Zilla JPG To PDF Converter is a software program for the Windows operating system that has been designed for this exact purpose. It can be used to convert multiple photos into a single pdf document. The process itself has been streamlined for ease of use. It actually takes less than a minute to configure the program to turn selected photos into a pdf document. The time it takes to create the pdf document itself depends largely on the amount and quality of the selected photos and the processing power of the computer system.

Only two steps are mandatory and a few additional ones option. The mandatory steps are to select photos or folders containing photos that should be included int the pdf document and to initiate the conversion by pressing the convert to pdf now button.

Optional steps include selecting a document title, author, creation date, subject, keywords, the output path and the compression quality.

The result is a pdf document that is made up of all the photos that have been selected during the selection process.

Zilla JPG To PDF Converter is an easy to use program that can create pdf documents showing selected photos in no time. The developer could improve it further by allowing layouts added to the pages that can contain text or other objects. An option to select several photos from one folder simultaneously is also missing as it is only possible to either select one photo or a folder full of photos in the application.

The software program is available at the developer’s website. It is there available for most Microsoft Windows operating systems including Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.

Related posts

• XnView Add-ons and Format Plugins (1)
• Turn Photo Sequences Into Time-Lapse Movies (42)
• Turn Images Into Ascii Art (0)
• Search folders for duplicate images (3)
• Remove backgrounds from photos using FotoFlexer (2)

The program itself is easy to use. Each photo story is saved as a project. New projects begin by adding digital camera photos from the hard drive of the computer system to the application. These photos are immediately shown in the interface of Photo Story 3.

The Microsoft Photo Story start screen:

The selected photo is shown in the preview window and photo thumbnails of every other photo that has been added are shown in the thumbnail bar. Basic photo editing options are available to rotate the photo, remove the red eye effect, correct color levels or crop it.

Various effects can be added to the photos after they have been added and edited by the user. This screen does contain the additional option to add text to the photos.

A story can be narrated in the next step. The recording can be started with a click on the red record button. The same configuration screen contains options to customize the motion of each photo in the video.

Music can be added to a set of photos in the last step before the save options become available.

The video can be saved in various formats including. The settings in this step contain profiles for various computer resolutions, but also DVD and Video CD formats, email and Pocket PC and smartphone resolutions that support Media Player 10 Mobile.

Microsoft Photo Story 3 is a free download available from Microsoft (with Genuine Advantage verification). It is a great easy to use software to turn digital camera photos into a video.

Related posts

• Turn Photo Sequences Into Time-Lapse Movies (42)
• Photo Editing Software Image Tuner (9)
• Flickr File Synchronization Software (7)
• Flickr Download (0)
• Enlarge Photos With Smilla Enlarger (2)

The digital image processing software can be used to load and process multiple images and photos. The images that are loaded into the software are displayed in the left sidebar with the selected image being show in a preview area on the right.

Basic options to process the image are available including rotating or cropping the image. A link to the default image editor on the system can be added to quickly open the image in that editor for advanced image processing.

The lower part of the screen contains two tabs that offer additional options and settings. The save location, file type and quality can be configured in the first tab while the second one contains resizing options. Multiple images can be selected at once to process them together. That’s an interesting option for users who want to rotate, crop or resize several images in short time.

The digital image processing software is semi-automatic. There are tools out there that need to be configured once and will apply the configured settings to all images that have been loaded into the software. This tool gives the user more control over the process.

The Digital Image Tool is compatible with the Windows operating system and can be downloaded from the developer’s website.

Related posts

• Enlarge Photos With Smilla Enlarger (2)
• Turn Photo Sequences Into Time-Lapse Movies (42)
• Photo Filter Software (3)
• Photo Editing Software Image Tuner (9)
• Microsoft Photo Story (6)

PhotoLapse is a tiny software program that has been designed for this purpose.

The portable software program can be started right after the download has finished. The interface consists of a file browser to select photos from the local computer system, a preview area and some available settings.

