Textures and Shapes

LOFT cards from Black River Imaging are thick and luxurious!

I have just returned from working back-to-back photography trade shows for Black River Imaging: Imaging USA in Atlanta and the Sports and School Photography Annual Conference in Las Vegas. In my visits with professional photographers, they want textures and shapes!

Texture as in the 51 point thick LOFT cards printed with a luxurious eggshell finish that invokes memories of the letterpress era.

Shape as in the elegant die cuts around the edges of the specialty shaped cards.

Texture as in the snakeskin and ostrich leather choices available for the Mosaic albums.

What are your favorite trends in photographic products?

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Print Can Be Art

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My last two posts have been very iPad centric and have projected that tablet computers like the iPad improve the e-reading experience enough to accelerate the trend away from printed publications.

Print is not going away.  But I predict a steeper decline in the quantity of utilitarian printing. There will be fewer printing jobs and smaller printing jobs where the primary purpose is the transmission of purely informational content.

But print is more than content. Print can be art!

The story of a wedding day!  A celebration for a special friend!  A blank wall or an empty coffee table! These are events that cry out for a beautiful printed book, card or poster.  On the right paper with the appropriate finishing and binding, print can touch hearts.

How has your heart been touched by the art of print?

Pinhole Press Specializes in the Art of Print

iPad 2 is Just Right

I like to read while I travel. But a couple of books and a stack of magazines add a lot of weight and bulk to my briefcase.  My quest to lighten my briefcase by reading on an electronic device reminds me of the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

My first laptop computer was created by adding an LCD screen to the top of an Apple 2C and my current laptop is a 13” Macbook Pro. While the processing performance, storage and connectivity have improved tremendously over the last 2 decades, the reading experience hasn’t changed much. A laptop is still too big, too cumbersome, takes too long to boot and requires charging too often to be a comfortable replacement for a book or magazine.

When I replaced my Palm Treo with an iPhone, I was hopeful that it could serve as a nice e-reader.  I installed the Kindle app, several news site apps and a good RSS reader. My iPhone has warded off boredom and helped me stay productive many times when I have found myself waiting without anything else to read.  But the screen is just too small for reading efficiently or enjoyably.

Now I have an iPad 2 and it is just right.  It is small enough to carry and hold comfortably with a screen large enough to read quickly.  It boots up instantly and holds a charge all day. With Kindle for books, Flipboard for news and several magazine subscription apps, I find little need for printed material.

The quality of the reading experience on the iPad and other tablet devices is certain to accelerate the trends away from printed newspapers, magazines and books.  

What are your experiences with tablets or e-readers?  Have they changed your consumption of printed publications?