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Posted on by Shellie Terry Posted in Tips & Tricks
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For Good Measure: Yes, There’s an App for That!

If you’re looking for a way to make site inspections just a little bit easier, we’ve found Photo Measures, a smartphone app that allows you to save and share measurements and dimensions on photos taken with your phone’s camera.

Instead of using a rough, hand-drawn sketch with notes, Photo Measures lets you:

  • Take photos and draw measurements and details directly on the picture
  • Zoom in and out of your photo when you need to be more precise
  • Edit measurements with just a touch
  • Quickly add text as comments when more info is needed
  • Easily organize your photos by category
  • Export measurements in hi-res by email or to your photo library (PDF or JPG)
  • And import photos of any size and aspect ratio

It’s available for both Android and iOS devices. The Android version is currently $4.99 and the iOS is $6.99.

There’s also a free version of this app called: Photo Measures Lite, and this version is pretty helpful, too. However, it has a few limitations compared to the full version:

  • You’re limited to only 2 photos at a time
  • The photos you export will have a watermark

We’ve put together a quick video, above, to show Photo Measures in action. Check it out and let us know how this app and other on-the-job apps make your life easier.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles, Marketing & Sales
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Promotions that Work: Free Fabric Wall Clings

Printing mobile photo apps for wall decorFree isn’t always truly free, but the free giveaway concocted by Color Services Photo Lab in Santa Barbara really was free and drove additional business to its doors. Marketed through email, the company’s blog and social media like Facebook and Twitter, with a twist of Hipstamatic, the photo lab’s promotion for free Fabric Wall Clings was over Memorial Day weekend only.

Fabric Wall Clings are prints on Photo Tex Repositionable Fabric from LexJet. Those who took advantage of the promotion were directed to the Wall Art section on Color Services’ website where they plugged in a coupon code and uploaded a photo to receive either an 11×11 or an 11×14 print.

Here’s where the iPhone app Hipstamatic comes into play; Color Services included 11×11 prints since that size works with the Hipstamatic format. Plus, Color Services is the official print lab for the Hipstamatic app, so the lab has custom-tailored products that work well with square images.

“Since the promotion we’ve had a number of orders for the Fabric Wall Clings and we just got a sizeable order for one today, including a 12″ x 4′ panoramic photo. We had 118 people take advantage of the promotion and about 45 to 50 of those were shipped internationally,” says Glen Hodges, owner of Color Services. “It was well worth it; we probably spent less than $500 to do it. It’s hard to figure out a way to market the material so that people can really understand what it can do. Getting samples in their hands through a free promotion did that, and brought them back to place a real order.”

Color Services prints the images with its Epson Stylus Pro 9900 on Photo Tex and then puts two coats of water-based lacquer to provide extra protection and give the images more pop. Hodges reports that through a combination of the promotion and simply showing it to clients – including commercial and interior décor clientele – the product is taking off following its launch in mid-May.

Pictured here is Color Services’ IncrediBooth Fabric Wall Cling product, which is printed at 5.5″ x 30″. IncrediBooth is a mobile app that recreates the photo booths of yore. Color Services has made a savvy play to weave the proliferating photo apps into its business, giving the company greater reach with creative products.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Technology & Products
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Have Fun, Build Business with Simply Postcards App

iPhone iPad iPod Touch app postcardsLet’s face it. People still love to get mail and enjoy their hand-delivered paper products. The death of print has been greatly exaggerated. What we often see instead is a complementary merging of digital and print.

Case in point is Simply Postcards, a division of Simply Canvas and Simply Color Lab, which recently introduced a new app that allows you to create your own postcard digitally and have it printed and sent to the person or business of your choice. The app can be used with an iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad or at the Simply Postcards website. The Droid app is scheduled to be available next week for Droiders, or whatever you call someone who uses a Droid.

“The app is easy and fun, and everyone I know who uses it loves it,” says Dean Lambert, LexJet vice president, who has been overwhelming the U.S. Postal Service with postcards to friends and family.

Lest you think that Simply Postcards is only a means to send birthday cards and such to loved ones, it’s actually an excellent tool for business. Check out a few of the 1,001 ways in which pro photographers are using the app to stay in touch and follow up with their clients at www.simplypostcards.net/1001-uses.html.

“We’re starting to see small businesses use it as a means to easily tap customized direct mail through the app,” says Dan Ptak, project manager for Simply Postcards. “The site includes a nice business function for importing contacts, bulk pricing from 80 cents to a dollar apiece, and a function that allows you to schedule a postcard for a later date so that it arrives on an anniversary, a birthday, as an order reminder or on holidays.”

Simply Postcards recently added Simply Borders to the app’s repertoire. Borders that you can add to the postcard include Featured (Seasonal and appropriately timed themes, including Valentine’s Day… Hurry up for that!), Occasions (Happy birthday, thank you), Travel (Wish you were here, vintage airmail), and Miscellaneous (Vintage photo album look, filmstrip), or create your own using their template http://www.simplypostcards.net/simplyborders/custom.html.

To see it in action, check out Simply Postcards’ YouTube video at www.youtube.com/user/SimplyPostcards

Every user receives their first postcard free after signing up, and just for our readers, Simply Postcards is also supplying three more free with the promo code: lexjet