Digital photos can feel mighty impermanent. Thankfully, it's a problem easily solved with digital scrapbooking software like Foto.com Editor. This free application uses a wealth of automated options to get you up and running quickly, and its clean, responsive interface make designing your scrapbook a snap. But if you want a more embellished, handmade look, consider Panstoria Artisan 4 or MyMemories 5 instead.
Foto.com Editor is similar to the Foto.com's website for designing and ordering photo books. I had no trouble installing the software on a laptop running Windows 7. I quickly discovered that the desktop version has more features and better layout tools. You can download it for free from Foto.com, which is definitely noteworthy, considering that many other scrapbooking apps cost $40.
Building Your Scrapbook
Foto.com Editor is very clear that it is a print service, not a desktop publishing application, which is refreshing. You chose the kind of book you want to make, then point the app toward your photos. Foto.com scours your collection for images it thinks are important, which appear to be photos of people facing the camera. You can, of course, add or subtract pictures after the app makes its choices. Foto.com also automatically orients images correctly, which is fantastic.
You next chose your layout and theme. Themes include special backgrounds, fonts, and frames for your images. I found it much easier to select and download themes from Foto.com than from Panstoria's larger (but more confusing) store of user-generated content.
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Foto.com
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The layout for your book dictates how many photos will be placed per page, and even specific layouts for each page. At first I was concerned that Foto.com Editor would do everything for me, but that's not the case. These initial steps get everything ready for the actual layout so that when you actually start working on your book, all the pictures are already in place.
Down the left rail are your photos and a file browser to add more media from either your computer or the Foto.com website. Individual tabs let you add clipart, backgrounds, and borders. You can also select a theme, or change themes, for specific pages. The photo browser marks each photo already in the book with a green check. I prefer the approach of Artisan 4, which shows only the images you haven't yet put in your book.
A page browser stretches across the top of the screen, letting you quickly and easily move through your pages. Just below is the actual layout board, where you can move, rotate, and resize images. By default, the app locks images' aspect ratio, so you can resize to your heart's content knowing your images won't be distorted accidentally. If you delete an image, Foto.com Editor rearranges the pages to compensate—you may be able to turn this feature off, but I found no way to do so.
Down the right side is a control bar that you can use to reposition images inside of a frame, and other functions. This actually feels quite clunky to me; it's sort of like trying to edit via TV remote control. That said, Foto.com's automated tools work so well, you might not even notice.
When you're done editing, you can even browse a 3D rendering of your photobook in a sunny CG kitchen.
Photo Editing
Foto.com Editor comes with a basic, but capable, built-in photo editor. Artisan 4 has more features, like curves and saturation adjustments. Still, Foto.com does let you edit images' brightness, contrast, and gamma and there's a quick-fix option, too. There's also a red-eye removal tool, which seemed to do nothing in my tests. This might be preferable to the bruises Artisan 4's tool left on faces of in pictures, however.
You can also apply a number of effects to your photos, including traditional favorites like converting them to black and white or sepia, as well as adding more complex effects like water ripples and blur. Each effect has customization sliders so you can get it looking just right.
In general, Foto.com Editor assumes you have decent looking pictures already. If you need to fix any major problems, look to Photoshop Elements or some other dedicated photo editing software.
Printing and Exporting
One thing I really like about Foto.com Editor is that the current price of your project is always in sight, so when you go to order your photobook there are no surprises. A future version of this review will include an evaluation of Foto.com's print quality.
The only way Foto.com Editor will let you export your finished project is to Foto.com, for printing. Artisan 4, on the other hand, lets you spit out PNGs, PDFs, and JPEGs of your projects—in addition to uploading them to social media. Foto.com Editor will let you export an interactive 3D model of your book, or just the photos you used, to Facebook. But Facebook integration was broken in my testing.
Get Scrapbooking
Foto.com Editor is really just a local front end for the Foto.com print service, which is fine if that's what you want. If you're looking for a fast way to make a clean, modern photobook, it's hard to do better than Foto.com. But fans of traditional scrapbooks, with their cut-corner pictures and knick-knacks, will probably find Foto.com's embellishments inadequate. If you want a photobook with a more home-made scrapbooking touch, look to Editors' Choice MyMemories 5.
Foto.com makes assembling a scrapbook from your digital photos super fast and super easy with professional results. But if you're looking for a more hand-made feel, look elsewhere.
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