LabFTP 3

Why did you change?

February 19th, 2009 in Products & Services by Ian Baugh

Tags: Clients, Customer Service, Feedbac, Industry, Order Processing, Photojunction Remix, Revolution, Smooth Sailing, Systems

A couple of weeks ago I posted about aggravating business policies and touch points, and asked readers to tell us about the things we do that’s frustrating! We received three comments. One I’ve mentioned already, and the other two also raise important issues.

Katherine (not her real name) emailed her account manager to say she doesn’t like Photojunction. More important, she doesn’t like feeling pressured by Queensberry into using it.

She feels that if QBY were truly customer focused she wouldn’t feel this pressure and could continue in the way that’s suited her perfectly for the last seven years. She thanks Jo for her “never ending patience with me and PJ, but I do feel it is an overly complicated, non-user friendly piece of software.”

We really appreciate Katherine for sharing this. It’s hard to exaggerate the value to any business of someone who’s been with you for seven years. We all want things to work for her, and certainly understand why she might not want to change. How can we respond?

FWIW here’s my take on it.

Seven years ago our industry was very different.

Most of our clients still used film.
Album companies didn’t print and bind.
Digital albums were as scarce as hen’s teeth.
Our clients printed locally and assembled their albums themselves.

Our product was unique back then. Even well before 2000 you could design the pages as you wanted – but you did so with pen and paper, and we “digitised” the design in-house. And we wrote earnest articles about how to design and sell from stacks of prints!

In the last seven years there’s been a revolution. Everything I’ve just described has been turned on its head.

It started with the very first US studio we visited. I remember Cara in Sacramento asking Heather and me, “Don’t you have album planning software for these?”

It seems to me that some of the people who did business with us before the “revolution” – and liked us as we were – wish we wouldn’t change.

But we can’t be the way we were because it was a different world then, and what we do now would have been impossible.

Photojunction and the systems we’ve built around it are how we make your stuff. Other suppliers have (and need) their equivalents.

Interestingly, we can still receive faxed orders etc, but we have to recreate them in PJ before we make them! What we can’t do in these tough times is ask other clients to pay that cost. PJ users already get their albums cheaper, faster and more hassle-free, and that can only become more marked.

So realistically, all we can do is ask for Katherine’s goodwill and forbearance as we help her through the transition. But…

I had the privilege of sitting in on a PJRemix album review session with Johannes recently and I was blown away by what I saw. Photographer and client riffling through the files… changing layouts… swapping images and opinions… adding pages… An intense, creative collaboration. Profitable too.

Cheers, Ian

PS So having watched me sweat, have you thought about how your own customers feel? Another story tomorrow.

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Investing in simplicity

Best of 2008 – Part 2

January 29th, 2009 in Uncategorised by Nigel Hicks

Designing and exporting your design
Remix Order Wizard and LabFTP
Sending us just your Cover Image

Tags: Order Processing, Photo Front, Photography & Design, Photojunction Remix, Printing, Smooth Sailing, Tip

Wading through our “how-to” posts was quite a job. Trying to single out the best was just as difficult, but worth the effort.

Here are my favourites. Hopefully you’ll find them handy when dealing with Queensberry and Photojunction, and evaluating your own workflow…

There’s so much good stuff in the Smooth Sailing series I reckon you should check them all, but here are a few:

Photo Front covers (easy peasy) - If designing Photo Front covers sounds hard. It’s not. Here’s how to easily do it.

What can delay your orders? – Here are a few simple things that frequently delay people’s orders (long delays in some cases). Interestingly, our staff sometimes end up double-checking things to head off ‘could-be problems‘.

Titles in PJ Remix – There’s no standard “title” aperture in PJ Remix, so how do you add a title? There are actually two ways.

If you search under Printing you’ll find more very useful posts, especially the three in the ”hassle-free printing workflow’ series, which walk you through ordering your printing from Queensberry.

Cheers, Nigel

PS Why not check out the various Categories in the right-hand column of this page to discover your own good stuff.

