The new soft-proofing profile is available for download. After downloading it, you should go back to the original articles and replace the references to the profiles with this one. The earlier articles did not include links to any profile but MagCloud had allowed me to share them with anyone who wanted to use them. This should make the series of articles on this subject more complete and useful.

For totally mindless cloud storage, synchronized among several computers, with deleted file recovery my choice is DropBox. It is drop-dead simple, install once and forget about it type of service. Visit DropBox, start an account, download its software and install it. You are done! Anything you save in your local DropBox folder automatically gets copied to DropBox cloud and you can access your files from any computer using any browser. Additionally, you can download and install the same DropBox software on your other computers and all will have fully synchronized DropBox folders, so the files you use often will be available on any of your computers. A bonus feature is the file availability on your Android, iPhone, iPad, platforms. I have been using it for about 4 years now without a hitch, and a few times I was able to recover a file that I accidentally deleted since DropBox has several versions of all the files backed up. I highly recommend it. The down side is it is limited to 2GB of free storage which gets bumped up any time you refer a friend and that friend goes through the process. It will give you up to 8 GB of storage, I am already there. You can purchase additional storage if you like, but read the next service before dropping money in the box.

For a bigger storage, 25GB size storage, I recommend Windows Live SkyDrive. If you do not have a Live.com account, simply point your browser to Windows Live and get yourself a free account. That account comes with several goodies in addition to the e-mail address you get. You do not have to use the e-mail but that is the glue that holds all these services together.

As you start your account and login, you will see that you have 25GB of SkyDrive storage as well as reasonably functional versions of Microsoft Office applications, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. You can store the files you create online there as well as using your SkyDrive space from your desktop MS Office applications. What if you want to put some non office files up in the cloud, store them in your SkyDrive. No problem, you can login using any browser and simply add the files to your SkyDrive.

To make using SkyDrive even easier, I have discovered a third-party application that makes SkyDrive another drive on my computer. A side benefit is that the same application also connects to my Google space as well. This magic software is Gladinet Cloud Desktop. Point your browser to Gladinet Web site and download the free version of Cloud Desktop. The premium versions add more features but for me they were not important. The “freemium” version works just fine for my needs.

Once you install the Cloud Desktop, you will enter your SkyDrive login ID and password and Gladinet will take care of the rest and you will have a new drive in Windows Explorer that is waiting to be filled. It is as easy as they come, you will be glad you tried it.

Now, here is even a sweeter tip: every new Live.com account you create will give you additional 25GB storage. You can even link your various Live.com accounts so they are all available after you login to one. This is what happens when storage gets dirt-cheap! Oh, Live.com has more features but I will let you discover what Live Mesh is, how you can share photos with friends and family, or how you can create groups that keep people connected. On those, you are on your own!

Enjoy your cloud storage, back up files, share some with friends, send big files to friends, and anything else you want to do with that extra space.

Many of the add-on software I have added to Firefox are useful if you do Web development and design, so I will spare them from this post. However, there are some that I find very useful for any user and I would like to highlight them here. Read the description and then decide if you want to add a particular one or not. Of course, if you are not a Firefox user these will not mean much to you unless they offer similar plugins for Internet Explorer, Chrome, or Safari. I will not go into the installation process of add-ons to Firefox though.

Evernote Web Clipper requires an Evernote account to work. The good news is that it is free, go to EverNote.com and sign up for one. Even better news is that Evernote is a very useful software for keeping a bunch of random information from to-do lists to medicines I take (yes, it is an age thing), or photographs, or anything else that you may want to have at your finger tips. It works on Windows, Mac computers as well as on iPxx (well, it works with numbers!) and Android smart phones. After installing Evernote Web Clipper, you can clip selections or entire pages while you browse the Internet to your Evernote database. Then you can read it on any of your computers or smart phone. Very cool indeed.

FireGestures allows me to go back or forward in my browser’s history without reaching out to the buttons located on the toolbar. Although I use it mainly for flipping back and forth between pages, it can open new tabs, save the page, and many other tricks. A very handy addition to Firefox.

Readability is a relatively new one for me, I discovered it by accident but have found it to be extremely useful in reading articles on the Web. The problem with the Web is that content is generally cluttered. There is the article of interest you want to read but it is surrounded with ads, links to other content on the site, toolbars, etc. Take a look at the two images on the left showing the normal NY Times page and the article scrubbed from extra crud. They have a very uncluttered site too.

When I want to read an article in Ne York times, I simply click on the Readability button on the toolbar and everything else but the article I want to read disappear. The content is neatly formatted in single column with adjustable text size on top of that. I can print from it which produces clean, neat output. Highly recommend it.

This is going to be a two-part series. Before getting into the second part, I strongly recommend that you read and study my Printing Workflow presentation as it details how to accomplish some of the steps in reasonable detail. Although there are a couple of PDF documents for printing, they do not show some of the slides as they are not visible outside the presentation flow. Make sure to watch the slide presentation.

See the updated soft-proof profile post before proceeding. (8/8/2001)

I have been using MagCloud on-demand publishing since last year. I had two academic projects that benefited from the technology and my exhibits and publishing as well. Along with two students, in collaboration with the members of the Photographic Society of Rhode Island, PSRI, we published PSReye Focus in December 2009. This past fall semester MagCloud was an important tool in another course where students worked on a project titled Vision of Hope in collaboration with the Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Resource Foundation. Since May 2010, I have used MagCloud services for three exhibits, an expanded exhibit catalog, and more recently a free-standing publication called IR Earthscapes.

