Sparkles recommend that customers submit a high-resolution digital image for best printing results. Typically those images come from either a digital camera or a scanner.
images come from either a digital camera or a scanner.Please see the table below for recommended print and resolution combinations.

Sparkles bases a good image based on the final resolution output of an image and can't give a good recommendation on PPI (Pixels per Inch), LPI (Lines per Inch), or DPI (Dots per Inch). Therefore please look at the final output resolution after the image is created to determine if it will print well on Sparkles based on the above recommended resolutions. Sparkles recommends that customers submit a high-resolution digital image for best printing results. Typically those images come from either a digital camera or a scanner.
For large-format prints (11x14, 12X12, 16x20, and 20x30), our recommendations are similar to those for an 8x10, although you may wish to help ensure the best possible print by using an image that is 3 megapixels or larger.

Please see the table below for recommended print and resolution combinations.

Image Resolution : Maximum print size
less than 640x480 : only wallet-size prints recommended
640x480 : absolute minimum resolution for 4x6 (results will vary)
1024 x 768 : minimum recommended resolution for 4x6
1152 x 864 : minimum recommended resolution for 5x7
1600 x 1200 : minimum recommended resolution for 8x10 or larger

For large-format prints (11x14, 12X12, 16x20, and 20x30), our recommendations are similar to those for an 8x10, although you may wish to help ensure the best possible print by using an image that is 3 megapixels or larger.

For Scrapbook pages:
12x12 Scrapbook Page – 2000 x 1600
8x8 Scrapbook Page: – 1600 x 1200

The recommended resolutions for images in your Photo Books are:

12x12 Hard Cover Heart-to-Heart Book – 2000 x 1600
8x8 Hard Mini Book: – 1600 x 1200
8.5x11 Tell your Story Book– 1600 x 1200

Our recommendations for resolution are based on ‘full-bleed’ picture layouts used in a Photo Book. Other page layouts may need less resolution, so if you meet the “full bleed” you should not have any problems printing. If you receive a ‘not recommended’ warning, then the resolution of your image is too low and the results may be unsatisfactory. This warning will appear as a yellow triangle with an exclamation point (!) somewhere on the image that is below recommended quality.

Please note that our recommendations are based ONLY on the overall resolution of your picture, and not on the overall quality or clarity of the original picture. We are not and cannot be responsible for blurry, out-of-focus, or poorly composed pictures, even if there is sufficient resolution to be ‘recommended’.

Also note that cropping the image excessively can cause the image resolution to drop below recommendations.

Pictures that fall below our recommended resolution guidelines may look okay when viewed online, but will appear blurry and pixilated — that is, the image will appear blocky, with jagged rather than smooth edges — when enlarged and printed.

To check the resolution of your pictures once you have transferred them to Sparkles, go to the View and Enhance page from “Home Page” and click on the thumbnail image; you will then see a larger version of the picture, with maximum recommended print size. Click on the 'picture info' link. Among the information displayed you will find the resolution. Click on the picture information box again to close the box.

Sparkles bases a good image based on the final resolution output of an image and can't give a good recommendation on PPI (Pixels per Inch), LPI (Lines per Inch), or DPI (Dots per Inch). Therefore please look at the final output resolution after the image is created to determine if it will print well on Sparkles based on the above recommended resolutions.

Sign into your account or if you are signed in go to the Sparkles Home Page. You can return to Sparkles Home Page from almost any page on the site by clicking the Sparkles Home Page at the top of most pages. Then look for the 'My Account' section, and click the 'Personal info/settings' link to be taken to the Account Information page.

Find the "Personal Information" section and click the 'Edit' link underneath it to be taken to the Change Address page.

Once there, enter your new email and/or address in the appropriate field(s), and click the 'Save now' button to save your changes.

If you encounter an error trying to enter an email address, more than likely that email already exists on Sparkles as another account. Sparkles only allows one email address per account so you will not be allowed to update your email address if the other account with the same email address exists on Sparkles. You may log into the other existing account and modify the email address and save it (i.e. test@aol.com could be modified to test@change.aol.com), then log back in to the old account and update the email to the new email address (i.e. test@aol.com).

If you have trouble please submit a question to customer service by clicking the Contact Us customer service' tab.

When you need to update/change personal information such as:

- email address
- billing information such as a credit card
- password
- account preferences
- email preferences

Please do the following:

Sign in your account and you will be on the My Sparkles page, otherwise click on the My Sparkles link on the top of various web pages to return back to the main page that you see when signing in to your account. Once on the My Sparkles page look for the "My account" heading towards the bottom of the page. Click on 'Personal info/settings' link. On the Account Information page, select the heading that pertains to the information you wish to change.

we do not currently have a way of merging two accounts. However, there is a way to move albums from one account to another.

Simply share the albums from the old account to the new account (or vice versa) and then save them to the destination account to which they were shared. Lastly, contact us with the email address of the account you will no longer be using so we may close it to avoid future confusion.

Please note that when your email address changes you do not need to create a new account. Simply log into your existing account and update your account information.

To read more on how to share your images please refer to the following URL:
http://www.sparkelsphotoideas.com/help/main.jsp?a=358

If you simply wish to change your old email address/account information to a new email address/account information just change the email address on your account.

To read about how to change your email address please refer to the following URL:
http://www.sparklesphotoideas.com/help/main.jsp?a=38

What are "My email preferences" and how can I adjust them?

These are settings that reflect your preferences in receiving promotional email and special offers from Sparkles. (You can receive coupons and promotional offers simply by being on our customer contact list.)

To change your Sparkles email preferences please do the following:

Sign into your account or if you are signed in go to the Sparkles  page. You can return to Sparkles Home Page from almost any page on the site by clicking the Sparkles link at the top of most pages. Then look for the 'My Account' section and click the 'Personal info/settings' link to be taken to the Account Information page.

- On the Account Information page, click on the 'Change' link below 'My email preferences'.
- Change these as you like; when finished, click the 'Save' button to be sure your preferences are updated.

