If you dream of Dreamweaver CS3 - help tip

Having recently invested in a replacement laptop - my main PC for web design and updates etc, I upgraded my Dreamweaver to edition CS3 for my new MacBook Pro.

I noticed and had been struggling to work with the rather small font size in the CODE view on Dreamweaver and had almost resigned myself to squinting through the long dark web designing hours after failing to find a setting to change the font size.

However, I've managed to track down the setting and its location - it all made sense of course - but then things do when you know how.

To amend the font size in the CODE view only - go to Dreamweaver - Preferences - Fonts - Code View and amend the code view font size.

Mine was defaulting to size 7 (size 9 is bigger even though it says beside it 'smallest' and is the size i've now defaulted the code view on my Dreamweaver CS3 to).

Hope that helps anyone else struggling out there. If I come across any more Dreamweaver CS3 tips, i'll pass them on.

Jonathan - technical partner - Fabulous Photo Gifts

Great photo - shame about the file size

Great photo – shame about the file size?

It happens all the time – a great photo opportunity occurs – kids with ice-cream down their faces, a pet pulling a daft pose, a family outing etc all make really great photographs but when you come to view them later, you realise the file sizes are so small that they're not suitable for anything bigger than a postage stamp.

Luckily, and depending on the image editing software you have, there are several things you can still try if you'd promised yourself a photo gift personalised with such an image.

For example, if you have some paint 'effects' to choose from, have a play with applying various effect filters – some photographs are more suited than others to effects like watercolour or chalk effect so its worth playing around and trying different effects out.

DON'T FORGET TO SAVE THE ORIGINAL FIRST AND WORK ON A COPY!

These 'filtered' photographs can then be re-sized a lot more successfully than the original. Another option may be to try re-sizing as much as possible and then tiling the photograph to fill the required print area. If you've got lots of similar photos, why not make a collage of them? Lots of smaller files make one larger file which will very often be suitable for resizing or printing at size.

You could even do an Andy Warhol style montage – these are very effective and the effect itself is available on a lot of image editing software, where you can change the primary colours of each 'frame' thereby creating a very pleasing overall effect.

With any of the methods, if you've got a particular photo gift or other use in mind, always go larger than you need to (in proportion) to allow for trimming and image bleed. If you're adding a border or text, make sure these are placed well inside the edge so they are not lost in the bleed at the edges.

Finally, always work in 300dpi. This is the optimum resolution for printing. Don't worry if your file size gets too big to use (Fabulous Photo Gifts can take image uploads of up to 10Mb online) as you can always try reducing your dpi in steps – 280dpi, 270dpi, 260dpi etc until the file size comes under 10Mb. Of course this doesn't matter if you're supplying your finished image on cd to your printer or photo gift producer.

Don't forget to look at your image at 'print size' rather than just the default 'fit on screen' size. This will give you a much better idea of what your photograph will look like when it's printed. Watch out for photographs where a soft focus was used or the intended subject is out of focus to another part of the photograph as these soft focus areas often appear pixelated – pay particular attention to skin tones as this pixelation (the blockiness that occurs) can sometimes 'add' shading to an image as it tries to second-guess what detail should have been in that pixel.

Smaller images needn't be deleted – you can have great fun with them using some of the ideas above or creating your own, and the results are usually of sufficient quality to be used on a wide variety of photo gifts, like the ones available at Fabulous Photo Gifts – click here to see more.

80th birthday dinner - photo coaster surprise

A recent order for several sets of our personalised Photo Coasters that featured a selection of old photo's bought this delightful response in today's inbox....

Hi Mandy
Just wanted to say thank you so much for the coasters, they looked so good and were a real hit at my dads 80th birthday dinner. It made it just that bit more personal and they were a real talking point. So many people commented on them, how clear they were, how good the colours were and what an orginal idea and some took them home with them. My dad was absolutely thrilled with them, so again thank you for doing such a good job.
Kind Regards
A.F.

......We're delighted they were such a hit with your Dad and your guests A.F.

If you're planning a celebration or a party - perhaps a wedding or anniversary, then our photo coasters can make your table setting a real talking point. Click here to see our complete range of photo gifts including coasters, place mats and serving mats.

NEW round coasters now available.

Top of the Pops - Fab' Photo Gifts style

Yes indeed pop pickers - its Top of the Pops a la Fabulous Photo Gifts and not a Jimmy Saville in sight!

