iRemember 2.0
Intriguing Development
Price: $39.95 (free trial)
Pros:
Cons:
by Christina Lewry-Bailey, Capt, USAF
Attention all scrapbooking fanatics! Tired of all the cutting, pasting and flipping through photographs? Well, there is a way to enjoy your hobby without all the paper fuss using iRemember 2.0. What is even better for us military gals is the ease of traveling without the suitcase full of scrapbooking supplies. Now all you need is your MaBook!
For starters iRemember includes a hands-on tutorial that features a sample scrapbook page. The tutorial is great because it allows the user to familiarize themselves through trial and error, with the applications of adding, removing, rearranging, and editing the scrapbook page. The downside to the tutorial is that it lacks basic “how to” direction or explanation for users, hence the use of the term “trial and error”. This could present itself to be quite troublesome and frustrating for those new to the digital applications of scrapbooking, whether they are Mac or PC users.
Once you figure out the tutorial, users will be able to create a personalized scrapbook page in minutes. iRemember offers all the basic elements of scrapbooking and requires only time and photos from the users. When creating a new page, everyone starts with a blank canvas. iRemember allows you to choose between a standard 8 1/2" x 11" or 12" x 12" pages. If you don’t like either of those settings, there is always the option to customize the page size, so long as you have the appropriate printer and paper. Once the size of the page is set, users can select from several backgrounds already available or set their photos as backgrounds for their page. From there, all it takes is a little creativity!
iRemember provides users with thousands of clipart files, textboxes, borders, shapes, patterns, embellishments, and photo/page corners to spice up any scrapbook page. Once a photo has been added to the page (by simply clicking & dragging from iPhoto), add any of the extras from the clipart file to personalize your page. All shapes, clipart, textboxes, and templates can be manipulated by cropping and resizing to suit individual tastes. Before you know it, you have completed a scrapbook page to showcase your memories. And for those who really want to showcase their creativity, iRemember allows you to save your scrapbook page in either JPEG or template format. Saving scrapbook pages as JPEGs allows users to export their pages to iPhoto, which in turn gives the option to order an entire album from Apple! Talk about all the paper and ink you can save your printer!
However, I found this software did not meet my personal expectations. At best, iRemember is a page-layout software with applications that closely resemble those of Mac’s Pages. Basically you are purchasing the thousands of clip art files included with the software, which for the most part, are very generic. This in itself may prove disappointing for experienced digital scrapbookers who use more advanced software such as Photoshop or GIMP.
Although this software may not meet expectations of some, all in all, iRemember is a great starter tool for those looking to create and preserve their memories without the cutting, cropping, and gluing as well as those just getting familiar with complexities of digital scrapbooking.
System Requirements:
* Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later
* DVD-ROM
• 3GB harddrive