Please note that we do take our customers' privacy very seriously; you my visit the Privacy Policy at by clicking link to our Privacy policy at the bottom of almost every page on our site or visiting the following URL.

http://www.sparklesphotoideas.com.com/help/privacy.jsp

The Add Pictures tab option

where is you can transfer pictures from your computer (or digital camera) to your online Sparkles account. Adding pictures is the same thing as uploading; transferring information from your computer to an outside site like Sparkle. There are three different methods of transferring images to Sparkles. To review each of these upload methods, please click the links below:

One by One :
http://www.sparklesphotoideas.com/help/main.jsp?a=46 –  

Picture Upload Assistant:
http://www. sparklesphotoideas.com /help/main.jsp?a=48 

Sparkles Studio:
http://www.sparklesphotoideas.com/studio/overviews.jsp

Sparkles offers six methods to uploading your photographs onto our website.

1. iPhoto plugin
   iPhoto Export Plug-in adds the ability to export from iPhoto directly to Shutterfly. Once the plugin is installed correctly, you will have a tab for Sparkles when you go to the export area in iPhoto. The iPhoto plug-in is available in the FREE software section.
2. Browser plugin
   The Picture Upload Assistant works with your browser such as Internet Explorer, Netscape, or Firefox. It can be downloaded easily from the Add pictures tab after choosing the album to which you want to add the pictures to. When you have installed the Picture Upload Assistant correctly, there will be a box with Sparkles circles on it where you can drag and drop in your photos.
3. Sparkles Studio
   The Sparkles Studio™ software is a separate client software application that can be used off line. It allows you to crop, rotate, and many other features before adding your images to your online account. For more information on Sparkles Studio, or to download the free software, go to: http://www.sparklesphoideas.com/studio/overviews.jsp
4. One-by-one
   You can upload images one-by-one by using the Simple browser method. This method can be used easily from within your account on the Add Photos page- no additional software is required.
5. Film
   If you have 35mm or APS (ADVANTIX®) film rolls, you can submit them using our postage-paid film mailers. Please note that we can ONLY accept film sent in with these mailers. To order mailers, sign in to your account and click the Add pictures tab. For more information, click the Order film mailers link on the right.

Mail-in CD's
If you have a slow connection and have many images to transfer, then you may want to send Sparkles a CD in the mail.

For our customers, we offer free, unlimited storage: we will let you store as many pictures as you wish, with no fee to upload or store your pictures. All pictures, whether uploaded digitally or from our 35mm film service, will be kept in your account until you delete them yourself. (Please note that Sparkles reserves the right to modify this policy if necessary.)

We also offer a service called Sparkles Pro Galleries, where you can sell prints online, naming your own price-- with discounted printing provided by Sparkles. For Pro Galleries, we offer hosted storage for an annual fee, with storage levels starting at 5 GB for the Pro plan and unlimited storage for the Premier plan. Please note that the storage limit is based upon the files posted to your galleries at a single time. For more information, please see our Pro Galleries page at:

Sparkles does not currently have a maximum file size limit. We do encourage customers to keep image file sizes to within reason (usually under 10 megs, as there is no added benefit in terms of our printing with larger sizes).

Our imaging scientist here at Sparkles wrote down some thoughts on how to use Sparkles as part of users color managed workflow.

First some background information.

We run a fully-automated Silver Halide and Digital Offset printing facility with multiple machines of either kind. We constantly monitor our machines and keep them within 2-3 DeltaE_94 of each other. We have many production processes in place to ensure this level of accuracy. You are right, based on paper and native printing technologies, there will be some differences in color. But let me assure you that the differences are minimal; the color reproduction differences between the glossy and matte papers are less than 2.0 DeltaE_94.

I would encourage you run your own test - but remember, turn off VividPics - to measure color accuracy. Save your original image as an sRGB image and order different size products from us. Ideally you should print color patches and measure the Lab values using a spectrophotometer. For an independent test of color accuracy, please also see last June/July issue of MacWorld where they performed similar tests on online photofinishers and ranked Sparkles as the best.

There are three things that happen to images printed through Sparkles:

1. We interpret the RGB pixels as sRGB
2. We do automatic color enhancement and adjustment (we call this VividPics processing)
3. Finally, we print the images on color managed sRGB printers.

For people interested in getting accurate colors on prints from Sparkle, you will need to do the following:

1. Either calibrate your monitor to be sRGB or use monitor profiles for soft proofing your images.
2. Save the images as sRGB
3. After uploading to Sparkles, turn off step #2 above, i.e. turn off VividPics.

Here are the steps for doing this to a group of images in a single album:

a. Select all pictures in your album
b. Go to the "View & Enhance" tab (top left after "Add Pictures")
c. Select any one of your pictures
d. Select the "Effects" tab on the right hand side
e. You should come to a screen which has a check box w/ "Don't apply automatic correction to picture" on the left bottom. check that box.
f. then click on "Apply this effect to other pictures" right above it.

This will turn off VividPics on all your pictures in that album and you will therefore get accurate sRGB colors on the final prints.

All our printers are calibrated to be sRGB printers - the profile therefore for these printers is just the industry standard sRGB profiles. For more information on sRGB, feel free to check out these web pages: http://www.srgb.com/aboutsrgb.html and www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Graphics/Color/sRGB.html. The link http://www.color.org/srgbprofiles.html should take you straight to the ICC profile download page. If it doesn't work remove the "/srgbprofiles.html" part and then go to the dropdown “resources” and choose “profiles” there you should see an option for sRGB.

*If you turn off VividPics*, all our printers will produce sRGB colors accurately.

If you are not getting exact colors. We can hypothesize on two reasons that come to mind:

1. Different profile building software have different biases in them. At the end of the day, each software has a model of the final output device and builds a coarse grain look-up-table to map colors. The accuracy and bias of each software is a function of the inherent printer/output device model.

2. The same profiling software produces slightly different colors for different output technologies (for example: RGB vs. CMYK)

You can verify both of these by printing, say, a MacBeth chart and measuring Lab values. A MacBeth chart has standard Lab values and a comparison will show that every profiling software has some directional bias.