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None Found

“Could-be” problems

November 25th, 2008 in Products & Services by Ian Baugh

Tags: Order Issues, Order Processing, Smooth Sailing, Tip

Last week’s post about things that can delay your album made me think of this. Sometimes our staff feel the need to check things in orders “just in case”. For example…

An unusually spelled name. Could be a spelling mistake – better ask.
An image file that’s not up to your normal standard. Could be a problem – better ask.

If there’s something in your order that you know could raise doubts, please let us know: “Yes, the file’s a bit dodgy but I have to use it – do what you can.”

Head off our query at the pass and get your album faster.

Cheers, Ian

PS Our staff aren’t being pedantic, they’re just trying to avoid potential problems.

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What can delay your order?

November 21st, 2008 in Products & Services by Ian Baugh

Tags: Delayed Orders, Order Processing, Service Deatils, Smooth Sailing, Tip

We’ve been talking a lot about smooth sailing lately, with two goals in mind. For you, an efficient and easy-to-use system. And for us, an order that’s accurate, error-free and ready to go straight into production.

Fair to say then, that it’s in both of our interest to sail through the ordering and production process as quickly as possible.

But when your order doesn’t sail through – what holds it up? Here are a few simple things that we’ve found to be the most common cause of delays (long delays in some cases).

1) Missing print files (cover images) are the most common – people just forget to include them, and Remix still doesn’t include them automatically).

2) Information missing from you order – like text for any personal title or cover motif.

3) Delays getting replies to our queries.

4) Quality or specification issues with image files.

5. Changing your order after you send it.

6) Delays getting confirmation or arranging payment.

There’s nothing terribly complicated about any of these issues. Being that extra little bit vigilant about checking your order before you send it will avoid them. Or if something does slip through, replying to our queries promptly.

As always – if you don’t understand something or would like to talk with us more fully about any of the issues we raise in this series, please get in contact with us. We’re here to help.

Cheers, Nigel

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Investing in simplicity

If you change an order

November 13th, 2008 in Products & Services by Ian Baugh

Tags: Extra Charges, Order Processing, Production, Smooth Sailing

If you want your order to sail smoothly through our ordering process, please make sure it’s ready to go before you send it. Hopefully this post will give you some insight into why that’s so important – why even minor changes to an order can cause a lot of work at our end.

For example, suppose you request design or layout changes, or send us new versions of image files or album plans. First we have to call up your original order and work out exactly what you want done to it – not easy when we have hundreds of albums working their way through production at any one time. We may need to, for example:

Update the order itself (album format, cover style etc).
Update notes or special instructions about the order.
Redesign or realign page layouts in Photojunction.
Redesign cover layouts.
Process new image files to match the layouts.
Locate and update the files on our Bindery and Lab servers.
Recalculate prices and charge or credit you the difference.

That’s why we’ve introduced a new time-based charge to cover the costs (page 10).

We don’t like charges like this, but the alternative (increasing our prices) seems worse.

To avoid it completely just hold on to your order (or the associated print files) until you’re sure that everything is ready for production. You’ll get your album faster too.

Smooth sailing, Ian

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Full Colour Service request

Keep it simple – Album Assembly

QBY’s hassle-free printing workflow #3

October 15th, 2008 in Products & Services by Ian Baugh

Tags: Cover Image, Lab, LabFTP, Order Processing, Order Wizard, Photography & Design, Photojunction Remix, Printing, Tip

What if you want us to print your cover image, but nothing else?

1. When you fire up the Remix Order Wizard, choose either the “Assemble From Prints Supplied” or Don’t Assemble” option.

2. On the same screen the Wizard will offer a place to include “support files” for your album supplier. Open your folder of High-Res Export files and drag in a copy of the cover image (don’t double up by sending it to your lab to print as well).

3. Remix may ask you if you want us to print the cover image (generally it’ll be obvious what you want, in which case Remix won’t ask). Be sure to say Yes.
4. When the export is finished you’ll have two “bundles”, one for your lab and one for Queensberry. If you’ve followed Step 2 the cover image file will be in the Queensberry one.

