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Downloads
Photoboof will run in demo mode until you enter a serial number. The demo is completely full featured, but it overlays the word "demo" on each picture. You can buy a serial number here, or if you need your serial number re-emailed to you, let us know.
Instructions: download the program, install, then read the help file to get started. Email if you have any questions or problems. If you have trouble setting things up we'll gladly log into your computer remotely to get everything set up for you.
Attention Windows 7 users: if you're using a Canon Powershot and having trouble connecting to your camera, please set Photoboof to run as administrator (right-click the file c:\photoboof\photoboof.exe and choose Properties, then Compatibility, and set "run as administrator").
Update History
New in 7.0 Beta (July 12, 2010):
- Photoboof has greenscreen! Very very powerful: works on any supported Canon Powershot or Canon DSLR, will be working on webcams shortly. Its only in the beta release for now, which you can install alongside your regular Photoboof installation for testing.
New in 6.9542 (July 9, 2010):
- Some more speed improvements, Photoboof should launch faster now.
- Fixed a glitch when using 3 picture layouts.
- Some under the hood changes.
New in 6.9540 (June 28, 2010):
- Some huge speed improvements, especially if you're using a netbook computer. There's a small tradeoff in picture quality though, so you can turn this setting off in Preferences --> Layout. Note that you can now set the quality of both the pictures shown in the Viewer, and the printed layouts. Setting this to "high" uses antialiasing when resizing pictures, setting it to "fast" doesn't. It seems that netbooks have a particular problem with antialiasing, so you should set this to "fast" when using a netbook. Also note in the Layout Editor you can set the quality to "fast" if you're using rounded picture borders.
- Fixed support for the new Canon T2i aka 550D.
New in 6.9532 (June 9, 2010):
- When using Photoboof as the camera controller, added the ability to have the camera oriented vertically without having to rotate the monitor. See Preferences --> Camera --> Rotation. Lots of improvements for vertical camera orientation in general.
- Added some new layouts, many more on the way. If you have a layout you want implemented, feel free to send it over.
- Many changes to the Layout Editor for building new layouts. To name a few: You can now trim some pixels off any edge of the pictures. For example you can trim some pictures off the bottom of each picture to make room for more logos. Also added the ability to place logos anywhere without embedding them in a background image. You can also set the size and color of the picture borders. I really love the new rounded edges. And you can set the paper size in either pixels or inches, and set any DPI. Many other great improvements, see the existing layouts for samples of what the Layout Editor can do.
- Added the ability for custom layouts to use pictures with 3:2 (DSLR) aspect ratios.
- New feature: added the ability for user created "summary files", which is a way of displaying all the pictures from the photobooth session after the last picture is taken. You can place the pictures in any size and any position, on a background image, etc. Very flexible. To get started, go to Preferences --> Summaries. I'll be adding more summary file templates shortly, or if you want to try building your own open the directory c:\photoboof\summary files.
- Made a change to the way Photoboof sends emails and text messages, so it should work even with ISPs that block port 25.
- For people using Canon DSLRs and getting a dim live preview when using an external flash, there's an experimental new method of fixing this. For now its a bit involved, but will be simplified and moved to the GUI shortly. If you'd like to test it: 1) in Photoboof, click File --> Reset Configuration, which will reset all your configurations. 2) restart Photoboof, and click File --> Edit Raw Preferences File, which will let you edit configuration.ini. 3) search for "dynamic_tv_mode" and set it to "yes". And right below that you'll see where you can set the TV value for live preview and for the pictures. Let me know how it works for you.
- For people using the Canon 40D and experiencing timeouts with the live preview (the live preview shuts off after 30 minutes of inactivity), let me know, I have a fix.
- Added "test" buttons next to each external command in Preferences --> Commands for easily testing each command.
- Added the ability to set the Live Preview to any size. Go to Preferences --> Camera and set the Live Preview size to "custom", and then set any width (in pixels) you want. Note that this only works when using Photoboof as the camera controller.
