Image Nest 3.0 Interview with Joshua Lubbers

Mike: Hi, I’m Michael Stewart with foto-tech.com. I’m here at studio 76 in Herndon Virginia with Joshua Lubbers. Joshua has come to our photography studio to show us the newest version of Image Nest. It’s a Mac multi-image layout tool. The software is Image Nest 3.0 and it’s designed to do exactly that; nest multiple images in one layout. The program is a simple to use postscript rip that’s focused on layout for print. It is also designed to reducing paper usage. Layouts can also be saved as PDFs. Image Nest works on all printers because it utilizes the printer’s driver for output. There are five different versions of Image Nest: Desktop for 13” and smaller prints, small for 17” printers, medium for 24”printers, large and extra-large for 44” and 64” printers. Joshua is generously offering a 10% discount if you use the link from foto-tech. To take advantage of the 10% discount, use the link at foto-tech.

Joshua thanks for coming into the studio to show us Image Nest 3.0. How are you doing with Image Nest 3.0?

Josh: We are doing great Mike, you know; all the features in 3.0 are things that were specifically asked for by our user base. We are pretty dedicated to try to invite and to come up with new features and keep our people happy. The best thing about 3.0 is that it’s a free update. All of our updates are free: You won’t get that promise from a lot of developers.

Mike: You guys are really pumping out the new features and updates, so your free upgrades policy is amazing. Can you tell us why we would use Image Nest for layout instead of Photoshop or Lightroom?

Josh: Well; what Image Nest really does that is unique and different from Photoshop or Light Room or anything that is traditionally a photo editor is that it opens up to a page layout, rather than just your images; so it’s very easy and very quick to put lots of images on a page. You can size them, you can move them around, you can snap them to grid, anything you need to make a good layout,  to use all of the paper that you have, is what Image Nest is for.

Mike: I almost never print out of Photoshop because layout and workflow is so slow, but I do print out of Lightroom on my Windows machines. Lightroom’s a great tool, but all the images you want to print have to be in the same catalog and it’s missing some key features that Image Nest has. On my Mac I use Lightroom to edit but I make most of my prints using Image Nest. Image Nest saves me a lot of paper. I have more options, better softproofing and it’s a faster workflow. One major concern for me with printing from Lightroom is that in proofing files that will be delivered to a client or uploaded, I don’t want to see edits that are only in the Lightroom database and not the actual file. I also like the way Image Nest allows me to add text. Can you talk about the text features in Image Nest?

Josh: Sure, one of the things our costumers told us in version one and two is that they would really like to be able to put in a custom comment, or a file name, or the date it was made or the date it was printed. All these different things are already inside your file, so we can place them above your image, below your image, to the left or to the right. You can choose a font, you can choose a color, you can choose a background, so your creative process and what you want to do, we give you the flexibility to do.

Mike: Those caption and border options are really useful. Tell us about the color management in Image Nest.

Josh: Well, fortunately I came from a color management background before we even started programing. We took care of the color management a user consideration would need. First of all with photographers we recognize embedded profiles so if you‘ve embedded a profile in your image we recognize and use it. We also allow users to select their output profile so that they can soft proof on their screen, so they’re seeing exactly what will come out of their printer on their screen.

Mike: How do you handle multiple files with different color profiles? For example, if I want to print a S-RGB JPEG on the same page as a DNG file and a CMYK TIFF.

Josh: That’s a great question, if we have different profiles we can respect all of the profiles. Since we are independent of an input space we can map your file with Adobe 1998 to your output profile or to your CMYK SWoP v2 profile, it doesn’t matter, we can map each as individual images and they will be mapped to your output profile.

Mike: Right on, I’ve found the ability to print DNG files very useful. Most of my image archives are DNGs and Image Nest utilizes the corrected full size JPEG to make my print.

Mike: let’s look at the new features in 3.0 that we’ve been playing with today. What have you done to Image Nest for the 3.0 release?

Josh: One of the first things we’ve done is the application color management; you can color manage in your application, just like Photoshop or Light Room or aperture or any of those other image programs. So that makes it easier to do soft proofing and to get that wysiwyg feeling, what you see is what you get.

Mike: Actually, I think your color management background has helped you here. Your softproofing is easier than Photoshop and Lightroom really doesn’t softproof at all. What else have you added?

