• GDI+ added for anti-aliased text (Windows).
• Fixed crash on secondary slideshow when photos are added/deleted.
• Fixed crash when a folder is selected for your slideshow, then reselected, then canceled.
• Fixed a bug keeping slideshows from updating with the latest images (Windows).
• Preference Window options have been rearranged, streamlined.

This is in addition to the enhancements introduced in Beta version 0.7.2:

• Preview window for an operator's view of all slideshows running.
• Create and save presets.
• Display file names, with or without file suffix on your displayed photos.
• Add Drop shadows to your photos.
• Add custom backgrounds to your slides.
• Control your thumbnail size and amount of photos to be displayed at one time.
• Slideshow dynamically updates with addition/removal of photos to source folder.
• New Photos are shown (1-Up) immediately when added to source folder.

SplashCase is a great companion to PrintRipper™, allowing you to shoot and display photos instantly while PrintRipper automates the finished output of your photos.

The SplashCase Beta Discussion can be found on the GoProPhoto.eu website. SplashCase Beta can be found at the SplashCase download page.

]]> Photography Software Event Photography Software Photography Display Wed, 01 Sep 2010 10:30:00 EST http://www.allenchristopher.com/news/printripper-in-action-pianopiano.html Jeff Clark, manager of PianoPiano in Claremont, CA, has his hands full on a daily basis. PianoPiano is a unique twist on a music-plus-bar establishment and you can feel the electricity of the atmosphere leap from the photos on their website.

Jeff recognized the opportunity to provide photos of their events and after doing a little research, chose PrintRipper to help him automate his photo processing.

"I'm not big on buying software.  I rarely do it, I can usually find a work around using free software with either a command line interface, or a lackluster GUI interface," Jeff commented when asked about his decision on purchasing PrintRipper.

"I've found that the algorithm you use to lay the PNG over the photo, is extremely high quality compared to that free software," said Jeff, " and that makes it worth while for a high quality watermark for nightly posting to Facebook, etc."

We're thrilled to have Jeff as a customer and impressed with his application of PrintRipper in PianoPiano's photo operations. If you find yourself in the Claremont,CA area, stop in and experience PianoPiano for yourself. Be sure to raise your glass and smile for the camera!

With a vast set of features, PrintRipper can surely help automate your photo operations too. Download your free trial today!

PrintRipper™ automates the process of chroma key, event borders, watermarking, color effects and adjustment, printing, and saving image files. This allows photographers to do what they do best–Take more pictures.

With PrintRipper™ , you can assign a variety of image manipulation options to individual process folders (hot-folders/drop-folders). The process is on-demand and completely automated It can be set for print output, digital output, or both. PrintRipper™ allows the event photographer to process all photos, or just the ones they want.

PrintRipper™ Features

Automated Image Manipulation

• Chroma Key (green screen).
• Crop and print photos to any size.
• Watermark your photos and Saved Composites.
• Add event borders to your photos.
• Adjust photo color, brightness, contrast, and saturation.
• Use color effects making photos Black and White, Sepia, and Duotones
• Add white frame to photo.

Automated Processing

• You have the option of approving or rejecting photos for processing (Manual feature).
• Process is hot folder triggered. Create as many hot folders as needed.
• Archives original photo (edited version does not affect original photo).
• Instead of printing photos – you can save digital composites of your photos for web, CD, or memory card distribution.
• Add File Names to Prints (with or without file suffix).
• Append file names with your own tags.
• Keep track of photos processed with the built-in counter.
• Run multiple processes simultaneously.
• Track errors (corrupt photos) without interrupting running processes.

• Mac OS X 10.4 or later (Intel/PPC)
• Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7, 32 or 64 bit versions
• 500MHz or faster processor 512MB of RAM (1GB recommended)
• 70MB of available disk space

PrintRipper™ is the ultimate on-demand photo finishing tool that no event photographer should be without.

PrintRipper™ is available immediately for download and purchase at the Allen Christopher, Inc. website for $139.99 USD.

Come join us. Our goal is to provide you with the tools needed to allow you to concentrate on what you do best—take pictures.

About Allen Christopher, Inc.
Allen Christopher brings over a decade of experience of programming and technical to the Event Photography Industry. With its cross-platform release of PrintRipper™, Allen Christopher has set the stage for an aggressive release schedule to round out a full suite of tools for the event photographer.

