Are there any possibilities of implementing layers.
Could you explain in more detail what you mean by layers? Do you want more than one image or movie per slide?
How do I stack more than 1 photo per slide. First day with software…
Well, it’s not officially supported in the user interface at the moment. However, you can achieve a two-image-per-slide effect with a trick: if you create an RTF file in TextEdit, that contains the second image, you can then add this RTF file as a title to an existing slide. Since that RTF contains an image instead of actual text, the “title” acts as a second image on top of the already existing image.
This second image can then be animated just like any other image or title. It’s not super intuitive, but it works.
BTW: multiple images per slides have been requested a couple of times, but we are still thinking about how we can add this feature, without making the user interface more complex for 95% of our users.
I saw a slideshow presented using ProShow Gold (a Windows app) and for quite a while the only thing presented was a single image, or perhaps two or three, along with simple animated text, or the entire slide image moved across the screen. I figured the entire slide might have been created in Photoshop and then imported as a single piece. But then a slide was shown that had two photos on it that were static – and what blew me away was when one image (a photo) moved off the screen by passing UNDERNEATH the other image (another photo). I knew right away it was done in layers. I want THAT in FotoMagico. The guy who did the show said MULTIPLE images can be stacked (not just two) and each can move independently on the same slide.
As for the GUI, you already have 3 “timelines” across the bottom – one for the imported image, one for text, and one for music. I know this is a programming issue, but why not let the user just be able to add ANOTHER time line on the bottom for ANOTHER image, and AGAIN for a third, and so on? Clicking on each image in the slide show and dragging it to another time line above or below it will move it up or down within the layers. Images could actually “cross over” from one slide to the next; that is, appear on one slide and while image #1 fades off of one slide, image #2 can continue to show as the next slide comes into view.
I’d also like to see the ability to place MULTIPLE text entries on a single slide. And move them independently as well. I’d like to see text “morph” from one font size to another. I’d like to see the color of text morph from one color to another – either the entire text block entry or any chosen word/words within that entry (for example, the word “red” could start out WHITE and for emphasis the word “red” actually becomes the color red!!) I’d like to see the ability to color the background box that the text is placed in. I know – it can be done using RTF (I was told this by a tech support guy some years ago when I first purchased FotoMagico). But there are certain limits to RTF that I want to get around more easily. And I don’t like having to go OUTSIDE of FotoMagico just to get it done. I’d like to be able to have a gradient “behind” the text, not just a solid color, and with percentages of transparency so the underlying slide can show through.
I’d like to have numerical control over image placement, more so than the scroll wheels currently allow for zooming or rotation – and I’d like to see them with a higher resolution (i.e, not a zoom of 35% or 36%, but a zoom of 35.27%). I’d like to be able to place an image on the slide at some X,Y value set by ME, not just by dragging and dropping the image as is currently done. I’d like to be able to morph the image from one size to another WITHOUT the constraint of a 1-to-1 change (i.e., stretch the image horizontally without changing the vertical, or vice versa).
There are other things I would like to see as well, but at the moment I can’t remember them!!! And my wife is calling!!!
Don’t get me wrong – I LOVE FotoMagico!!! It’s one of the best slide presentation apps on the market. But there is SO MUCH MORE it COULD do, and I, for one, would like to see some of these functions implemented. The additions over the last few years to the program have been appreciated, but the basic construct of the program hasn’t changed that much over the same period. It’s time to make some RADICAL changes to make FotoMagico not just a GREAT program, but the BEST program at what it can do!!
I think there is nothing to compare with ProShow Gold. I am waiting for it to come in a Mac version. I bought Fotomagico last year, made one slide show in total frustration and have not used the software since.
I’d second the request for layers. I do love Fotomagico but use another Windows application called PicturesToExe by Winsoft. This offers a really comprehensive set of parameters (layers, animations on each layer etc) but is not so simple or as intuitive as Fotomagico. IMHO it is superior to Proshow Gold (but that’s a personal preference) However, P2E is working on a Mac version so I respectfully suggest to the developers at Boinx that they have a look at these Windows competitors as none of us wish to switch but may be forced to do so.
BTW, pleased to see the forum up and running - well done.
