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Trouble Downloading?

Posted by: admin In: Downloads 05 Feb 2016 Comments: 0

Have you tried downloading our Yearbooks Desktop software from the links on the download page, but become frustrated when the zip file won’t unzip?

UhOh

We have too!  While we toil to determine what’s causing the issue with he download page, we invite you to use these direct links to the installers.  These direct links seem to be working for everyone:

Yearbooks Desktop 2016 – Windows Version

 

Yearbooks Desktop 2016 – MAC Version

 

Thanks for your patience!  We’ll try to get the regular download page working again soon!

Yearbook with Steve Jobs’ photo is on eBay

Posted by: admin In: Uncategorized 25 Mar 2015 Comments: 0

Every day, thousands of people bid their money in eBay auctions, but on Friday, tech fans had the opportunity to get their hands on something unique and particularly valuable.

eBay user, “bcwright77,” based in Monterey, California, is selling an allegedly authentic and “extremely rare” copy of Homestead High School’s yearbook from 1972. Here’s the kicker: The yearbook contains an photograph of none other than a youthful Steve Jobs, the late co-founder and CEO of Apple.

Steve Jobs' Yearbook Photo

Steve Jobs’ Yearbook Photo

With a starting price of $4,999.98 (excluding shipping), this “historical collector’s item” is a great purchase to “brag about” for any tech fanatic.

Shown on the eBay website, the yearbook contains a very striking image of the then-long-haired Apple co-founder in his senior school year.

“This is surely one of the most nostalgic pieces of “Steve Jobs” memorabilia you can possibly find and the perfect gift for any “Steve Jobs” enthusiast,” said bcwright77, who has a “100 percent positive feedback” rating, on the eBay website.

The blue-bound yearbook also contains photographs of Mark, the brother of Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak’s brother, plus Job’s sister, Patty, who was friends with the eBay seller, according to an interview on news website “Cult of Mac.”

Satirical singer-songwriter Roy Zimmerman is also pictured in the yearbook, which is described as in “good condition,” but with “minor flaws.”

Although the auction has been online since March 11, only on Friday did an eBay buyer place a bid.

According to “Cult of Mac”, a “buy it now” price was originally set at $12,999.98, but there were no takers. Now the auction has now started, there is now no limit on how much this yearbook could go for.

There are plenty of other yearbooks of the famous on Ebay. For a “buy it now” price of $10,064.99 (down from $12,500), you can get a George Washington High School, Va, yearbook signed by school attendees including U.S. musician Jim Morrison.

Or how about a yearbook with Bill Clinton’s autograph ($8,500) or one with astronaut Neil Armstrong’s signature, for only $5,499.99?

Facts About Yearbooks

Posted by: admin In: Uncategorized 12 Feb 2015 Comments: 0 Tags: 2015, blog, book, camera, how to, photo, photographer, PSPA, school, student, tip, tips, year, yearbook

Facts About Yearbooks

A yearbook is a book that is published annually and is used to highlight, record and commemorate the past year in a school. This book also reflects the lives and events of people involved with a school within a certain particular year.

Yearbook_Cropped

Yearbooks have now become more than picture books and will often include literary works as well as art. The books have become more journalistic and include coverage which showcases everything including reporting of events to profiles of people.

The yearbook is therefore a memory book, a record book, a history book as well as a reference book. It is also believed to be a public relations tool for the school because through it, people are able to identify the school and it’s activities.

The following are tips you can use in order to make a good yearbook:

1.)  The year book must have a theme

Theme_Cropped

The theme of the yearbook should define the school year. You need to know what is going to be popular and interesting among the student population for that year and then use it as a theme.

2.)  Stick to the theme throughout

StickToTheme_Cropped

The best way to make sure that your yearbook is professional and cohesive, it is important to make sure that the same theme is carried throughout the yearbook. Each article, section and layout must relate and uphold the theme of the yearbook.

3.)  Plan ahead

alwaysplanahead_Cropped

Working on a yearbook can be a huge and tedious process. Make sure therefore that you know when every school event is so that the yearbook staff are there to take pictures and also experience what is going on.

4.)  Have a schedule

schedule_Cropped

Cataloging a full year of events for many students is a big job. You can tackle this by making goals for each week, month and if possible each day so that you remain on top of the whole process. Make sure that you meet all the goals as you have set them.

5.)  Have as much material as you can

material_Cropped.

Gather as much information as possible because the more information you have, the more options you will have concerning each school function.

6.)  Take as many pictures as possible

funny-photographers-job-01

By taking as many pictures as possible, you are assured of having a handful of great pictures. Since pictures are the major part of the yearbook, it is necessary to have the best pictures that you can get. Remember also that the quality of pictures reflects on the school.