All it takes to create a time-lapse movie is to select the photos from the local computer system. It is possible to load files from a folder and select some or all of them for the movie. A few optional settings can be configured including the frame rate (default 15, between 1-30), error checks and if the movie should be reversed.

A click on the create movie button will start the process. A compatible codec needs to be available on the computer system. The program will automatically display all codecs giving the user the choice of the codec for the time-lapse movie. The process takes a while largely depending on the video codec and the amount and size of the selected photos.

The portable software program PhotoLapse is compatible with most Windows operating systems. It can be downloaded from the developer’s website. Time-lapse movie examples are available at all popular video portals including Youtube or Google Video.

Related posts

• Enlarge Photos With Smilla Enlarger (2)
• Youtube Video Search Is A Barebone Youtube Downloader (2)
• Xkcd Comic Wallpaper Changer (2)
• Wireless Networking Software Homedale (13)
• Windows XP: Default Internet Browser Per User Profile (0)

The software program itself has not changed a lot though. The software developer has improved the algorithms in the background but not the user interface. The program displays the three buttons Search, User and Group to the user upon startup. All can be used to download photos from specific Flickr sections.

The first option (Search) performs a Flickr search for either a keyword or tag, the second (user) will display photos uploaded by a specific Flickr user while the third (group) will do the same for a Flickr group.

The photo preview page will display thumbnails of the photos that have been found in the Flickr search. Only five thumbnails will be displayed by default. This figure can be increased to a maximum of 500 thumbnails per page. Copyrighted images are displayed with a huge copyright watermark. These photos will not be downloaded by the program. A Creative Commons checkbox is available to only display photos that have been tagged with it.

Flickr Downloadr will then download all photos (even if the count exceed 100K) that are not copyright protected. The software program works fine and seems to be more reliable in this version.

Related posts

• Flickr Tools: Flickr Downloadr (4)
• Flickr File Synchronization Software (7)
• Backup Flickr Accounts (11)
• Vista Flickr Uploader (5)
• Turn Photo Sequences Into Time-Lapse Movies (42)

Smilla Enlarger is a portable software program for the Windows operating system that can be used to enlarge photos. The results depend on the resolution and quality of the source photo and the resolution increase entered by the user. They do look pretty good on average though making Smillar Enlarger one of the few valid one-click solutions to enlarge photos.

The program basically works the following way. The user loads a photo into the software program. The photo will be displayed automatically on the left side of the interface. A suggested new resolution will be automatically selected and a zoomed in area of the source photo will be displayed on the right side. The target resolution of the enlarged photo can be changed by moving the zoom slider or by entering a value for the width and height manually.

It is possible to change the area that is being used for the preview to ensure that the most important areas of the photo display fine in the new resolution.

The controls at the bottom can be used to fine tune the enlarged photo further to increase the overall quality. The following five controls are available as sliders in the program: Sharpness, Flatness, PreSharpen, Dithering, DeNoise.

A click on the calculate button will start the photo conversion. The enlarged photo will be saved in the source directory by default. Smilla Enlarger (via Essential Freebies) is a great software program for users who want to enlarge some of their photos or images.

Related posts

• Xkcd Comic Wallpaper Changer (2)
• Windows Tabbed Browsing (4)
• Windows Run Aliases (8)
• Windows Management: Super Maximize Windows (9)
• Window Management Software Taekwindow (4)

Unlinker is a Firefox add-on that can display full images on the very same pages the image links or thumbnails have been posted thus eliminating the need to click on the images to view them in full resolution. There are two ways to make the add-on work after installation. It integrates itself in the right-click menu of the Firefox web browser. Users who want to view the full sized images on the active page may therefor right-click on that page and select the Unlinker option from the menu.

The second option is to customize one of the toolbars of the Firefox web browser and drag and drop the Unlinker add-on on one of them to be able to access the functionality with a left-click as well.

Unlinker is available for the Firefox web browser. It can be directly downloaded from the Mozilla Firefox add-on repository.