In addition, getting "perfect"/"spot on" colors is a very difficult task in an open color exchange environment. Communicating color accurately (i.e. having everyone speak the same color "language") and perfectly interpreting the intent of the original customer is more of black art than a science. Given these limitations we have tried to architect our infrastructure so that we can provide reasonably accurate color reproduction in a fully automated workflow, without having to do job specific setup. The costs of the latter will be prohibitive and we may not be able to provide this service in a cost effective manner.

Having said all this, we are constantly looking to improve and do have some ideas that are in the process of implementation. I cannot talk about them right now as time lines etc. are not set and we have to work within constraints of not increasing our costs, maintaining automation etc.

As for questions about using different input spaces, I don't think it will make a difference with skin tones; changing color spaces will primarily make a difference with highly saturated colors as the other spaces (e-sRGB, Adobe RGB) differ in gamut size. Skin tones lie within the gamut of all these color spaces.

One final thought: If your needs for extremely accurate color reproduction are not being met w/ the automated pipeline we are providing, it is possible for you to build profiles and manage everything locally. That way you have complete control. In order to do this, just print your targets through us (after turning VividPics off) and build profiles with your own profiling software. That way, the biases of your own profiling software will be accurately compensated for in your prints. Keep in mind that we maintain our printers within ~2.0-2.5 deltaE so that day after day you will get very consistent reproduction.

Hope this reasonably addresses any color questions that you may have about Sparkles.

All pictures, whether uploaded digitally or from our 35mm film service, will be kept in accounts until customers actively choose to delete images or albums. Sparkles does not have a removal policy on images in users accounts at this time. Please note that Sparkles reserves to right to change this policy in the future.

To apply enhancements to several photos at once:

1) Select the album containing the pictures you wish to apply enhancements.
2) Select the Enhance/fix pictures link.
3) Pick your Enhancement (border or effects) that you wish to apply and then pick the specific effect (i.e. white border or black and white)
4) Click the link that says 'Apply this border / effect' to other pictures
5) Select which images you wish to all the effect or click the all link.
6) Click the Next button and all the images will have the enhancement applied to them.

Unfortunately, cropping and red-eye enhancements or corrections can not be applied to many images at a single time.

To remove borders, cropping, or other enhancements from a picture revert back to the original version, click the 'Remove all enhancements' link on the left side of the page. (That link will only remove enhancements for that one particular picture, and will not affect any other pictures you have enhanced.) Then click the link to "Apply this ... to All Selected " and all images will revert back to the original.

No. You may order prints of your pictures the way they appear when you add them. They will be automatically optimized with our VividPics technology in order to give you the finest print results. You only need to add enhancements to your pictures if you want them to be printed differently from the original picture you added.

For more on our VividPics technology, see our Help Center's visit the VividPics Page at the following URL.

Yes. Save the shared picture(s) into your Sparkles account. When pictures become part of your Sparkles account, you can enhance them or remove enhancements, copy them, get creative with them, etc. You can do everything with saved pictures that you can do to your own pictures.

After you have enhanced a picture the enhancement should be automatically saved to the image (a save button does not need to be clicked). You may use the arrow buttons to move to the next image or click the back button to return the pictures view. Once you have returned to the pictures view the enhancement should appear on the thumbnail, and you may select it to place an order.

Please note that if the thumbnail does not contain your enhancement it will not be applied to the image when ordering. After adding the image to be order, remember to review the image thumbnail on the sizes and quantity page to make sure your enhancement was applied correctly. If it is not correct remove the image from your order, apply the enhancement again, and add it again to your order. The newest image added will be the last image in the sizes and quantity page

Enhance/Fix Pictures allows you to add new and exciting effects to your pictures that will be applied to images when ordering. Enhancements include borders, effects (such as black and white), cropping, and fixing red-eye. Your original picture is always saved, so enhancements and effects can always be undone. Once an order has been placed enhancements can not be applied to images retroactively in an order, likewise enhancements can be made to images on your account at any time and will not affect your order.

I forgot to add my borders and effects. Can I add them after I have placed an order?

Due to the highly-automated nature of our system, changes cannot be made to orders once they are placed. You can of course add or change enhancements to images after placing an order, but changes will not affect how images are printed.

Our system is designed to allow you to have different enhancements of a picture in the same order. This allows you to experiment with different borders while minimizing your shipping costs. To do this, enhance an image with a border or effect and then add it to your order. Then click the My Sparkles link and click the View & Enhance button on the green navigation bar. Navigate to your image and make the desired changes to your picture. When you add the modified picture to your order, it will be there along with the original image. From there, you can proceed through the order process normally.

Here's how to enhance an image, from within the card ordering process:

1) Go the main greeting cards page and select a card type or click on the get started button to pick a border.
2) Pick a border and click next to select a image for the card.
3) After selecting an image, the preview cover page will load, with a preview of how your card photo will look.
4) Click the Enhance/edit Picture link.
5) The enhancement toolbar will load.
6) Use the enhance toolbar to add a border, apply an effect or fix red eye.
7) Once applied click next to continue to finish your greeting card

You can indeed use borders and enhancements with calendar pictures. You can do this before you add the pictures to the calendar collection; or you can add enhancements while you are creating your calendar by using the "enhance/edit picture" links on the right. This would also be the time you can add a caption border to your images if you wish.

After I add borders and effects to my pictures, what happens to my original pictures?

Nothing. Sparkles saves your original picture when you transfer it to us. Any changes or effects you apply to your picture are saved separately so that you may revert to your original picture at any time.

Sparkles analyzes your picture and automatically applies adjustments to the picture to improve the exposure and colors in order to give you the finest-quality prints. We call this proprietary image processing technology VividPics®. VividPics is applied by default to all Sparkles prints.

However, if you have already edited your pictures for color, brightness, or contrast in an application such as Adobe Photoshop, we recommend that you turn off the VividPics setting for the edited pictures. To do this, navigate into an album and select the desired picture and click 'Enhance/fix pictures' link. Then click the 'Effects' tab. On the bottom left, click the checkbox that turns off the VividPics® setting for that picture. If you have a number of pictures selected, you can 'Apply this effect' to all selected pictures using the link to the left of your picture. Pictures printed with this setting turned off will be printed exactly as they were uploaded, with no automatic image adjustments or corrections.