Josh: Another thing:  we have a 64bit, we were programed natively as a 64 bit program, but the problem we ran into was that so many print drivers would not work with 64 bit programs. Now that Mac 10.6 has gotten popular all the drives have been updated to 64 bit. We’re running in our native mode, which is 64 bit. Much faster, much more memory and much cleaner.

Mike: Big time speed improvement with the 64 bit processing and Image Nest uses the computers GPU as well. Modern graphics cards have lots of cores and can process images much faster than CPUs. Your programmers have really done a nice job on those graphics processors. What else is new?

Josh: New layout modes: we have a manual method; previously we automatically did everything to fit and we still do that does all your rotation, all your moving around the image on the page to squeeze every millimeter out of that piece of paper, but lots of people wanted to make just kind of collages and wanted to leave extra space and our algorithm was trying to maximize space and they didn’t want that, so we put manual mode, which allows people to move images around manually to their liking.

Um rotation, prior we automatically rotated everything and we didn’t need a rotation feature. But now that we have a manual mode we allow the user to rotate for aesthetics.

Mike: The manual layout mode is definitely the biggest new feature in my opinion. Sometimes I need to optimize my layout to save paper and Image Nest does this automatically but sometimes I want to move the images around manually until they look good. What are the other new layout features?

Josh: Image alignment grid with snap to feature. That’s a great new feature where you can custom make your own grid with vertical and horizontal. Images will align to it so it makes moving images around very easy and very very accurate.

We added in cut, copy and paste. Kind of a simple thing that was missing. Lots of users just wanted to use apple C V; put another copy of the image.

Another thing we did was overlapping. If someone wants to really to squeeze every millimeter out of it, and doesn’t mind clipping a little bit, you can place an image above or behind another image, so there is virtually no white space when using image overlapping.

New cut mark styles:  We added in new cut marks due to user requests. Some users wanted outward facing cut marks, so we added outward facing marks to align with their current cutters.

Mike: Obviously Image Nest 3.0 was a huge release for you guys. What are your developers working on now?

Josh: Well one of the things we’re working on now and expect to have out in the next two months is the ability for people to take a layout and write it out to a JPEG or a TIFF. Lots of users have asked for this because they would like to use Image Nest to do layout and then produce a JPEG or TIFF and to send to their photo lab.

Mike: It would be convenient to be able to save JPEGs and TIFFs. I save my Image Nest layouts as PDFs and convert them later if necessary. I also found I could use the PDF layouts as Web pages.

Thanks for sharing with us and thank you for giving our viewers a 10% discount on your products. Until next time, may all your prints be beautiful and bring you much joy. This is Michael Stewart for foto-tech.com.

ImageNest- Mac Printing Layout Software

ImageNest Discount Coupon:

Use this link and coupon code:
ImageNest discount 10dis

ImageNest is a software Rip for Mac printing that does printing layout and a number of other picture layout tricks very well.  ImageNest works on all printers with Mac drivers : Epson, HP, Canon, etc.  We reviewed  the first version of BlueCubit’s ImageNest here.  There  are so many new printer layout features in ImageNest 2.0, that the new printing layout features deserve  a  review.  I think this is the perfect  iPhoto printing utility.  Apple’s iPhoto printing leaves a lot to be desired, and Bluecubit gives iPhoto users the image layout tools they need for picture printing.

Product manager, Joshua Lubbers has graciously offered to give a 10% discount on all of Bluecubit’s Mac Image Layout Printing  software.

Use this link and code: ImageNest Discount Coupon Code: 10dis

ImageNest 2.0 Top 5 New Features

DNG Printing- ImageNest can easily print outstanding contact sheets from all the major file types, but it really shines for DNG printing of contact sheets.  DNG files have an adjusted JPEG file imbedded in them along with the RAW date and XMP data.  When you make edits to the RAW image in an editor such as Adobe’s Lightroom and push those edits into the DNG file, the adjustments are saved as XMP Data and A JPEG is created.  ImagNest is one of the only ways to access and print that adjusted DNG Jpeg preview.

Metedata Annotations- If your contact  sheet printing, then you likely need to print text, file numbers, names, dates, location or other metedata.  A contact sheet isn’t of much use without the information you need to access the file you or your client want to use. ImageNest allows you to print metedata on all four sides of each image in the printing layout.   Printing text metedata  in the layout is a major power feature that is useful in so many ways.

