Electronic Scrapbooking
Using Technology to Frame the Past
While once a hobby of colorful stickers, classroom scissors, and clever quips about favorite photos, scrapbooking is gaining momentum in the world of microchips, hard drives, and memory storage space.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article contains desciptions and reviews of software products, some of which have now been replaced with newer versions by their respective makers. Where possible, the creators’ Web sites have been included so readers will be able to access at least a newer version of the software. Reviews of older software remain for users who already own these versions.
Remember those old photo albums bound with string, the kind that had the pasted photo mounts for each corner of the picture? It’s odd that we call such mementos of past lives scrapbooks. They’re more like treasure books–the "scraps" that they hold are precious gems of our family histories. Those treasured family albums often wind up in the hands of the family historian. If we’re lucky, someone has taken the time to provide names and dates for each photograph. And hopefully the photos are not yet deteriorating.
Scrapbooks have been around since photography became a medium available to the general public. The modern hobby of scrapbooking, however, has come to mean combining photos, stories, and various memorabilia into a creative and attractive display. Artwork, page layout, and preservation techniques combine to make mo dern scrapbooking a popular pastime. In fact, the hobby has developed into a multi-million dollar industry that provides acid free paper, pH-testing pens, Xylene-free adhesives, and archival-quality storage systems. Preservation combines with artistry to make modern scrapbooks not only visually appealing but also as time-resistant as possible.
As pictures are said to be worth a thousand words, scrapbooks help breath vitality into the story of a family. Those members of the family whose eyes glaze over when the family genealogist recites the dry list of names and dates of common ancestors are often spurred to interest when the scrapbook is passed around. A scrapbook’s connection to family history is self-evident. Inside are the pictures, birth announcements, newspaper clippings, child’s artwork, event tickets, commencement programs, and wedding invitations that provide insight into a family’s past.
Scrapbooks are an excellent answer to the family historian’s life-long question: "What do I do with the results of my research?" Genealogical information included in a scrapbook can maximize the likelihood that family members will preserve and cherish the hard-won information gathered and analyzed by the family historian. A pile of carefully compiled genealogical research is much too easy to recycle once the family historian passes on. But an artistically crafted scrapbook stands a better chance of being kept by the next generation because if its appeal. The family scrapbook might just be the stimulus for enticing the next generation to study the history of the family.
Perhaps the best way to help ensure the time-resistance of a scrapbook is to store it in electronic form. Electronic scrapbooks avoid most of the ravages of time experienced by physical scrapbooks. Electronic scrapbooking should not be confused with computer-assisted scrapbooking. Both computer-assisted and full electronic scrapbooking rely on the use of scanners and/or di gital cameras combined with software for further manipulating the resulting digital images. Computer-assisted scrapbooking includes tools to help the paper-based scrapbooker decorate their projects with computer clip art and photographs, and to print out captions, stories, poems, etc. in thousands of different font styles. Electronic scrapbooking on the other hand, includes the design and production of scrapbooks but also displays and stores a scrapbook in electronic format.
While there are many software products available for computer-assisted scrapbooking, there are relatively few products on the market for true electronic scrapbooking. This article will not be concerned with the computer-assisted production of printed scrapbooks but will summarize the features available in fully electronic scrapbooking software. These products combine the latest in available imaging technology to produce a digital "frame" in which to mount a family’s scrapbook of sepia-toned photographs and other related treasures.
Electronic Scrapbooking Software
PhotoRecall Deluxe 2.0($39.95 from G&A imaging Ltd.) is a software product that creates electronic scrapbooks. (See http://www.photorecall.com for current informaion.) It accepts images from digital cameras, scanners, and even helps you search for images on the Internet (mind the copyright!). PhotoRecall provides tools to organize your images and to search and sort them. Image manipulation features include cropping, red-eye removal, and many others. Electronic scrapbooks created by PhotoRecall can be shared with family by duplicating the original and making the copy read-only, ensuring that the scrapbook isn’t mistakenly changed or erased.