Additionally, if you are an imaging professional such as a graphics artist that works in a color-managed environment, we recommend that you turn off the VividPics® setting. If your digital images are in an sRGB color space and you have previewed the image on a calibrated monitor, your Sparkles prints should be very close to what you see on your monitor when the VividPics® setting is turned off.

Please note that although our VividPics® technology does work to improve exposure, it will not fix poorly-exposed images captured in very low light conditions.

If you wish to make enhancements such as borders, cropping, and effects to your images that you wish to sell, you will need to do so before the images are posted to your galleries. If the images are already posted, you will need to remove the album from the gallery, make the necessary enhancements and add the album back to the gallery

To add a caption border to your image:

1) Go to our site and sign into your account
2) Select the "View & Enhance" tab
3) Open the album that has the image you want to add the border
4) Select the image by clicking directly on the thumbnail image itself
5) Click on the Borders tab
6) In the borders section, under "Choose style", click the drop down arrow and select the Captions option
7) We offer 6 different types of caption borders, so please select the type you would like to apply to your image
8) Type your caption in the space provided and click on the Update button to add the text to the image

At this time, Sparkles does not offer customers the ability to customize the font type, color, size and justification of Sparkles captions. Customers can manually justify their text by placing leading spaces either before or after the text.

Why are pictures cropped? Why did Sparkles crop my pictures? Why is some of my image missing from the print?

The reason parts of your image is cropped off is because our system automatically crops images to make sure they fill the print size ordered. This is a standard practice in the photo finishing industry, due to differences between the shape of most digital images and the shape of standard print sizes (like 4x6, 5x7, and 8x10).

The height and width of most digital images differs from the height and width of the print sizes we offer. Most digital cameras produce images that are slightly more square than a 4x6, but more rectangular than an 8x10. This makes it impossible to print the entire image without cropping it, padding it with a white border, or distorting it. Most photo finishers (including Sparkle) choose to crop images to fit the print size, rather than padding them with white borders. (There is one exception. If our Sparkle system detects that more than 20% of an image will be lost due to cropping, we will print the image in its entirety and pad it with white borders on all four sides. These images will appear with white borders in your account as well.)

That being said, we want to make sure you get what you want when you order prints from Sparkles. Our online cropping tools let you control how your images are printed, rather than relying on the system to automatically crop them.

Sparkles recently introduced new cropping tools on our site: EasyCrop and Custom crop. Our EasyCrop system represents a new way to think about cropping. Most cropping tools allow you to select an area to be printed. They then subtract parts of your selection as necessary to fit the image on the print size you order. With our EasyCrop tool, you select the area you want printed and we add to your selection to fit the print size, rather than subtract from it. Your selected area will be printed no matter what print size you choose. And you can preview your image at any print size to see how it will look prior to placing your order.

Our Custom crop system allows you to vary the height and width of the crop area. The area you select will be printed in its entirety, with white borders added as padding on all four sides. This allows you to crop pictures as panoramic, square, or any shape in between.

To use our cropping tools:

Click on "View & enhance" on the navigation bar. Click on an album, and then click on the image you would like to crop. Next, click on the "Crop" tab on the right hand side to access the cropping tools. When in our cropping section, you will see your selected image with EasyCrop applied. As mentioned above, the crop area selected with EasyCrop will be printed no matter what print size you select. You can move or resize the crop area to get the desired results. To see how the image will be printed, simply click on the "Print Preview" button and click on the appropriate print size. Please keep in mind that the EasyCrop system will add to your selection depending upon the print size. Thus you may need to return to the crop tool and adjust the crop area to get the desired results.

If you prefer to use our Custom crop option, click the "Custom crop tool" link. You can then either select the "Free" or "Square" crop options. With free crop, you can crop the image to whatever height and width you like. Please note that your selection will be printed in its entirety with white borders added as padding on all four sides. (If you go to the "Border" tool, you can select other border options. Any of our "simple" borders can be used as padding, as long as you don't choose the "even border width" option.)

Unfortunately, we're unable to fix the problem by reprinting your order, because the reprints would turn out exactly the same. However, you can reorder the prints using our online cropping feature to specify how your prints should be cropped.

Can I crop my image to a specific print size? How do I use the online Sparkles cropping tools?

Yes, Sparkles does offer this cropping option. This will allow customers to crop their image to a desired print size and have the image printed without a border or padding.

Here is information on how to use our free online cropping tool. (Note: you may want to print these directions for reference.)

Sparkles offers two new cropping options (along with our standard size specific cropping tools) to help you get the best prints from your images: EasyCrop and Custom Crop.

Our EasyCrop system is designed to help you avoid undesired cropping. Unlike traditional cropping methods that subtract from your selected print area, EasyCrop allows you to select an area that will be printed no matter what print size you choose.

To begin using our EasyCrop tool, click the green "View & enhance" button and navigate to a picture. (You can also navigate to the picture when you are in other parts of your account, such as "Share online" and "Order prints".) Then click the green crop tab on the right.

Once on our cropping page, you will see your selected image with EasyCrop automatically applied. The selected print area will be printed no matter what print size you select. To see how your image will be printed, click on "Print Preview" and then click on the desired print size. Click on the "Return to Crop" link to return to the cropping page.

To adjust the crop area, click on a corner of the image and drag it to the desired size. To move the crop area, click in the middle of the image and drag it to the desired location.

There are also 3 radio button options that allow for a specific crop size. Therefore if you pick this radio button option the image will be printed and previewed in the aspect ratio picked. If another size print is ordered of that image the cropping will not be maintained. Please choose EasyCrop to maintain a crop that will appear on various print sizes. If the entire image is not selected as desired then please use the customer crop tool.

Custom Crop allows you to crop your image to any size or shape. Your selection will be printed in its entirety with a simple white border added as padding. You can change the padding style by clicking on our "Borders" tab and selecting one of our Simple borders. Since the Custom Crop option uses simple borders to pad the image, you will default back to the EasyCrop if you apply one of our decorative borders to your picture or select the "Trim my picture to make my border an even width" option.

