It's been a while since I've posted anything and I know my friend Helen is getting annoyed that I haven't posted anything in a while, so here's a big one.

It will be followed in a timely matter by more posts from more people.

So let's get to it.

I have been investigating iPad portfolio apps for awhile. Overall, most of the apps out there leave a lot to be desired. Some are alright, but still need some tweaking, and others fall way short.

I first purchased MediapadPro for $15. It seemed like the most robust option. After using it for a little I came to the realization that this $15 app can't do two things Apple's native photo app can do and doesn't offer much design customization over it either. The design and functionality are quite bad in fact, and in general I would say its no better than using the native photo app.

I emailed the developer...

"Hi,
I just recently purchased your Mediapad Pro.
I'm a professional photographer working in a bit of motion and your app looks to be the best one for presenting my work to potential clients. Viewing your homepage, it stated that you don't have a FAQ but you are working on it. Wanted to send a long a question/suggestion. While presenting professional work on the ipad I think it may be invaluable to be able to zoom in to see the detail of the images in the still gallery (Mediocre work can pass as good work when viewing at 72 dpi, one thing that can set clients minds at easy and distinguish your own work from so many want to be's) I can't seem to do this or figure out how to do this. Is there any way to? If not, I think it would be the top priority to allow this function in your app, as the native Photo app that comes with the iPad allows for this. Because of this, I may be using the native apple Photo app instead of the Mediapad pro app i just purchased from you and to be honest would be a little hard pressed to recommend your product to fellow professional photographers who have gone the iPad route as well. I hope you can help and/or take this under consideration.

Thanks
Sean"

After a couple a couple more messages to the developer, I have yet to receive any response. The best way I feel I can compare these different portfolio apps is put them up against the Apple's photo app. In my first meeting using the iPad as a portfolio I had the ability to use MediaPad Pro and Apple's Photo, and I chose Apple's app. I think that says alot.

Over on my twitter account, @seanjsprague, and in response to a peer's continued pleas for iPad portfolio app reccomendations I stated the following, "should get every photographer w iPad to chip in on developing $20,000 portfolio app. Everything out there now is garbage." Now, to be fair, I haven't tried all iPad portfolio apps. So my statement, like alot on twitter, isn't really just and you forget the internet is listening. An iPad portfolio developer, Foliobook, responded to my comment, "@seanjsprague You should write a blog explaining why all the iPad portfolio apps are garbage, we'd all learn from it I suspect."

Hence this blog post.

We exchanged a few emails regarding what I'm looking for in an app and what they are trying to do. After testing out Foliobook I can say that its one of the better portfolio apps out there are. One thing currently missing is the ability to add videos to the portfolios. In my exchanges with the developer, he stated they were very close to intergrating this functionality. When Foliobooks does this, I have no doubt it will be the best option for a portfolio app out there. Currently this app has the best functionality and design capabilities out of any that I have seen. One of the nicest features, besides a smooth back end for sorting and organizing is that you can upload your title/home screen and then move the gallery buttons over your own font (maybe something Apple doesn't support in its iOS) and branding so that your iPad portfolio branding and experience can keep in line with your printed book, promos, and website.

Here's what my current foliobook iPad portfolio home screen looks like while in the editing mode.

 In Photoshop, or the like, create a home screen with your own branding, fonts and copy and then in Foliobooks move and float activation buttons (grey square boxes) where you desire so that when someone taps "About" it opens up a gallery with the corresponding info. I find this a much nicer experience than going into the native photo app and launching it for a potential client. Now I can launch the app and hand it over to an art director and let them explore what they want, in the order they want, all staying within the app and my branding.

And a view of inside my commissioned portfolio with the thumbnails view enabled by sliding a finger in a downward motion (by sliding a finger up the thumbnails hide). You can navigate the thumbnails or continue nagivating the full images depending on where you swipe.

I'm personally not a huge fan of thumbnails, but maybe an art buyer is. It would be nice if the thumbnails were a bit more clear/sharp and if there were some different design customizations (I'm not a fan of the while "slide" presentaition of the thumbnails, and would love to be able to make this just the images themselves without any addition of a "slide" look/effect.)

Hopefully Foliobook adds video functionality to its portfolio sections soon and if all works well with that, I would be fairly confident in saying that I would use Foliobook over Apple's app when presenting my work on an iPad to potential clients.

One of the issues with all the iPad portfolio apps, and I discussed with the Foliobooks developer, is the need to be able to lock the iPad so a potential client can only view one's portfolio, not check your email account, not surf Safari or go to iTunes, etc etc. Something so that if you dont have an access code, only the portfolio will be displayed and be able to run. 

According to the developer, and from what I understand, this is centrally an issue with dealing with iOS and its security features. Hopefully over time Apple will open up the code allowing developers to allow their customers a little more customization functionality with their apps.

A couple other options I have looked at, decided against and would choose Apple's photo app over are

1) Portfolio, (The user interface is very fixed and heavy on the Apple look with fonts and menus, the whole thing comes off a little too amateurish, because of lack of customization and design)

2 Minimalfolio, (Things are very simple and like all other iPad apps uses the swipe motion/function, but allows you to swipe up and down along with lef to right, other than that there doesnt look to be a lot of customization for branding and user experience either. You can't zoom in, which is a big problem. It does come off looking better than Portfolio and MediaPad Pro, bc it chooses to get out of the way and let your work speak for itself)

If there are any other worth while iPad portfolio apps that I'm missing, drop us line and we'll take a look.

If you have some thoughts on the matter and would like to contribute, leave a comment below, send me an email or get in touch on twitter

(It should be noted that I hate how many times I have used the term "app")