FotoFusion: The Fusion of Digital and Traditional

I consider myself to be computer savvy, but I haven't jumped onto the digital scrapping bandwagon. I enjoy using traditional scrapbooking embellishments--ink, chalk, and so forth. But I'm the first one to admit that there are some real advantages to digital scrapping, such as the ability to save money, make pages more quickly, store pages easily and safely, choose unlimited colors for paper and embellishments, and produce multiple copies of the same layout. LumaPix's FotoFusion software allows users to have the best of both worlds, blending traditional scrapbooking materials with digital techniques.

Try It for Free!

I downloaded the free trial version from the LumaPix website so I could see what the software was able to do. All features are available for two weeks if you register your trial version. You will also get 20 credits which you can use to purchase dotScrap digital elements.

When the two weeks end, you can continue using the trial version but you won't be able to purchase any more dotScrap digital materials, and you won't be able to print anything without a very visible watermark. If you decide to buy a licensed version, you will receive a User ID that changes your trial version into the full version. There are three levels of the product, including Scrapbook Essentials (for scrapbookers), Enhanced (for photographers and enthusiasts), and Extreme (for professional photographers and studios). These are compared in a chart on the website. The Enhanced and Extreme versions are really not necessary unless you are a professional scrapbooker or photographer.

See What FotoFusion Can Do

One of the features I liked best about FotoFusion was the fact that when you make changes to an image, such as adding a border or adjusting the brightness, you are not altering the original image. I can't count the number of times I have played around with a photo in Jasc's Paint Shop Pro 9^TM and then have forgotten to save the changes as a new image. There aren't too many options for altering the image in FotoFusion, but as the LumaPix website points out, that isn't the goal of the software. They suggest that you use a photo editing program for any artistic altering of photos. FotoFusion is designed to help you create compositions with photos.

There are many different photo composition options in FotoFusion. My favorite type was the Auto Collage. I picked several of my digital photos and using the "Auto Collage" feature turned them into a collage. If I didn't like the arrangement, I could have it create a different collage with those same images, or I could swap two images in the collage. Another option created a collage that was randomized, so the photos were tilted every which way as though tossed in a pile on a desk.

I could also create a composition of my own on a blank canvas. For this option, I could use any digital embellishments that were in .jpg, .bmp, .gif, .png, or .tif formats. (The more expensive packages also allowed .pdf and psd formats.) I have been downloading free digital scrapbook elements from the internet for months now, but I have never used them. FotoFusion makes it simple to use those with my photos and journaling. I can place them on the blank canvas and move them around or change their dimensions until I like the way they look.

Learning the FotoFusion System

You won't need many tutorials to figure out how to use the system. If you do need them, FotoFusion includes several on the start page. In addition, the LumaPix website provides a forum where you can ask questions, a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) list, email support and phone support. I learned quite a bit browsing around the LumaPix website, including discovering features that I might have otherwise missed.

The techniques for moving images, resizing them, angling them, and so on, are very simple and for the most part are intuitive. As the included tutorial says, you need to know three things in order to use the product:

• Blue vs. Yellow. The blue handles alter the frame of a photo while the yellow ones are for changing the photo itself.
  
  
• Dragging vs. Clicking. Dragging allows you general control. For example, you can resize a border by dragging your mouse back and forth. Clicking gives more specific control, so you can resize the border to an exact measurement, for example.
  
  
• Keyboard Accelerators. There is only one key on the keyboard that you need to use, and that's the CTRL key. It allows you to toggle between options. For example, you can change the size of a frame's shadow by dragging, but pressing the CTRL key will turn the shadow off.

Take Advantage of the dotScrap Alliance
LumaPix has created a dotScrap alliance, which includes leading manufacturers such as Creative Imaginations, KI Memories, Westrim Crafts, Daisy D's, SEI and Scrapjazz. Several of these manufacturers, as well as others, have created digital embellishments and kits that are to be used with the FotoFusion software. The dotScrap website lists these advantages to their digital products:

• Quick and easy layouts-you won't waste time trying to figure out the perfect size for a photo or how to fit your journaling in the space available.
  
  
• Perfect results-the manufacturers in the alliance are well-known for making quality products, and all digital embellishments will coordinate with paper-based products.
  
  
• Smart content-LumaPix uses this phrase to describe the embellishments that are ‘smart', such as digital envelopes that hold photos, paper clips that hold papers together, and frames that can be resized and reshaped without stretching them.
  
  
• Layers and textures-these embellishments are designed to be add-ons to your paper products. You decide the ratio of digital embellishments to traditional elements. As a result, you still get the textures, layers and depth of traditional scrapbooking.
  
  
• Cost-since these elements are digital, the cost can be minimal.

Vendors such as Li'l Davis, K and Company, and Autumn Leaves have kits available for purchase in the trial version. Using the Library feature, you can search for specific keywords to find the exact digital elements you want. A few other kits are previewed on the dotScrap website. These particular kits are to be sold in retail stores and contain paper-based products to coordinate with dotScrap digital embellishments that you would download using the included User ID. The website also promises that a monthly digital+paper club will be available in the future.

Make More than Scrapbook Pages

You can use FotoFusion to create layouts, but it also works well for cards and calendars. Anything you create is easily shared with others, since FotoFusion has an email function built into the program so you can quickly attach your creation to an email that you send to your friends and family. If you prefer, you can publish your layouts to a website. If you are interested in family history or if you attend group events, you can easily create pages and share them with family members or other event attendees.

It seems to me that LumaPix understands the advantages and disadvantages of both traditional and digital scrapping, and they have created a product that combines the best of both worlds. As more and more manufacturers catch that same vision, they are going to want to create digital+paper content for LumaPix as well. Even without that content, however, FotoFusion is a product that will let you add digital touches to your scrapbook pages, without stress and without a degree in photo-editing software.

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