Seriously, we're busy looking back over all the photographs that have been submitted by our customers for personalising a photo gift order with, sorting them into such categories as babies, children, beaches, parties, birthdays, sports, pets and scenic etc to bring you our own definitive top 10 (or 12 depending on the final diversity of submissions).

We're then going to announce the most to the least popular category of photograph in an exclusive countdown and you can be the first to see the results just by subscribing to this blog.

We're hoping to finish the counting over the bank holiday weekend coming up (rum and coke permitting), so we can start publishing the results before the next weekend.

So stay tuned and don't be going nowhere! You can join in the fun by submitting category ideas (keep them clean - this is a family blog!) or commenting on which category you think will be number 1.

To get your late entry in - why not personalise a Fabulous Photo Gift now? Click here to visit our online photo gift shop.

More than a Photo Gift company - who says so? you!

Up against a deadline? Think of us!

Regulars will know that although it's not possible to repeat every 'thank you for a great service' message we receive, occasionally we do like to bring you a round up of the recent postbag.

Regulars will also know that as well as offering a personalised photo gift service to individual customers, we also offer our full range of gift ideas in bulk to PR, Marketing and other businesses looking for something a little different - either as a promotional gimmick or as part of a training exercise - we've even helped a novelist by reproducing their intended book cover onto a jigsaw to catch the eye of prospective publishers.

Here's some recent feedback from one such business customer....

"I just wanted to write with a very belated thank you for the ‘teamwork’ jigsaws, they worked really well at the corporate event. Thank you especially for your tireless efforts with your suppliers to get the jigsaws, including new template, arranged so quickly due to our very tight deadlines.

I’ll certainly be recommending your company to anyone looking for similar.

Many thanks again Lizz" - Granada TV

and from a public relations company in London -

"Hi Mandy. Just to let you know the jigsaws have arrived safely. They look great - thanks so much we are really pleased with them"

So the next time you're up against a deadline but need something a little bit different then please think of us - Fabulous Photo Gifts. We're specialists in very short runs at bulk prices - you can order in 10's, 50's or 100's off or individually if you prefer.

Click here to visit our Contact Details page.

Problems getting your image to upload - try these tips

Problems getting your image to upload?

Well I'm writing this post not because we get a lot of failed photo uploads or a lot of customers querying that their image didn't upload, but very occasionally we do get a phone call from a customer that's been pulling their hair out before calling us. Hopefully these few tips and tricks may help you (and save your hair).

(They're also good web / file husbandry as well).

When an image won't upload try:

1) Opening your image and re-saving it. Sometimes, that's all it takes. Perhaps a file corrupted or the path to it was faulty.

2) Check for upper case letters in your file name. It's good practice to save all files in lower case (little letters).

3) Check for spaces in your file name. Again, it's good practice to not use spaces in your file names e.g my dog.jpg. Instead use my_dog.jpg - use the underscore (usually shift+ the 'dash' button - next to the +/= button).

4) If you work in other file extensions, particularly those that support layers (like photoshop files .psd), even though you saved your image as a .jpg at maximum quality, sometimes, the layers still get saved so it isn't a true flat image .jpg. Try flattening your photoshop file first and then save as .jpg. This should solve the problem.

Just a few tips there that might get you out of trouble and not just when you're ordering a Fabulous Photo Gift. Spaces in file names or a mixture of upper case and lower case characters are not best practice. In our experience, file corruption on your hard drive is rarely an issue and would need a lot of bad segments for it to become a real problem.

Also check your remote/back up discs or hard drives are not suffering from poor storage or constant copying and moving of files. Disk defragment is a clever and useful utility on windows' computers for solving such issues.
Jonathan - Fabulous Photo Gifts.

Fabulous Photo Gifts new website design goes live

Hi There.

Just wanted to let you all know that after a few months plotting and planning, we've just put live the new website design for Fabulous Photo Gifts.

Obvious changes like a new page header incorporating our new 2008 look (the jigsaw piece outline) and the new easy - quick gift navigator panel down the left hand side of each page are easy to spot.

More subtle changes include a new page linking system and some old pages have been updated with newer information - noticeably our FAQ's and How to Order pages.

Other changes will be happening over the next few days but they won't affect your online photo gift purchasing or your 'funds for life' fund raising orders.

