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Current Versions of the App
Q How do I get "Bill Atkinson PhotoCard"?
A The app is available from the iTunes App store. Please click on this link to get there. Q How does "Bill Atkinson PhotoCard Lite" differ from the full version of the app? A Both versions have all the same features. The free-of-charge Lite version includes 10 nature photographs, 15 stickers, and 10 stamps to choose from. It is less than 11 MB in size so it can be downloaded onto an iPhone over cellular. The 137 MB full version is a paid app that includes 150 nature photos, 325 stickers, and 150 stamps, and can be downloaded over WiFi. The print-and-mail service for the full version allows you to send your first PhotoCard to a postal address for free; the service for the Lite version does not. Both versions allow you to send an unlimited number of email PhotoCards and an unlimited number of print-and-mail PhotoCards, using any of the included art and/or your own personal photos. Print-and-mailing PhotoCards
Q There are times when I tap "Send" in the confirmation dialog to send a print-and-mail PhotoCard, and I don't see a response indicating
that it has been sent. Has something gone wrong? Do I need to send it again?
A Please don't resend that card. What has happened is that your cellular service is slow to respond in your current location so your PhotoCard has not yet been received by our server. But your device will continue to try sending that card in the background (whenever you are using PhotoCard) until it succeeds. So, in the meantime, you can start another card if you like. To reiterate, please do not resend. Doing so would result in duplicate cards going to your recipient. Sometimes sending custom photos, which are large, is problematic when cellular service is patchy. But don't worry, PhotoCard is persistent. Q How are print-and-mail PhotoCards delivered? A They are sent through the US Postal Service by First Class oversize mail. Each morning at 5 am, Bill downloads all print-and-mail orders from the PhotoCard server, prepares the daily PDF for one of our printing partners, then deletes the orders from the server. Q When I send a PhotoCard through postal mail, do I get a BCC in my email? A Not exactly a BCC. You will receive an email confirmation when the card has been delivered to the printer. The front and back card images will be displayed in that email. Q What addressing problems occur with mailed PhotoCards? A Sometimes a sender forgets to include the country name when the card is to be sent outside the USA, which results in incorrect postage being printed on the card. And, since all PhotoCard mailings originate from California, the US Post Office needs to have the country name explicitly entered as part of the address if it's destined for an address outside the USA. (See editing an existing contact in the next section.) Q Why is a barcode added under the address? A It gives the post office additional information about the address. The more information we can print on the card ahead of time, the less likely the card will have to go through the machines at the post office that occasionally mar the photo, message or stickers. Before your card is mailed, we also replace a 5-digit US zipcode with a "5 + 4" so please avoid placing stickers to the right of or immediately below the address. Q What are PhotoCard print-and-mail credits? A The first print-and-mail card that you send is free-of-charge. Subsequent cards cost 2 credits for printing and mailing to USA addresses, and 3 credits for printing and mailing to International addresses. A credit costs between seventy-five cents and one dollar, depending on how many you purchase at once. Q How do I obtain PhotoCard credits? A Through the PhotoCard application. When you tap the "Actions" button and choose "Send this PhotoCard by Postal Mail," PhotoCard will ask you before spending any of your available credits or will guide you through the credit purchasing process if you choose to buy more. All payments are handled by PayPal so your transaction is secure. Q Do I need to have a PayPal account? A No. PayPal also accepts credit cards. These, too, are handled through a secure transaction. Q Will I be charged sales tax for credits? A No. Any applicable California sales taxes will be paid by Bill Atkinson Photography. Q Can I use credits that I purchased on one iPhone on my other iPhone or iPod touch? A Sorry, but no. Credits purchased on one device are specific to that device. Q If I need to detour to purchase credits from PayPal, will my card be automatically sent when I return to the PhotoCard app? A Actually, it won't. You need to choose "Send this PhotoCard by Postal Mail" again, after purchasing the necessary credits. Q Can print-and-mail PhotoCards be sent from anywhere in the world? A Definitely. You can be in any country when you send the card. Since our printing partners are located in California, the cards are mailed from the USA and postage costs are calculated to account for that, but you (and your device) can be anywhere in the world, and sending will still work (sometimes with a slight delay due to connectivity issues -- see the first Q & A item). [top] Emailing PhotoCards
Q I would rather not have the message portion of my PhotoCard duplicated in plain text at the start of the email. Is there a preference
I can set to omit that text?