Related posts

• Firefox Image Navigator (0)
• Youtube It Firefox Add-on (4)
• Youtube Comment Cloud Firefox Add-On (4)
• Web Development: Widerbug For Firefox (8)
• Web Browser: Firefox Save Tabs Add-On (1)

The photo maps that are created with the software program can then be published on the web or stored locally. 93 Photo Street is a Java application that is available for Windows and Macintosh operating systems. Users need to import both maps and photos into the software to create the photo maps. Included in the photo software are US road maps which makes it easier for users from the United States (or those that visited the country) to create photo maps.

The photo map creation process is pretty straightforward. It begins with the import of a map and photos. The map is instantly displayed in the application. Pins can be dragged onto the map which represent locations of importance to the user. Photos can then be added to these locations on the map along with a short description (name) for the location.

93 Photo Street supports posting the finished photo map to Typepad or Moveable Type web blogs or to create a generic file using web templates.

Related posts

• Photo Collage (3)
• VLC Media Player 1.0 Released (9)
• Video Conferencing And Collaboration Software iVisit Presenter (0)
• Turn Photo Sequences Into Time-Lapse Movies (42)
• Stream Music With Subsonic (11)

Guests and registered users can browse the photos at SmugMug in various ways including by keyword and author. Photos are displayed in galleries with no apparent way of downloading them to the local computer system. The right-click is blocked by default. Advanced Internet users know that this is little protection as there are numerous ways of downloading the photos despite this. To mention two: Photos are saved in the web browser’s cache which means it is possible to simply copy them from the cache to another directory. Another option is to look at the source code which contains the direct link to the image hosted at SmugMug.

More comfortable than this is a software program that can download complete albums more or less automatically. One of these applications is Album Fetcher which can be used to download albums as a guest or registered users. All that needs to be done is to enter a user ID as a guest in the application’s interface. The program will then automatically fetch all albums by that user and display them in the interface.

A few options are available for changing the download directory, photo size, enabling video downloads and importing IPTC data. Album Fetcher is easy to use and compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. The developer mentioned that users have reported that it is also working under Wine in Linux and Parallels in Mac OS computers.

Related posts

• Move Photos Between Image Hosting Sites (4)
• Direct Thumbnail To Full Size Photo Link On Flickr (2)
• Put Music in Images Uploaded to Flickr and Picasa Web Albums (7)
• Pixolu Semantic Image Search (0)
• Photo Software: Photology (4)

We have already seen that it is possible to use Gmail as a backup storage space for important files. The GPhotospace application adds another possibility. It makes it possible to create virtual photo albums in Gmail that can be shared with users. Sharing in this context means that the photo albums can be send to individual users which means they are send as an attachment. GPhotospace is provided as a Firefox add-on which offers another functionality. Users who are invited can use the GPhotospace add-on to view the galleries online as well.

Users who do not like to share their Gmail account data with another application might want to consider creating a secondary account just for that purpose. The application can be launched from the Tools menu in Firefox once the add-on has been installed. There is also a standalone desktop application for Windows that does not require the Firefox web browser.

The GPhotospace add-on offers a fool proof way of uploading photos to Gmail with the ability to invite other users to see them. It can also be used as photo backup storage although it might make more sense in this case to send the photos as attachments directly to the Google Mail account.

Related posts

• Firefox WebMail Notifier (10)
• Gmail Account Manager (9)
• TrashMail.net Firefox Add-on (1)
• Tracking Gmail Account Usage (2)
• Synchronize Contacts Between Thunderbird And Gmail (12)

Photos can be added by dragging and dropping them into the program interface or by using the file browser which offers a handy option to add all images located in a folder. Each photo is displayed with its name and size in the interface. The photo editing options are located in the right sidebar and allow a user to resize, convert, watermark or rename the photos that have been added.

Several presets are available in the resizing section that allow the user to resize the photos to match devices like iPods or iPhones but also websites like Twitter or Facebook. It is also possible to select a custom size for the images. The photo conversion supports the most common image formats that include jpg and png among others.

A few photo editing options can be changed in the program’s settings. This ranges from the opacity level of the watermarks to the compression level of the jpg images. Image Tuner (via Neowin) is a handy photo editing software that’s especially useful to batch process photos on the local computer system.

