Creating contact sheets for printing

[charlesteton]

Hi Kirk,

I have a work flow that's a bit time consuming and I'm hoping PM can make it faster.

At the minute I make contact sheets in PS with their Contact Sheet II, trouble is I need to make quite a lot of changing once the file is created.

Can you tell me if its possible to produce the enclosed file in PM? If not is it possible for me to set it up?

I output the file as a jpg and send to printers with your great ftp function. One good thing about using PS to do this is that I can tweak individual images if the exposures up and down. I know it will not be possible with PM. PS I also print a set in colour.

Thanks for a truely great app.

[Kirk Baker]

Charles,

I have a work flow that's a bit time consuming and I'm hoping PM can make it faster.

At the minute I make contact sheets in PS with their Contact Sheet II, trouble is I need to make quite a lot of changing once the file is created.

Can you tell me if its possible to produce the enclosed file in PM? If not is it possible for me to set it up?

I output the file as a jpg and send to printers with your great ftp function. One good thing about using PS to do this is that I can tweak individual images if the exposures up and down. I know it will not be possible with PM. PS I also print a set in colour.

There is currently no way to directly print to a JPEG.  This is an often requested feature however and is getting higher up on my list of things to implement.

-Kirk

[charlesteton]

Would there be a way of getting PM to make a contact sheet like this if the output was a pdf? Or am I barking up the wrong tree, so to speak.

[Kirk Baker]

Would there be a way of getting PM to make a contact sheet like this if the output was a pdf? Or am I barking up the wrong tree, so to speak.

You can get close to the output you showed in your post, but the color of the background and of the text is not controllable at this time.  The background would be white and the text would be black.

On the Mac you can print to a PDF from the print job dialog.

-Kirk

[charlesteton]

So the same as Photoshop's Contact Sheet II really then. Boo hoo... I'll continue me quest... Thanks as per usual Kirk.

[hilmartor]

I have to agree with charlesteton on this one. It is usually better to have a black background and white letters. It has been that way since making contact sheets in the lab from film. This feature would be better since many times we are shooting against a light background and so a black background would distinct the picture better. A choice of black or white would be best.

-Hilmar

[Kirk Baker]

Hilmar,

I have to agree with charlesteton on this one. It is usually better to have a black background and white letters. It has been that way since making contact sheets in the lab from film. This feature would be better since many times we are shooting against a light background and so a black background would distinct the picture better. A choice of black or white would be best.

I completely agree when we're talking about generating a JPEG or TIFF image as output, but to a printer you would be wasting a lot of black ink and for many printers, you would still have a white border where the printer can't print.

-Kirk

[FVlcek]

Hi,

as for black/dark gray background, some of my contact sheets are never printed anyway, just viewed on client's computer. So having such option would be nice. And a lighter medium gray bg won't waste so much ink.

Second, it would be nice if the printing to jpg makes it, if the feature could be implemented in Send photos as E-mail dialog as well.

Thanks, Frantisek

[Kirk Baker]

as for black/dark gray background, some of my contact sheets are never printed anyway, just viewed on client's computer. So having such option would be nice. And a lighter medium gray bg won't waste so much ink.

I've been thinking about this quite a bit and I think the best way to do this is to not use any of the printing code at all since it is not cross-platform code.  I will instead write this as an exporter template.  You will be able to choose colors, fonts, etc.

Second, it would be nice if the printing to jpg makes it, if the feature could be implemented in Send photos as E-mail dialog as well.

I'm not sure I follow this part?  What would be implemented in the Send photos as email dialog?

-Kirk

[charlesteton]

Wow Kirk, that would truly be great... I've spent another couple of hours formatting contact sheets in PS from another shoot.

If you are thinking of making a template, would it be possible to add a line under all the contact sheet were photographers name, copyright, contact details etc. could be added.

I'll added a version 2 so you can see what I mean, really just space for a line of text we could add whatever info we wanted.

One thing, the background should have the option to be completely black or whatever colour but no white boarders etc. I also leave quite a bit of black space/bleed, just in case the printers are not that accurate with their guillotine.

[hilmartor]

Thanks Kirk, you guys rock!

When will it be available in PM mac?

-Hilmar

[Kirk Baker]

Hilmar,

Thanks Kirk, you guys rock!

When will it be available in PM mac?

I cannot give you an exact date.  I will be implementing it in version 4.6 of Photo Mechanic.

-Kirk

[charlesteton]

I'm a very happy person today... Thanks Kirk, you've made my week/month...

[charlesteton]

PS The files I've been making are 10"x8" at 300DPI, would be nice to do larger contact sheets also, i.e. 20"x16". Don't know if all this will be possible but hoping.

[Kirk Baker]

PS The files I've been making are 10"x8" at 300DPI, would be nice to do larger contact sheets also, i.e. 20"x16". Don't know if all this will be possible but hoping.

You will be able to enter a pixel width and height.  There will be a maximum size imposed but I'm not yet sure what it will be.  JPEGs are limited in their width and height so I will probably make it somewhat less than that just to be safe.

-Kirk