Please note: excessive cropping will reduce image quality.

Can I place a picture in more than one online album? How can I tell how many pictures I have in an album?

Yes, you certainly can add as many images to an online album as you wish. We recommend that if you are sharing images that no more than 250 images be added to an online album.

If you have just added pictures to Sparkles, you can click on ‘View the Pictures’ from the Add Pictures confirmation page. If you are creating an online album on the View Albums & Shares page, click on ‘View Pictures’. You can also access View Pictures directly from the My Sparkles page by clicking the ‘View & enhance’ button.

When you are viewing your albums, the number of photos in a particular album is displayed in parentheses after the album name. For instance, if there are 45 pictures in the album called “Summer Vacation”, this will be displayed as: Summer Vacation (45)

When you add pictures to Sparkles, you can create an online album to place your pictures in by selecting the ‘New Album’ option. Or you can create an online album before you load pictures into it from the ‘Albums’ page. To create an online album from the ‘Albums’ page:

Click View & enhance on the My Sparkles page.

On the ‘My albums’ page, click the Create a new album link on the right side. On that page, enter the new album name (up to 24 characters) in the Album Name field. (Today’s date is the default online album title.) You’ll see some fields that automatically list the number of pictures, the album’s creation date, and any modification dates. These are non-editable fields and some may be empty when you first create an online album.

Enter any notes about the online album that you want to include.

Click the Save now button. On the ‘My albums’ page, you’ll see your new album listed. It will appear as an empty online album until you add (or move or copy) pictures to it.

Sparkles offers two cropping options to help you get the best prints from your images: EasyCrop and Custom Crop.

Our 'EasyCrop' system is designed to help you avoid undesired cropping. Unlike traditional cropping methods that subtract from your selected print area, EasyCrop allows you to select an area that will be printed no matter what print size you choose. By selecting this cropping option, your selected print size will be printed fully - without a border or padding. (Customers also have the option of cropping their images to a specific print size.)

To begin using our EasyCrop tool, click the ‘View & enhance’ tab button at the top and navigate to a picture. (You can also navigate to the picture when you are in other parts of your account, such as ‘Share online’ and ‘Order prints’.) Then click the green crop tab on the right.

Once on our cropping page, you will see your selected image with EasyCrop automatically applied. The selected print area will be printed no matter what print size you select. To see how your image will be printed, click on ‘Print Preview’ and then click on the desired print size. Click on the 'Done' button to return to cropping page.

To adjust the crop area, click on a corner of the image and drag it to the desired size. To move the crop area, click in the middle of the image and drag it to the desired location.

To crop your image to a specific print size, first select the print size you would like. Once the you have selected the print size, you can then adjust the cropping for the image and preview how it will be printed.

'Custom Crop' allows you to crop your image to any size or shape. Your selection will be printed in its entirety with a simple white border added as padding. You can change the padding style by clicking on our ‘Borders’ tab and selecting one of our Simple borders. Since the Custom Crop option uses simple borders to pad the image, you will default back to the EasyCrop if you apply one of our decorative borders to your picture or select the ‘Trim my picture to make my border an even width’ option.

**Please note: excessive cropping will reduce image quality.

After you click through to view an album, you will be taken to a page that shows small views (thumbnails) of all of the pictures in the album. To view the pictures as a slideshow, you can:

Click on the ‘Slideshow’ icon at the top of the page
Click on the ‘View as slideshow’ link on the right of the page
Click on any of the individual thumbnails
Doing any one of these things will take you to a slideshow view of the pictures in the album.

When you go to the slideshow view, the slideshow will be set to ‘Play’ and will rotate through a large view of each picture in the album. At any time, you can click the ‘Stop’ button to stop the slideshow, and click ‘Play’ again to restart the slideshow. You can also manually advance to the next picture by clicking on the ‘Next’ button or go back to the previous picture by clicking on the ‘Prev’ button.

If you like, you can change the speed of the slideshow as well as the size at which the picture is displayed by clicking on the ‘slideshow speed/size’ link below the slideshow control buttons. If you access the Internet through a dial-up connection, you may wish to set the slideshow picture size at ‘Small’ so that pictures display more rapidly.

In the slideshow, you can easily add a comment to a picture. Just click on the ‘Add your comment’ button in the lower left of the slideshow. A window will appear in which you can type in a comment. When you’re finished adding your comment, click ‘Apply.’ If you are not signed in to your Sparkles account, you will be asked to sign in or create a new Sparkles account for free.

If you would like to order a print of a picture you see in the slideshow, you can click on the checkbox that says ‘Add this picture to my order’ under the ‘Order prints’ palette in the lower right of the slideshow page. You will see the number of pictures that you’ve selected in total. If you are ready to go to the cart and review the pictures you’ve selected, you can click on the ‘Order now’ button at any point in the slideshow.

When the slideshow is finished, you will be taken to a page that asks you what you would like to do next. You can either order prints, add pictures, or add a comment about the album you’ve just viewed. You can also replay the slideshow.

If you are using EasyCrop, the selected area will be printed on all print sizes we offer. However you can choose different cropping if you wish. Select the cropping you desire for the image and add it to your cart. Once you have added that image you can go back to your album, re-crop the image and add the new version to your cart.

If you don't apply the crop tool to your picture yourself, Sparkles will automatically crop your image to fit the dimensions of the print size you chose. If we have to crop from the sides of the image to make it fit the paper, we crop an equal amount from each side. If we have to crop from the top or bottom of the image, we crop an equal amount from both the top and bottom.

If your picture does not fit the dimensions of the selected print size you can still have your entire picture included on the print. Please select the Custom Crop option in our cropping section and then select the entire image. Once the entire image is selected, please use the "Print Preview" button to preview how your image will look. The appropriate size white border will be included on the print such that the entire image is printed.

Note: Sparkles determines what edge is the top of the image based on how you've rotated them for display on our Web site. So to get the proper behavior, you should rotate your portrait-mode images so they are displayed right-side up instead of sideways.

***For large-format prints (11×14, 16×20, and 20×30) we recommend using the free online cropping tool for every print.*** To crop 11×14 or 16×20, choose the 8×10 crop shape; for 20×30, use the 4×6 crop shape.

