Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

It's a little more complicated than that. I'm used to printing multiple images on a single sheet of paper - as, for example, multiple 4X6 inch prints on a single sheet of 13X19. However, if I want to crop an image, or if I use a camera which makes a 4.5X6 image (instead of 4X6) by default, I have to eyeball the borders as I trim out the image from the larger sheet.

What I'd like to do is to have a 4X6 blank template in Qimage with a thin black border around the outside it, then resize my 4.5X6 (or cropped) images so they'll fit into my template at the largest size the template will allow. In this example, I'd resize my 4.5X6s to 4X5.34 inches and place those resized images inside my template so that white "letterbox" areas remain where the image doesn't fill the template. Then (ideally)  I'd like to automate that process for one or two dozen images at a time.

I've been playing with this, this afternoon, and I'm stuck. I'm even stuck making a border around a 4.5X6 inch image, which I used to know how to do (the borders I "create" don't show up). Any advice on any part of this project would be very helpful.

Bill

Hi Bill,
Lets do it a step at a time and make sure I understand the problem.
First, what size paper are you wanting printing on, is it still 13x19?
As I understand it, (a) with a 3:2 ratio image (4x6 ) you simply want to print at 6x4 with a border.
(b) But with 4:3 ratio image (4.5x6) you want to print it within the 6x4 "envelope" but the border must be around the 6x4 envelope not around the 5.35x4 image.

To solve one problem ( the easy one I think)
You must have the image(s) selected (blue line around) on the preview or in the Full Page Editor, for the borders to be applied and appear.

(a) above is easy, just add the images to the queue at 6x4, select and specify the border.
(b) is more difficult because Qimage does not do unequal borders. You can do this with a template.
1. make a plain white image (in a photo editor) and add that to the queue at 6x4 with the crop scissors on, select and add the border, use B+ if you want it to eventually show outside a 5.34x4 image.
2. Change to freehand mode and drag to template "image" - 6x4 crop scissors off - (at the end of all thumbnails) and place on top of the white bordered image.
3. In the full page editor, set the template directly above the the white image, select template and use the arrow keys to get perfect alignment.
4. You can place as many of these as you like on a page; then save as a Layout
5. Use the template from Custom-Layout, select and ok.
6. Drag the image(s) to the templates on the preview and use the FPE to align on each - remember you are in Freehand mode.
That's it, print.
See attached for an example of (b), template & image.
Sorry (b) is a bit fiddly, but once the template is sorted, it's quite quick to add images and tweak the alignment using the FPE.
Terry

Hi Bill,

Getting unequal borders is a bit tricky, but there are a few threads in this forum where it is explained how to do it, but Fred has covered one method above. I think what you may also need, as well as setting the borders, is to set the edge markings - at top of window, 'Page Formatting'-'Mark edge of Print' - select whatever. 

Best wishes,

Ray

Terry actually  ;D
T

How can Ray mix us up when I am obviously far more handsome?
Fred

Doppelgängers? My mistake - it's an age thing, mine not yours  ;)

Best wishes,

Ray

Thanks - I think that will get me started, and possibly get me all the way there. If I'm not making headway, I'll holler again. FYI -for this purpose I will sometimes be printing on 8.5X11, sometimes on 13X19.

Bill