iPhoto Tips and Information

Supported Formats, Where files are stored, and extending iPhoto with scripts and plugins
Most digital cameras store photos in the jpeg format, which combines a high-quality image with effective compression to economize file size. iPhoto works best with jpeg formatted photos, although it recognizes most common formats such as tiff, pict, bmp, targa, and png (but not eps).

Imported photos are actually located in a folder named iPhoto Library. To find this folder, open your Home window, then open the Pictures folder; the iPhoto Library is inside Pictures. The Library folder also contains a folder of the Albums you created in iPhoto. But these Albums don't really contain photos, even though you placed photos in them while working in iPhoto. Instead, they contain "references" to photos that have been imported into the Photo Library. This way, you have the same photo in many different Albums without overloading your computer with multiple copies of a photo.

If you plan to have a lot of fun using your digital camera and iPhoto, chances are sooner or later you'll have so many photos in your iPhoto Library that you'll run out of storage space. Plan to back up your iPhoto Library folder regularly by copying it to another disk or burning a cd.

Search the Internet for iPhoto scripts and plugins
You'll find some very interesting freeware and shareware that makes iPhoto even better. Search Google (or any search site) for "iPhoto scripts," or go to VersionTracker.com and search for "iPhoto." Some very useful scripts are:

iPhoto Diet: Whenever you edit photos, such as cropping or making color and contrast adjustments, iPhoto keeps a copy of the original in the Photo Library so you can choose to revert back to the original later. A convenient feature, but at the cost of using a lot of storage space. iPhoto Diet is an AppleScript droplet that slims down your Photo Library by moving unwanted duplicates to the Trash. Just drop your iPhoto Library (located in the Pictures folder, in your Home folder) on top of the iPhoto Diet droplet. Find it at www.VersionTracker.com.

BetterhtmlExport: This iPhoto plugin creates web pages, but gives more control over the appearance of the pages than iPhoto's built-in Web Page feature. After installation, the plugin appears as an extra tab in the "Export Photos" window (from the File menu, choose "Export…."). Visit www.droolingcat.com to download.

Last but not least, perhaps even best: Apple's web site has a page dedicated to iPhoto scripts. Go to www.apple.com/applescript/iphoto/ to download an entire collection of truly amazing iPhoto scripts, plus other goodies.

mactipsandtricks editors note: You can also find many useful iPhoto enhancements at macupdate.com

Tollett/Williams, LITTLE MAC IAPPS BOOK, © 2003 John Tollett and Robin Williams. Reproduced by permission of Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Peachpit Press. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Click Here to buy this book at a 30% discount

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