1. Go to http://sylvana.net/jpegcrop/jpegtran/
2. download http://sylvana.net/jpegcrop/jpegcrop.tar.gz
3. copy jpegtran into your ~/bin directory
4. configure Gallery2’s Jpegtran “Graphics Toolkits” to specify your new jpegtran

Configure Jpegtran for Gallery2

Alternatively, you can also try this more radical suggestion.

Sample Trivia Game

Recently a client called and wanted a quick set of sample images, movies and Flash animations created. He was attending a Higher Education technology conference and needed sample content for his booth. The deadline was just a few short weeks away.

This was a fun project, with a completely “open” set of requirements. The only constraint was two fixed sizes. Colors, theme, layout, messaging: just make them”look cool, believable” and recognizable to visitors at the booth. We took a road trip to a few nearby campuses and got “inspired”. Here’s what we came up with. The client loved ‘em!

For rapid prototyping this, I was torn between using Adobe Flash, Adobe Fireworks, Apple Motion, and Apple Keynote ‘08. In the end, I decided to go with Keynote for a few reasons:

1. The client specifically asked for a mix of file formats (images, quicktime, SWF) to show off the capabilities of his demo system. Apple Keynote could directly export Flash, PNG, and QuickTime movies, so that would certainly be a streamlined workflow…no conversions necessary.
2. Keynote has an handy “instant alpha” feature to remove background colors from clip art quickly. It saves a lot of time versus “masking” and working in Photoshop.
3. I’m not efficient with Fireworks yet.
4. I have only used Keynote for typical “presentation” work, but recently start dabbling with it for some really simple rapid prototyping with another client.

What worked well:

• Keynote’s set of built-in shapes, textures, and backdrops made quick work of building backgrounds and simple transitions.
• Font controls were flexible and easy to use.
• Animation builds and wipes were sufficiently complex and nice-looking without being “Cheesy”. I tried lots of them, but ended up using just a few transitions and builds to keep the look and feel consistent.

What didn’t work:

• Rotated fonts looked surprisingly bad. Not sure what the deal was, but rotated fonts were consistently poor quality. Check out the “Australia” slide, although it might be harder to notice in this half-sized web version, all the rotated text looked rough and craggley.
• Layer controls. At times it was hard to get the right set of “front” and “back” that worked well with the graphics.
• Cropping graphics. If you need to crop something other than a square, Keynote is frustrating. That made it hard to layer things nicely too.
• Timing: Keynote is rather inflexible at transition/build timing when you export the presentation. During a presentation it’s fine, but you have three timing choices during export: Fixed Timing, Manual Advance and “as recorded”. The latter option is very flexible but time consuming. Maybe it’s better in Keynote ‘09?

Would I use Keynote to prototype like this again ? You bet. It did almost everything I needed and did it efficiently.  The client loved the package..and in the end that’s all that matters.

Gallery of Samples: (Click to see larger image or animation)

Click here to view the embedded video.[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeQV1FJuglE[/youtube]Click here to view the embedded video.[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu7P9w55hic[/youtube]Click here to view the embedded video.[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM9Dm2j36-g[/youtube]Click here to view the embedded video.[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jno3gHHeSpk[/youtube]Click here to view the embedded video.

The Apple Discussion board has been tracking this bug since Paul Figgiani reported it on Aug 10 2007. I respect Paul and like his work so I was extra-motived to find a solution. Someone posted a workaround that involved basically dumping the “Line out” of your interface into the “Line In” on your computer. Yes that works, but it feels dirty and you’re compromising your sound quality. Here’s a better way!

Workaround:

You will need:

1. Audio Hijack Pro from Rogue Amoeba software ($32 if you don’t already have it. I’m a podcaster so I already had this.)
2. SoundFlower from Cycling ‘74 (Free. Thanks, Cycling ‘74!)

How to hook it up:

• Inside Audio Hijack Pro:
  • Add a new “session”. I called mine “Keynote workaround device”
  • Set the “source type” to be “Audio Device”. See Figure 2.
  • Set the “Input Device” to be your audio interface (e.g. “Alesis 1394″)
  • Set the “Output Device” to be “SoundFlower (2ch)”
  • Click the “Advanced Button…”
  • Inside the “Advanced Device Options” dialog (See Figure 3):
    • Set the Input Device Left Channel to be 1 (assuming you have your mic plugged into mixer channel #1)
    • Set the Input Device Right Channel to be 1 (this assumes you only need to record your own voice into the Keynote slides)
    • Set the Output Device Left Channel to be 1
    • Set the Output Device Right Channel to be 2
    • Close this dialog
  • Your settings should now look like Figure 4 :
    
  • Hijack this Audio device (click the “Hijack” button)
• From the Mac “Sound Preferences” control panel, set the default audio interface to be the “SoundFlower (2ch)” device. See Figure 3.
• Now go back to Keynote ‘08 and record your slide voice over
• Ta Da!

How does this work?

My guess is that Keynote ‘08 doesn’t know how to deal with an audio device that has more than 2 channels. Through this workaround, I’m using Audio Hijack Pro to route the mixer input #1 into both sides of the Left-Right signal path of the SoundFlower(2ch) pseudo audio device. By setting SoundFlower (2ch) as the default system audio input device, Keynote ‘08 is tricked into using the fancy audio interface.

The best part of this workaround is that you’re getting the best possible sound directly from your audio interface. You’re keeping your audio signal in its digital form all the way into the Keynote and using your expensive interface to do the A/D conversion instead of the Mac’s “Line In” port.

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