7.)  Interview many students

interview_Cropped

Interviewing many students enables you to get quotes, polls as well as comments and this gives you a wide range of opinions. This is also good for the yearbook because it is supposed to be a representation of the whole student body.

8.)  Recheck the yearbook

proofread

Recheck the yearbook for grammar, spelling as well as layout mistakes so that the book looks professionally done and this will eventually reflect well on the school.

Student outraged by unwanted yearbook photo editing

Posted by: admin In: Uncategorized 09 Jan 2015 Comments: 0 Tags: 2015, candid, candids, photo, photography, year book, yearbook, yearbook photos

A student attending an all girls school was shocked when she received a reprinted student card to find that her photograph had been retouched without her knowledge.  She posted the following comments to a popular web site:

I go to an all girls high school and today every senior got a new student ID. We had gotten one in the beginning of the school year and we were all unsure as to why we were given a second. After closer inspection we realized that our photos had be retouched far past smoothing out blemishes. Here is a list of changes made in my photo:

  • face smoothing
  • skin recoloring
  • lip recoloring
  • eyebrow smoothing and reshaping
  • face thinning

I was outraged! I have a round face that I have grown to love and now I get my photo back with a different face. The new photo no longer even looks like me but rather a prettier twin sister. When we go and have our photos taken we are flat out told that our skin will be retouched to hide blemishes. We are not told, however, that more drastic changes are made.

Going to an all girls school we are constantly reminded about positive body image and accepting ourselves for who we are. Having these changes made to make me appear thinner makes me wonder how must our school practices what they preach.

So how drastic were the changes?  See for yourself:

Comparison

These types of changes are more and more common in the industry, and in this case the photography company in question communicated these changes to the school, and the school failed to pass that message on to their students.  At this point, the school has opted to print the ‘untouched’ photos instead of the doctored ones.

After meeting with my high school it has been determined that the untouched original photos will be use in the yearbook. The edits were not made by my school but rather the company our school used. These changes were made with notification to the school. When our yearbook teacher saw the photos he was outraged along with all the other staff members of the school. They understood that the new edited photos are not what the students look like. I would like to thank all of the positive comments about how wrong this is and how there need to be changes in this. My school has proved that they are fully behind positive body image by printing the untouched photos. I am proud of my school and what they stand for. To sum it up, I want this issue of photoshopping to get the attention it needs but know that my school has realized that their students do not need to be “corrected”.

Movember at Yearbooks Desktop

Posted by: admin In: Uncategorized 18 Nov 2014 Comments: 0 Tags: desktop, movember, yearbooks

Shout outs to all the Mo’ bros and Mo’ sistas!

We’re just past 2 weeks in, and ‘MOs’ are becoming prominent around the office. In keeping with tradition, NWSP will match any donations we receive, meaning that each dollar you send our way means two dollars toward this important cause.

What could be better than promoting the physical and mental health of men and boys around the world, while helping to combat stigma and discrimination?

movember_logo

af007a1269968aa16102f4ba2efa8b76-545bbbce82e48-150x150

So far, Aubrey is
leading team Mo’Tallys
with $60 raised.

Go Aubrey!

Yearbooks Desktop not yet compatible with Mac Yosemite Update

Posted by: admin In: Uncategorized 29 Oct 2014 Comments: 0

Earlier this month, Apple released the Yosemite update for Macintosh. Unfortunately, some of the plug ins that we use in Yearbooks Desktop do not yet work with this newest OS. The program loads up properly, but crashes when you try to add an image to a page (Backgrounds, covers, candids, and clipart are affected).

We are currently awaiting an update from our vendor which should resolve the problem. Once we get the update, we’ll need another week to implement it and test that it works. Once it’s past our QA phase, we’ll roll out a Mac Update for our Yearbooks users.

If you are currently running the Mac version of Yearbooks Desktop, we advise that you hold up on updating your mac to Yosemite until we have released our update. If you do update to Yosemite, you’ll need to wait for our update to be released later this season before you can resume work on your Yearbook projects.

Templates

Posted by: admin In: Help and Tips, Videos, Yearbooks Desktop 22 Oct 2014 Comments: 0 Tags: 2015, candid, candids, desktop, help, photography, support, template, templates, year book, yearbook, yearbook photos, yearbooks, yearbooks desktop, youtube

Templates are a very effective tool that you can use to make your book look professionally designed.  We spent part of our development season working on templates, so now they look more professional, and are easier to use than  ever.  Coupled with our cropping tool, you can now crop each image to fit perfectly into your template on its way in.  Alternately, use the auto flow template wizard to flow templates to multiple pages, and automatically populate them with your favorite candid images.