Everything “stantastic” requested for multiple layers and numerical control of image placement should be your next priority. Maybe a simple version in the ordinary version, but definitely in the PRO version…
I would love to see these features added as well but for the price of the software I think what it does it does very well. I made one suggestion in another post but may through some more here. Layers would be awesome even if it was one more for whatever, title, photo, audio. I only bought the home version because I have Adobe production suite and FCS 3 so if I really want to get fancy I can jump into that. I also agree that ProShow is one of the best programs out there but that would mean putting windows on my brand new mac which I don’t want to do. It seem that the folks here want to see improvements and take suggestions from the users so hopefully some of these suggestions will make future editions. I would also love to see more transitions and effects 
Hello Mark,
The next release will bring a couple of new transitions. As for the layers - the request is noted. As I mentioned before, we just don’t want to tack on tons of features and then end up with a program that is unintuitive to use. So we need to figure out how to add the additional features without burdening the novice users with to much complexity. Does that make sense?
FotoMagico IS relatively easy to use in its current configuration. I have to agree on that. And I can fully understand Boinx wanting to continue with that mindset; so YES, your comment does make sense. But at the same time, as stated above by others, there ARE other apps out there (unfortunately on the Windows side) that allow the user to do so much more. I’ve owned a Mac since 1984. I don’t want to flip to Windows. I refuse to do so (but I DO have Parallels up and running on my new MacBook Pro just so I can run THREE applications that do not exist in the Mac world). I could, if I wanted to, purchase ProShow Gold and move on. I’d have to learn a whole new app and start from the ground up. But I’m a Mac guy through and through, and every time I boot up Windows on my Mac, I cringe!! No – for creating my slideshows, I’d like to stick with FotoMagico (and I admit here, for certain presentations, my wife and I have used a combination of iTunes and iMovie together).
I think the best of both worlds would be to enhance the Home version of FotoMagico as Boinx sees fit, keeping it as simple or as complex as they wish. But I believe that when you ADD the “Pro” moniker to the application and sell it for a higher price, users who purchase the Pro version would expect a bit more complexity in its operation. If I pay for a Pro version, I’d like to see some Pro “features”!! Leave the novice to the “novice” version (and keep it less complex), but let the pro move up to the Pro version and give him the opportunity to create some “pro” slide presentations. Sure there will be a learning curve. But that’s not a bad thing.
In either case, FotoMagico is just a tool. Like any tool. When you pick up a tool for the first time, sometimes it’s hard to use. But the more you become familiar with it, the easier it is to use. I can’t see why adding layers, X-Y positioning functionality, morphing and color-changing ability on text blocks, and all the other features I’d like to see that I mentioned earlier, can’t be implemented (not that I’m asking for ALL of them at the same time, although that would be nice!!). I WOULD EXPECT it to take some work to get used to these new features. And I would expect Boinx to find adding these features to be a challenge, especially when it came to the GUI. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.
I want to support the statements of “stantastic”! Please make the Pro version a real “pro” version.
I like the program FotoMagico Pro, I have created many presentations with it, but since Version 2 I felt that it is way behind its possibilities. Maybe this is only possible because it is on the Mac platform.
If people are looking for the ultimate program, they have to move to the windows platform and the program Wings Platinum 4. Which is no problem for a mac user nowadays.
This program is available in different levels of complexity and functionality, but - you might guess - is costly too. And takes some time to learn for sure! Adult people can choose what they want in life. We are no idiots out here! 
If FotoMagico Pro is not improved by large measures, offering much more freedom for the design process in the Pro version, imo it will fall behind pretty soon and Boinx will lose customers.
Especially when compared to solutions already now offered by different companies (e.g. Animoto, ProShow Web, Stupeflix …), which - via the internet - offer fast online generation of impressive and professional looking HQ- and HD-presentations for only a couple of dollars, or based on a monthly rate! Without the need for a program installed on the computer, and independant of the operating system used on the local computer!
With such a fast changing market and fast “cloud computing”, who knows, maybe in the near future there is no need anymore for (to buy) the present type of presentation programs. I’m pretty sure you guys at Boinx have taken notice of these developments by others since 2009!
As an ex-Windows user who has previously used both ProShow Gold and PicturesToExe, I have to agree that layers would be a fantastic addition to Fotomagico.
I’m disappointed that this feature–multiple images presented at the same time–is only “noted” at this point. To me, this is the most obvious deficiency in FotoMagico; I thought for sure it would be coming in version 4, and soon (frankly, I hoped and expected that it would be done by the first of this year).
When FotoMagico first appeared, it was the best of its kind, and probably still is on the Mac. I used it to create slideshows that were very well received. But now I want to do more in my shows, and the tools I need don’t seem to be available unless I go to Windows, which I’d really rather not do. (Wow, Alchemist, Wings Platinum looks AMAZING! But I think–for now–I just need the features of ProShow.)
I created an account on these forums just so that I could add my voice to those of stantastic, Alchemist, and the others. PLEASE, add these features as soon as possible! Make the Pro version a real “Pro” version!
