iPhoto '11 New Features Overview

ByMike Moffit

iPhoto ’11 was released today at Apple’s Back to the Mac press conference, as part of the new iLife ’11 multimedia productivity suite. Some standout new features include:

New Full-Screen Modes iOS-like full-screen mode for editing and viewing photos Use every inch of your display to browse and edit your photos. This is much more advanced than the full-screen editing available in previous versions of iPhoto. More screen real estate means a bigger workspace for perfecting each shot or creating nifty iPhoto projects.

Facebook Enhancements – Share your photos and view comments without ever leaving iPhoto. iPhoto and Facebook are now even better friends. iPhoto even shows you all of your Facebook photo albums, including the ones you published using another application. You’ll always know which photos you shared (or didn’t share) on Facebook, because iPhoto keeps track of that for you.

Emailing Photos – iPhoto now includes eight Apple-designed themes that you customize with your own images and words. Rearrange photos with a simple drag and drop, adjust the image mask, or change the size and style of your text. Plus, iPhoto optimizes your message so it’s never too big to send. iPhoto also works with popular email services like MobileMe, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Windows Live Hotmail, and AOL. And since iPhoto keeps track of all your email messages with photos, you’re free to open a sent message, make changes, and share it with someone new, anytime you want.

New Slideshows – New animated themes — like Holiday Mobile, Places, and Reflections — give your photos movement and help you avoid typical, photo-by-photo, fade-in, fade-out slideshows. Each shot is centered and framed perfectly, thanks to face detection. And the animated themes include their own soundtracks, so your photos and music play together flawlessly.

Big Leap in Books iPhoto ’11 makes it even easier to create professional-quality books using your own photos. Building your book starts with a new dynamic Theme browser. Pick a theme, and an even smarter Autoflow instantly goes to work, placing your images for you. Higher-rated images are featured more prominently. Photos taken on the same day appear together. And all the while, face detection ensures that photos of people are cropped and framed properly. Change the background color, font, layout, and more. Add eye-popping full-bleed, two-page spreads.

Letterpress Cards – For the first time, traditional printing techniques join modern digital photography on a large scale. With iPhoto ’11, you can create custom letterpress cards personalized with your photos and text. Each iPhoto letterpress card is made from premium paper and produced using a centuries-old printing method. Then it’s digitally processed with your photos and text. iPhoto letterpress cards are available in 15 beautifully crafted themes complete with matching envelope. There’s just something about the elegant look and feel of a letterpress card.

As John Gruber from Daring Fireball tweeted: “Can you imagine any other computer company offering letterpress as a mass-market printing technology?”

iLife is a $49 upgrade for existing Mac users, and comes free with every new Mac. It’ll be listed on our site for sale and shipment shortly.

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