Photo imposition, rotation, cropping, resampling

[jotterpinky]

We are currently getting a large number of walk-in customers that want photos printed off our digital color printer. Most are wanting basic proofs for these so we're printing 4 or more per 8.5x11 page. The problem comes in trying to setup these for print. We're getting a folder of jpegs straight from their digital camera at sometimes 8 megapixel size and we need some sort of automated solution to select all the jpegs, rotate them appropriately to fit n-up per page, and resize so we're not sending a huge 8 megapixel file to the printer.

We have used just the basic "windows photo printing wizard" with limited success. It correctly places the images on the sheet n-up and rotates portrait/landscape oriented photos correctly, however it keeps all the pixel data regardless of the size we print. We've also tried using our imposition software to impose them (Crackerjack) but they need to first be converted to a PDF file, then rotated all the same orientation and size to work correctly with this software. If we do use the imposition software we run an action in Pitstop to resample the images appropriately. However this is too many steps and is very labor intensive for 30 color copies.

I'm curious if anyone knows of a software product that will perform these types of tasks...perhaps another type of imposition software that is appropriate for production? I'm not really interested in purchasing a cheesy "printshop deluxe" type piece of software.

 

[Stephen Marsh]

Using Adobe apps:

Adobe Bridge - Tools/Photoshop/Picture Package
Adobe Photoshop - File/Automate/Picture Package

Set the page size, resolution, step and repeat template etc.

Click each window to manually import or over-ride a previously set picture or hit the edit button to make a custom layout. Perhaps give the finished package a small sharpen to account for the downsizing and output.

There may be automated options for InDesign (I don't have it in front of me at this moment, it does have a contact sheet which is different to a picture package), however you would need to export to PDF to reduce the resolution. One could do this manually in InDesign, then each time a customer walked in you would just need to re-link the images to the template and export out a new "Print Ready" PDF etc.

Adobe Lightroom has a picture package output option if I remember correctly.

Hope this helps,

Stephen Marsh

 

[Ultimate]

Right solution is Impostrip On Demand - Econo Edition

Right solution is Impostrip On Demand - Econo Edition

Our solutions has been sold to numerous photo shops of all sizes. The one you should try (for free ;-) ) is Impostrip On Demand - Econo Edition. You'll be able to preset most parameters, including page rotation, etc. and drop your JPGs straight into a hot folder, which will in turn provide a print-ready imposed file.

We are partners of Xerox, HP Indigo, Digilabs and more...

You can contact me directly to get a free trial license (complete).

raymond @ imposition.com

Raymond Duval
Ultimate Technographics Inc.
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[WiseGuy]

I'm sure you should be able to find a good photo printing software that will resample when printing so you're not sending full resolution data when printing 5x7's or proof sheets. I know on the Mac iPhoto resamples when printing and I know the software I got with my Epson Scanner will resample too when printing. Given you're on Windows, I would look at some of the cheaper photo cataloging/printing applications out there.

Doing a quick search, here's a free application from HP that may do the trick. It's specifically talks about printing performance, so I'm assuming they are managing resolution... maybe not, but worth a look.

HP Photosmart Essential 3.5 - Free photo editing, organizing, printing and sharing software

Good luck on your search!
Michael