In a couple of days, we will finish our beta phase, that lasted exactly one year. We’ll launch the first full version of Logobay. Before we dig into the details, we would like to thank all our beta users. You have put Logobay through the acid test, and it’s now official: we are not alone in feeling bored with converting logos manually and burning CD-ROMs.

Some numbers

313 Logobay accounts
1.063 logos
785 logo deliveries
38 logo requests
To date June 16th, 2010

The numbers feel just right for us. Except the logo requests, that are a little behind the others. That’s because only 104 of our over thousand logos have been made public on the only page in the whole internet that allowes one to request Logobay logos: our Logobay directory. But nevermind, we have a new feature for you:

Logo embedding

Using the logo embedding, you are able to embed Logobay hosted logos directly on any website. It’s perfect for your clients press section: they can provide their logos for download – the Logobay way. If you set their logos to “send automatically”, the requester gets a proper Logobay delivery right into their inbox. If you decide not to send automatically, the manager of this logo will get a notification about the request, which they can answer instantly.

Just copy one line of HTML code, and paste it to your website’s source code:

After pasting, the logo appears like this:

Please note: you can only embed logos that are made public.

You can find the settings in the right column on a logo page. There’s also the switch for automatic delivery. We hope, that logo embedding helps you and your clients to focus on the important stuff.

Money!

The good news? From now on, there is no more limit for logos and folders in your account. The bad news? With the next update, we will add a new feature: costs per logo conversion. Uploading and converting a logo will be 0.79 USD. Logo conversions can be bought as packages, and they are cheaper in larger packs.

What about the Logobay Promise?

We promised, that beta users will be allowed to use Logobay forever free. When we made this promise, we still had the limit of 25 folders with 10 logos each. Now, after cancelling this limit, things look diffferent, and here is our new offer for you guys:

Starting next Monday, all active beta users who have uploaded at least one logo, will get a fat pack of 250 logo conversions, minus the already uploaded logos. That should last a while. I mean, not even Paul Rand made so many logos in his lifetime. If one of you feels limited by this offer, drop us a line, and tell us why you need more. We’ll see, what we can do.

By the way 1: Anybody who signs up for Logobay after the launch of 1.0 will get three free logo conversions to start. That means: upload 3 logos, and manage and dispatch them as long as you wish.

By the way 2: We are working on a recommendation program. You will be able to earn conversions by telling others about Logobay, and without spending money.

Logobay is color proof.

Starting with 1.0, Logobay converts all formats and the preview images color proof.

Rock on.

Wer are looking forward to working another year on Logobay. Let us know how you like the new version: write us at hi@logobay.com or just add a comment right here, right now.

Easy delivery!
Oliver, Gerold, Klaus

Hi folks, just wanted you to know that we’re working on a major update of Logobay. Almost every single page and function will be improved. Design is finalized (as much you can call a design finalized) and Gerold is working hard on the back end. I’m looking forward to getting this live. We plan to launch version 1.0 at the end of this year. My favorite timeframe would be Christmas Night, of course.

• Ghostscript: This is the heart of Logobay, really. Without Ghostscript Logobay wouldn’t exist. Basically its a software RIP that creates raster images out of postscript files.
• Ruby on Rails: Our Web Applikation Framework of choice. We use Rails 2.3 with a bunch of plugins and gems, of course.

Apart from the Application Framework and the Rasterizer we need some more stuff:

• Webserver: We use NGINX to serve static files as well as to send requests to the application server (currently 1 mongrel)
• Queuing Server: Since the conversion of a logo can take several seconds, we take that out of the HTTP request-response cycle and push it into a queue from where the logos get converted – one by one. We use Workling/Starling to accomplish that.
• Search Server: To search the public logo database we use SPHINX for full text searching
• Capistrano: To deploy new versions of logobay
• Mail Transfer Agent: Postfix makes sure you get your emails. Also asynchronously.
• Backups: Daily backups ensure that your logos won’t be lost in case of a hard drive crash.

Tomorrow, Gerold (Backend), Ewald (CSS/HTML/AJAX) and me (Interface design) will work through this list. Game is: change as many black lines into gray ones.

And after that, we’ll be most certainly not running out of work: The list of planned visual, functional and technological improvements is quite a lot longer than this bug collection here. We work hard to finish the first version of Logobay. All in all, we are quite happy with the launch. Thanks for your help!

We’ll keep you posted.