58 North and Bottle Rocket Apps have launched Pholium, a digital photo book design app for the Apple iPad. Pholium enables users to create digital books for free, fine-tune images and share the completed photo books with others, all on the iPad and all within the app. Book recipients who use Pholium receive instant Push Notifications the moment new books are available to them and may be downloaded directly to their iPad from Pholium’s cloud server. By tapping on any image within the book, users can view images up to 2x and also have the option of viewing the digital book in a slideshow format. The Pholium App is available for $9.99 from the iTunes App Store.

58 North Press Release

Pholium, High-Quality Photo Book Design and Giving App, Launches Exclusively for iPad

Create, Edit and Gift Professional-Grade Digital Photo Books All Within the App; App Optimized for Retina Display on New iPad

DALLAS – April 4, 2012 - 58 North, creators of premium iPad applications leveraging Apple’s iOS 5, today announced the launch of Pholium, a photo enthusiast’s dream digital book design and giving app for the iPad, now available on the App Store. Developed by Bottle Rocket Apps, Pholium elevates the way iPad users interact with images by enabling the creation of high-quality, customizable digital photo books that can easily be given to others. Pholium enables users to create digital books for free, fine-tune images and gift the completed photo books to others, all on the iPad and all within the app. Using a Wi-Fi connection and Pholium’s in-app giving feature, Pholda, users are able to share the highly customized and interactive digital book experience with others.

Pholium takes full advantage of the iPad’s capabilities, allowing individuals to become both authors and publishers by creating and sharing their ideas visually. Pholium is designed to provide a rich and immersive experience that goes beyond today’s online photo sharing and point-click-print photo books. Using only the iPad, users have an opportunity to create the highest-quality digital photo books that can be easily given to others for a fraction of the cost of a printed book.  Book recipients who use Pholium receive instant Push Notifications the moment new books are available to them and may be downloaded directly to their iPad from Pholium’s cloud server.

Using existing pictures from their photo app on iPad, users can effortlessly select and place photos in a custom layout, creating a personal story from cover to cover. With the flick of a wrist, users of Pholium can fine-tune images and make adjustments within the app, including size, color, contrast, brightness and finish of their photos. Additional features allow users to determine how images are laid out on each page, customize the cover, write an introduction or author/artist statement and add finishing touches. The end result is the highest-quality, professional-grade digital photo book complete with page curling and iPad optimized image viewing. By tapping on any image within the book, users can view images up to 2x and also have the option of viewing the digital book in a slideshow format. 

“We’re reinventing the way iPad users think about their images. We take many photos daily but some are special and deserve to be preserved and shared –whether it’s to tell a story or remember an important event. As a longtime photographer, I was thrilled by the possibilities that the iPad offered for presenting and sharing images,” said Robert E. W. Sinclair, co-founder of 58 North. “I soon realized there weren’t many apps or e-book formats taking advantage of the device’s high-quality graphics, functional capabilities and portability. Pholium is changing that. Creating a Pholium e-book is as easy as saving images into the app, doing a little creative work, and sending them to friends and family – from anywhere.”

Pholium contains three primary spaces:

-      Gallery – An efficient place to import, edit and store the user’s selected images within the app. Images in the Gallery can be organized and named in Stacks for easy identification.

-      Studio – The center of creativity and space within Pholium where the possibilities begin for the user to build their idea in a book format. The Studio allows users to create digital photo books to peruse and gift to others.

-      Library – The place where completed Pholium books are stored and can be enjoyed by the creator or given to other iPad users via Pholium’s giving feature, Pholda.  Pholda is unique in that the book is permanently given to the recipient and built into the app. The digital photo books are given using Pholium’s cloud server to retain its high image quality.

“We worked from the ground up to maximize the iPad’s features, while staying true to the look and feel of traditional coffee table photo books,” said Bill Sinclair, co-founder of 58 North. “The simplicity and elegance of the iPad really shows off a user’s unique style and design. With Pholium, your creativity can flow.”

“Pholium is an app we can all use,” said Calvin Carter, founder and president of Bottle Rocket Apps.  “It’s both powerful and simple, allowing amateurs and professionals alike to build a beautiful and meaningful record of the most important images of our lives.”

The Pholium App is available for $9.99 from the App Store on iPad at http://www.pholium.com/app.  This price includes the creation of an unlimited number of books and the ability to give each book to up to 10 recipients for free using Pholium’s giving feature, Pholda. Additional Pholdas are available for $.99 each via In-App Purchase which enables users to give each digital photo book to up to 10 new recipients. A low-resolution PDF of gifted digital photo books is also automatically created for non-app users, so they can open the book directly from their email.

Your Comments