- Added support for the new Canon T2i aka 550D
- Changed the sketch effect a bit. The picture is now an inverse image of the old method, which I think is a bit clearer.
- Fixed the "cancel" button so it should work smoothly even if a session is cancelled while the camera is taking a picture.
- If you're using a touchscreen, the live preview window should no longer be susceptible to users inadvertently dragging the live preview image.
- Many under the hood changes.
New in 6.9515 (March 8, 2010):
- A few fixes: fixed an issue that some Windows 7 installations were having on program launch, and with a black box appearing over large ready graphics, and with custom layouts with more than 4 pictures, and with printers that have a number sign in their names.
New in 6.9512 (February 28, 2010):
- Made the live preview with webcams a bit zippier
New in 6.9509 (February 24, 2010):
- Fixed an issue when using different touchscreen regions and custom layouts.
- A couple of small improvements to the Layout Editor, especially with vertical camera orientation.
New in 6.9507 (February 18, 2010):
- Slideshow feature! You can now run a slideshow either from your Photoboof computer or a networked computer. Looks great running on a monitor on the side of your booth, or better yet through a projector. You're not going to believe how good this looks. I'll film a demo of it soon, but for now read the notes. Works great on a Mac too.
- New printing engine! Photoboof now handles all the printing internally, so no need to install and configure any third party programs. This makes switching printers and paper sizes much easier. Click File --> Configure Printers, and from there it should all be self-explanatory, but of course let me know if you have any questions or issues. If you prefer to continue using Irfanview's printing engine, see the manual.
- New reprinting and photo browsing tool, which is nice for reprinting previous images. Click File --> Launch Reprinting Tool or click the "show last" button to open the last strip. Its a handy way to browse and print previous pics from your event. Keyboard shortcuts: left/right arrow go to prev/next picture in directory, up arrow goes to first in directory, down arrow goes to last, delete key deletes the pic.
- Fixed an occasional delay when the live preview starts with Canon Powershots and DSLRs, especially on slower computers.
- If you're not using the Layout Editor, you should give it a try, its really powerful. I just uploaded some documentation.
- Added the ability to assign a touchscreen region to reprint the last strip.
- Fixed an issue with HD webcam aspect ratios.
- Important note: made a speed improvement that might make the picture review time after each picture is taken too fast. If this is the case for you, open configuration.ini and increase the value for picture_delay_after (3 is a good number to use), or just reset your config file (File --> Reset Config File). But this fix should allow people to have must faster picture review times.
New in 6.9473 (February 4, 2010):
- Fixed a live preview issue with some Canon DSLRs. If your camera was losing the live preview after the first picture, that should now be fixed. And external flashes should be working with all Canon DSLRs now, even using non Canon type flashes.
New in 6.9447 (February 1, 2010):
- New layout editor! You can now create and edit cutom layouts by clicking File --> Layout Editor from within Photoboof. It lets you edit most custom layout parameters in a GUI, and note that you can still edit the custom layout textfile if you prefer, even while you have the layout editor open. Click the "preview" button from within the Layout Editor to see your progress.
- Eliminated the flicker during the 3-2-1 countdown.
- Speed imporvements. A few under the hood changes should speed things up a bit.
- New load testing option under the "Test" menu in Photoboof. This lets you easily test your setup's stability by repeating the photobooth session over and over. I'd turn off printing if I were you.
- Fixed a stability issue on some systems.
New in 6.938 (January 17, 2009):
- A whole new camera controller for webcams! Introducing "Moving Images", Photoboof's new webcam controller, built from scratch for photobooths. This introduces lots of new features for webcams within Photoboof like live preview, live color effects, and much more control over the camera. More notes here, and more to come from this. If you're looking for a webcam recommendation, I recommend the Logitech Orbit AF.
- Greatly improved touchscreen support! You can now create as many as 8 different touchscreen regions, each starting Photoboof with either a different color mode (b&w, color, sepia or negative) or a different layout. And its very very easy to set up. When combined with Photoboof's custom layouts, this is a very powerful feature. More details here. Let me know if you think we should have more than 8 regions, or the ability to set custom regions.