The electronic software, Family Base ($39.95 from Timeless Software), allows the user to create a new scrapbook or to scan a pre-existing scrapbook. This is a convenient feature for family historians working to preserve old scrapbooks. Family Base can include digital images from either scanners or digital cameras and supports the inclusion of sound and video clips into the electronic scrapbook. The software includes clip art, borders, designer fonts, and backgrounds for decorating pages. Perhaps Family Base’s best genealogy feature is its search capability. The software includes organizational tools that assist in electronically labeling the various images and text in the scrapbook and building a table of contents. A search facility in the program then allows these labels to be searched by keyword or date. This makes finding that electronically-stored photograph of Grandpa relatively easy. Family Base also creates electronic scrapbook files that can be used with Timeless Software’s scrapbook archiving service described below.
Electronic Scrapbook Archiving
Timeless Sharing ($89.95 from Timeless Software) is a scrapbook archiving service that preserves electronically-created scrapbooks on CD-ROMs. For the price of the service, a CD-ROM containing an electronic scrapbook is created and placed in bank vault storage for safe keeping. The scrapbooker receives three copies of the CD-ROM to share with family and additional copies are available for $10.95 each. New scrapbooks can either be created electronically using Family Base, or Family Base can scan existing scrapbooks to prepare them for electronic archiving with Timeless Sharing. The scrapbooker sends the electronic file of their scrapbook to the service and the CD-ROMs are pressed. They include not only the scrapbook but the Family Base viewing software so that the CD-ROM can be accessed without the use of additional software.
The tie between family history and the family album has not been ignored by the developers of genealogy software. At least two genealogy packages have i ncorporated scrapbooking features into their products. Besides the organization and storage of family history information, these software packages include some basic features for creating family albums.
Ultimate Family Tree Platinum ($69.95 from The Learning Co.) includes the PhotoEnhancer photo editing utility that allows for image manipulation. The Family Album Maker feature may be used to produce paper scrapbooks with the provided backgrounds and over one thousand historical photographs, maps, and flag images.
Generations Family Tree Grande Suite ($69.95 from Sierra Home) includes SnapShot Special Edition, which can create electronic photo albums to share with family and friends. The albums can be password protected to be read-only and shared via the Internet. Photos and images can be organized, managed, and edited using SnapShot. Electronic slide shows can also be created to display a family album on your PC as a sequence of images and sounds. As an additional feature SnapShot produces custom screen savers and PC wallpaper from your digital images. Generations Family Tree Grande Suite has true electronic scrapbooking features that compliment its family history software.
Family Album Day
Lest you think the value of the traditional family photo album has been forgotten due to the technology of electronic scrapbooking, be sure to visit the Family Album Archive Project. The Family Album Archive Project (FAAP) is a non-profit organization that seeks to to preserve the visual history of the American family album. It promotes local "Family Album Days" in conjunction with local libraries and historical societies.
At the Family Album Day, people are invited to bring their albums to their local library–the sponsors of the event. Groups of local historians, archivists, genealogists, and conservators will provide advice on preserving these "treasure books" and how to start family history research. Most importantly, the advisors will digitally preserve the albums (with the owner’s permission).
The FAAP team digitally scans the family albums, copies them to CD-ROM discs, and returns them to the owners the same day. Owners then have the opportunity to purchase copies of the CD-ROM version of their scrapbook, low resolution scanned images, or printed color copies of their materials. The Family Album Archive Project thus helps to ensure the survival of these cherished family treasures.
Scrapbooking is an enjoyable hobby that can provide an attractive end product for documenting family history. Beyond the creative outlet of using the special pencils, paper punches, and stickers to craft a physical scrapbook, the electronic scrapbook can easily be shared with family and friends through Web pages or CD-ROMs. Multiple copies of the same electronic scrapbook help ensure that the treasures it contains are not lost if the original is destroyed. And the reduced physical decay of electronically stored information along with archive services such as the one described above, provide additional insurance that those lovingly created electronic scrapbooks filled with family history will not end up on the scrap heap.
Scrapbooking Resources on the Internet
Learn to Scrapbook–Information for Beginners
Tips on Creating Archival Scrapbooks
Computer-assisted Scr apbooking
Software–Creative Photo Albums Deluxe
Baby Bits–Electronic Baby Books
Offline
Creating Keepsakes Magazine
www.creatingkeepsakes.com
(801) 224-8235
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