For more information about the free online cropping tool, please refer to our "Shutterfly cropping options" at the following URL.

To select an online album cover picture:

Click the View & enhance button on the main navigation bar. Then click the Albums selector to get to the Albums page.

On the Albums page, select the online album you wish to change the cover for by clicking the spot underneath it. Then click Change album cover on the right side.

On the Choose album cover page, select the picture you wish to use for the cover by clicking the spot underneath it. Then click the blue Next button to use the picture for the album cover. Doing this will not alter the sequence of pictures in the album. When you view your albums, you will see the picture you selected displayed as the album cover.

Captions can only be placed on the bottom section of the border. If you have your own image editor you may add text to your image and upload the newly saved image to your account. Please be aware that the text might be cut off if it is placed to close to the edge of an image. Use our online cropping tools to ensure your text will print prior to placing an order.

Your pictures may be resized to correctly fit some art borders. If your picture doesn’t seem to fit the border correctly, try using the move and zoom buttons beneath the art border thumbnails to reposition your picture and zoom in or out in order to get it positioned just the way you like.

To change the selected area, click on the corner of the image and drag it to the preferred image size. Please note that excessive cropping will reduce the quality of the image.

To move the selected area, click in the center of the selected area and drag it to the desired location. There is also a radio button to change the orientation of the crop to either landscape (horizontal) or portrait (vertical).

The saturate tool allows you to decrease or increase the amount of color in your picture. It does not change the amount of brightness in an image. Saturate will range from no color (a virtually black and white image) at one end of the spectrum to an over saturated image. The Sparkles saturate enhancement would be good for example on an older image with little color

To delete an online album:

Click View & enhance on the My Sparkles page.

On the ‘My albums’ page, select the online album you want to delete by clicking the spot underneath it. Then click the Delete album link on the right.

Can you put an image on the inside or back of a greeting card?

Unfortunately, only text is allowed on the inside of a greeting card, but we might offer an enhanced greeting card in the future.

How can I rename an online album, or edit notes about it?

To edit an online album’s name or notes:

Click the View & enhance button on the main navigation bar. Then click the Albums icon to get to the ‘View | Albums’ page.

On the ‘View | Albums’ page, select the online album you want to rename (or edit the notes of) by clicking the spot underneath it. Then click the Rename album link on the right.

On the ‘Rename album’ page, you’ll see the original name of the album. You can change the name in the name field if you like, and you can add or edit notes (such as notes about the occasion the pictures were taken at). Click Save now to save your changes.

On the ‘View | Albums’ page, you’ll see all your changes.

What is the difference between Single Shared Albums vs. Collections?

Once you have chosen a set of pictures, Sparkles gives you two options for sharing: (1) Share as a single album or (2) Share as an album in my Collection.

No matter which option you choose, your recipients will receive an email inviting them to view the shared pictures. The email will contain a link allowing your recipients to view pictures, order prints, and save pictures into their own Sparkles account.

Share as a single album:
When you choose to ‘Share as a single album’, your recipients will only have access to the pictures you’ve just selected to share — they will not have access to other pictures you’ve shared in the past. In addition, the shared album is located at an alphanumeric web address (URL) that is assigned by Sparkles.

Share as an album in my Collection:
Choosing ‘Share as an album in my Collection’ adds the pictures you’ve selected to share as a new album in one of your Collections.

A Collection is your own personal page for sharing pictures with a personal web address that you choose (e.g., martinfamily.sparkles.com). Your Collection can contain as many shared albums as you like and can be password protected. If you choose, friends and family can add comments and even add pictures to your Collection — allowing you to easily gather pictures from an event or get together.

Friends and family who visit your Collection will have access both to the current album that you’ve chosen to share as well as albums you’ve added to the Collection in the past. When you chose ‘Share as an album in my Collection’, you’ll need to create a Collection if you don’t already have one. You can create up to two Collections.

The main differences between these two sharing options are:

* Collections can contain multiple albums — new pictures can be added over time. A single shared album holds 1 set of pictures and additional pictures cannot be added.
* Collections have their own permanent web address (URL) that is chosen by the owner (e.g., bagwellfamily. Sparkles.com) Single shared albums have an alphanumeric address (URL) that is assigned by Sparkles.
* The owner of a Collection has the option of choosing whether or not to allow visitors to add pictures and comments to their Collection. In the case of single shared albums, comments can always be added — this option cannot be turned off. In addition, pictures can not be added to a single shared album.
* The owner of a Collection has the option of choosing a password for their Collection. This password must be entered by visitors in order to view pictures in the Collection. Note: single shared albums cannot be password protected

Shipping charges vary by the product you are ordering. Please click on the link to the product whose shipping charges you want to check:

Prints | Calendars | Photo Book 12x12 | Photo Book 8.5x11, 8x8 |

How we estimate delivery date

We add the time it takes to process and print your order (order processing time) to the estimated time it takes to ship your order from our facilities to your destination address (shipping time).

Prices

How long does it take for my order to arrive?

Shipping time/options

After you place your order, we typically print and ship it out within 1 business day (orders with only 4x6, 5x7, 8x10 or Wallet prints) or 2 business days (orders with large format prints, other products).

Once your order has been shipped, shipping time depends upon the shipping option you have chosen.

Sparkles currently offers several shipping options which vary by speed and whether or not they are guaranteed.

*Standard and Priority shipping times are estimates and are not guaranteed. Shipping times of up to 10 business days (14 business days during holiday periods) can occur.

If you need your order to arrive by a certain date, we recommend upgrading to 2-Day or Next Day shipping.

Shipping to P.O. Boxes, U.S. Protectorates, and Armed Forces Addresses

All orders to P.O. boxes, APO/FPO and other U.S. armed forces addresses, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and other U.S. protectorates will be shipped via Standard shipping — we do not currently offer 2-Day or Next Day services to these addresses.

2-Day/Next Day Shipping Notes

Please note that the 2-day and Next Day services we offer do not pick up or deliver packages on weekends; this can affect delivery time.

