photos

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Google Photos

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While I certainly enjoy looking at photos -- and I often receive interesting ones in an email --  I'm not one to actually take many photos. While I have several personal photos stored in my devices, the bulk of my photos are of interesting scenes -- such as an ominous tornado, or a spectacular waterfall, etc. --  that I've saved and use as desktop screens on my computers. 

If you've got a lot of photos stored and would like to get them off your device to free up space, you might take a look at Google Drive, which I haven't tried yet -- at least that I remember. If you might have an interest, here is a review of Google Drive that explains the features:

https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2484832,00.asp

I'm presently logged into Google's Gmail account and tried something that just flabbergasted me. The article mentioned about going to photos.google.com on the web. I just did this (for the first time, ever) In my Chrome browser (I'm on Linux Mint right now in a PC) and couldn't believe what I saw -- all my stored photos were displayed, with the first one showing a date of 2004 -- 14 years ago!

Even though I am logged into Google from my Gmail account, how did Google get into my computer to access my photos, I wondered? And on my Linux computer I don't have any photos stored. Then it dawned on me. I guess sometime in the past I must have used Google Photos, and my photos are obviously stored in the 'cloud' somewhere. Out of curiosity, I just tried this on my iPhone X in the Chrome browser, and lo and behold, all my photos came rolling up again. Amazing.

If you're looking for a place to store your photos, you might take a look at Google Photos.

Jim Hamm 

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Printer/Scanner for Scanning Photos

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I was asked which printer/scanner do I recommend for scanning photos.

Any current, new printer with a scanner will suffice. However, if you are interested in getting the best definition out of what you scan, the specs on the scanner should allow for 1200 dpi (dots per inch). Otherwise, 300 dpi is more than adequate. And if you are not interested in printing what you scan, and you don’t intend to display your photos on a large 4D or 5D display with UHD (Ultra High Definition), then scanning at 72 dpi will do. Be aware, though, that less than 300 dpi will degrade skin tones and sky colors. And for displaying on a large UHD monitor, only 300 dpi and above will do your photos justice.

You also have to choose between scanning to a JPG format or to a TIFF or PNG format. JPG is a lossy format. The more you edit it, the worse it gets. TIFF and PNG are lossless formats. You can edit as often as you like and it will not degrade the image quality. TIFF and PNG are also quite a bit larger than JPG, and the higher dpi you choose the longer it takes to scan. The higher dpi that you use, the larger the image file size will be. The more colors that are in the photo, the larger the image file size will be.

The image that follows shows the different file sizes for the same 3.5” x 5” color photo taken at different dpi, with one set for JPG and another for TIFF.

Photo Scan Test.png

On my 55” 4K UHD monitor, I see no noticeable difference between the 300 dpi and the 600 dpi images whether they be JPG or TIFF. However, the 75 dpi images blown up to fill the screen look decidedly horrible.

One note of caution about scanning. Clean the scanner platen carefully each time you open it, and wipe the face of the photo as well. Despite these precautions, specks will show up in the photos and that’s where the dust and scratches feature of the photo editor comes in handy.

So, as to what printer/scanner to get? It doesn’t matter as long as it will serve the purpose for the quality you want. What might matter are the features available for the printer/scanner that you choose, and you won’t know that until you plug it and try it. For example, my HP OfficeJet Pro series 8700 will (optionally) automatically put bounding boxes around a set of photos that I place on the scanner, and I can make adjustments to each one individually if I need to (but doesn’t correct if the photo is placed at an angle). Multiple scanned photos are all placed in the one folder I choose. Alternatively, I could scan the whole bunch as one big image at 300 dpi and then cut them apart with an editor after (actually takes way more time that way).

I use the Mac app Image Capture for all my scanning needs. It is probably not necessary to use any of the software that comes with the printer’s CD, especially if it is an Epson, a Cannon, or an HP. HP is my current favorite. If the printer/scanner claims to be perfect for photos, it is probably worth considering.

John R Carter Sr

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Get Ready for Photos for Mac

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        Here's the latest from John Carter,  "Photos has at long last showed its face in OS X 10.10.3 Yosemite, now in public beta, and we expect it to be released within weeks. But should you trust your irreplaceable photo library to Photos right away? And what capabilities might you lose if you do? 
        "There are some early answers in the new 'Photos for Mac: A Take Control Crash Course,' penned by Jason Snell, formerly of Macworld and now at Six Colors. The book normally costs $10, but the 30% MUG discount drops that to $7. Learn more about the book and buy it via the coupon-loaded link below."
http://tid.bl.it/photos-crash-course-mug-discount

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Where Was this Photo Taken?

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        Here's some iPhoto info from Prez Art Gorski,  "If you like using the Places feature in iPhoto to find photos by where they were taken, but your camera doesn't automatically put the geocoordinates on photos, what do you do? Well, you can use iPhoto itself to do this, but it's a little fiddly. If you import your camera pictures to your hard drive before you import them to iPhoto, here's a nifty free app that makes it much easier to do this task. http://www.theoneandonlysepp.com/gnt/ 
        This site tells about a "Mac OS X docket to update metadata with location information." 