Related posts

• Photo Software: Photology (4)
• Free Photo Editing Tool (6)
• Turn Photo Sequences Into Time-Lapse Movies (42)
• Remove backgrounds from photos using FotoFlexer (2)
• Pictomio Photo Software (2)

Cheese is not one of those applications that is going to make or break your desktop experience. But it certainly will enhance it. You can take standard pictures and even add effects to those pictures And Cheese doesn’t just do pics, it can do videos as well.

Getting and installing

Even though Cheese is a part of the GNOME desktop, it isn’t always installed by default. To install Cheese open up your Add/Remove Software utility, search for “cheese” (no quotes), select the results, and click Apply. To start Cheese look in the Graphics submenu of the Applications menu.

Figure 1

When you fire Cheese up it will instantly start seeing you. Figure 1 shows me stalking a penguin through the eyes of Cheese. You will also see two photos I have already taken of myself.

To snap a photo of yourself place yourself in the position (or goofy face) you want and press the Take A Photo button.

When the photo is snapped it will appear in the lower pane of the application.

Now those photos you have taken have not been saved. You must actually save them before you can use them. To save a photo right click the photo and select “Save As”. By default photos are saved in the ~/Pictures/Webcam directory and can only be saved in .jpg format.

From that same right menu you can choose to send a picture to a removeable device, import the photo into F-Spot, open the photo, or send the photo to the trash. There is one other option “Set as Account Photo”, which is supposed to set a photo to your About me and your login photo. I have yet to get this to work.

Effects

You can even add effects to a photo. You actually add the effects before the photo is taken, and you can add more than one effect  if you like. To add effects click the Effects button to list all of the possible effects.

Figure 2

As you click on an effect it will be highlighted. Click on as many effects as you like, but know that the more effects you add the slower Cheese will get (especially when adding effects like Vertigo and Warp.)

After you select the effects you want click the Effects button again and you will be returned to the normal screen, only now your photo will be “enhanced” by the effects you have chosen.

You can see the right photo of me was with the Vertigo and the Warp effects running.

Countdown

You will notice, in the Cheese main menu, a Countdown entry. If this entry is checked there will be a delay in the photo taking (so you can make yourself as photogenic as possible.) If you would prefer instant results uncheck that entry and photos will be snapped as soon as you hit the Take a Photo button.

Final thoughts

Cheese is not going to make you a more productive worker. In fact, it’s just fun enough that it might make you a less productive worker. But when you need that interface to your trusty webcam, just say “Cheese” and you’ll be ready every time.

Related posts

• Yoggie PICO Personal Mobile Security Computer (3)
• XnView Add-ons and Format Plugins (1)
• With Ubuntu 9.10 Arrives Wubi 9.10 (1)
• Widgets for Linux: SuperKaramba (6)
• Widgets for Linux: gDesklets (3)

This includes a title and description for that folder on Flickr, permission settings (public, private, only friends, only family, friends and family), a matching method (what to do if images already exist on Flickr), order and filters. A click on the View and Sync all button will process all folders that have been selected for synchronization and display new images in a preview window. A click on the sync button in the preview window will start the file synchronization process that transfers the files to Flickr.

It is also possible to right-click a folder and synchronize its contents (and the contents of its subfolder if selected).

FlickrSync can be run automatically from the command line after the first configuration. This process requires no user interaction which makes it a great way to synchronize photos with Flickr on a regular basis, e.g. during system startup or after moving photos from a digital camera to the computer system.

The file synchronization software FlickrSync supports all Flickr image formats. It is compatible with computer systems running Windows XP or later Microsoft operating systems.

Related posts

• Flickr Download (0)
• Vista Flickr Uploader (5)
• Turn Photo Sequences Into Time-Lapse Movies (42)
• SmugMug Album Downloader (2)
• Put Music in Images Uploaded to Flickr and Picasa Web Albums (7)

The script will display a small ORG overlay in the upper left corner of each thumbnail which is the clickable direct link to the full image on Flickr. This does not work on all thumbnails but on most. Not working thumbnails are for example those where the uploaders prohibited direct links.

