-100 in 2 minutes

This is so simple it's embarrassing. But on the other hand some of you reckoned Retro was confusing to install and register. So for those of you who've just joined the beta testing group, here's how it's done with Remix (5MB, 2minutes).

BTW...
• If you're a "PJ Retro" subscriber (version 6.23 and earlier) you will be able to move to PJ Remix AT ANY TIME WITHOUT CHARGE. Your version 6.23 subscription will continue until its normal expiry. Please email us for assistance.
• If you've tested Retro, you'll be free to try out Remix as well (I guess that goes without saying).

What's so special?

PJ Remix Pre-Release Beta 0.9: Fully configurable, colour-managed design space • New user interface (cool, calm, a pleasure to use - thank you Vanessa) • Group/Collection/Folder/Auto-link image views • Scaleable thumbnails and image preview • Sort by EXIF, filename, file size, date and time • Client collection builder • Totally transformed album and cover design • Live album update and preview • Matted and digital (un-matted) albums • Managed workflow (project set-up, high-res export, send order).

OK, we're quite proud. Click here for a full feature list. Please tell us if you know of another app that can tick all those boxes.

Not to tread on any toes...

When you design albums, you're dancing with a partner, your vendor. It doesn't work when they tread on your toes. Or vice versa.

That's why we've always stressed the importance of integrating with suppliers. And why we enable vendors to switch functions off in Remix where they're not right for their product.

For example, some testers have asked on DWF why Queensberry has disabled aperture resizing by "dragging from the corner" in matted albums.

(Many traditional vendors will need to turn custom design off entirely - ie make PJ drag-and-drop only. In the same way, many studios will want to use drag-and-drop templates for productivity reasons.)

Understand it's not us that makes such decisions, it's the vendors (read QBY's reasons here). But understand also the fundamental reason: that suppliers make real books (and labs make real prints), and the systems only work if you (and your software) understand them.

Having said that, we're about problem solving and better outcomes. Watch this space.

Gates closed for now

Hi All

We want to thank everyone for the overwhelming response to our invitation to this stage of private beta testing!

It was so big that we decided to add more test slots than originally intended. If you're on the list you should receive beta testing information via the email address you used to subscribe to this blog. We apologise if you've missed out, but we do expect to open the doors again soon.

Have fun, play safe and remember, if you need help, please use our forums:

http://www.photojunction.com/forums

Regards

Danny

Doh...

We have just sent a follow-up email to the PJ list because our first announcement was an unformatted stream of text that surely a lot of people didn't bother to read. Unfortunately so was the follow-up! FWIW we've uncovered a bug in our email management software. We're very sorry, and just so you know, there definitely won't be a follow-up until the bug is fixed. And we shot the developer - he wasn't part of the PJ team anyway.

Cheers
Danny

ps Just to be clear, this is what passes for humour around here ;-)

0.92 Released

We broke our record! We cleared 37 reported issues in 0.92 this week. Not bad eh? Considering there's a fair bit going on this week - for instance giving this blog a makeover, and adding a way for you to subscribe by email.

You'll be able to read the list when you open Remix and it invites you to update. Check out the list for the one you reported. If not, we'll be working on it. Our thanks for helping out.

Cheers
Danny

Size matters

Hi All

Just had to share - A client sent in a screen shot to help us resolve an issue. It was hard not to notice his screen is HUGE. I mentioned it to one of our design team and the jokes started flowing - write him and admit that his is bigger than yours etc...

Anyway now I have serious 'screen envy' - thanks.

To make something useful of this, click this link for a 2-minute 13MB video Ian and I did about customising your workspace. It's recorded on my modest little 1440x900 MacBook Pro.

Cheers
Danny (1650x1050, enjoys long walks on beach, fine wine, classical music...)

ps We did resolve the issue by the way ;-)

Windows and Wizards

Hi Everyone
Click here to read a PDF (6.3MB) we wrote for the original private beta testing group to introduce them to Remix's main functions. It was the only "help" we gave them - a test of PJ's intuitiveness or their ingenuity, take your pick!
The screen shots are a bit out of date now, but it's still a good quick and dirty intro.

"Projects, Clients, Events..."

Hi Everyone - we thought it might help to get some of our basic concepts straight. Hope it helps...
We use the words Projects, Products, Events, Clients and Exports in a very specific way in PJ. We work on Projects, which consist of four linked components: Clients, Events, Products and Exports:
We shoot an Event (eg a wedding) for our Clients (eg the bride and groom), who buy Products (eg albums).
Why do we use words like Event and Product instead of “wedding” and “album”? Because they’re more generic. Not all Events are weddings, and not all Products are albums.
You can’t create a new Product (let’s say an album) directly. First, you must link it to both a Client and an Event. The reason for that is we're building a database where all your work will reside, and so the Project Browser can keep track of it for you, as the following screen shot shows.


We have shot four Events for the same Client (Sarah and Graham). The five Products we can see in the third panel (three albums and two slideshows) all relate to the highlighted Event – their wedding.

Your Products in turn have Exports.
For example, the Exports from an album design are the orders and image files that you export and either:
• Save to your hard disk, or
• Send to your album vendor and lab for manufacture.
The Export from a Slideshow is the QuickTime movie file saved on your hard disk.
You can navigate directly to all the Products and Exports related to a particular event from the Project Browser or the Events Window.

Busy, Busy

Hi All

We released 0.91 on Thursday NZ time then added another 'batch' of fresh beta testers. Which has stirred up some work for us with a lot of action on our forums and on the DWF.

If you want to read what some users are saying click here

If you're interested in beta testing get in quick because we intend on closing the doors soon...

Cheers

Danny

PJ Remix Tour

Hi All

We're in the *studio* a lot at the moment. Here's a tour of PJ Remix from our strategic point of view ( 6 mins instead of 20! ). We touch on ideas and concepts important to us.

1. User Experience - it's gotta be cool, fun, and easy to use.

2. Pragmatic - it's gotta work, gotta be productive.

3. Integrate - it's gotta know about your lab and album vendor.

We'd love to hear what you think of our ideas...

You'll get more out of the higher quality video IMHO.

Higher Quality

Lower Quality

Cheers

Danny

Hello Remix

Hi Everyone,

So it's time to meet some of the team and hear what they have to say about PJ Remix.

Here is the video (~40MB) . (Right-click if you prefer to download the file.)

Enjoy,

Danny

Once upon a time...

Hello Everyone,

A little history for those not in the Photojunction Private Beta Testing group. Throughout testing the PJ developers have been 'blogging' on a private mailing list, but now we're ready to share with a wider audience.

Today is not only the launch of our team blog, but also the day we are allowed to talk publicly about the rewrite of Photojunction! ( Its working title is PJ Remix.) We are planning to 'leak' information regarding the release of PJ Remix over the next few weeks, so make sure to subscribe so you don't miss the latest.

Cheers,

Danny

p.s. We have also launched our new forums. www.photojunction.com/forums/