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Mac Will Help YOU Write!

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If you put your memories in writing they’ll last longer,
    Your life experiences may help someone else grow stronger;
Consider the challenges, troubles, decisions, success, too,
    You can pass along helpfulness by writing how you got through.
Have you written something about yourself for posterity? Not yet?  Will it be one exciting chapter of your own life story?  Will it be a very short overview of the important events of your life?  Will it be an update of something you wrote earlier as a personal remembrance? Could it be a creative piece, telling about your view of life since you turned 29 — again? 
 Let’s take a look at some of the helpful ways Mac will make it easy for you to write something for family and friends.  
  1. Jot down any ideas you have on Mac.  Don’t fuss with spelling, just write those words that pop into your head right now.  
  2. Save that document.  No, it’s not done!  But give it a name and add “v. 1” on that name so you’ll recognize it as the first version of your brainstorm.
  3. Make a folder, give it a good name.  I keep my most recent working-on folder on the desktop.
  4. You’re going to put all the versions into this same folder.  Let it rest.  Go do something else and let your clever brain do some silent push-ups.
  5. Go back to Mac and now see what you want to add to the v. 1 page.  After that do Command + D  to duplicate the previous page, and make additions and corrections to that new page.  Name it v. 2.  Save both versions. 
  6. You are having fun.  It’s creative.  Picture in your mind the person or persons you’re writing this for, and this helps you formulate the vocabulary you’ll use.
  7. Soon you’ll figure out your target date.  When does this have to be finished?  How long or short do you want it to be? 
  8. Quoting someone?  Be careful.  If quoting a friend or family member consider asking permission if you’re giving the finished piece to others.  I like to get written permission.
  9. Stating facts?  Check and see that you’ve got the info down correctly.  
  10.   Could this make a nice booklet? With BlueSquirrel’s ClickBook for Mac www.bluesquirrel.com I’ve made booklets of up to 32 pages.  The program takes your normal-size page writing and automatically shrinks it down to various sizes.  I prefer the size that’s a regular sheet of paper folded in half.  There are nice envelopes just this size for mailing the finished booklet.
  11.   Do you have photos to drag into the writing?  You’re probably looking at v. 4 by now?  Each new experimentation of layout I do as a separate version and keep all the previous versions in that master folder. With iPhoto you can fix your photos.  Click on Edit to see the tools. 
  12.   When you look at the list of what’s on your desktop click once on the title of that folder.  Do   Command + “i” and you can enter key words in Spotlight Comments on the left side at the top.   This will help you find the folder later when you put it in some other location on Mac!  
  13.   Time to play with fonts.  Do you have Font Book listed in your applications?  You’ve got LOTS of fonts there. Scroll down the list of fonts and experiment.  You might like the look of Helvetica, or might think Comic Sans MS looks nice.  If you are using ClickBook you’ll enlarge the size of the font one or two sizes larger because it will be automatically sized smaller to fit the layout you choose.  
  14. Using Pages I like to click on the Inspector and scroll over the name of the story, or the poem, or the chapter’s title.  Then I enlarge the font size and also do Text, and enlarge the character spacing.  Sometimes I also like to add more space to the line, such as 1.1 or more.  
  15.   Also, if you’ll be using ClickBook you will want to go to Graphic Inspector to see if you want a shadow or offset, opacity, or blur on the photo. Click on Metrics and unclick Constrain proportions.  If you don’t do this the people will be shrunk down to look skinny.  I stretch the photos sideways to compensate for the automatic ClickBook sizing.  
  16.   Back on Pages settings: if I’m making a booklet I may resize the left & right margins smaller and also the top and bottom settings to make them smaller.   Experiment.
  17.   All along, you save the piece as you play with it. Give each version a new v. # and put it in that same master folder.
  18. One nifty thing that you will do before that final version is printed out =  do Command + F for find, and Mac searches for any word you specify.  Did you spell Cousin Frederika’s name correctly?  Do a Find to find out.  You can also make sure that any --  got fixed it to be —.
  19. How about some clever little pasted in image?  Go to the Internet and do Google Images.  Click to bring it up.  You can scroll through lots of photos, clip art, etc.  Find something and drag it off to your desktop.  Make it larger or smaller.  Drag sideways a little to compensate for ClickBook. 
  20. Maybe your printer does color.  Mine is b&w so I find pretty paper from OfficeMax or Staples and turn the page sideways for a booklet cover.  If your writing is going to be full-page size you’ll find a lot of pretty paper. 
  21. Staple the booklet with this useful stapler,  www.bluesquirrel.com/products/staplers/ , or do 3-hole punch for a notebook, or get it spiral bound. 
Let’s have fun making word clouds. You can order t-shirts, coffee cups, posters, using a word cloud that you create. I made one for the cover of a booklet I wrote a few weeks ago. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_clouds  history, types described, 
http://www.wordle.net/  try theirs
http://tagcrowd.com/    another to try
http://worditout.com/    make personalized gifts  FREE
Use Mac to write:  keep your fingers and your brain nimble! 

This is today's PMUG handout by Elaine Hardt.  See you next time?