A There's no preference, but since several users commented on this, as well as one who objected to our link to billatkinson.com, we removed both of those in version 1.0.1 which is now available on the iTunes App store. We had thought the plain text would help recipients who couldn't view JPEGs and that the link to our website would be useful if anyone had questions. However, the way emails are constructed, that text had to go up front, and we agree, it's distracting. So we took it out. The 1.0.1 format for the email PhotoCards just has a single brief line of text telling the recipient that there is/are attachment(s), in case that isn't immediately apparent. If you don't want even that line to be included, you can select it and delete it before sending the email. Q Sometimes, when my PhotoCard is received, the voiceNote attachment(s) is/are missing and there are two (or more) JPEGs. A There is currently a problem with the way Yahoo handles email attachments but it only occurs if the sender is using a Yahoo account to send PhotoCards with voiceNotes. The card does contain the correct attachments, but the recipient cannot retrieve the voiceNote when using Apple's Mail client or Outlook Express. However, if that same PhotoCard is viewed in a web-based email client, the voiceNote attachment will be fine. We have informed Apple and Yahoo about this problem, but since it is something we cannot fix ourselves, we must wait for them to do something about it. However, we suggest this workaround for PhotoCard senders: On their iPhones, they can switch to sending email using a different outgoing email account. To do this, go to "Settings" then choose "Mail, Contacts, Calendars." Scroll down and choose a different account for "Default Account." Q Are there situations that might cause a recipient's email to not display the JPEG image of the card front and back? A Your recipient may have his or her email client set up to block images or this may be its default behavior. In most cases, there will be a prompt along with the email to "Download attachments" or "View images" or "Show images." Usually the email client will also have a user-settable preference to allow the display of images. For example, to get to this preference in Microsoft Outlook Express, choose "Options" from the "Tools" menu, then click on the "Security" tab. In Yahoo! Mail in a browser, click on "Options" in the upper-right corner of your Mail page, and select "Spam" and then "SpamGuard" "Incoming Images." Q Can I view the cards that I've previously sent within PhotoCard? A Once you tap "Start a new PhotoCard" and choose "Erase," you can no longer view the previous card. You can, however, go to your "Mail" app and see them in your "Sent Mail" mailbox. Q How do I know when an email PhotoCard has actually been sent? A In your iPhone's "Settings," choose "Sounds," then you can switch on "Sent Mail" to hear the "Whoosh" sound. You can also check your "Sent Mail." Q Does my email PhotoCard get uploaded to a server at any time? A PhotoCards sent by email are sent directly from your iPhone or iPod touch to the recipient's email address. Each email PhotoCard is self-contained and does not refer to anything on the PhotoCard server. That ensures that precious emails you have saved will never become unreachable due to server inavailability or storage limitations. [top] Addressing a PhotoCard using Contacts
Q Within PhotoCard, I go to the "Contacts Info" page showing my recipient, but I don't see a way to enter a new address.