Press Contact:

Christopher Rosado
Allen Christopher, Inc.
Info(at)AllenChristopher(dot)com

Screen Shots:
Mac/Windows

Pad Files:
Mac/Windows

Print-Ready/Web-Ready PrintRipper™ Logos

Press Release (RTF Format)

###

"Some of our clients have discovered that PrintRipper serves as a great engine for photo booth-type setups.
We have the ability to really streamline the setup process and create a polished product for these customers that tailors directly to their needs," said Christopher Rosado, developer and owner of Allen Christopher Software.

• Touch Screen integration
• Additional monitor support for slideshow display of photos
• Custom layout builder

In the fashion of Allen Christopher's PrintRipper and SplashCase, this Photo Booth Software will be available for Macintosh and Windows compatible systems. Additional details will be released as they become available.

• Preview window for an operator's view of all slideshows running.
• Create and save presets.
• Display file names, with or without file suffix on your displayed photos.
• Add Drop shadows to your photos.
• Add custom backgrounds to your slides.
• Control your thumbnail size and amount of photos to be displayed at one time.
• Slideshow dynamically updates with addition/removal of photos to source folder.
• New Photos are shown (1-Up) immediately when added to source folder. SplashCase is a great companion to PrintRipper™, allowing you to shoot and display photos instantly while PrintRipper automates the finished output of your photos.

  The SplashCase Beta Discussion can be found on the GoProPhoto.eu website. SplashCase Beta can be found at the SplashCase download page.

  ]]> Software Event Photography Software Photography Fri, 20 Aug 2010 11:30:00 EST http://www.allenchristopher.com/news/event_photography_customer_service.html Over the past year, I've managed to get out of the office a little more than usual. Most of my excursions have to do with my daughter's activities. Still, it's a chance for sunlight to hit my skin.

  I've become somewhat of a character in a Stephen King novel in the sense that I hide away in my home office most of the day, only to escape and run my daughter to her next activity. As I sit and watch my daughter's gymnastics workout, another parent usually introduces themselves to me. It doesn't take long to get to "that" question: "So what is it you do?"

  More often than not, I will tell them that I am a programmer or that I "make software". Most don't understand what Event Photography is let alone the need for Event Photography software for the industry. They usually explain to me what it is that they do and then the conversation shifts to another topic. If you've read this far, then you should know that I haven't been honest with these people, at least, not completely honest.

  Allen Christopher obviously develops Event Photography Software, but I would bet that our customers would agree that we deliver stellar customer service. We look at ourselves as a service company that makes software, meaning that we give equal attention to the relationship we have with our customers as we do to developing the software itself.
  We begin our definition of "customer service" from the care and effort we put into each page on our site, the handling of questions from potential customers and long-time customers alike, to the refactoring of our code in our applications. In essence, the idea of great customer service defines every aspect of what we do.

  Some Guidelines to Great Customer Service

  Create Multiple Avenues of Contact
  There are so many ways to stay in touch with your base. We leverage as many services as we can: Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Skype, and Email accounts. While we do take phone calls, we tend to reserve them for:

  • Paid Service Accounts.
  • Urgent issues.

  In most cases, it is far easier and efficient to communicate through other channels. More often than not, we find that phone support slows down the process for us as well as for the customer. There are some that insist on a phone call and we do not object, but rather schedule a call and limit the time frame for each call.

  Listen Carefully
  We get a lot of email and sometimes it is difficult to "read between the lines". Some will attempt to convey an idea but their true want or need may be something entirely different. Some make feature requests that are great, others that would serve but a single customer. In every case, we do our best to stand in the shoes of the customer. If you learn to do this well, opportunities will seem to come in every direction.

  Have Patience
  Even though we tend to come off as easy-going and approachable, we are pretty hard-core techies here at Allen Christopher. When your understanding of a subject surpasses the average level of comprehension, you need to be aware of this when communicating with others. Our customers do not need to be expert Mac or Windows users nor do they need to understand our chroma key algorithm, but are the very same people who will come across a bug in our apps or contact us for technical assistance. Having patience with people and listening can sometimes be difficult when you have to start from square-one. Just remember: you're the expert, that's why they're calling you.

