Frequently Asked Questions

Q: My registration key doesn't work - help!

Q: Is there a Mac version?

Q: Why don't my printed cubes look as good as what I see on the screen?

Q: Can I make cubes of various sizes?

Q: How can I share my photo cubes with others?

Q: What is the best way to construct or assemble printed photo cubes?

Q: Is JPEG the only supported image file format?

Q: Why is the simple image editor so simple?

Q: Can I use the free "A Square Image" editor with Paper PhotoCube?

A: Be sure to enter the name and registration key exactly as you received them, via email or CD-ROM insert. Our keys are in the format of 2 letters, followed by several numerals, and 1 final letter. For example, ab123456c. Unfortunately, sometimes the letters looks like numbers in some fonts (e.g., "ell" looks like "one"). We will change this in the future to make it clearer, but for now, be sure that the pattern is:

 ab123456c

A: No, sorry, not yet. While the MacIntosh crowd is important to us, we decided to focus initially on the high growth market for consumer digital imaging (the PC). If a Mac version of PPC is something you'd really like to see, please email us and let us know! (But, you gotta promise to buy one if we make one :)

A: There are several things that affect print quality:

• image resolution - screen resolution is typically around 72 dpi while printer resolution is typically 300 dpi or higher. An image that looks fine on the screen may look grainy when printed. For best results with Paper PhotoCube, start with images that are at least 480x480.
• PPC resolution setting - you can use the menu to set the resolution (that is, the size of each face of the cube) to 200, 240, 400, or 480. For best print results, use the higher settings
• paper quality - photo grade paper can produce a dramatic improvement in print quality for photographic projects. Various types of photo grade paper are available, with per page costs ranging from 10-75 cents. Mitsubishi Diamond Jet Paper (Mirror Gloss) has good print quality, and produces a nice, solid photo cube. You can also find photo grade paper at major retailers - just ask one of those helpful young people.
• printer (and settings) - some color printers are better than others. Newer printers (from $200-300) have special photo quality options, which can produce print quality rivaling traditional photography. When you print a cube, look at the options on your printer's dialogs to see what quality settings are available. If there is a photo grade setting, try it: you'll like it!
• where you live - remember: it's you; your pictures; you and yours can touch it; send it; publish it; display it. So what if it isn't as perfect as the ads in Wired or Vogue? --- it's you baby!
• professional edition - see below

A: When printing directly from PPC, each photo cube is scaled to use the entire 8.5 x 11 page (plus a little space for printer margins). There are a couple of options for creating cubes of various sizes:

• orientation/layout - look for the portrait/landscape setting on your printer options. Switching to landscape should turn the cube "sideways" and create a slightly smaller cube (which, by the way, is perfect for kids' crafts, such as Barbie Digital Camera projects).
• JPEG version - create a JPEG version of your cube (at 480 resolution, if possible). Load this JPEG photo cube into your favorite image processing program and look for scaling/resizing and/or print scaling options. If you need it, here's a short list of image tools.
• professional edition - we are considering a professional edition of Paper PhotoCube, which would handle larger resolutions and print sizes. This would be licensed to service providers, such as print shops, photo labs, etc. You could have custom photo cubes for gifts, holiday items, birthday/wedding/party favors, etc. - on high quality paper through high-res printers. If you are interested in discussing these possibilities, please drop us a line.

A: There are many ways - sharing is what it's all about!

• the real deal - if you assemble your photo cubes first, either hand deliver them or pack them carefully for mailing! Going on a visit? Make a few and carry them on the plane, or wrap them in bubble wrap and put them in a safe place. Once you give a loved one a photo cube, it will live in their house forever!
• the semi-real deal - print out some extra copies and send them in a sturdy mailing envelope (write DO NOT BEND in big letters, if you dare). Of course, hand delivery is still preferred. Remember: making the cube is as much fun as getting one. Your friends and relatives will actually enjoying cutting, spindling, mutilating, and folding you into shape!
• Email - Paper PhotoCube can automatically create a JPEG version of the completed photo cube. The size of the resulting image file depends on the resolution setting, and ranges from under 100K up to around 300K. A JPEG version at 200 or 240 resolution is easily emailed, and will produce decent results when the recipient prints from a Web browser or image processing application. If you know the person you are sending to won't mind a large email attachment, go ahead and send the larger version (400 or 480 resolution).
• Web Pages - the JPEG version can easily be placed on a Web page. Simply provide a direct link to the JPEG image, such as <a href="myphotocube.jpg">My Photo Cube</a>. Once loaded into the Web browser, the page can be printed using File->Print. For best results, use a resolution of 200 or 240 (it'll take less time to download, and will usually print on an 8.5 x 11 page). You might also suggest to your visitors that they turn off print annotations (header, footer) and set margins to small or zero, in the Web browser's File->Page Setup.
• AOL 4.0 - if you are one of the 14 million customers of America Online, be sure to upgrade to 4.0. AOL is getting into digital imaging in a big way, gearing up for the America Online's You've Got Pictures initiative (with Kodak). AOL 4.0 has a lot of nifty tools for downloading, uploading, publishing, and emailing digital pictures. The JPEG version from Paper PhotoCube fits right into AOL, just like any other image. Between AOL, Kodak, and TriVista, soon you'll hear "You've Got Picture Cubes"!

