ZenFotomatic 2.0

So today I'm going to explain the massive changes to ZenFotomatic that were introduced on the 7th of February.

But before all that, I'm going to give an explanation about ZenFotomatic and what it does for our users!

ZenFotomatic is an image automation software which removes backgrounds, colour corrects, resizes, trims, auto rotates, adds stamps for promotions... Well, the list goes on, but it does all of this for you with just one click. It also batch processes all your photos, so you can basically click a button and relax, while ZenFotomatic processes 100s, even 1000s of photos for you.

By the way, this is all done on the cloud, so no installation required!

Speaking from experience, I've removed a lot of backgrounds in my time. It's time consuming. It's annoying. Sometimes I would forget little specks here and there, only to notice AFTER I've uploaded the photo to it's destination which causes me to panic and quickly open up photoshop, remove the speck, resave, reupload... And hope no one noticed it.

If you use ZenFotomatic, you don't even have to worry about these things and your processing time cuts down by a minimum 90%.

If you sell on Amazon, you know that Amazon only allows you to upload photos with a white background and your product centered and clear for easy recognition. To be honest, since we live in the age of the smart phones, a shopper usually flicks through shop pages pretty quick. If the backdrop is messy, product is dark, or any kind of obstruction happening in general, the shopper will just scroll right past it. (I know I would tbh.)

Getting back on topic, here is a list of the main updates on ZenFotomatic

I will explain each one in this entry.

• New layout, updated controls.
  
• Concurrent photo processing, up to 3 at a time.
  
• Asynchronous uploads without page refresh.
  
• Keyboard Shortcuts
  
• Removed centering tool and added crosshair to crop tool.
  
• Settings Presets
• Processing Wizard/Tutorial
  

New layout, updated controls

Audience gasps. Ooh's and aah's heard in the distance.

Here's the biggie. The whole layout has changed!

Next, we have shifted the property panel from the right to the left, decreasing mouse movement between the upload, process and download buttons and the property panel. The property panel has also changed to popular icon style, giving our users significantly more screen space to look at all their photos at once.

If you're not sure what each icon means at first, simply hover your mouse over the icon and a little tool tip will appear.

Our drop down menus, where applicable, have changed to toggles or have been opened up so you can see what options are available straight away. For example, you can see what backdrop types are easily available now rather that searching through the dropdown menu.

The Basic/Advanced view has also been retired, removing that annoying obstacle which prevented our users seeing what other options are available for each setting unless they toggle between the two.

Concurrent photo processing, up to 3 at a time

ZenFotomatic previously could only process one photo at a time. But now with our concurrent photo processing, ZenFotomatic processes photos 3 at a time at the same speed. In saying that, the processing time has cut by a third.

Asynchronous uploads without page refresh

When uploading photos to ZenFotomatic, previously the application had to refresh itself before the photos could be seen within the app. This left a lot of users confused. 

"Wait... Is it uploading? Are my photos uplo-- Oh there they are!" 

Was the usual train of thought of the user, or they would just stare at this uploading bar, wondering if the upload was successful or not. However, now the photos upload and appear as they enter your account.

Keyboard Shortcuts!

[ESC] to close the property panel and other windows.

Are you one of those people who by habit immediately smash the esc button when you remove something from your view? Then when it didn't disappear, it kinda frustrated you?
[first world problems]
Well now all windows will close at the press of the esc key until you reach your photo thumbnail view. Nice.

[←LEFT] [SPACE] [RIGHT→] to navigate through full screen view, and toggle between process and unprocessed.

We have many users who prefer to manually check their photos one by one, and toggle through the photo's before and after. In the past you had do this with your mouse, and leave the window to navigate to the next photo. Pretty annoying.
Now our speedy users can rejoice, as the left arrow and right arrow will navigate through their arsenal, while the space bar will toggle between the original and processed version of your photo. So much time saved! What are you gonna do with all this free time, friend?

[TAB] to switch between the eraser and pen tool on mask tools.

Now, we know the mask tools can be pretty confusing at times. Especially switching between the pen and eraser. Now, if you press the [TAB] key, ZenFotomatic will toggle your cursor between the pen tool and eraser tool at the same size.

Removed centering tool and added crosshair to crop tool

In the previous ZenFotomatic layout, we had this little tool here. Now, not many people used it. They didn't even know what is was for. To be honest, I didn't really get it in the beginning, either. So what did we do? We fused it with the crop tool. 

FUSION HA!

Now when you want to centre your image it's easily done with the crop tool. Changing the position of the item is also easily done with this setting, combined with the rotate tool.

Settings Preset

Are there particular settings you use for particular products, but you hated to constantly set your specific settings each time? Well, we have created a preset setting to help you save your preferred settings, then switch over whenever you like! This is located at the top menu bar.

Add > Write your preset name > Save > Done.

A-ma-zing.

Processing Wizard/Tutorial

We understand that ZenFotomatic, although making your life a lot simpler, isn't so simple to understand for all our users. 

To combat this confusion, we have created a ZenFotomatic Wizard. If it doesn't show automatically, it's accessable through the menu on the top right (the hamburger stack!)

The Wizard will take you through the standard settings of ZenFotomatic, explaining what each function does with example images. After you're done with the Wizard, the Wizard will process your photos for you with the settings selected in the Wizard. However, if you don't wish for this to happen, this is okay too! You can exit the Wizard whenever you like.