Photo Factory Demo 04) Multi Page Photo Product Editor

Montreal, March 7th 2016

We've recently rolled out updates to Photo Factory 3 which you (the retailer) should familiarize yourself with as they add many selling options and creation options for you and your customers. A quick list of the main updates is:

Codex PF3 WebApp featuring auto fill for both fixed and freestyle products
Page layouts being added to all freestyle page products greatly improving the creation experience for the consumer
Single page products being moved to Codex PF3 WebApp
Codex WebApp being made mobile friendly for all product types (canvas, collage, calendar, books, folded cards, etc.)

This update greatly increases the mobile compatibility of our Photo Factory engine and adds loads of functionality aimed at enhancing the consumer experience.

Autofill feature available for both fixed / freestyle and mixed fixed & freestyle products.

In this example we're working on a 12x12 Photobook with a window cover. The first inside page is a fixed layout with the image node being positioned according to the window size and position of the specific cover and all other pages in the book are freestyle pages. We've selected 80 photos, using Facebook as a source.

After the upload process, the interface prompts the user to autofill the book or skip and fill manually.

Once you select PROCESS the WebApp will show a clear progress indicator as the algorithm works to fill out the layout: Upon completion, the consumer is automatically returned to his book project. You'll notice that the first page is filled according to the fixed position of the image node that corresponds to the window position while all other pages have images placed according to various pre-configured layouts.

Page layouts being added to all freestyle page products greatly improving the creation experience for the consumer

One of the most requested updates to the Photo Factory Codex WebApp has been a better layout system for the freestyle templates. With this update we're introducing a magnificent upgrade which allows for better layout tools, while keeping the flexibility your customers are used to with the Photo Factory.

In the below screenshot we see a four image layout that was pre-populated with photos. On the left hand tool bar the LAYOUTS menu was selected, allowing you to choose another pre-configured layout. Layouts are sorted by image count.
Selecting another layout will automatically reshuffle the images for the consumer.

Note that when you select a layout with fewer images, the removed images lose their 'used' check-mark in the photo pane and are also searchable by using the 'Show unused images only' filter from the photo pane.

To not punish experimentation, if you then decide to select a layout with more images, the auto-fill system remembers the removed images on that page and uses those to fill in the gaps. In this case we went to a 5 image layout and our previously removed image was returned as well as a new empty image node.

At this point, we'd like to add a caption to this page, but there's not enough room for our text and we don't want the text to sit above images. In this case we're going to take some liberties with the layout. The consumer has the freedom to select and re-size / remove / replace / re-position any image node by simply selecting it:

We simply removed the image node using the garbage can remove icon in the toolbar and used the ever present add text button which is appended to the page in the main canvas editing area. Text is edited in the left hand toolbar.

Single Page Products in Codex PF3 WebApp

Moving forward, all single page products will be created in the same engine as the multi page products. This will standardize the user experience for your customers and open up new possibilities.

One of the items we heard from retailers is that collages were too complicated to create in the previous single page app. By bringing the single page products to the Codex PF3 WebApp, we open up a better way to swap photos from the photo bar and also the autofill option becomes available.