Digital Scrapbook | Fun to scrapbook

Digital Scrapbooking

March 27th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed

Scrapbooking is a very popular as evidenced by the fact that over 25% of people enjoy it. Scrapbooks are easier and more impressive with technology improvements such as digital photographs. In fact the digital photos are what distinguish a scrapbook as a digital scrapbook. It is a new form of collecting your albums. If you want more attractive digital scrapbooks, you can do it with the help of graphics software. It will make the layout of your scrapbook nice and catchy.

Using your creativity and the large amount of graphics software out there your sweet memories can be stored in an artistic way. The home computer is a reality in most homes and can be used for many purposes such as storing photos. You don’t need any special software or knowledge. These days with a rudimentary computer literacy level, the average person can create digital scrapbooks that are hard to distinguish from professional ones.

The convenience of digital scrapbooking has contributed to its phenomenal growth. In the old days, children and adults would get all messed up using paper, scissors and glue. Now it’s so easy, even children enjoy doing it. While they are happily moving elements on the screen they are not getting into trouble and they feel like they have contributed to the family.

Another difference between digital scrapbooks and normal scrapbooks is the ease that you can change the layout and the backgrounds. This can be done at any stage of production, even after the project is finished. Once you are happy with the end product, just share it over the internet. No postage, no damage, unlimited supply for everyone who wants it.

You can still have your physical scrapbook, just print it out. The finished pages can be stored and shown as a scrapbook album. Printing and storing them is done economically. No dust either. Digital scrapbooking will avoid waste of raw materials such as paper and glue and that’s good for the environment.

Just like fingerprints, no two digital scrapbooks are identical. Each of them carries the unique style of design of the person who produced it. The basic steps of creating backgrounds, adding photos, creating photo mats, adding special effects such as shadowing are all easier in a digital world. The last step is to finish with titles.

Presenting the photos can be done with any number of options from simple graphics to 3D effects and everything in between. Don’t worry if you are a first time user, there are lots of ready-made templates that will sharpen up the presentation in short order with just a few clicks. As the new user progresses they gain experience and a feel for new techniques. As they get more confident, their imagination becomes a bigger part of the production of the collections.

Because this is a digital scrapbook, all forms of production must also be digital. You have to collect your photos in digital form. This may seems like a pain, but believe me, once you get on to it, you will realize how much easier it is than going through the family shoebox looking for the just right photo. Also with digital photos, they can be enhanced and changed. They can be converted into different looks. With a couple of clicks, you can take a digital photo and turn it into a chalk drawing or a stained glass look. The possibilities are endless. Not only the photos must be digital but the backgrounds, photo frames, matting, and everything else. Not to worry, there are thousands of all of these freely available on the internet.

With all the possibilities of looks and themes, you have unlimited variations for your scrapbook. The ready-made templates can be used as a guideline. As your skill grows, the only limitation you have is your imagination.

Software that will assist you is listed here. This list is far from definitive but is a good place to start.

Adobe
Photoshop
Photoshop Elements
Jasc Paint Shop Pro
Ulead PhotoImpact
Microsoft Digital Image Pro

These are in no particular order. Each of these are very good products available today for photo editing. Their features will help your scrapbook challenge the pros and lets you bring your own imagination and ideas to the finished product.

If you “google” digital scrapbooking, you will find there are just under 3.5 million results or webpages. So help is readily available from many sites. This makes it much easier to get beginners to start and finish their first project. The fulfillment they will achieve is wonderful.

Been there, done that, scrapped a page about it.

Ken