Hello All,

Just wondering which program community uses to make
their digital photo albums.

I want to make digital photo albums to distribute on the
CD to my relatives and so I am looking for program which
meets following requirements:
1. The CD should be viewable without installation of any
other program.
2. The picture should be retained as originals so that they
can be copied individually incase somebody wants to print
them (i.e. shouldn't get converted in proprietary format)
3. I should be able to provide captions to every picture.
4. Possibility of integrating video file in picture album is
plus.
5. Background sound is also plus but not as essential as
integration of video.

Any suggestions?

Any photo editing software will enable you to put captions etc onto your photos.

2 programms come to mind for compiling albums with slideshows to include both still and video footage AND both are free -

1. Irfanview from
here

http://www.irfanview.com/

and

2. Picasa from here -

http://picasa.google.com/index.html

Both will put your photos onto a CD and play them in any DVD player.

You can always copy a photo from the disk simply by opening and exploring the disk to find the shots you want to print.

To the best of my knowledge, Picasa doesn't allow to put captions on every picture. I have tried it (or otherwise I failed to find out this option)

IrfanView, I can make slideshow but same thing again, couldn't figure out to add captions and how to save that slideshow

I don't need to play on DVD player, because I believe, it may change the picture resolution or change it to some format from which extraction of original print would be difficult (otherwise Kodak photo CD is easiest option, like just copy Kodak Photo CD and replace the picture in picture folders with the one you want)

You misunderstood - I suggested photo editing software for captions: neither Irfanview nor Picasa will do this and they are too basic to be called editing software!!What both will do, however, is put a slideshow onto a CD for you - as, indeed, will your Kodak program!I presume you have a colour printer - then most come nowadays with a photo editing suite on the disk which will allow you to put captions on.

Playing photo CD's on a DVD player in no way changes/alters the file format nor the photos!!! A DVD player will accept CD's AND DVD's - but not the other way round!

ArcSoft DVD Slideshow is a great program. It allows you to create photo galleries with image titles, transitions, music, etc. You can also add videos to the disc as well. Each slideshow/video is accessible through a standard DVD menu that you create. You also have the option of including the original photos (the ones used in the slideshow are resampled if they are higher quality that would be displayed).

The one thing that *may* be an issue according to your requirements is that if playing on a computer, the computer must have DVD playing software. But, they will play with no problems on a set-top box.

http://www.arcsoft.com/products/dvdslideshow/?l=v

Thanks for all your replies.

I settled with Jalbum. I made 'webalbum' using this program and burnt whole program on disc, work perfectly!!

www.jalbum.org