A click on the ORG overlay will open the image in full size in a new tab in the web browser. Users might want to edit the allowed websites and pages of the userscript to add websites that they visit regularly where Flickr thumbnails get posted. The author of the script did include a handful of sites including Flickr obviously.

Surprisingly though not all Flickr pages are included in the website list. You might want to add an entry like http://*.flickr.com/* to the list of allowed sites to include all pages on Flickr.

Related posts

• x Ways To Manipulate Websites In Firefox (6)
• Two Firefox Add-Ons That Help You Extend The Web Browser (0)
• Spice Up Google Search With Google Fx (4)
• SmugMug Album Downloader (2)
• Pixolu Semantic Image Search (0)

Head on over to BeFunky to try out the great effects they have! From Cartoonizing to the Warholizer you have 9 effects, and some sub-effects in each. They can all be fine tuned in a lot of ways to give you the perfect result. getting photos is alse really easy, you can upload from your hard drive, get from a URL, get one from your webcam, or even from a photo sharing site.

There is also some gentle comedy throughout the site, from the design itself to some effect descriptions “Patriotic: Ask not what your photo can do for you, but what you can do for your photo”. The light-heartedness, the features and the quality of the effects themselves makes this site a worthwhile visit which takes its rightfull place in my bookmark list. Take a look at me at the Atomium in Belgium below, awesome effect!

Related posts

• loc.alize.us: Geotag photos the old way… with Google Maps (0)
• Life Photo Archive Online (3)
• animoto: Create a video presentation (4)
• XnView Add-ons and Format Plugins (1)
• Using Photos To Enhance Video (5)

As of now it is only possible to download photos from one specific user. Only photos that are not licensed with all rights reserved will be downloaded while the rest will be skipped. The Flickr tool only works under Windows Vista or Windows 7. It is on the other hand a small portable application that works great if you regularly download files from the photo hosting website.

The application will display the option to download photos by user, group or everyone with only the user option enabled. The next page will display a simple form that accepts a name as input. It will search Flickr for that username and display the photos as thumbnails on the next page of the software program. There are two additional options that only search the favorites or contacts of a person.

Options are provided on that page to change the number of thumbnails that are displayed at the same time. It is furthermore possible to navigate the photo collection. Copyrighted images are displayed with a C on the thumbnail. A click on the Next button will initiate the download of the photos to the local computer.

We have covered similar tools in the past that provide additional options. Those are Backup Flickr Accounts which is offering to pretty much download anything that is available on Flickr, the Firefox extension Flickr Download which gets rid of the dreaded spaceball.gif image, Flickr Down which also allows to download photos or Flickr AutoDownloadr which offers the same functionality.

Related posts

• Flickr Download (0)
• Flickr Tools Tag Galaxy (3)
• Window Management Software Taekwindow (4)
• Vista Flickr Uploader (5)
• Turn Photo Sequences Into Time-Lapse Movies (42)

I stumbled across loc.alize.us. loc.alize.us is a bookmarklet and website which uses Google Maps for geotagging. It is remarkably simple to use and quite minimalist.

The bookmarklet works through going to one of your photos on Flickr, hitting the bookmarklet, searching for the location using Google Maps, clicking the location and pressing save. Pretty simple, if you ask me! I find this much quicker than Flickr’s service and Google Maps, in my opinion, is much better than Yahoo! Maps.

Their website allows users to explore geotagged photographs, much like the explore option on Flickr’s maps. Once again, the difference is primarily choice. It allows users to use Google Maps, which has much better satellite coverage for example, rather than Yahoo! Maps. Results, naturally, can be refined by user etc.

loc.alize.us allows its maps to be embedded into website. I question the practical uses of this, but it’s still a good idea. I believe Flickr lacks this.

loc.alize.us doesn’t offer anything important that Flickr doesn’t. The key difference is the mapping site it uses; and that’s one big difference!

