Scrapblog is presenting at DEMO this week and their new software is a great example of just how much can be done by web based applications. It’s a Flash application that lets users drag and drop photos, video, text and audio onto a background image to build scrapbooks that can be printed as a photo-book, burned to DVD, exported as a photoset to Flickr and soon will be exportable to YouTube and other video sites as a narrated slide show.
The amount of smooth control over layout that Scrapblog allows is really impressive. It’s a tool that will appeal beyond the usual scrapbooking demographic and could be of great use in making things like artist portfolios and online graphic presentations. Even scrapbooking, though, is one of the leading folk arts in the US today. Don’t let that dissuade you if you’re an art snob; Scrapbook is lots of fun to use just for its web interface.
The company was started by Carlos Garcia and is currently self funded. It will be monetized through printing photobooks, burning DVDs and selling pro-accounts. Some advertising may appear on the site as well. There’s a less sophisticated beta version available for free on the Scrapblog site today, but the site I previewed here will be launched before the end of this year.
Scrapblog allows users to move and change the directional orientation of a long list of graphic elements, add effects like shadows, text and audio narration. It’s like having Photoshop Elements on the web, but with drag and drop image adding, multimedia support and bidirectional syncing with your account at Flickr, Webshots and Photobucket.
Tabblo offers a similar service, but OneTrueMedia is a more direct competitor. OneTrueMedia has a far more locked-down corporate feel to it, but that company does also have a number of high profile distribution partners.
looks nice,
I hope it does well looks like an interesting project/startup
This looks very impressive and I can really see it taking off. Finally a place to put those meaningful photos and related items and displaying them. Much better than just going through hundreds of photos at a friends site on Flickr. People are going to love it I think, looks pretty too
For me, flash stil doesn’t feel ‘real’ – but I am sure that wil change with time. It’s like a desktop app but slower and more clunky (feels like some of the earlier UNIX desktops)
I used Scrapblog by importing some photos from Flickr. Some of my family may prefer to view the caption and organized presentations that I can control in Scrapblog.
I did this Scrapblog of the Techcrunch7 Party as a test:
http://jeremiah...og.com/lunch20/
Short, but it passed the test, only took a few minutes to learn. Yeah, it’s kind of like having Photoshop Elements, Scoble thought it was like Desktop Publishing. For me, being a major picture freak, it’s a layer to add on top of my favoriate photos.
I went into the site and I think it’s the most creative and useful tools in the web. I really hope it does well in DEMO. Investing in something like this seems like the natural thing to do. Nice JOB!!!!
Marco, are you serious? Did someone pay you to say that?
This is definitely “cool”, in terms of just playing around with it, but it doesn’t really seem like something most people will be compelled to do. People keep trying to clone the scrapbooking experience online for some reason. Scrapbooks only existed as a way to store photos. Now that we can all store photos and share them, why do we need the ability to jumble them all up on one page, with cluttered extra crap all around them?
Maybe this will be a fun thing for soccer moms with nothing better to do, but for the most part, I think people will prefer a well-built photo sharing service.
Don’t mean to sound negative, it looks like an impressive online app.
Very good job indeed.
Add the upcoming Apollo to get more desktop speed and you have a nice iPhoto-like (and better imho) albuming software.
my first try at it : http://mimizone.scrapblog.com
Ashish, have you heard of MySpace? Lots of people like to do that kind of stuff withtheir fotos.
reminds me of adobes jamjar web app. check it out (adobe id needed).
http://jamjar.adobe.com/
This should be really popular on myspace and looks like a slick interface for creating them. A while back I was thinking of doing something similar after being impressed by iPhoto’s new photo book feature.
Jeremy
I loved your whimsical Scrapblog project. You’ve actually used the medium in an interesting way the others didn’t.
Thanks Jeremiah
I use a Canon 300D with an old broken Canon USM 35-70mm and I stack a reversed (bit broken also) Canon 50mm 1.8.
when needed, I add a Sigma flash and a quickly hacked diffuser from 2 pieces of paper and tape.
and finally Photoshop is my friend.
if interested: http://www.flic...hotos/mimizone/
I have in my photostream a scrapbook I did with Illustrator/Photoshop.
Scrapblog-like app was one of my night project (but in SVG) but scrapblog did it almost exactly as I wanted! so why bother
The images I’ve seen made from their software look highly personalized and pretty polished. I expect this product could be just a popular with private diary keepers, closed groups of friends/family, as well as social networking extroverts.
Simple and meaningful with lots of end uses make Scrapblog a very exciting service to me.
The scarpblog in the post looks nice. But most existing ones looks not as fancy.
Still requires practise to get a professional look and content. Why not learn Photoshop once and for all.
Terry
I think Scrapblog provides instant web publishing, and already has a series of templates and resources that would make it easy for the non-photoshop user.
I used to teach photoshop sessions at San Francisco State University, the learning curve is pretty long and steep until you get to a certain point. Web Publishing tools are intended to make the promise that ‘anyone’ can do it, heck even my mom!
I see blogs, flickr, youTube, also falling into this promise.
I’ve tried Scrapblog at two different points in their development. The first time I gave up because they were too buggy. The second time I gave up because the interface was terrible. Has this been made more user-friendly?
@Terry and Ashish
I think you guys miss the point of Scrapblog. To me it is a simple way of telling a story with your photos, and making them more personal – like a photo album of your wedding, or a photo diary of your baby. With this tool you can share these easily with your friends and family online.
Also, why pay $300+ for Photoshop when you can do this online for free? I use Photoshop professionally, and I don’t think the average mom and dad user is going to want to make the financial and intellectual commitment to learn how to do photo manipulation and compositing, when they can use something free and simple like Scrapblog.
I had play with the beta, it feels, look and IS just a COOL design.
The product is fast and intuitive.
Great job Mitch !!
S.
It seems like some of the commenters above think that the beta version that is currently online at Scrapblog.com is what we presented at DEMO. The new version of Scrapblog will be available soon. For those who want to see what we presented at DEMO, here is the link.
http://www.demo...6fall/79931.php
I just signed my Mom up with this last night—as well as setting her up with del.icio.us, she loves this stuff now
Marshall,
Thanks for the really great article on my client, Marshall, but their needs to be a clarification. Scrapblog launched at Fall Demo back in October. It is going live in a few weeks and announcing it Feb. 8 at WeMedia in Miami. If we were going to be at this DEMO, we would have been embargoed from talking with you. I’m sorry for this misunderstanding.
nice and cool.