A The email or postal mail address for that person must be entered ahead of time or imported via iTunes synch. (See exception below.) If it hasn't been entered, you can quickly switch to Home and use the "Contacts" app to enter it. PhotoCard will save the card you've been working on. Then switch back to PhotoCard, and tap in the address area to choose your recipient. You then need to tap on that person's postal address or email address. Once you have chosen an address, the "Actions" button in the toolbar will offer "Send this PhotoCard by email" or "Send this PhotoCard by Postal Mail" whichever is appropriate for that type of address. Q Can I send a PhotoCard to a group? A No, you cannot choose a group from "Contacts." However you can address a card, send it, go back and readdress it, possibly making a few changes, and send it again. (Repeat as many times as you like.) The other method for sending an identical card to a number of recipients is to add more email addresses to the "To:" field once you are in the final mail preview screen and before you tap "Send." Q Can I add a new contact from within PhotoCard? A No, that isn't possible, To add a new contact, please open the Contacts app on your iPhone and add people and addresses. Then go back to PhotoCard and choose one of those. It would be nice to be able to do this from within PhotoCard, perhaps in the next free update. In the meantime, it's pretty quick to switch back and forth between Contacts and PhotoCard, and PhotoCard saves all your state in progress. Q Can I edit an existing contact from within PhotoCard? A You can edit a recent recipient's information. For example, if you already have "John Doe" in your "Recent Recipients" buttons, then you can tap that button and tap "Edit" to change or add a new address for John. This same kind of editing is not available if you start with the Contacts icon. [top] Using custom photographs on a PhotoCard
Q When I use a custom photo, how can I remove the gray bands that
appear on either side of the photo?
A Double tap on the image to alternate between showing the entire photo with gray bands, or having the photo fill the card with some cropping. If your picture is vertical, you might want to rotate it by 90 degrees. (Rotating is not ideal for cards sent by email.) Q After taking a photograph using PhotoCard's "Take a new photo" option, can I access that photo for other uses? A Yes, you can. The original captured photo is automatically saved in the "Photos" application's "Camera Roll." Q How large should custom photos be for optimum use in PhotoCards? A It is best to use 1200 by 800 pixel images already resized and cropped. That size matches the internal working buffer for custom photos, even though the final output size will be 960 by 640. Q Sometimes photos imported via iTunes get less sharp. Is there a way to compensate for this? A The iTunes synching process downsamples your photos, making them blurry. To get sharp images, email the photo to yourself in either JPEG or PNG format (not TIFF), receive the email on your iPhone, tap on the photo attachment and save it to the "Camera Roll." Then choose that photo from within PhotoCard. (For more detailed info on getting better photos, please read Bill's discussion on image quality on "The Luminous Landscape" website.) [top] Working with stickers, voicenotes, and fonts
Q I'm having trouble deleting individual stickers from a card.
A Try grabbing the sticker by an edge and then sliding it off the card in the opposite direction. For example, touch on its top edge and drag it off the bottom of the card. Don't let go until your finger is off the card. Q The toolbar and/or keyboard get in the way when I'm trying to position stickers. They seem to come and go randomly. A It's not really random. Tapping in the message side of the card brings up the keyboard and the Done button dismisses it. There are various ways to hide/show the toolbar. If you drag a sticker near the bottom of the card, the toolbar will hide so you can accurately position a sticker in that area. Tapping in the non-message side of the card toggles the toolbar. Since sometimes it is tricky to find a clear space to tap, pressing and holding in the stamp area will also toggle the toolbar. That sounds a bit confusing, but after a little practice, you'll get the hang of it. Q My stickers reposition themselves when I choose a postal address for my recipient. A Yes, they might do so. The post office has requirements about how much space is needed around the postage stamp, the barcodes and the address. If a sticker infringes on this space, PhotoCard will slide it over. Q How is a voicenote played when it's received? A Your recipient will either see a sound player that looks like this 
which can be tapped on, or he or she will need to download the voiceNote attachment and play it with QuickTime or a similar app.
(Currently there is no way to play a voiceNote in a print-and-mail PhotoCard :)
Q Sometimes it's hard to read the text while typing. A Try increasing the text size, entering your message, then decreasing the text size before sending the PhotoCard. Q What if I want to reuse the same photograph? Will "Start a new PhotoCard" erase it? A No. It erases everything on the back of the card. And it takes you to the Photo Chooser, but you can tap "Cancel" to return to your card and your previous photo will still be there. [top] Other questions
If you have other questions about PhotoCard, please send email to: bill@billatkinson.com with
"PhotoCard Question" in the "Subject:" line. Thanks.
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