Exhibition and book/magazine layout planning

[pmagi]

Let me tell you about an idea I have had for some time. Exhibition planning:

Select a bunch of images in a virtual folder, then allow manual sort, then present them on a long horizontal "wall" that you can scroll horizontally. The images should then also be free scalable on that wall, and free movable.

Not sure if you think this is within what PM should do, but it sure could be useful for me! For plannig exhibitions, books, magazine spreads etc....There should also be some kind if export of the wall layout to a JPG or so. Even better if its possible to set wall physical dimensions and then have each image physical dimantions mentioned below it if that option is selected.

Gives you something definetly unique....;-)

[Kirk Baker]

Let me tell you about an idea I have had for some time. Exhibition planning:

Select a bunch of images in a virtual folder, then allow manual sort, then present them on a long horizontal "wall" that you can scroll horizontally. The images should then also be free scalable on that wall, and free movable.

Not sure if you think this is within what PM should do, but it sure could be useful for me! For plannig exhibitions, books, magazine spreads etc....There should also be some kind if export of the wall layout to a JPG or so. Even better if its possible to set wall physical dimensions and then have each image physical dimantions mentioned below it if that option is selected.

You're going to have to describe this feature in more detail.  What file format is the output of this feature?  HTML with Flash?  What is the display on this 'wall'?  A computer with a touch screen monitor?  Dozens of screens?

-Kirk

[pmagi]

Hi Kirk,

I think you misunderstood me in a good way! I did not ask for an actual exhibition tool. But a tool to prepare for the exhibition, or book/magazine.... but then your idea is worth thinking about too! Could be way cool!

My idea was just to have an easy layout testing tool in PM. To be able to place images on a "wall" or "spread", to plan how big prints should be for an exhibition, what images to include, how to hang them and in what sequence....

What I (and my artist friends too) tend to do is print out very small image thumbs and glue them on a large white piece of paper, or a real 3D model of the galley, to see what the exhibition will look like.

So, I would like to do this in PM, set up a virtual wall, with width and height, then populate that with images that can be moved and scaled on the surface. Best would be if the surface zould be zoomable, to see a part of it or the whole thing. Then when satisfied with the "wall" I would like to print it, export a JPG and be able to see what physical dimensions the images should be in real life in proportiona to the wall....if I print all walls I could very easily build a real physical 3D gallery paper model....

This could also be useful for planning a magazine spread for example, or jut communicate to an Art Director your ideas for image layout....

This could be done in something like Indesign, but its way too complicated....

Any more clear?

Rgds
PM

[Kirk Baker]

I think you misunderstood me in a good way! I did not ask for an actual exhibition tool. But a tool to prepare for the exhibition, or book/magazine.... but then your idea is worth thinking about too! Could be way cool!

My idea was just to have an easy layout testing tool in PM. To be able to place images on a "wall" or "spread", to plan how big prints should be for an exhibition, what images to include, how to hang them and in what sequence....

What I (and my artist friends too) tend to do is print out very small image thumbs and glue them on a large white piece of paper, or a real 3D model of the galley, to see what the exhibition will look like.

So, I would like to do this in PM, set up a virtual wall, with width and height, then populate that with images that can be moved and scaled on the surface. Best would be if the surface zould be zoomable, to see a part of it or the whole thing. Then when satisfied with the "wall" I would like to print it, export a JPG and be able to see what physical dimensions the images should be in real life in proportiona to the wall....if I print all walls I could very easily build a real physical 3D gallery paper model....

This could also be useful for planning a magazine spread for example, or jut communicate to an Art Director your ideas for image layout....

This could be done in something like Indesign, but its way too complicated....

Any more clear?

Yes.  What you need is a 3-D editor/renderer application.  You can model the gallery and map images onto areas of the wall and then generate a walk-through movie.

-Kirk

[pmagi]

Yes, that would be nice, and I think thinks like that exist. However, this was something much more simple, to look at one wall at a time, and help out with finding good sizes of the prints....

It can be done in Photoshop or whatever, but the difference would be to link directly to the images on disc and get an easy to use interface that help me calculate the image sizes and change my mind and experiment fast....

Rgds
PM

[jimb]

Sounds like pmagi is asking for something like the Light Table in Aperture.

[pmagi]

Well, I hav not tried Aperture so dont know. But I have not found this exact feature on any PC application. It is like a "virtual folder" with manual sort but also with some simple layout features like scale and move the images around freely on the surface.

Either this is something only I want/need or it is something no one thought would be useful until they try it. Hard to say...;-)

Rgds
PM

[vAfotoriporter]

Sounds like pmagi is asking for something like the Light Table in Aperture.

This is exactly the Light Table feature from Apple's Aperture. I did not see it in any other application either but seems a really good way to plan different image contexts. Put your choosen pics besides each other and drag or resize them freely to find out their placement for magazine/book pages or exhibitions.

It is not the real output just a way of let's call it visual mind mapping. You can check how it would look if one page has a full size photo the other has two or more side by side, and you can change all of this in an instant.

Aperture's Light Table is presented in the Aperture promo by Jim Richardson in this video (Light Table starts at 2:30). Unfortunately I couldn't find any tutorial on this topic showing how light table works in more detail. I hope this helps.