Amateur and professional photographers can get those pictures of their precious occasions such as weddings, birthdays, graduation, holidays and so on displayed with notation in a photo imagebook through the new on-line store-front portal called Myflippix.com, announced by Malaysian company, Metromedia Technologies, on 8 October, 2009.

“In our over 10 years existence, we've provided large format poster printing services for billboards but we now bring our service to consumers with our MyFlippix portal,” said Metromedia managing director, Zainal Ariffin Khalid. “We invested about RM2 million in out MyFlippix system,” he added.

Users need only register via www.myflippix.com, then download and install the Myflippix! Maker imagebook page layout software which runs on Windows XP/Vista or Apple Mac OS 10.3.9 or later.

Myflippix! Maker runs whilst off-line and provides them with a choice of about 31 different layout templates for each page, into which they then drag and drop their pictures into their imagebook  of 40 pages.

Should registered users have any problems, they can log into the MyFlippix portal and refer to the frequently asked questions, chat on-line with a Metromedia consultant between 9am and 6pm, Monday through Friday or fill in an enquiry form which will be answered within 24 hours.

When finished, MyFlippix! Maker will scan through the whole project for pictures which are too small to be printed without unsightly graininess or pixelation and flag them, so users can replace them with a more suitable ones.  MyFlippix! Maker also automatically enhances the brightness, contrast and other factors in the photos so they appear more presentable.

The user then goes on-line and with MyFlippix! Maker, they proceeds to check out and pay on-line and specify the delivery address, whether domestic or overseas. At this stage they can include the code of any discount voucher they may have. At time of writing, Metromedia offered 20% discount off all orders till 31 October, with the voucher code LAUNCHPROMO888.

Several payment methods are available, including credit card, the on-line banking services of major banks,  Mobile Money, MEPS Cash and others, or they can choose to pay later, in which case Metromedia will hold their project for up to 30 days to allow time for it to receive their payment by cheque, money order or in person at its office in Ara Damansara, Petaling Jaya.

Metromedia charges from RM98 to RM358 per 40 page book, depending on size and complexity and payment is handled independently by the iPay88.com payment gateway partner.They can also create their own picture storybooks, calendars.

MyFlippix! Maker then proceeds to submit their project on-line as a PDF file to Metromedia, which will proceed to print out the pages on its Hewlett-Packard HP Indigo Press 5500 professional digital printer.

Alternatively, users can layout the pages with  any other type of typesetting software which saves in PDF format or they can mail in their pictures on a CD and Metromedia's team of designers will lay them out for them.

The high capacity Indigo 5500 prints up to two million colour pages per month or up to five million monochrome pages per month.

“It has a wide colour gamut  and uses HP Electronic liquid Ink technology with up to seven different ink colours including Light Cyan and Light Magenta which are similar to those used in traditional offset lithographic printing,” said  Gabriel Dukes, HP Indigo Digital Press channel development manager, Imaging & Printing Group, Asia Pacific / Japan.

The pages are then checked for defects or damage by Metromedia's quality control team, then cut,  laminated and bound into a book with glue or thread as required. It's then packed with protective cardboard over its vulnerable corners and shipped by courier in a pizza box.

GD Express courier handles deliveries throughout Malaysia within up to seven days, whilst DHL handles international deliveries within up to 10 days. “Express delivery within three and a half working days is possible if we receive the job before 12.00 noon on a working day,” said Metromedia marketing manager, Ng Keng Lock.

Metromedia will hold an open house at its office between 10.00am and 2.00pm on Saturday, 10th October, 2009 for anyone to bring in their projects and enjoy a discount. Its office is located at B-G-27, Block B, Jalan PJU 1A/3J, Taipan 1, Ara Damansara, 47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

"We also can create customised image book portals for business customers such as wedding photographers, companies, publishers, educational institutions, advertising agencies and others," said Ng.