Related posts

• SmugMug Album Downloader (2)
• Put Music in Images Uploaded to Flickr and Picasa Web Albums (7)
• Pixolu Semantic Image Search (0)
• Move Photos Between Image Hosting Sites (4)
• Life Photo Archive Online (3)

piZap is an online photo editor that offers something more. To be more specific, piZap lets you have fun with images. The flash-based application is ideal for people who love to manipulate their pictures and make them goofy. You can upload a file from your computer or play with one of the demo images on the site.

How do you make pictures funny? piZap allows you to add text via thought bubbles, put in stickers like emoticons or different parts of a face from the available options. You can also add effects to the picture or just paint over whatever you want. The options are endless. Here’s a photo I played around with.

Okay, it’s not great but don’t let my lack of creativity stop you. If you’re happy with how your picture looks, click ‘save’. The site then allows you to download the file, embed it on a website, and lets you post the image directly to most of the social networking sites around like Facebook, Twitter and the like.

One additional advantage to piZap is that you can have your picture printed on products like mouse pads, mugs, posters, tee shirts, calendars, etc. and then purchase them off the site. Of course, if you’d rather have someone else print the photo for you, you’re welcome to do that.

I quite like the site. It offers something different and is totally free. No registration required as well. Plus the site is really easy to use. I’d say the site is definitely worth a visit. How do you like piZap?  Do you find it interesting? Let me know in the comments.

Related posts

• Remove backgrounds from photos using FotoFlexer (2)
• XnView Add-ons and Format Plugins (1)
• Using Photos To Enhance Video (5)
• Use Gmail To Host And Share Photos (4)
• Twins Visions Image Management (2)

The site makes creating a video presentation easily: to create one, all you must do is simply upload some pictures, or import them from a website, upload a song, or choose one from their, and finalise it. The presentation can then be shared or downloaded.

Whilst you may think you can do all of this in a desktop video editor such as Windows Movie Maker, animoto does it much quicker, has good production and analyses the sound and pictures and mixes them together to ensure they flow well. Humans have an input too; deciding the order in which to put the pictures, the ability to add text and ability to put more emphasis on particular images.

Slideshows speak better than words, so view mine of my holiday in Poland in 2007.

Unfortunately, animoto has some limitations.

In order to have higher-definition presentations or to make them last longer than 30 seconds, the user must pay. To remove the time limit, it’s either $3/video or $30/year and to allow them to be at DVD quality, you must pay $5/video. This may sound expensive, but in my opinion it’s worth it if you need to put on a good presentation. Only full-length videos (ie those you’ve paid $3 for) can be downloaded.

An application is also available for iPhones so you can view animoto presentations on them.

animoto allows presentations to be shared straight into most social networking sites like MySpace, Orkut and Facebook and images can be imported from Flickr, Smugmug, Facebook, Photobucket or Picasa.

(Thanks to Azhar Chougle for introducing me to animoto.)

Related posts

• Using Photos To Enhance Video (5)
• Use Gmail To Host And Share Photos (4)
• loc.alize.us: Geotag photos the old way… with Google Maps (0)
• Life Photo Archive Online (3)
• DemoHelper Aids During Presentations (9)

The collection centers around five areas called People (Kennedy, Picasso), Places (Times Square, New York), Events (Vietnam War, Winter Olympics), Sports (baseball, football) or Culture (Railroad, Cowboys). It is possible to enter any search term which is usually good enough to find many images related to the keyword.

A click on an image will display a larger thumbnail and additional information about it including the location or date taken. The very same page contains links to related images and an option to purchase it as a framed photograph. A click on the image will load it in full size in a new window.

Image resolutions range from 800×1280 to 1280×1280. Could be a nice idea for a present or as a background wallpaper for the PC.

Google Image Search can also be used to search the Life Photo Archive exclusively by appending the source:life parameter to the search.

Related posts

• Pixolu Semantic Image Search (0)
• XnView Add-ons and Format Plugins (1)
• Search folders for duplicate images (3)
• Remove backgrounds from photos using FotoFlexer (2)
• Microsoft Photosynth released (3)