If so, what do you like/dislike about it? I'm considering buying the Lite Suite, but with their Black Friday Sale, the Album Suite is on sale for the same price as the Lite Suite normally goes for.
We use it and like it. Last year at WPPI I got a free install of Smart Albums and had them side by side. I liked Fundy better, but Smart Albums has a ton of fans.
I played with it when I was software shopping last year, demoed Fundy, Smart Albums and Album Stomp. Did the same album in each, fell in love with Smart Albums. Fundy was solid, but I personally found Smart Albums way more intuitive and quicker to arrive at a design I loved.
I would honestly suggest downloading the demo's, I believe all three companies have Black Friday sales.
I have been using Smart Albums since the original beta, and I purchased Fundy last year because I wanted to try their suite (and Andrew...the guy who makes Fundy...is just awesome and I wanted to support him). Honestly, though, both my wife and I vastly prefer Smart Albums. It is very simple, and it does what you want it to do in the way that seems most natural. I constantly felt like I was trying to figure out how to do fairly basic things in Fundy.
But, considering how many people swear by Fundy, I am sure it is probably an apples to apples type thing.
I'd check on the demo trials. We've been Fundy users for many years and really like it. Definitely not the most intuitive program but we are familiar which definitely helps.
The most recent version was a pretty big change from the past and goes beyond simply being a program to design albums but is now platform for presenting the design to your clients and also has direct order capabilities with a handful of popular labs. If you don't do in-person sales, then this won't be of any interest.
What we like -- since we do in-person sales, being able to stay in Fundy environment throughout has simplified our workflow. You can generate slide shows and also split your views during your client session -- have the spreads visible on a large flat panel for clients to see and have a backend view on your computer that keeps your work changes separate. A ton of our clients live too far away to come to our studio conveniently and this also makes it work really well for remote sales sessions using a video conference like Zoom where we can share screens. Have heard good things about Smart Albums, too, and it may offer similar features.
I'be been using Fundy Designer for a few years now and like it well enough. I do a pre-design, output for web, and send a .zip file to the clients for preview.
Does Smart Albums have a good way to to the same process?
If so, what do you like/dislike about it? I'm considering buying the Lite Suite, but with their Black Friday Sale, the Album Suite is on sale for the same price as the Lite Suite normally goes for.
Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Oh.....HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!
Lite seems so limiting, only 10X10 albums? Personally I only do 12" or larger
I've had Fundy for a few years now. There is a bit of a learning curve, which isn't bad.
What I like- I find it easy to layout albums quickly. They have templates for many album manufacturers built in. It's easy to export proof size files for client approval, and it's also easy to resize an existing album which is great for making smaller "parent album" versions of a wedding album.
What I don't like- It crashes too often. Sometimes multiple crashes within the course of a design session. I will say their support is good in terms of getting back with suggestions. I have stable and robust PC and this is the only program I have issues with.
This is a timely question as I am wondering about updating Fundy in hopes it might be more stable and add some features. The live proofing deal really doesn't do anything for me. I might be interested in Smart Albums but I wonder what the learning curve is there and I'm not wild about switching in the middle of my busy album season.
Does anyone know if Smart Albums allows you to set a default drop shadow? With Fundy I have to enter the settings every.single.time.
I will say the image quality out of Fundy is great and my clients love the results.
For me, Fundy Album Designer crashes over and over. It doesn't automatically save work between crashes. I am constantly clicking save while using Designer, waiting for the next inevitable crash. No other software on my computer crashes, just Fundy Album Designer over and over and over... BLECH!!!