PDF Creations- Layouts aren’t just for printing, they can be saved as PDF files.  This is an absolutely killer feature of ImageNest. After spending some time creating a wonderful layout of your pictures, you can save it as a PDF.  Contact sheets with file numbers and metedata annotations can be emailed for review.  Because the layout or contact sheet is in a PDF, viewers with Adobe acrobat can put notes about the files they like on the PDF and return it to the photographer.

Image Borders (Frames)- Image frames allow you to layout pictures with borders.  The picture borders can be different  colors and widths.  Image frames are a simple way of really dressing up a print layout.  I regularly use them when  on black and white image layouts.

Soft Proofing- This is a professional  printing feature that armatures could use as well.  It’s designed to help professional photographers who need to soft proof for CMYK printers, but it’s also useful for proofing machine prints.  If your having prints made on a Fuji Frontier or Noritsu machine printer like Costo & SmugMug uses, then you need a way to check color and density before you send the SRGB  files.  The profiles for these printers are available through drycreekphoto as well as most major print vendors.  Imagenest can be used to layout images for these services too.

Those are the five major new features of ImageNest 2.0.  Version 2.0 also has a much improved interface with many improvements under the hood.    64 Bit processing is enabled, but many Mac printer drivers are not running 64Bit yet.  ImageNest is committed to speed and will likely be using CUDA multicore GPU Image processing in their next major release.

This is defiantly the simplest picture layout RIP on the market.  It’s a simple to use  Mac printing layout utility that really doesn’t have a competitor.  under the hood  ImageNest comes in a number of versions based on the size of the layout or printer.

17 Inch $199
24 Inch $399
44 Inch $599
Wide Format $799

Use this link and code for a 10% ImageNest discount:

ImageNest Discount Coupon Code: 10dis

I’ve been working out some theories on the most practical way to upgrade technology. Cameras, computer hardware, and software technology move at an alarming rate. The question is: when does it make financial and practical sense to upgrade? There are considerations of implementation and cost involved. Here I will outline these considerations and my theories and strategies.
Moore’s Law describes a long-term trend in computer hardware where capacity of circuitry doubles every 24 months. These same principles can be applied to almost all technologies, though the timing is different for every technology and situation. Technology upgrade theory is all about cost, implementation, and gain. Developing a good strategy is dependent on the nature of the technology and that must be studied carefully.

Know the Technology and know the habits and schedules of the manufacturers of that technology.
Example #1 Adobe is on an 18Month upgrade cycle: they allow you to skip versions and still get upgrade pricing: and their upgrades are usually major.
Example #2 Nikon usually upgrades the flagship models six-nine months before the top prosumer models. The top of the line prosumer cameras usually have many of the desirable features of the Flagship model at 40% of the price. Nikon is notoriously slow in getting their announced cameras to market.
FYI: Nikon is making a major comeback; the D3X with the 14-24, WOW.
Example #3 Intel Processors are updated very often. The updates usually amount to only small gains (6-15%), but sometimes there is a major leap in the technology. These leaps usually require a new Motherboard with a new chipset. We are currently seeing a technology leap in processors that has captured my attention (probably ancient history by the time you read this). The Intel i7 processors and the X58 chipsets that are currently available on Windows will be coming to a Mac near you soon.

If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It This is very true if it does not interrupt a progression of upgrades, workflow, or resale.
Example #1: The new version of the software doesn’t help me, but the companies upgrade path requires progressive upgrades. It will save me money in the end to upgrade rather than buy a complete license in 18Months.
Example #2 I need to learn how to use this because I’ll need it eventually and I won’t have time to learn it on the spot.
Example #3 Mac computers hold their value through one upgrade cycle, but the resale value takes a huge drop after that. People remember the most recent model info, but have short memories and aren’t willing to pay much after that. An Apple employee taught me this principle of Apple hardware.
Example #4 I’m still running XP on a portable workstation. This is an 11 pound laptop with three hard drives. I tether it to a Canon 1DS Mark III or a Canon 5D on location using Adobe Lightroom. There were software and driver issues with Vista at the time I implemented this mobile workstation. Vista 64Bit could now be installed on this machine, but it works extremely well in its current configuration, so I’m not touching it. Actually, it’s one of the zippiest computers I own, which really helps on location. Also, XP is a solid and mature OS.