  Be Sincere
  I recall a phone conversation with a customer who had asked me a question about our software that I couldn't answer, because I hadn't contemplated the scenario he had on-hand. My response was: "I don't know off-hand, but will find out." After our conversation was finished, I researched the question a little further and emailed him the answer. Simple, right?

  Our belief in what we do at Allen Christopher drives us. When we say, "Our software is great" or "it's a pleasure to assist", we sincerely mean what we say. We want to help our customers achieve great results with our event photography software and we certainly want them to prosper.

  Take a genuine interest in your customer's needs. In a world of products and less-than-adequate customer service, there is an opportunity to tower above your competition.

  So ask yourself: how can you provide stellar service to your client base?]]> Customer Service Event Photography Software Event Photo Service Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:00:00 EST http://www.allenchristopher.com/news/converting-darkroom-event-photo-borders-for-printripper.html Many of you have written to us asking if PrintRipper is compatible with Darkroom Borders. The short answer? No. But wait- that doesn't mean that you can't convert these borders to use with PrintRipper with minimal effort!

  Darkroom Border Files: What is this stuff??

  When you look at your Darkroom borders folder, you'll see several types of files:

  

  1. .CRD ("Card" files)- This is a text file that contains the "vitals" of your border layout. Opening this file with a text editor will reveal information like this:

     DESCRIPTION: <Patriotic 7 x 5 horizontal 2005>
     CARDTYPE: Simple BEGIN_SUPERBORDER BEGIN_HEADER
     WIDTH: 2100
     HEIGHT: 1500
     INITCOLOR: 128,128,128
     DPI: 300
     FLAGS: MIDDLE | CENTER | STRETCH_PROP_FILL
     
     PrintRipper has no use for this file and you need not concern yourself with it beyond understanding what it is.

  2. .JPG- These files are image files, used for larger thumbnail views. Like .CRD files, PrintRipper has no use for these files.

  3. .EDP- These files appear to be smaller thumbnail files used to display photo position and count. Again, we don't need this file either.
     
     
  4. .DFV- This file stores any text information that you may have used. As you may have guessed, this is also not needed for use with PrintRipper.
     
     
  5. .TGA- This is a Targa file. This is the file we want! It is your border along with the alpha (transparency) information needed to composite your photos with a border. Also note its file size, compared to the other files...

  
  Now that you know which file is your border image, all we need to do is convert it to a usable format for PrintRipper. You can use any image application you wish, provided that it can open .TGA files and save to .PNG format.
  ]]> Event Photography Networking Event Photography Event Photo Display Tue, 06 Jul 2010 11:00:00 EST http://www.allenchristopher.com/news/event_photography_networking_through_opportunity.html How many times have you been asked by a stranger to take a picture for them when at an event, during the holidays sightseeing, or on vacation?
  Yes, it's nice of you to take a picture of them with their camera, but why not use your own too? If you're a hard-core event photographer, you already see where this is going...

  Before you leave your family at the kettle corn stand to seek out people to photograph, take a step back and simply be aware of your surroundings. <more...>]]> Event Photography Networking Event Photography Event Photo Display Sat, 03 Jul 2010 12:00:00 EST http://www.allenchristopher.com/news/goprophoto-enlists-users-to-assist-splashcase-development.html GoProPhoto.eu has made the call out to its users to assist Allen Christopher Software in the beta cycle of their upcoming title, SplashCase.
  SplashCase can be downloaded at the SplashCase download page.]]> Event Photography Software Event Photography Event Photo Display Thu, 01 Jul 2010 03:00:00 EST http://www.allenchristopher.com/download-splashcase.php

  SplashCase is an Event Photo Display Application that displays your photos as you shoot. Download SplashCase™ and visit the SplashCase Support Forum for more information.