- As with touchscreen regions, you can now assign any layout or color mode to any USB button, mouse button or keyboard button. When combined with custom layouts, this lets users select their strip background, foreground image, color mode, etc.
- All the kinks should be out of Photoboof's Windows 7 support, but of course let me know if you find otherwise.
- Added the ability for custom layouts to set their own color modes. In other words, you can, for example, have two identical custom layouts, one running the session in color, the other in sepia. Details are on the custom layouts page, but the the gist is you add the line "color_mode = sepia" to your custom layout file, that layout will run in sepia. Still to come: a gui for building custom layouts, and more sample layouts.
- Added the ability for custom layouts to have two separate color modes. For example, if you're making a double strip layout, you can now have one strip be color and the other b&w or sepia. See the layout "custom-double_color_bw" for an example of this.
- New color effect: added a "negative" color effect, which is sort of fun. The best part is it appears in the Live Preview, like Photoboof's b&w and sepia effects. Let me know if you have some other color effect you'd like implemented. Note that this effect only works if you're using Photoboof as the camera controller.
- Photoboof's Powershot and DSLR camera controller got a lot of under the hood improvements, making it generally leaner and meaner. I've had a booth running for 2 months without a reboot or even a restart, which means the Big Picture is officially rock solid. If you're curious, that booth is using a Powershot S5, still my favorite photobooth camera.
- Added the ability to use a webcam for the live preview, even if you're using a camera that doesn't support it such as an older Canon or Nikon DSLR. In other words, you can have two cameras in your booth, your main camera, and the webcam, and Photoboof can use the webcam for your live preview.
- Added support for the Canon EOS 7D and EOS 1D Mark IV DSLR cameras.
- Fixed the border around the live preview windows when using Vista and Windows 7.
- Slightly changed the way OEM rebranding works.
- Pressing the escape key while the Viewer has focus will now close the Viewer.
- Added the ability to make any button be a "reprint last" button, so we can mount a button, either hidden or accessible to guests, to make extra copies. I'm thinking a hidden StealthSwitch would make a nice secret reprint last button, or maybe a common doorbell button connected to the mic jack. Or of course you could mount a nice backlit arcade button for your guests to make their own reprints. I was thinking it might be useful to have some limit on the number of reprints guests can make of each strip so some kid doesn't press the button 50 times, let me know your thoughts.
- Added the ability to enable/disable the external commands. So if you're using any external commands (for example, to flash a light in your printer chute when the prints are ready), you can now enable and disable the command on the Commands tab of Preferences.
New in 6.920 (December 23, 2009):
New in 6.919 (December 16, 2009):
- Fixed a stability issue with the camera controller.
- Photoboof now has built-in support for controlling the Phidget relay board. This lets you turn lights on during the photobooth session, flash a light in the printer chute when the print is ready, flash your button light, turn on a light when your printer is down, etc.
- Photoboof now has the ability to add foreground images. In other words, Photoboof can put a frame around the picture *before its taken*, so the customer sees themelves in the frame. I've seen this in a few mall photobooths and thought it was a nice feature, especially with single picture layouts.
- Greatly improved black & white and sepia support. This is now handled at the camera controller level so your customers will see themselves in black & white or sepia before the picture is taken.
- You can now create custom layouts with multiple mask overlays. In other words, when you use a custom layout, you can have multiple backgrounds, and each time Photoboof creates the layout it will use a random one. This gives the effect of having a different layout for each photobooth session and can be quite fun. Search for "mask_overlay" in the custom layout page for more info.
- Added a gui page for setting the external commands, since these are used so heavily with relays.
- Added an external command that fires after Photoboof sends the strip to the printer.
- Fixes an issue where on some systems, an image from a previous session occasionally appears on a strip.
New in v6.912 (December 7, 2009):
- added ability to cancel a photobooth session if one is in progress. In other words, clicking the top left button, normally labelled "Boof!", will cancel the photobooth session.