Skip a Version, and Keep On Working The time and money required to make an upgrade can be significant. Most of the time, it makes sense to skip a version and keep on working. The exception is for vital technology and major upgrades.
Example #1 I love my Canon G9 compact camera, but it’s not a primary business tool. The newer Canon G10 looks great, but I don’t need it, and the G11 will come out soon enough. Never forget that the pictures don’t wait for you! If you have pictures you want to make with a new technology, don’t hesitate, get it done. The pictures never wait!

The Bleeding Edge I live on the BLEEDING EDGE, because that’s how I roll, but I DO NOT RECOMMEND IT!
Example #1 I built an XP 64 Bit workstation; this workstation costed $12, 000 USD: it has 3 Raid 0 arrays, 18 hard drives, SAS raids, and a custom cooling system. I’m the only guy who can run this monstrosity. It did run like a bat out of hell for its day, but the technology has passed by this bleeding edge masterpiece and now a computer of its specs would only cost around $6000 USD. Note that this bleeding edge machine is not yet three years old. Moore’s Law is totally true here.
Example # 2 My first GPS managed to get me across the river from my destination. It also took me to a Wal-Mart distributor instead of a store and often took me many miles out of the way.

Second Best is Usually Fine In many cases the top of the line comes at a 25-33% premium. This sounds like a pittance to pay, but if you can upgrade more often, you will leapfrog those gains. Sometimes top of the line gear holds its resale better, but this rarely makes up for the investment.
Example #1 Top of the line processors like the extreme line of Intel processors are often 40% more expensive, but the next to best processor is only 6% less efficient when properly over-clocked. The next generation of processors will cost you another 30% if you properly re-market the second best processor you purchased and the performance gain might be 20%. An upgrading process to one of these machines might include buying a processor every 18-36 more, and selling the old on Craigslist or eBay.
Example #2 The top of the line pro versions of digital cameras come at a huge premium. The Canon 1ds Mark III is $7,000 while the Canon 5D Mark II is $2,700. There are some different features, but $4300 is a lot to pay for them.

Disposing of outdated technology is a thankless chore. I always seem to have a bunch of old cell phones, memory cards, and cables around. I don’t want to throw the stuff away, but it’s tricky find a home for outdated technology. I take most of my equipment that still has value to an eBay dealer. He takes 20%, but does a nice job of marketing and shipping the stuff.

Unfortunately, there is no simple answer to upgrading technology. I can only suggest that you make educated decisions; set guidelines for upgrades until enticing new models show up; and above all else know the technology. All the information you need is available on the web today. I’m sure that’s how you found me!

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This image is being shared from a SmugMug link. It isn’t really here on the blog, it’s on a SmugMug server and I’ve added a link to it. It’s possible to store all your images on SmugMug and connect to them easily from just about anywhere on the web.

I was able to easily include my own header as you see in the gallery above. I’ve only started to play with SmugMug’s customize functions. I’ve seen some really nice customized galleries done by other users. The customize dialogs allow you to add html/javascript code in a way that makes the entire gallery completely editable. Below is a screen-shot of the Cascading Style Sheet window. There are other code windows for Header, footer, etc.

SmugMug is a great family run business, their founders Chris (left) and Don (right) MacAskill are shown in their Sorcerer makeup. They call their Customer support staff Heroes and their programmers Sorcerers. You can read all about them in this LA Times Article.

The Google search box shown below is an example of some nice sorcery. The Sorcerers have included good search engine positioning and the ability to search SmugMug directly from Google.

Here are some of the key features for me and how I use them:
1. Easy uploads: There are six ways to upload including a Lightroom plugin.
2. Galleries can have three levels of security and you can set it so your viewers can download the file or buy a download. Smugmug isn’t quite setup for stock sales, but it would be a simple step for them. I plan on contacting them about some consulting on how they can make these changes. I would love to be able to license stock image usage from their system.
3. Customizable galleries that really look nice and are simple to modify.
4. User defined pricing with markup: Pros can sell prints and make a profit. You can upload low res and replace it with high res when someone orders a print. SmugMug uses EZprints for print and product fulfillment. EZprints is a reputable company that provides ICC profiles and calibration prints.

SmugMug is full of photography technology that’s extremely useful and very well done. I highly recommend the service for pro and amateur photographers alike.