  ]]> Event Photography Software Event Photography Event Photo Display Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:30:00 EST http://www.allenchristopher.com/news/creating-event-photo-borders-for-printripper.html Using borders in Event Photography can increase your sales, bolster your bottom line.
  Borders can create a memorable experience by adding a venue logo, theme, or date to your photographs.
  In this tutorial, we cover the basics of readying your borders for PrintRipper.
  < More... >]]> Event Photography Tips Event Photography Event Photo Software Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:30:00 EST Mon, 22 Mar 2010 11:00:00 EST PrintRipper 1.2.4 Fixes intermittent print issues and stability issues when used with Adobe Lightroom. http://www.allenchristopher.com/downloads.html Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:00:00 EST PrintRipper 1.2.3 addresses several stability issues intruduced by a "quiet" 1.2.2 release. This release offers an improved processing and speed. http://www.allenchristopher.com/downloads.html Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:00:00 EST PrintRipper 1.2.1 addresses an orientation issue where some photos from select cameras would not show proper orientation for portrait shots. http://www.allenchristopher.com/http://www.allenchristopher.com/printripper.html Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST WARWICK, New York—February 9th, 2010–Allen Christopher today announced the cross-platform release of PrintRipper™ 1.2 , the automated on-demand photo-finishing tool for Event Photographers.

  With over one-dozen major improvements, PrintRipper™ automates the process of chroma key, event borders, watermarking, color effects and adjustment, printing, and saving image files. This allows photographers to do what they do best–Take more pictures.

  With PrintRipper™ , you can assign a variety of image manipulation options to individual process folders (hot-folders/drop-folders). The process is on-demand and completely automated It can be set for print output, digital output, or both. PrintRipper™ allows the event photographer to process all photos, or just the ones they want.

  PrintRipper™ Features

  Automated Image Manipulation

  • Chroma Key (green screen).
  • Crop and print photos to any size.
  • Watermark your photos.
  • Add event borders to your photos.
  • Adjust photo color, brightness, contrast, and saturation.
  • Use color effects making photos Black and White, Sepia, and Duotones
  • Add white frame to photo.

  Automated Processing

  • You have the option of approving or rejecting photos for processing (Manual feature).
  • You have the option of approving or rejecting photos for processing (Manual feature).
  • Process is hot folder triggered. Create as many hot folders as needed.
  • Archives original photo (edited version does not affect original photo).
  • Instead of printing photos – you can save digital composites of your photos for web, CD, or memory card distribution.
  • Keep track of photos processed with the built-in counter.
  • Run multiple processes simultaneously.
  • Track errors (corrupt photos) without interrupting running processes.

   

  System requirements:
  • Mac OS X 10.4 or later (Intel/PPC)
  • Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7, 32 or 64 bit versions
  • 500MHz or faster processor 512MB of RAM (1GB recommended)
  • 70MB of available disk space

  PrintRipper™ is the ultimate on-demand photo finishing tool that no event photographer should be without.
  
  PrintRipper™ is available immediately for download and purchase at the Allen Christopher, Inc. website for $139.99 USD.

  Come join us. Our goal is to provide you with the tools needed to allow you to concentrate on what you do best—take pictures.

  About Allen Christopher, Inc.
  Allen Christopher brings over a decade of experience of programming and technical to the Event Photography Industry. With its cross-platform release of PrintRipper™, Allen Christopher has set the stage for an aggressive release schedule to round out a full suite of tools for the event photographer.

  Press Contact:

  Christopher Rosado
  Allen Christopher, Inc.
  Info(at)AllenChristopher(dot)com

  Screen Shots:
  Mac/Windows

  Pad Files:
  Mac/Windows

  Print-Ready/Web-Ready PrintRipper™ Logos

  Press Release (RTF Format)

  ###

  ]]> http://www.allenchristopher.com/printripperpress.html Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST Using PrintRipper™: Helpful Tips and Tricks

  Part I
  by Christopher Rosado
  Developer, Allen Christopher Software

  

  Developing software can be a funny thing, the fact that some potential users don't see the power you've given them straight-away. PrintRipper™ is a perfect example of this, especially since it has a lot of flexibility and quite a few facets in its simplistic layout. When we decided to build PrintRipper™, we carefully designed and laid out features that our customers were likely to use. Actually, we use PrintRipper™ for much of the photo automation we do for personal and holiday related events.
  

  So... What does Printripper™ Do?

  The best place to start is at the beginning. What is the task we want PrintRipper™ to perform? You could be shooting an event that requires high-volume, on-demand printing, such as Santa shots at the mall. It could be a corporate event, gate-style photography, Proms–you name it– where you need to deliver just about every photo that you take.
  You may not be in a print on-demand situation but still need a quick and easy way to batch your photos for print or process them for digital delivery. Either way, PrintRipper™ gives you simple solution to set your desired output parameters and process your photos 'till the cows come home.

