We’ve had a few support cases recently where BlogStomp users were seeing funky things happen to the colour and/or saturation of their images when using the BlogStomp App.  I thought I should share a little to make sure everyone is on the same page with how BlogStomp handles colour profiles, and how to make adjustments if you’re seeing changes.  The issues we’ve seen recently center around images losing saturation once Stomped, or a logo changing in colour slightly.  I’ll do my best to make sense of everything here.

Cheers
Danny

How BlogStomp works ::
- BlogStomp reads the colour profile of the source images and stores it for later use.
- BlogStomp then creates the final stomped image with the original colour profile.

Sounds easy huh?  But here’s when things could fail.

Common Problems with the BS workflow ::
- All images have to be the same colour profile – this is a bit stink, but somewhat reasonable.  Make sure the profile of all the images you’re Stomping matches.
- Sometimes the image has no colour profile tag, that means you rely on the computer’s default.  A recipe for failure…
- Differing file types (logo PNG) may add complication to this scenario, but we’re testing that at present.

Color Profile Facts ::
- It’s a confusing topic, and most people don’t get it.  There are often different names :: “colour profile”, “colour space”, “working space”, “colour mode”, “ICC profile”
(The worst bit is that technically some of those words mean different things, but people often misuse them to mean colour profile.)
- On a Mac you have a Colorsync Utility that is built in, and a fun way to play and learn about colour profiles – have a go.
- Also, on a Mac you can open your image in preview and hit “CMND + i” to view what profile is assigned (or tagged) in the image.
- In Photoshop you can assign, convert and do just about whatever else you like to an image’s colour profiles.  (Here’s a link about using PS CS5 for that stuff http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps12_colour/ps12_1.htm)

Troubleshooting ::
If you’re seeing a difference in the output colour in some of your images, first check the profiles of the images. (Make sure there is profile info, and that the images all match one another.)  If they are different, then change one to match the other, then re-Stomp the photos.  Check the output, and check the Stomped file’s colour profile info.
Something will almost certainly give you a red flag, then you can make adjustments accordingly.  It may be that you will never know what caused the issue in the first place, but at least we can make these adjustments and move forward.

Welcome to image processing!

Just a quick note to say thank you, we appreciate you, and have a wonderful and safe Christmas.

2011 has been an amazing year, and next year’s gonna be an even bigger one.

More about that later though. Get out of here and enjoy the day.

Much love and Merry Christmas from the BlogStomp team

x

Woot! The BlogStomp Twelve Days of Christmas sale has just begun!

Twelve days. 25% off your entire cart. Ends midnight 31 December. Super easy.

It’s a great time to grab yourself a BlogStop chrissy present (and get in one last 2011 tax deduction).

Check out the BlogStomp range of products here, and take the application for a test drive if you need. But make it a quick one. You’ve only got twelve days!

Click here to buy an Activation code for the BlogStomp Application. (Prefer the Photoshop Actions? Click here)

On check out, enter the discount code: TWELVEDAYSOFBLOGSTOMP

Happy shopping, stomping and Christmas everyone!

The BlogStomp team

And, just so you know, the old BlogStomp Blog is still alive and kicking, with all the killer help features and Tips & Tricks for the amazing BlogStomp Photoshop tools!

So bookmark us, add us into your RSS feed, or simply make www.blogstomponline.com your browser’s homepage — you’ll be glad you did!

Okay, off we go ::

Open a blog-ready image.

Open up your actions in List Mode ::

Locate the “Flatten Image” command line ::

Hit the Record button ::

Duplicate the layer

Go to your Layer Effects menu ::

Select Stroke ::

Set the color to 100% Black ::

Set the Size to 1 px and the Position to "Inside" ::

Flatten the image

Press Stop.  You should now have these three new steps ::

Repeat this for all your other BlogStomp actions.  **DON"T FORGET TO SAVE YOUR ACTIONS** when you are finished, or else these changes could be lost.

Thanks, and tell all your friends!!  ; )

the BlogStomp Team

We built in to BlogStomp the ability to move your logo around on your image frame, and inserted stops in the actions to prompt you.  However, if you always leave your logo in the same place every single time you Stomp an image, you don’t need these stops.  For you, they are less helpful and more a waste of valuable seconds.  Below here we’ve put instructions on how to get rid of these stops for the fastest-possible blog prep with the BlogStomp Actions.

Open up your Actions Palette in List mode, then navigate down to your BlogStomp set.

Open up the SOLO H action, then look for the command line that says “Stop”.

In the column to the left of the command lines, click the grey box to make it disappear.

Once you’ve done that, it should look like the image below.

Repeat these steps for all your BlogStomp actions, then be sure to save you action set in the Actions Palette menu.

Once you’ve completed these steps, run some test Stomps and see how much faster it goes!

Happy Stomping!!

the BlogStomp Team