- added the ability to connect a button to your soundcard's microphone jack. It doesn't get much easier than this for connecting an external button.
- adds ability to show an intro message before the live preview appears on the screen. In other words, after the user presses the start button they see viewer-msg_start.png, and then the live preview appears. To turn this on, open your configuration.ini file and search for "force_intro_graphic" and set it to "yes". If you can't find this variable, run Photoboof once and it should appear at the end of your config file.
- fixed a glitch with some older Canon Powershots
- many under-the-hood changes and improvements. Please let me know if you experience any issues or have any suggestions.
New in v6.905 (October 14, 2009):
- Photo effects! For now there's sepia, oil painting, and charcoal drawing. You can have different buttons start the session with different effects, and shortly i'll be possible to have different virtual buttons on a touchscreen. More info here.
- There's now a counter for the prints, meaning you can keep track of how many pages your printer has printed. Click the "reset prints" button to reset the count.
- You can now set a graphic after the "say cheese" graphic appears but before the picture appears. This would typcially be a "wait a moment while the picture develops" type graphic. This is especially useful when using photo effects, since they add a little processing time. See this "Advanced Tip" for more info.
- You can now set the Live Preview size, which is useful for smaller monitors. Currently there's only "large" (the normal size) and "small", but let me know if you need other sizes. You set this on the Camera tab of the Preferences. See the last "Advanced Tip" here for more info.
- The activation process for new computers is now automated, so no more waiting for activations to come through.
New in v6.884 (August 16, 2009):
- Fixed an issue with the camera controller, especially with Canon DSLRs
- Fixed an issue with sending emails
New in v6.874 (August 7, 2009):
- Photoboof now remembers individual camera settings.
- There's an issue with older Powershots where changing camera settings will freeze the camera controller interface for about 25 seconds. We'll have this fixed shortly, but in the meantime the workaround is to let the interface finish updating before changing another setting or taking a picture.
New in v6.873 (August 6, 2009):
- Fixed an issue with older Canon Powershots.
New in v6.871 (August 4, 2009):
- Added auto focus to the Canon DSLRs even when Live View is active.
- Added the ability for the "reprint last" button to print only to your secondary printer. So your main printer can handle regular use, and your secondary printer can handle the reprints. More notes here.
New in v6.85 (August 2, 2009):
- All driver issues should be resolved with Photoboof's built-in Canon DSLR control. No more need to have Zoom Browser installed, and no more need to set XP compatibility mode manually. The DSLR support is still new so please continue to let me know how its working for you. And thanks for all the positive feedback so far.
- You can now see a second, permanently visible Live Preview feed from your camera on your main monitor. In other words you can keep an eye on what's happening inside the photobooth even when you're not inside and when no photobooth session is in progress. Note that you need a secondary monitor installed to use this feature, otherwise it would be visible to the people inside the booth. In the main Photoboof window, click Action --> Duplicate Live Preview.
- Dual printing support! You can have two printers attached to Photoboof, and they can work in three different modes: duplicate (the second printer prints the same thing as the main printer, very useful for scrapbook stations), round robin (the two printers alternate), and backup mode (the second printer doesn't kick in until the first printer goes down). [Added in v6.871: a fourth option, "Reprint Last Button", which only prints to the secondary printer when the "reprint last" button is pressed). See the "advanced tip" in this section of the help file for more details.
- Added the ability to set a different background to the Live Preview for each picture. This lets you have different customized messages before each picture is taken, with full graphical control. You can even set random backgrounds. See the "advanced tip" in this section of the help file.
- Added an option to have the Live Preview remain on the screen a bit longer than in the regular mode. This isn't necessarily recommended since the camera freezes the live preview while it's taking a picture, but so many people have asked for it that I thought I'd implement it. Set the Live Preview to "always" (instead of "yes") to try this mode.
- Added the ability to mirror the Live Preview, which is a bit less confusing to people inside the booth. In other words, if the person seeing themselves in the Live Preview moves left, their image on the comptuer screen now moves in the same direction. See the Live Preview section of the manual for details.