  Note: be sure to tell IE4 (the Web browser) in AOL4.0 to NOT compress graphics. See AOL graphics for more information.

A: The output of Paper PhotoCube is designed with ease of construction in mind. Simply follow the gray outlines to trim off the excess material, and the cube is ready to fold and assemble. Using thicker photo grade paper makes assembly a lot easier, and yields a sturdier cube.

Here are some assembly hints:

• find some kids - they can do this stuff all day long, and they usually will work for food
• use a straight edge - place a ruler along the edge of folds between images and along tabs.
• make all folds first - if you use a ruler and do all the folds first, you should be able to hold the cube in one hand in its assembled form.
• use double sided tape - a glue stick works better than Elmer's glue, but you can't beat double sided tape for convenience or quality of results. Look for products called "double-stick invisible adhesive," such as Easy-Stick.
• sides/top/bottom - there is a single tab on the right side of the four adjacent images. Attach this flap first, connecting the left most and right most image to form a box. Next, attach the top face to the three tabs (on the top edge of images 1, 3, and 4). You can put a finger up through the cube to make this easier. Finally, attach the bottom face to the remaining three tabs.

A: Yes. At the current time, Paper PhotoCube 1.0 only supports JPEG images. The main reason is our target market is digital imaging, that is, photos. JPEG is the most effective format for storing photographic information, especially if the results will be emailed or published. For example, a completed photo cube at 240 resolution is 730 x 1015 pixels. The JPEG for this is around 100K, while the BMP is typically a whopping 2MB! Another reason we don't write GIF images is due to licensing restrictions on that proprietary format. (There is a nascent lossless image format called PNG that should eventually supercede GIF as the primary "raster" image format for the Web). Our upcoming standalone product, A Smaller Image, is perfect for preprocessing images for use in Paper PhotoCube. A Smaller Image will read GIF and BMP (as well as JPEG), and will automatically convert the output to JPEG - it also provides an intuitive visual interface for easily cropping and resizing images to a specified target size. If you are emailing images, you need A Smaller Image. If you are publishing images on the Web, you need A Smaller Image.

A: Why, thank you. The image editor in Paper PhotoCube 1.0 is designed to have a minimum of bells and whistles. Its target is the digital imaging market, which is reflected in the choices of resolutions. That is, it is tuned to give good autofit results for pixel sizes that are multiples of 200 or 240. Likewise, the built in resizing options are limited to factors of 2. For more advanced image processing, other tools are available, at a range of prices.

In fact (now that you've gotten us on the subject), TriVista has an excellent product for resizing/cropping images: A Smaller Image. This tool is very inexpensive (around $15), but it is a pure joy to use. A Smaller Image is an excellent preprocessor for applications like Paper PhotoCube, 3D ImageCube, or any desktop, email, or Web photo application.

A: The free software called A Square Image was not specifically designed to be used with our Paper PhotoCube software, However, depending on the resolution and composition of your original pictures, you may be able to use A Square Image help reduce the white border that can sometimes appear around your images on the cube.

Normally, when you drag and drop an image onto the Paper PhotoCube template, the software selects a square section out of the center of the picture to use for the photocube. If you go into editor that comes with the Paper PhotoCube software, you can click on the square crop window and drag it around to reposition it on the picture. You can also click on the buttons at the top of the Paper PhotoCube editor to change the size of the crop window. Clicking on the blue and white button will show the full original image and pad around the edges to make it square. Based on the original resolution of your images, you may get white borders around some of your images.

A Square Image may be able to help reduce this effect because it gives you finer control over the size of the crop window. In other words, you could use A Square Image to crop your images before using them with the Paper PhotoCube software.

As an example, lets say that I'm going to make a paper photo cube using the high resolution setting (480). I could load my images into A Square Image first, set the output resolution slider to 480, adjust the size and position of the crop window on the input side, and save out the files.

I would then load these new files into the Paper PhotoCube software. Since I saved the files out at a resolution of 480, they will match perfectly with the high resolution setting in Paper PhotoCube and no additional cropping or padding will take place.

Copyright TriVista, 1998. Modified December 31, 1998.