Scrapbook Factory Deluxe — Easy Digital Scrapbooking

By Leanne Tremblay

Great Buy!

We found that this affordable scrapbooking software, Scrapbook Factory Deluxe 4.0 will suit the needs of most computer savvy digital scrapbookers.

If you don't want the learning curve of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, this software is a good choice. For around $40 you get all the features of easy drag-and-drop image placement, pre-designed templates for albums, cards, and other photo gifts, thousands of graphics, fonts, plus faux embellishments like buttons, ribbon, and paper.

Produce your pages exactly how you like them and then print your masterpiece using Shutterfly's digital scrapbook feature. While Scrapbook Factory Deluxe is geared for home printing, don't waste your time printing your whole album on your personal printer--your ink costs will be crazy! Use Shutterfly to either print individual pages or to print and bind a complete photo book.

To read more about the features and benefits, you can visit Scrapbook Factory Deluxe home page here.

What I Liked

First of all, I like that you get an actual manual with this software, not a PDF file —it's nice to have a paper copy of instructions ready to go. Once installed, you can get started quickly with Scrapbook Deluxe. Choose from creating pages from scratch or creating pages from a template. There are hundreds of templates to choose from!

If you use a tempate, just double-click to add your own pictures where indicated.

You add change or delete items from it to suit your needs.

Icons on the left let you add graphics backgrounds, custom shapes broders and so on. On the right, a menu pane lets you add embellishments like tiles, buttons, ribbon, choose colors, fonts, and font effects.

The biggest advantage to using this software is how quickly you can create pages and drop in your photos. The software has sentiments, like Happy Birthday, Celebrate, and Dreams in a variety of different fonts and and effects to save you time as well as a whole range of fun embellishments.

A Few Bonus Features

Scrapbook Factory Deluxe can also do some basic image editing tricks, and you can use it to create an online scrapbook you distribute on CD.

Some Room for Improvement

The downside is that you don't have complete control over design elements like you would with Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. (But those programs also cost five times as much!)

Scrapbook Deluxe also doesn't have as many ready made templates in the 12x12 size, (mostly 8.5x11) but they do have blank templates you can use.

By default the pages are built with top, bottom, left and right margins. However if you like the full bleed look (where the picture prints right to the edge of the page), simply go into File, Page Setup, and set your margins to zero. Now when you add a backround, for example, like crumpled paper, it will print right the the edge of the page. When printed using Shutterfly technology, it will look fabulous!