 

Compromise Reached over Laser Cat Yearbook Photo

Posted by: admin In: Uncategorized 07 Oct 2014 Comments: 0 Tags: 2015, candid, candids, photography, year book, yearbook, yearbooks desktop

Draven Rodriguez made national headlines this month when he released a photo he wanted as his senior portrait for his high school’s yearbook.

The image is of Rodriguez holding his cat, Mr. Bigglesworth, accompanied by blue and pink lasers. And it’s pretty unique.

CatPhoto

He started a petition drive with the goal of getting 500 signatures. He has received 7,408 signatures on ipetitions.com.

School district spokeswoman Karen Corona told USA TODAY Network via e-mail in early September that it “would not be acceptable for the senior portrait section.” And students do not have to have an image in that section. But it could go elsewhere in the yearbook.

The high school in Schenectady, N.Y., reached a compromise last week.CatPhoto2_Sized

His principal, Diane Wilkinson, would also appear in the photo with their animals, and the photo will appear on the principal’s page in the yearbook, the Daily Gazette said.

“The school and I have worked out a compromise we’re all happy with. It’ll be in there, just not in the senior section,” Rodriguez wrote on his petition page website.

Both animals are rescue pets. The principal’s dog’s name is Vivian, the photographer, Vincent Giordano, said, and the goal is to raise awareness of rescue animals through the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Sign Up As A Publisher

Posted by: admin In: Press Release, Sales, Tech Support, Yearbooks Desktop 05 Sep 2014 Comments: 0 Tags: 2015, books, branding, candid, contact, desktop, discount, license, licenses, logo, photography, print, publisher, sale, sign up, value, year book, yearbook

Yes!  We’ve drastically lowered prices for stand alone registrations this season ($75 per license is almost unheard of in this industry), but did you know that you can get even more of a discount when you sign up as a publisher?SpecialOffer

Our publisher signup/renewal fee is still $250.00 per season, and as of this year you get a lot more out of it:

License Discount:

All of our publishers get a 25% discount on every license purchased.  Are you doing 14 books or more?  If you are, then signing up as a publisher pays for itself in license discounts alone.

Private Label Branding:

We used to charge over and above our publisher renewal fee to include your company’s logo and contact information in the software.  Now, we offer this to everyone who signs up as a publisher.

Electronic Submission:

This is a feature that’s available to all of our registered publishers.  Once your customer is finished designing their book, they can submit the PDF to you electronically.

PDF Security:

Lock your end user’s high resolution PDFs with the password of your choice.  Ensure that your schools print their books through you.

Call or email us to sign up as a publisher today!

Yearbooks Desktop 2015 Release

Posted by: admin In: Press Release, Sales, Yearbooks Desktop 02 Sep 2014 Comments: 0 Tags: 2015, clipart, desktop, download, Mac, photography, support, Windows, year book, yearbook, yearbooks, yearbooks desktop

Logo

It’s September!  As usual, we like to celebrate the back to school season with a new release of our Yearbook authoring software.  This development season we’ve primarily been working to keep the program up to date with the most recent operating systems, on both Windows and Mac.  We’ve also been working on updating our program’s interface, making it more intuitive to use, and with fewer errors.

 

Lower_PriceNew Price Point:

It’s no secret that we’re competing against a growing online market.  Even though the online solutions available today aren’t as reliable as our desktop solution, the convenience and marketability of them can make for a tough sale.  We’re pleased to announce that we substantially lowered the license costs for our desktop software.  As of this season, we’re selling individual licenses for $75 each.  Folks who are signed up as our publishers receive a discount on all licenses.  We hope that this makes it easier for you to market our solution to your schools.

 

YourLogo2Branding is Now Included in Publisher Renewal Fee:

We’ve always offered branding in our software, but until now we’ve been charging $500.00 for this service, on top of our standard publisher signup or renewal fee.  As of this season, we will begin offering branding (Your company’s logo and contact information) to all of our publishers, included in the regular publisher signup/renewal fees.  We will still be charging a premium if you need custom artwork, panels, or page sizes, but the charge for these will be much lower than previous years as well.

 

edgeeffectEdge Effects are Back:

Our customers spoke, and we listened!  Edge effects (The clipping masks that can be used on portraits and candids) have been added back into the page editor, and the panel flow wizard.  We still have the same draw problem where the transparent parts show up as white on the page editor, but the transparency is crisp and perfect in every PDF.  Enjoy!

 

 

 

Major Bugs Resolved:Bug

Last season we released a new page editor, and as is typical with new technology, we did run into a few annoying bugs.  Thankfully we were able to work around these issues last season, but the better news is that we’ve resolved most of them for this season.  The PDF errors (Box size, and dropping backgrounds to name a couple of the majors) have been resolved, a few of the buttons have been rearranged to make things feel more natural, and a full round of testing has gone into the major features and functions.

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