For instance, if you place an order for prints on a Thursday and choose Next Day shipping, you can expect it to be printed and shipped by Friday, and it will arrive the following Monday (the next business day).

Please also note that 2-Day or Next Day shipments to Alaska and Hawaii require an extra day in transit.

Multiple Packages

Sparkles aims, where possible, to consolidate products in your order when we ship them out. However, for your convenience and to expedite your order, we may ship your order in multiple packages at no additional cost.

When we ship your order in multiple packages, these packages may arrive on separate days. Nonetheless, you should still receive your entire order within the estimated delivery date.

Product production times

Except for certain holidays, print orders are typically shipped within one business day of when your order is placed. Since our shipping carriers do not pick up on weekends, print orders placed on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday are generally shipped out on Monday, regardless of the shipping method chosen.

Please note that orders containing large format prints (sizes 11×14 and up), calendars, frames, Snapbooks, cards, note cards, or Archive DVDs typically take an extra business day to process.

Once we ship all parts of your order, you are automatically sent an email confirming shipment. If you receive this email message after 4PM, or on a weekend, your order may not be postmarked until the next business day.

Once you've uploaded the pictures from your computer to sparkles, you can correct the red-eye, perform special image enhancements (such as converting a color image to black and white), crop the picture to make sure your intended subject is the center of attention, and even attach fun creative borders.

Then, with the click of your mouse, you can order top-quality prints for yourself, or for friends and family anywhere around the globe, or share your online albums with anyone you choose.

Do you still prefer taking pictures with 35-mm or APS film? No problem, mail it to us and in no time we'll have your pictures online for you to enhance and get creative with, and we'll send your negatives straight back to you. (Sparkles accepts process c-41 and APS film only.)

No more trips to the local photo lab, or the post office. Now you can manage, enhance, share, and print your pictures without leaving home.

Sparkles’s VividPics technology ensures that all pictures are automatically enhanced for color and sharpness to ensure the highest quality prints available. All orders ship within 24 hours and Sparkles guarantees customer satisfaction.

Please visit out Learn More section on what new and improved features users can do at Sparkles:

How do I create a personalized 5x7 photo greeting card?

You may create greeting cards for any occasion; holidays, birthdays, baby announcements, and invitations. The ‘Sparkles Store' section of our site takes you through the process step-by-step and you may wish to print these instructions for reference.

Getting Started

After signing-in navigate to the Sparkles Store. You can do this by going to your Sparkles Home Page and clicking on Sparkles Cards tab on the navigation bar. Next, click on the Cards option under Products to see the different types of cards we offer. You will be shown three cards options, click on Greeting Cards to get started on your 5x7 greeting card

The various designs are divided up into themes such as Christmas, Wedding, and Invitations etc. Select one of these options or click on the Getting Started button to get started with a general 5x7 greeting card.

1. Style

Click the Zoom button to see a close-up of a particular style. Be aware that some styles allow for custom messages to be printed on the cover of your card. Once you select the style you want, you are ready to customize your card by adding your picture(s). Click the next button to select a picture. For more styles you can select a different theme from the list on the right.

Each style has specific layouts you can choose from the pallet to the left of your card preview. Here you will see how many pictures you can use for a chosen design. In addition you can choose between a horizontal and vertical layout.

2. Pictures
Now you may choose the pictures you want to use on your card. Click the Get pictures button to choose your picture(s). Find the album and click on it to locate the image or images you wish to use on the front of the card. You can choose up to 20 pictures. Click the radio button under the desired image and click Add to use this or these pictures. You will be taken back to the Edit cover page to see what the front of your card will look like. At this point the pictures you chose are shown below the image in the film strip. To add these pictures to your card just drag and drop the desired photo into the image well.

Some styles allow you to put text onto the cover of your greeting card. Click on the text box to add your caption. From here you can select the preview button to see how the text will look on the card.

Once satisfied with your picture, text (if applicable) and style, click Next

3. Greeting

Now you are ready to enter your greeting text. This text will be for the inside of the card. The amount of text you enter will determine how large it appears on your card. (The more text or carriage returns you enter, the smaller your text will appear.) Click in the text box to add your caption. From here you can select the preview button to see how the text will look on the card.
Be sure to review your text for accuracy, spelling, and punctuation. Please correct any mistakes prior to adding items to your cart, as Sparkles  is not responsible for a customers errors.

A radio button option to choose the finish of the greeting cards, matte or satin, can be picked on this page. Remember that your card will be printed as it appears. If your image appears upside-down, use the 'Rotate' icons to rotate the picture within the border. If you want to make further enhancements to your picture click the image for the enhance window to pop-up. When finished close the window to continue with your order.

Creating a Photo Book can be easy! You may wish to print this page for reference. This walkthrough is designed to help get you acquainted with our new Photo Book creation process. Please read the Photo Book FAQs for more detailed information on specific functionality.

First, sign in to your Sparkles account and then select the Photo Books option under “Great Ideas”, or choose Photo Books on the left. Select a Photo Book design by Occasion. Next click on the button titled “Get Started”.

Note: Minimum screen resolution moving forward must be 1024x768.

Choose a Style for Your Photo Book:
Select a Style set from the palette on the left. You can see a preview of the backgrounds included by default to the right. Below the preview, you can select global options such as the caption font, size, and color and picture edges. Selections made here will be applied to the entire book. You may modify individual pages later. Select “Next” on the upper right to continue.

The screen is now broken up into four main sections. On the left are your “Page Options”; to the right at the top is your “Navigation Bar”; below that is the “Preview/Work Area”; on the bottom is the “Photo Strip”. You can proceed to work on the Photo Book in many different ways, but this guide is the most straightforward method.

IMPORTANT NOTE: DO NOT use your browser’s “Back” and “Forward” buttons to navigate the Photo Book. This will cause serious errors and you may lose work. PLEASE MAKE SURE TO SAVE OFTEN! The Save button is located at the top left side of the Photo Book page. Also, when choosing new options, please allow the page to fully load (sometimes the page may take a bit to do this).

