I was working with a client last evening sorting out their album design, and yet again marveling at PJ Remix. We were looking at what we might do with their design to take it away from the ordinary. The expression Pimp My Album came to mind ... and things went crazy! There were tassels, dice, bling, and all sorts of flame shaped graphics ... quickly recognised as possibly on the absurd side of album creativity. It did get me thinking how I might accessorise my beautiful classic album. I thought I would start a list! The obvious beginning is a case ... there are two available (three if you include To View More >>

Some of you have noticed that our recently discontinued cover materials have disappeared from PJ Remix, and asked what's going on. Fair enough too. We haven't been as clear about it as we should, and we apologise for not explaining this earlier. Although some cover materials have gone from PJ Remix, it doesn't necessarily mean we can't supply them. In fact our policy is, if possible, to make them available for two years after removing them from our swatch book. So how do you order them in PJ Remix? It's fairly simple... 1) Choose 'Other' in the Cover Material options. 2) Then click 'Add Note' and To View More >>

                  How do you know what size and shape to make an album cover image? How do you account for the aspect ratio and cover wrap-around (the part of the image you can't see)? If it sounds hard, it's not. Just design the cover in PJ Remix. It's exactly like designing pages only easier. You can see the aspect ratio and the wrap-around. And problems rarely occur because it's so obvious when images don't fit. We've already blogged about album covers, especially here and here, so we won't repeat ourselves. If you're not sure how to send us the image there's a link about that too. To View More >>

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 To View More >>

We know the feeling – you know there must be a way to do something, but you just can't figure it out.    Here's an example: there's no standard "title" aperture in PJ Remix, so how do you add a title? There are actually two ways to do it. The easier way (but maybe also easier to get wrong) is simply this: Add a blank aperture to the layout using the Add button (left image, above) Change the aperture to Customise (right image, above) Uncheck the Constrain Proportions box and enter the values directly. Easy as long as you remember the values: 112 wide by 200 high , as above. Whether you use To View More >>

This post has been superseded by new Photojunction functionality. PJ Remix's Order Wizard saves "Bundles" (folders) of files to your hard disk ready for you to upload them to your album supplier and/or lab. But Remix itself doesn't do the upload. Queensberry does that with LabFTP. Somethimes confusion arises around two points: 1. Occasionally users think they're done once they've run through the Order Wizard. Not so. All you've done is email us to expect an order. You still need to upload the files. 2. Occasionally a photographer will open the bundle, take out what (s)he thinks we need and uploaded To View More >>

Some of our clients enjoy smoother sailing than others. Less aggravation, calmer waters... An interesting thought whichever group you fall into! One important reason for this is that some of you understand our systems better than others. And yes, we accept we don't always do a good enough job of explaining them. One reason for this blog is to address the problem with bite-sized tutorials on topics suggested by you or our own staff. So over the next few days we’re going to discuss a few key issues. Here’s our goal: For you, an efficient, easy-to-understand system that gets you back to shooting To View More >>

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: To View More >>

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 To View More >>

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 To View More >>