In all projects, the proofing turned out to be the most challenging step, partly due to time constraints resulting from poor time management, and partly due to the way we have handled the proofs. Since my last project IR Earthscapes, I have come to the conclusion that there has to be a smarter way of proofing to save time and to save money while getting as much information as possible from the proof.

The Parameters

In the publishing process there are several variables that the publisher controls, some the printer controls, and some that fall through the cracks in the process. I want to start by exploring what these variables are and how we can make the best of the proofing for a high-caliber finished publication. I will mainly focus on the image quality related issues rather than the layout, typography, sequencing, and the like. The main ingredients that contribute to the image quality are:

1. Printing paper
2. Printer ICC profile
3. Image editing environment
4. Images themselves
5. Image editing workflow

The first two are under the control of MagCloud, and the last three are under the control of the photographer/publisher. It is important to know how MagCloud controls those elements and how that may affect my preparation of the images I want to include. Let’s begin with what the user cannot control, the printing paper and the ICC profiles. Although we cannot control what they use, we can certainly try to make intelligent choices.

The Paper Used in Printing

MagCloud uses different weights and stocks of papers depending on whether the magazine is saddle-stitched or perfect-bound. This information is direct from their site, simply reorganized in a tabular format:

The saddle stitched issues printed on 60# text paper are not satisfactory for my purposes; the pages show through, the feel is not substantial, and the overall impact is limp. For short and medium issues the saddle stitched option may be viable with good quality and feel. However, the consistency of the look and feel of the perfect-bound issues is very satisfying with heavier feeling cover and substantial inner pages along with crisp perfect binding. I will not use saddle stitching for issues over 30 pages or so, the pillowing around the spine takes away from the over all look and feel of the magazine.

ICC Profile Used in Printing

I did not know this until my last issue, but MagCloud uses different ICC profiles for saddle stitched and perfect bound issues. I thought I would get an image/print quality proof with 30-40 pages, then I would try the full size magazine, followed by the final proof. I started the process by requesting a saddle stitched proof and found that the toned B&W photographs looked over the top although on my monitor they appeared acceptably subtle. I pulled down the toning, a cool selenium tone, and ordered a full-size, 100-page saddle stitched proof. Very disappointing! The pages bled through and the whole thing was flimsy. I wrote to support and then I learned to pay attention to paper used, and that there were different ICC profiles used for different processes. To make a long story short, along with the paper type the print profile used made a difference in the final result, a perfect-bound 80-page magazine which feels solid with very good print quality.

On the other hand, the photographer or the publisher has several things under control, and under control they must be.

Image Editing Environment

It is imperative to have a properly calibrated and profiled monitor to know what colors you are dealing with. If you are not working with a calibrated monitor your efforts are going to be a big crap-shoot. My choice of equipment are a 24″ Samsung 244T monitor and X-Rite ColorMunki calibration and profiling device. I am not a fanatic about it and do not calibrate my monitor every day, heck I sometimes go several weeks because I do not work on images all day every day. But I make sure that before I start any photographic work my monitor is freshly calibrated and repeat it once a week if I continue working on photographs.

Additionally, the lighting around my monitor is reasonably controlled. There are no windows behind me or on either side that may cast light and create glare. The wall behind the monitor is not brightly colored to affect my perception of screen colors, and so on. I try to create as neutral an environment as possible.

Images Themselves

The old adage, GIGO; garbage in, garbage out; applies here. Editorial scrutiny on the photographs to include in a magazine based not only on content but on actual image quality is essential. It is tough to edit out some of the photographs because of emotional ties to them. However, the inclusion of poor quality photographs will most likely lower the impact of the entire publication. Being self-critical, if editing your own images; or editorially critical if editing submitted images is an essential part of the workflow to produce top-notch publications. Additionally, you may want to pay attention to the totality of the collection that will become a part of the finished product, but I will not say more about that here.

Image Editing Workflow

I use Photoshop Lightroom 3.x and Adobe Photoshop CS5 for my editing workflow. The artistic judgments aside, the images need to be edited for full tonality, appropriate color (I avoid “correct color” as there may be artistic judgments here too), proper saturation, and proper sharpness. When I prepare to print single images on my Epson 4880, I know the paper, I know the ink, I have done it enough times that I am quite comfortable with my workflow. I am in charge of the process from beginning to the end; and I can see the results within minutes. However, when I prepare output for MagCloud printing I am mostly guessing and using a trial and error process. That caused me to lose time since I had to make changes and order proofs several times to get the desired output in the end.

Then I started thinking that there must be a better and more efficient way. So I wrote to MagCloud support and asked if they could share the ICC profile they use for printing with me. The MagClud rep was kind enough to look into that and sent me one ICC profile they use for perfect-bound magazine output, and the saddle-stitch output ICC profile will be coming after February 20.

In part two, I will explain the smart-proofing workflow and recommend that you review the Printing Workflow presentation slides and be comfortable with the concepts there.

Here is the new demo: (slide shows are identical use either one that works on your system)

Floral Tango!