Choose Pictures for the Photo Book:
If you are creating a new Photo Book, you will need to choose the pictures you would like to use. Press the “Get Pictures” button in the Photo Strip to choose your pictures. A total of 1000 images can be selected from one or many Sparkles albums. Select an entire album or individual pictures and click on the “Add” button to add the pictures to the Photo Strip. To add more pictures, click on the “Get More Pictures” link beneath your photos.

Editing your pages:
Each page of your Photo Book can be customized with a variety of preset backgrounds and layouts combined with your photos and text. The page for which you are selecting options is highlighted in orange in the Preview/Work section. Select the page you wish to modify by clicking on it to highlight it.

Selecting Page Options:
Based on the Style you selected earlier, a preset layout will be chosen for each page in your Photo Book. You can use the default layouts or you can choose your own options for each page.

To change the Background for the selected page, click on the Backgrounds tab in the Page Options section on the left. Use the pull down menu to see more Background choices. Click on the Background you wish to use, and wait for the Preview/Work section to refresh with your new selection.

To change the Layout of the selected page, click on the Layouts tab in the Page Options section. You can choose from a number of layouts which include as few as 1 picture per page to as many as 35 pictures per page (on the 12x12 books), as well as having no pictures and only text if you wish. Select the number of pictures you want on that page by clicking the appropriate number at the top (1, 2, 3, 4, 5+ or text), and wait for the new layout to load on the page.

You can also change the Edge for all pictures on the page. Click on the Edge tab in the Page Options section, and choose the edge you want to use for all pictures on that page.

Adding Your Pictures:
Adding photos to the Photo Book is very easy. Simply find the picture you want to use, and drag it from the Photo Strip at the bottom into the picture space. Once a picture has been used, it will stay in your Photo Strip, but you will notice a green check mark which signifies the picture has been used. You can use the same picture as many times as you want in your Photo Book. To have our system hide the used pictures from the Photo Strip, check the “Hide Used” box beneath the Photo Strip. To see all pictures again, simply uncheck this box.

Adding Text:
To modify a caption or text area, simply click on the text box you want to change and an Edit Text pop-up will open. You can choose the font style, size, color, and justification of the text. To see what it will look like on the page, click on the “Preview” button. The pop-up will show you a close up version of what your text will look like. To make more changes, just click on the preview image to edit your text again. Once you are satisfied with the text, click on the “Done” button to update your page. Please note that we do not shrink your text to fit the allocated space. If your text is too large to fit as-is, it will be clipped and a yellow warning symbol will appear. Your text will still be in the “Edit Text” pop-up, but you will have to make the font smaller to fit or remove some wording in order to make it fit in the allotted space.

Navigating the Pages of the Photo Book:
Once you have completed work on the open page(s) of your Photo Book, you will want to continue working on the next pages. You can navigate to other pages in the Photo Book in one of two ways. You can use the left and right arrows below the “Next” button at the top of the page to move between pages in the book. Alternatively, you can use the “Navigation Bar” just to the left of the arrows. The bar is made up of a series of two-page blocks. The first page is on the left, the last page is on the right; the more pages (up to 100) you have in the Photo Book the smaller these blocks will become in order to fit in the space available. By scrolling your mouse over these blocks, you will see an instant preview of what is on that set of pages. Pages that have pictures or text added will appear as darker grey boxes in the Navigation Bar. To go to that set of pages, just click on the corresponding two-page block in the Navigation Bar. The pages you are currently editing will appear as an “Open Book” icon in the Navigation Bar.

Once you are done editing the pages of the Photo Book and you are ready to continue, please click the “Save” button on the top left to save your progress, and then click on the “Next” button on the top right.. You will then be able to choose the Cover of the book.

Cover Options:
8.5x11 Tell your story  Book:
You can choose from a variety of colors and finishes, but will not be able to add text. The picture you set for the Title Page will display through the cut out in the front of the book.


8x8 Mini Book and 12x12 Heart to Heart Book:
The cover is broken up into three sections and appears the same way on screen as it would if you were to have the book in front of you. The Back Cover will be on the left, the Spine in the middle, and the Front Cover on the right. Click on the section you wish to modify and use the same options as you did for the inside pages of the book. Editing the Front and Back Covers and the Spine is the same as editing the pages.

Once you are pleased with the cover design, click the “Save” button again, and then “Next” to the right, to Preview your Photo Book.

Previewing Your Photo Book:
The Preview page allows you to see how the covers and each page will look. You can use the arrows located above the preview to cycle through the different pages, or you can use the Navigation Bar to go to a specific page. The Front Cover and Back Cover previews are located at the far left and far right sides of the Navigation Bar. You can use the “Zoom” function beneath the “Save” button to get an up-close look at a single page of your Photo Book.

Be sure to preview your Photo Book carefully, as Sparkles is not responsible for unsatisfactory results due to customer error. Be sure to check spelling, punctuation, image rotation, etc. Sparkles does not offer an online spell check function, nor do we proof your book for errors (other than production errors). You are responsible for making sure all information is correct. Your Photo Book will print EXACTLY as shown to you in the Preview.

When you are done previewing your Photo Book and are ready to order it, click on the “Order” button which has replaced the “Next” button on the Preview page. You will be shown a small thumbnail of your book, as well as the type of book it is, and the production cost will appear on the right (shipping and tax will be calculated later). Select how many copies you want, then select the recipient(s) you wish to send the book to (yes, it can be you). Click on the “Next” button at the top right side of the page.

CONGRATULATIONS!! You have just created a Photo Book using our NEW Photo Book interface and you are now ready to order the book. You may add more items to your Shopping Cart before continuing to Checkout, or if you are ready, order your custom Photo Book now.

Sharing your Photo Book with friends and family:
We now offer a new feature, whereby you can share your completed and saved Photo Book project with friends and family. After opening your saved Photo Book project, you will see a button on the top right side of the page marked “Share”. Click on this button, and you will be taken to a page where you can type in e-mail addresses or select from your Sparkles Address Book, and send an e-mail to your friends and family sharing this Photo Book with them. They will be able to save the Photo Book to their own accounts and order copies or make changes if they wish. Please note, however, that changes made by your family and friends WILL NOT reflect in the Saved Project you have in your account.