  PrintRipper™ does a lot more than just crop and output your photos. You can batch your Chroma key (green screen) photos, add borders (Photo Frame), and Watermark instantly, as you choose. Before we cover these features, let's discuss getting your photos into PrintRipper™ for processing. The First thing you would want to do is set up a hot folder in PrintRipper™. To do that, click the plus (+) button located in the lower-left of your PrintRipper™ window. That should trigger your Printer Setup Dialog.
  
  In the Printer Setup Dialog you'll need to:

  1. Choose the printer you wish to use for this hot folder.
     
     
  2. Set your printer's paper size, margins, quality, paper tray, and anything else you would like to configure for your output.
     
     ***Note*** Even if you intend to output digital files instead of prints, you must still select a printer.
     
     
  3. If you would like, you can set your Landscape or Portrait settings. You don't have to worry too much about this as PrintRipper™ will read your camera's IPTC orientation to determine if you shot a photo as a Portrait or Landscape and rotate your image as needed.
     If you are using a camera that does not include IPTC orientation data, this may present a challenge as you would need to make sure you are consistent with your shooting (in other words, set up a folder as landscape and shoot only landscape, or vise-versa).
     
     
  4. After you set your printer up, hit the "OK" button. The next screen you'll see is the folder configuration screen.
     
     

  There are three elements you must complete before you can save your settings:

  1. Print Folder (your "hot folder")– You can choose a folder that exists or create a new one. If you really want to get fancy, you can even choose a network (shared) folder. Hmm..... Did that last suggestion get you thinking about more intricate setups? I hope so!
     
     
  2. Select Your Printer– Yes, we did set up a printer already.... That was mostly to tell the printer what to do. This time, we're telling Printripper™ what printer we will have it print to.
     
     
  3. Select your Print Size– select your intended output size from the pop-up menu.
     
     

  After you've completed the steps above, you want to set two very important options:

  1. Move Images to Archive Folder– if this option is NOT checked, original files WILL BE DELETED after they are processed. I don't need to repeat that, do I? If his option IS CHECKED, a folder called "Archive" will be created within your hot folder and will collect your original files as they are processed.
     
     
  2. Save Composites–this will save a digital image file for you INSTEAD of printing the photo if checked. It's a toggle-switch: checked=save to file. Unchecked=print the image.

  At this point, you can save your settings and your PrintRipper™ hot folder is ready for action!
  

  Getting Your Photos into PrintRipper™

  Tethering/Remote Capture

  We've been tethering cameras in here since 2001. Most, if not all professional cameras can tether to a computer. Canon and Nikon make their own special flavors of tethering software, each taking advantage of the features specific to their respective cameras. Some tethering software can be found free of charge or for a nominal fee. There are many options and Google is your friend!

   

  Wireless

  We love to photograph wirelessly. Both Nikon an Canon have wireless options available (note that Nikon's solution works with select cameras) and, of course, there's our inexpensive favorite–EyeFi. There is a downside to photographing wirelessly, namely, wandering out of range. All aforementioned solutions do resume transfers once back in range. The other downside is transfer speed. If you plan to shoot high quality jpegs with your 12 megapixel camera, expect a little bit of a delay in your wireless transfers.

   

  Media Card Readers

  You may decide that you have no need or desire to tether or go wireless. A simple media card reader will do just fine. You can set up your photos to download directly to your PrintRipper™ hot folder.

  Whatever method you choose to transfer your photos to your computer, all you have to do is set your transfer options to point to a PrintRipper™ hot folder (or, if you prefer, point PrintRipper™ to your transfer folder). As your photos are moved into your hot folder, PrintRipper™ will begin to process them

  Next week, we'll cover more in-depth tricks dealing with folders, setting up intricate green screen shots as well as borders. In the mean time, I hope you've been inspired to play a little more with PrintRipper™!

  PrintRipper™ is available now at our Online store.

  • Download v. 1.0 Mac / Windows
  • View the Online Manual here.

  ]]> http://www.allenchristopher.com/guide/page15.html Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:00:00 EST MacWorld UK, Germany's MacUp include PrintRipper in their Autumn publications. http://www.allenchristopher.com/news.html Thu, 23 Jul 2009 09:00:00 EST We were pleased to hear that the reviewers at Softsea.com gave a warm welcome to the release of PrintRipper. http://www.softsea.com/review/printripper.html