- Fixed an issue with flickering in the Viewer, especially during the countdown.
- Fixed an issue when camera is set to vertical orientation with the Live Preview.
- Added the ability to have a second set of photos when creating custom layouts. I put a sample of this in the custom layouts folder (c:\photoboof\layouts) called double.txt, which re-creates the classic double strip layout.
- No more need to manually set Photoboof's camera controller to XP compatibility mode when using Vista, it should just work right out of the proverbial box.
- Photoboof's camera controller now allows you to turn on the camera's video output jack. Some people wire this into a secondary monitor, although I personally think you're better off using the camera's Live Preview feed. See the new item in CanRemoter under Camera --> Live Preview Options.
- Gave a much-needed facelift to the Help File.
New in v6.80 (July 31, 2009):
- Native Canon DSLR support! Live preview is now possible with Canon DSLR cameras, or at least those that support it. After upgrading, go to File --> Show Preferences --> Camera and set the camera controller to "Photoboof with a Canon DSLR". See this page for more information on native DSLR support, and please let me know how it works for you.
- The Live Preview is now visible during the countdown before the picture is taken. If you install the upgrade (as opposed to the full install) and are using the stock graphics, you might want to update your countdown graphics so they fit on the screen during the live preview. Please download viewer-countdown-3, viewer-countdown-2, viewer-countdown-1 from here and place them in your skins folder, which is probably c:\photoboof\assets\default unless you've created a custom skin.
- Many improvements for people who are only using a single monitor. For example on some systems the camera controller would become visible during the Live Preview, which is now fixed. Also fixed an issue when making the Viewer always on top on monitor 1. Let me know if you have any other issues.
- Add the ability to stretch the custom layouts horizontally and vertically, which works nicely for getting rid of the margins that some printers create on the printouts. Search for "horizontal_stretch" on the custom layouts page.
New in v6.50 (June 18, 2009):
- Restored the ability to show the Live Preview before each picture is taken, as opposed to only before the first picture. Some advanced usage tips that allow you to adjust the timing and use a different background graphic for each picture are in the Viewer section of the help file.
New in v6.44 (June 12, 2009):
- Added some abilities to the new custom layouts feature: it's now possible to set how many pictures you want to take, meaning your custom layouts can be a single picture or 30 pictures... There's no limit at all. Also added the ability to paste in as many logo files as you'd like, wherever you like. And added the ability to crop your pictures.
New in v6.4 (June 9, 2009):
- Its now possible for users to create their own layouts! See the new Photoboof custom layouts. I'll be expanding on this and making a graphical interface to edit the layouts, let me know how it works for you.
New in v6.31 (June 5, 2009):
- Older Powershots should now be working with Photoboof's native Canon Powershot controller, as well as newer, please let me know how yours works.
- You can now set the triggers (buttons to start Photoboof) from File --> Show Preferences.
- Each button, keypress, etc., can now start Photoboof in color or black & white, and more modes to come.
- Added the ability to connect bill and coin acceptors directly to Photoboof's button assembly. See this page for some notes if you're interested in that.
New in v6.28 (June 3, 2009):
- Yet more optimization for Photoboof's integrated Canon Powershot
- Fixed an issue when not using Live Preview
- If using a bill acceptor, there's now an option to start Photoboof automatically when enough credits are inserted, without the customer having to press a start button.
New in v6.27 (June 1, 2009):
- More optimization for Photoboof's integrated Canon Powershot controller. We did an event with it last night and didn't have so much as a hicup. But it looks like as of now older Powershots aren't supported with the built-in module, but that should be fixed by later today or tomorrow.
- If you're already running version 6.0 or better you can just install the upgrade.
New in v6.22 (May 28, 2009):
- Many changes to the Canon Powershot controller. Should be working beautifully now. No need to download the entire installer if you're already running at least v6.1, you can just download the upgrade package.
New in v6.207 (May 27, 2009):
- Some changes to the Powershot camera controller.