So- go visit, enjoy and if you feel compelled to do so, then pop back here and leave a comment.

Click here to visit our new-look for 2008 personalised photo gift website.

Thankyou

The Fabulous Photo Gifts technical team.

Do you check your e-mail junk folder?

Hi there.

The reason I ask 'do you check your email's junk folder' is that recently we've noticed a couple of interesting instances when customers have failed to reply to our emails querying their order - perhaps its an issue over best 'crop' and we were wanting to check with the customer before printing etc.

When you place an order with Fabulous Photo Gifts, in addition to your PayPal transaction receipt which is sent by PayPal (not us), you also receive very shortly afterwards a confirmation email from ourselves, with a note about expected delivery times.

This email and any subsequent emails are sent to the email address on your PayPal account.

Sometimes, despite our very clean mail server providers, our emails seem to go into people's junk folders. As a precaution, if the email address is a Hotmail one, we'll even copy the message and send it via our own business hotmail account.

The bottom line is that sometimes, despite our best efforts, our emails go into your junk folders. So consequently, you may think we've not acknowledged your order etc.

Please check your junk email folder regularly - not just for our mail but for any genuine emails that may have been misplaced. You'd be amazed all the genuine emails that get diverted without you knowing.

In 99.9999% of cases, our emails are either in your junk folders or they were sent to an old/other email address on your PayPal account records.

If you really haven't heard anything from us, please feel free to call us or email us directly.

You'll find all our contact details here on our Contact Us page. We haven't printed them here in case of spammers!

Now we're on fire - Feedburner style

As Fabulous Photo Gifts Blog passes its 200th post mark, we thought it was about time we shared our world of photo gift gossip, news and events plus all the other regular posts, so many of you have come to love, by switching our blog url to Feedburner.

Don't worry - it will all happen seamlessly (in fact if you're reading this, it probably has already) - basically, Feedburner takes our original Blog feed URL (http://purple13.blogspot.com) and takes its updates from that to reproduce a new feed that makes sharing and finding us a whole lot easier.

The best bit is that by using the subscribe button (top / left hand panel), you'll actually subscribe to our original feed (via feedburner) so that if at any time we decide Feedburner isn't working for us (or you), then we won't loose you in the move.

Clear? (as mud!) - don't worry - you'll find us and we'll find you - we've just made it easier - with a little help from Feedburner's services.

The Great Bank Holiday Tip Visit

If it's a Bank Holiday, then it must be trip to the tip time!

Truth is we've been that busy at Fabulous Photo Gifts, that packing boxes and packaging had accumulated at an alarming rate so this morning, I took a few hours off from website updates to crush all the boxes and load up the car.

Were that it was as easy as that - Of course, there was also a months worth of plastic bottles and 5 bags of garden rubbish, plus the packaging off of the little ones new bed (see our earlier post on flat pack furniture for that story!) waiting in the garage at home so one car load turned into two.

Luckily, our local tip is 5mins drive away and they're a really helpful bunch too - helping unload your car post-haste which saves on queing time etc.

It's amazing how quickly garden cuttings start rotting isn't it? They'd only been in there a week and already I had to let one big bag drain off a foul-smelling liquid compost before i could lift it into the car.

On the way back from the second trip, i wound down the car window, turned up the radio and felt decidedly good about myself - another job list item ticked off. Then the traffic announcer came on to warn of severe hold-ups around coastal areas - particularly Blackpool it seems. Life is good sometimes..... please feel free to leave your comments on how you spent your bank holiday below.

When is Father's Day not Father's Day?

When is Father's Day not Father's Day? When you publish the wrong date on your website!

Despite our best efforts in the Fabulous Photo Gifts office, we still somehow managed to put the 17th instead of the 15th on a small advertising banner on the website.

Thankfully, our customers are more eagle eyed than we are and quickly pointed this out to us - we are indebted to you.

So now that we're all talking about the same date, what are you getting your Dad for Father's Day?

If you haven't got anything sorted, may we suggest a photo gift - a mug or how about one of our new deluxe photo panels that feature a stunning high gloss finish and 'chrome like' reproduction of your photograph?

Head over to Fabulous Photo Gifts now and choose a wonderful photo gift idea from our ever expanding range of gift ideas - gifts that you personalise wth your own photographs.