Formatting Contact Sheets in Print Menu

[terencep]

I often turn in caption/keyword sheets, which I make in Word, to clients for when they make selections. I then copy & paste what I've written as captions and keywords into Photo Mechanic to embed to the file. I would like to skip the Word part all together, but would still like to have the caption/keyword sheet in a format that is easy to read.

As it stands from my experiments, the best I can do in Photo Mechanic is to make a contact sheet that is 5 rows and 1 column. Using Variables, each thumbnail shows file name, caption, and keyword fields lumped together below the image. I've tried making \\ type of marks to indicate separate fields, but it's still not very easy to read. Everything is centered. It looks like a big mess.

Is there a way I can set formatting in PM? I would like the ability to left-justify the document, choose fonts and sizes, and have items appear as such:

file name
thumbnail (with custom pixel dimensions)
-single blank space-
caption
-single blank space-
keywords

I know it's a long shot and this probably isn't an often requested feature, but it would be awesome, and a huge time saver, if something like this could be built into PM. Even if there was a way to enter hard-returns in the thumbnail line, would be great.

Thanks, love Photo Mechanic still!

[Kirk Baker]

I often turn in caption/keyword sheets, which I make in Word, to clients for when they make selections. I then copy & paste what I've written as captions and keywords into Photo Mechanic to embed to the file. I would like to skip the Word part all together, but would still like to have the caption/keyword sheet in a format that is easy to read.

As it stands from my experiments, the best I can do in Photo Mechanic is to make a contact sheet that is 5 rows and 1 column. Using Variables, each thumbnail shows file name, caption, and keyword fields lumped together below the image. I've tried making \\ type of marks to indicate separate fields, but it's still not very easy to read. Everything is centered. It looks like a big mess.

Is there a way I can set formatting in PM? I would like the ability to left-justify the document, choose fonts and sizes, and have items appear as such:

file name
thumbnail (with custom pixel dimensions)
-single blank space-
caption
-single blank space-
keywords

I know it's a long shot and this probably isn't an often requested feature, but it would be awesome, and a huge time saver, if something like this could be built into PM. Even if there was a way to enter hard-returns in the thumbnail line, would be great.

I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to achieve.  Perhaps you could use the "Text" Exporter template to produce your text file with the information in it that you need.

-Kirk

[terencep]

I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to achieve.  Perhaps you could use the "Text" Exporter template to produce your text file with the information in it that you need.

-Kirk

Well the Text Exporter worked great. Although I understand that this function is ultimately for text, is there a way to do this and include a thumbnail as part of the export?

For instance, here's how I'm using it:

Code: [Select]

{filename}

{caption}

{keywords}

--
Is there a way for me to insert a sizable thumbnail of the image between filename and caption?

[Kirk Baker]

I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to achieve.  Perhaps you could use the "Text" Exporter template to produce your text file with the information in it that you need.

-Kirk

Well the Text Exporter worked great. Although I understand that this function is ultimately for text, is there a way to do this and include a thumbnail as part of the export?

For instance, here's how I'm using it:

Code: [Select]

{filename}

{caption}

{keywords}

--
Is there a way for me to insert a sizable thumbnail of the image between filename and caption?

No.  A plain text file cannot contain any images.

-Kirk

[terencep]

Anyway of incorporating the features of Export Text into the contact sheet/proof print menu? Proof printing is almost there, but the images can't  be sized down and everything ends up centered, which makes reading captions difficult, not to mention ugly. It's like that menu is an after thought.

I'm guessing printing isn't a widely used feature of PM, but I turn in captions with thumbnail references on a printed Word document with every assignment (to publications ranging from NYT to Newsweek to W Magazine) and having better print options/functions would save me a lot of time (like two hours per job).

[Kirk Baker]

Anyway of incorporating the features of Export Text into the contact sheet/proof print menu? Proof printing is almost there, but the images can't  be sized down and everything ends up centered, which makes reading captions difficult, not to mention ugly. It's like that menu is an after thought.

I'm guessing printing isn't a widely used feature of PM, but I turn in captions with thumbnail references on a printed Word document with every assignment (to publications ranging from NYT to Newsweek to W Magazine) and having better print options/functions would save me a lot of time (like two hours per job).

Well perhaps it would be better to illustrate with a mockup what you would like a printed page to look like and then we can see if we can reproduce the output in a later version of Photo Mechanic.

You can attach images to your message by using the 'Additional Options...' link when you're composing your reply.

-Kirk

[terencep]

Thanks Kirk! I've attached a PDF, hopefully that works for you.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Kirk Baker]

Thanks Kirk! I've attached a PDF, hopefully that works for you.

I think having it print one or at most, two images per page with the text left justified would work well.  Thanks for the mockup and we'll consider implementing it in a future version of Photo Mechanic.  Please note that this does not mean that we will definitely add the feature, but that we'll consider adding it.

-Kirk