- If you want to place your Live Preview at some custom location, there's now a "test" button on the Preferences --> Camera screen so you can easily test its position.
- When working with bill or coin acceptors, Photoboof will now ignore letters in credits.txt so Photoboof will work with these bill acceptors.
New in v6.2 (May 26, 2009):
- Many new features since 5.92, almost too many to list. A biggie is control of Canon Powershots can now be directly from Photoboof! From Photoboof, go to File --> Show Preferences --> Camera, and set the camera controller to "Photoboof with a Powershot". Please let me know how this works for you since I haven't been able to test it on many cameras yet, but it should work for all Powershots that support remote capture, and it fully supports live preview. For now the live preview will only show during at the start of the series, but that will be changing in the next few days. And sometime next week I'll be adding native support for Canon DSLRs.
- Another big new feature is the gui to edit the preferences, which you can find under File --> Show Preferences. Some people prefer editing the settings via the text file in configuration.ini, and others like a gui, so this is the best of both worlds: you can make your configurations in either place. As before, all settings are portable, meaning copy your Photoboof folder to another computer and all settings will be preserved.
- A bunch of new layouts. I particularly like this one and this one.
- New printing settings: in Irfanview, you should no longer have to select "stretch to page" and "centered". Instead check "original size (from dpi)", and uncheck "centered", which will allow you to set margins in the print dialog as necessary on some printers. As always, let me know if any issue with this.
New in v5.92 (March 25, 2009):
New in v5.9 (February 10, 2009):
- added the ability to see a live preview from the camera when using ZoomBrowser as a camera controller with Canon Powershots. See the help file for some more notes on this. There are lots of versions of ZoomBrowser now, if it doesn't work with yours, try this one.
- the Photoboof gui window now remembers its position.
New in v5.896 (December 30, 2008):
- added the ability for the viewer window to be "always on top". See the setting "always_on_top" in the configuration.ini file.
- changed the strip2 layout slightly so it looks better with non black logos.
- fixed the "error copying last picture" error that was sometimes falsely reported.
New in v5.88 (December 29, 2008):
- there's a new layout called fullpic3. It takes a single picture and overlays fullpic3-mask.png over the picture. When you edit the mask (fullpic3-mask.png) in Photoshop, export as PNG-24 with transparency. Let me know if you need help with that. Here's a sample.
- you can now hide the mouse cursor when using a touchscreen. In other words, if someone starts the Photoboof sequence by touching the start graphic on a touchscreen monitor, a mouse pointer won't be left on the screen. Set "hide_mouse" to "yes" in the config file.
- fixed a glitch with black and white mode when Photoboof was used with a touchscreen.
- the 4up summary graphic at the end should now display centered on all wide aspect ratio monitors.
New in v5.8 (September 21, 2008):
- fixed a glitch where Photoboof would sometimes run two sessions simultaneously.
New in v5.74 (August 20, 2008)
- There's a new 6 picture layout: 6up2. That's in addition to the previous 6 picture layout, called "6up". The new 6 picture layout is extremely flexible: it overlays the file "6up2-mask.png" in the skins folder over the 6 pictures. You can put absolutely anything you want in this mask... When you export the mask from Photoshop, make sure to export as PNG-24 with transparency.
- Fixed an aspect ratio issue with some Nikon DSLRs.
- Fixed vertical mode with the 6up layout
New in v5.6 (July 22, 2008)
- Photoboof is now completely rebrandable for OEM's. Please email if you need info on this.
- You can now add a background graphic to the ready screen. For example, if you're using two ready buttons (one for color and one for black and white), you can have a fullscreen graphic appear behind your buttons. For now the option is at the end of the configuration.ini file in the variable called "use_background".
- Irfanview can now be moved or copied into the Photoboof directory for better portability. So after configuring everything in Irfanview, simply copy it from c:\program files\irfanview to c:\photoboof\irfanview and Photoboof will use that version and all its settings. This makes copying between computers much easier.
- Improved integration with RemoteCapture for people using that program.
- Some under the hood changes.
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