Hello Peter, I have been away from this forum for some time but I am pleased to see so many users requesting layers in the PRO version. I downloaded a trial copy of FotoMagico and was disappointed that there were no layers, no ability to independently adjust fades in the audio and a host of what I consider fairly simple additions to an otherwise great product on the MAC. Yes I use Proshow Producer that gives me all the features I need but this means i have to switch to Windows to make my show and back to MAC to adjust my images - this is not an efficient workflow. I sincerely hope you are listening to all of us and take these requests seriously. A fast approaching competitor is PULPMOTION 3 - they do not have it all but have lots of real neat features.
Regards,
Shiv
Last night at our camera club we had a head to head, so to speak of how to create slide shows using ProShow Gold and FotoMagico. It was disappointing for the Mac people because there are so many fewer things you can do in FotoMagico: no good sound control or layers, for example. No extensive type transitions. Only 20 internal transitions compared to 250 in ProShow. And the FotoMagico Pro version costs $140 compared to the $60 for ProShow Gold.
There is confusion when you have gone into instant slideshow mode to match music to slides, even just for a demonstration, then go back, turn off the check marks under Instant Slide Show and find that the music looks like it is matching the slides but is actually not. This presumes you change the slide and transition timing on a number of images. To make that worse, if you change music and it is longer than the slides showing, it counts the empty image holders as real images and falsely increases the time of the show.
Another major difference is that to achieve really great output, you must show your show on a monitor or a projector directly from the show. The quality of a burned DVD is quite low. I am told that DVDs from ProShow are of excellent quality.
Anyway, I wanted to point out that the Mac members attending this comparison were duly discouraged to buy FotoMagico. They were talking about making their program in iMovie.
I won’t address the issues joanfield is having with the “instant slideshow” mode, but as for the discouraging feeling of Mac users over Window “Pro Show Gold” users, I’m one of those as well. There IS an inherent degradation of quality when burning a standard DVD (versus Blue-Ray, which I don’t have), and creating a DVD from iMovie has never created a “high-res” version of my slideshow, so I feel that’s not really an option. I was given a DVD from a friend using Pro Show Gold and it ran on my standard DVD player hooked up to my HD quality television – it looked GREAT!! Slide shows burned to DVD from FotoMagico DO lose a lot of quality, regardless of the settings (at least that’s my experience). Presenting your slideshow FROM your computer directly to a monitor or a projector is the only way to get the highest quality presentation at the present time (ignoring Blue-Ray, of course). It’s a shame, too. I refuse to own a Mac and have to resort to a Windows app to get our slideshows made.
This is supposed to be a discussion about “Layers” but in the end it’s all related…
As already stated we are addressing the layers with high priority. I can’t tell too much but I have already seen a show with several layers working great… So there is cool stuff upcoming here.
Please be more specific regarding the quality of the DVD export. We only have a resolution of 720 × 576 (PAL) or 720 × 480 (NTSC) available. So nowadays where every amateur wants to produce HD stuff this is not much, but the same for every software. Do you think the image is not sharp enough, the colors are wrong etc? Thanks for the feedback!
Hi, Rudolf –
In my experience, after burning a standard NTSC DVD, regardless whether it has come from FotoMagico, iMovie, or iDVD, once it’s inserted into a standard DVD player and shown on a TV screen (even my 42" Panasonic Plasma with 1080i), the colors (usually the greens and reds) are oversaturated (as compared to the original images), and the resolution just sucks. What looks crisp and clear on my computer monitor displays with much less sharper resolution on the TV (not so far as to say it’s pixelated), but edges are “muddy”. As I reported above, I have received a standard NTSC DVD from a friend who uses Pro Show Gold in Windows. I don’t know what types of options are offered in that software regarding output, but the images are “almost” as clear and sharp as if they were displayed on a computer monitor directly. There IS a slight degradation of quality, but none as dramatic as coming off the Mac. I suppose I should bite the bullet and switch over to a Blue-Ray reader/writer for my computer, but then I’d have to purchase ANOTHER unit to attach to my HDTV downstairs just so I can view the disk. And it doesn’t help to create Blue-Ray disks to send to others for sharing, since Blue-Ray still hasn’t caught on “globally” although the price for set-top boxes has come down a LOT over the last year.
That is the compromise you have to make - Quality or price. Of course BluRay offers way more quality but as you mentioned is not so wide-spread yet. Have you ticked the “High quality” option in the DVD export in FotoMagico?
On the other hand DVD is really “old” already. I can’t provide any perfect advice here, I’m afraid.