ImageNest- Mac Printing Layout Software

ImageNest Discount Coupon:

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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:

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Day One:
On the plane ride to Orlando I read four chapters of Christian Bloch’s HDRI Handbook. It’s a great book if you’re into the math behind the pixels. I also played with my new Garmin eTrex Vista HCx. I’ll do a full blog on how to use this nifty little GPS to GeoTag photographs later. Once in Orlando, I had lunch with Photographer/Designer Kimberly Teichrow from Oregon. She was on her way to attend a hands-on digital wedding photography class, and I was on my way to the Epson Print Academy. We had a nice conversation about photography and design then split off to go to our workshops. With 4,000 Photoshop users in attendance, random meetings with like-minded Photoshop users are common.

My first workshop was the Epson Print Academy held by John Paul Caponigro, Andrew Rodney, and Jeff Schewe. This was a four hour session that dealt with many aspects of modern printing including: color management, soft proofing, CMYK proofing, B&W conversions, color correction, sharpening, drivers, rips, etc. We made Epson 3800 prints on Exhibition Fiber Paper, which has really amazing blacks. Here are some profiles for the paper from PixelGenius . There is an excellent set of resources available on the web for attendees, but the site is password protected, sorry. Much of the information can be found on the instructors respective websites.

My first evening was fairly uneventful and ended up hitting the sack fairly early. This first night was the only real sleep I got on this trip.

Day Two:
The Keynote featured Photoshop Express which is Adobe’s new online image editing application;
Lightroom 2.0 Beta which is available as 30 day trial or an ongoing beta for Lightroom 1.0 users; and a sneak peek at Photoshop CS4′s new features. There are lot’s of nice under the hood improvements and some nice tool additions. The biggest surprise was that Photoshop CS4 will initially ship a 64 bit version for Windows Vista, but not Mac. Luckily, I’m a bleeding edge Vista 64 bit Photoshop User.

My first Wednesday workshop was Photoshop & Dreamweaver Interface Design, by Rafael “RC” Concepcion. RC is pretty slick at Cascading Style Sheets and he gives a nice energetic lecture. I certainly learned a lot about designing websites using Photoshop to get the look, then slicing it all up and putting it back together for the web using CSS in Dreamweaver.

My second Wednesday workshop was Creative Suite Integration, by Taz Tally. This seminar was all about getting preferences synced across all you Creative Suite applications, so you can jump back and forth from Photoshop to Illustrator to InDesign, etc. I especially liked the Create Indesign Contact Sheet. This is a much more sophisticated tool then Photoshop’s Contact Sheets.

The rest of Wednesday was spent cruising the show floor looking at technology and listening in on some of the Tech Expo presentation. I talked to reps and picked up literature from: Epson, ModBooks, FJ Westcott, Hoodman, Kelby Training, Wacom, YouSendit, Visible Dust, Pictobooks , WHCC, and many more.

Wednesday night was spent with the editors and staff at PeachPit, Safari Books Online, and the fine authors who work with them. There was some tech talk, but mostly just good people having a good time. We heard Scott Kelby’s band, Big Electric Cat, play at a blues club. We danced and stayed out all night.

Day Three:
Thursday morning is a blur!

Thursday afternoon I attended Every File Has 10 Channels, by Dan Margulis. Dan is a master of mixing channel information. His Photoshop Lab Color book is an excellent resource. Dan duplicates the file then converts the duplicate to a new color space and copies channel information over to his original file. For example, uses channel mixer to pull the black channel of a CMYK image onto an RGB image. This can be used for correcting tone, contrast, color, and sharpness of specific areas of an image. What he does is absolutely amazing using RAW processing software which can accomplish some of these tricks in a much more intuitive manner.

The second workshop I attended on Thursday was Working Digitally In a CMYK World by Andrew Rodney. Andrew did a nice job of going through the steps of converting files to CMYK, soft proofing CMYK, and making cross rendered CMYK proofs.

Thursday night I had dinner with colleagues from the Washington DC area. We had a fantastic time discussing all of our Photoshop experiences. We also made plans to see Colin Finlay speak in DC on April 8th. Colin is a renowned documentary photographer who travels the world photographing the human condition. He has a two books out: Testify and <
a href=”http://www.amazon.com/Darfur-Twenty-Years-Genocide-Sudan/dp/157687415X/ref=pd_bbs_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207580203&sr=8-3″ target=”_blank”>Darfur.