5. Upload the bundle to us using LabFTP.

You could just email the file to us, but we prefer if you don’t. Getting everything in the one bundle is much more efficient. It will save us both hassles and you’ll get your album faster.

HTH, Ian

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Keep it simple – Album Assembly

Investing in simplicity

QBY’s hassle free printing workflow 2

October 6th, 2008 in Products & Services by Ian Baugh

Full Colour Service request

Tags: Export Wizard, Lab, LabFTP, Order Processing, Order Wizard, Photography & Design, Photojunction Remix, Printing, Tip

We’re describing the perfect way to send us your print-and-bind order…

After exporting your files you definitely shouldn’t jump straight to LabFTP and send us the files – we wouldn’t know what to do with them!

Instead, always use the Remix Order Wizard. (You’ll find it under the Album menu). Remix will validate your order and create an order “bundle” that contains everything we’ll need to process your order – provided you follow these instructions:

1. Run your order through the Send Order Wizard. You’ll find a tutorial here. The Wizard will ask what service you want (eg Print & Assemble) and also pose a few questions we need answers to, such as whether you want copy albums.

2. You can specify where to save the bundle, which is labeled with a unique ID. The graphic above shows what it looks like (on Mac). This particular bundle is for an order where we’re doing the printing (note the Print Files sub-folder).

3. You’ve probably already done this, but you still have the opportunity to edit your print files. Just remember this: Photojunction has made COPIES of the print files created earlier by the High-Res Export Wizard. If you choose to edit them now, before sending them to your vendor, please note that you’re correcting a COPY. The original export will remain unchanged.

4. When it’s finished, the Order Wizard will automatically NOTIFY us of your order but NOT send us any files. If you want us to print for you, (even just the cover motif) we need the bundle, which you need to upload to us with LabFTP.

5. Last step, open LabFTP and upload the files. Instructions for LabFTP are here if you need them. Please make sure you have the latest version (v3 and later automatically check for updates).

Next in this series: What if you just want us to print your cover photo?

HTH, Ian

PS We’ll be posting a movie to explain the Remix Export and Order Wizards shortly.

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QBY’s hassle-free printing workflow #1

September 25th, 2008 in Products & Services by Ian Baugh

Click here for PJ’s help page.

Tags: Export Wizard, Lab, Order Processing, Photography & Design, Photojunction Remix, Printing, Tip

Cover layout design in PJ Remix

Here are the first steps in preparing a perfect, hassle-free print-and-bind order, really fast.

1. First, upgrade to PJ Remix. If you have already, thank you.

2. Use Remix to design your cover as well as your page layouts. You’ll get to frame and crop the cover image yourself, see exactly what it looks like and be sure that it looks good. For example, here you can see how much of the image in the photo front cover layout above has been cropped away. No problem in this case, but many images won’t be suitable:

3. Export your cover AND page layouts using Remix’s Export Wizard (Album menu > Export > High-Res Export).

Make sure you:

Choose “QBY Full Colour Service” or “QBY Print-Ready Service” as your Lab Settings (depending on which service you require).
Check the box to include your cover layouts.
Export PSDs (except in the unlikely event that you don’t intend to edit them in Photoshop afterwards).

Photojunction will prompt you where to save the output files.

4. Now you can edit your files to your hearts content. Well, not quite. Remember NOT to change image sizes, cropping, file names or specifications. If you do, Photojunction may not be able to locate your files, or they may no longer match the mats you’ve designed, or they may not be formatted correctly for your lab or album supplier. What you CAN do is add text, colour correct, do artwork etc.

BTW you’ll find that the special effects you did in Remix (B&W, Sepia, borders etc) are all editable.

Next step, the Order Wizard and LabFTP.

HTH, Ian

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Full Colour Service request

Keep ‘em coming

November 30th, 2007 in News by Ian Baugh