Day Four:
Friday Morning I saw Digital Panoramics by Stephen Johnson. Stephen covered the history, composition, and tools and techniques of panoramic photography. I think one of the more interesting technologies was Zoomify which is a way to make zoomable images for the web.

This was my fourth Photoshop World Conference & Expo and it’s always an intense experience. The next Photoshop World will be in the fall on the West Coast. The details havn’t been posted yet, so I’ll update this section. I’ll also be at the PhotoPlus Expo conference in NY October 23-25th. I hope to see you at one of these conferences!

I’m using Canons ST-E2 IR controller with a couple of flashes and loving it. Nikon’s solution, the SU-800 has more features. The only problem with these is you need a direct line of sight. There is a radio controller being developed by Raido Popper. I can’t wait to get my hands on one.

The Strobist is a really great blog for all things flash and Joe McNally is one of the absolute best shooters using off camera battery flashes. Joe also has a book new book out titled “The Moment It Clicks.”

Mailwasher is a spam filtering tool that works in a very different way than most. It allows you to view and filter e-mail BEFORE downloading it from the mail server. I don’t want to download spam, virus attachments, and garbage to my local machine. It’s especially useful on a slow connection, like my At&t mobile card. There is a free version and a “Pro” version for $37. I find Mailwasher to be very simple and powerful; a must have weapon in the battle against spam.

Password Plus ($30) by DataViz is a is a database to keep passwords and account numbers organized and protected. It’s one of the simplest programs imaginable, but it’s so useful. The information is encrypted and can be exported in a as a comma delimited file for import into other programs like Excel. Password Plus also comes in a version for the Palm OS if you need to take all those logins with you.

I’ve used both of these programs for many years. Trust me you can’t go wrong with Mailwasher and Password Plus.

My computers are set up with a keyboard, a mouse, a tablet, and a NuLOOQ. This may seem excessive, but it saves me time every day and protects my health.

I’ve come to rely on the NulOOQ Design Controller as an essential part of Photoshop. My left hand comfortably controls zooming, scrolling, and seven other functions from the controller. I have set this USB device to control specific functions for different applications. It’s set up for Navigation, Selection, and History functions in Photoshop. I have custom settings for other applications, like Browsers, Word Processors, E-mail, etc.
Side Note: Mozilla Firefox has an add-on called Mouse Gestures which gives you functions at the flick of a mouse.

I’m a big fan of Wacom tablets for retouching, but I still like a mouse when I’m writing text and code. It’s hard to type with a stylist in my hand, so I have to keep putting it down and picking it up. I like the Logitech G5, MX518, and G9 corded laser mice( in that order). I don’t like the cordless models because they aren’t as responsive or well balanced due to the weight of the batteries. They also need to be put on the charger base periodically, and if you forget, you have no mouse at all. The high end Logitech mice have a weight tuning system and super slick Polytetrafluoroethylene feet.

The super slick mouse feet don’t do you much good without a precision mouse pad. The surface I like is called Archetype Surface 1030 by Func Industries(a George Clinton company). A similar surface is used by several manufacturers of gaming mouse pads including Razer. The right combination of mouse and pad will zoom across a 30 inch display and stop on a pixel.

Wacom Intuos 3 tablets are a must for retouching. Photoshop Diva Katrin Eisman says, ”You can’t paint with soap on a rope!”, and she’s right. We have all been trained from an early age to use utensils like pencils and brushes. A mouse is a completely unnatural drawing device. Just try to write your name with a mouse and you’ll get something that looks like a doctor’s prescription. I have tablets in four different sizes, but the 6”X11” is my favorite even though it’s the smallest one. The 6×11 aspect ratio is the same as a widescreen display and the distance from one side of the tablet to the other is manageable. Wacom also has the Cintiq line of interactive pen displays. I’ve tried them out but haven’t felt compelled to buy one because the upright positioning is tough to get use to. They have a new model, the Cintiq 12WX that solves the positioning problem and looks just right.

For those of us who forget Photoshop keyboard shortcuts or just want to learn some new ones, there is the Logickeyboard. They are available with keyboard shortcuts on the keys for a number of different applications. I use the Adobe Photoshop Multimedia USB keyboard.

When it comes to computers: “Sh*! IN equals Sh*! OUT”, so make sure your input devices are the best you can get. Ultimately you save time, money, and most importantly your health.