George, we LOVE to be bothered by this kind of problem, because it makes us feel good to be able to help.
There are two ways to print more than one photo per page. I happen to prefer the "manual" method that we developed to use with Elements v. 1, which either had a useless Picture Package or none at all (I don’t remember which by now.)
First, though, if you want to use the Picture Package feature, here’s how to do it: Select the layout you want, and then add your first image. You’re right – you do get the same one repeated, but you can change to a different picture just be clicking on one of the duplicates. You’ll get a window in which you can navigate through your hard drive and locate a different image. If you don’t find a combination of sizes you want, there’s also a way to make a custom picture package layout, but somebody else will have to explain how to do that. It’s quite simple and involves just a text file, but I’ve never bothered learning how to set one up, because this is my favorite way:
Have the images you want to print open on your desktop, and make sure they’re all the same resolution (they all have to be the same resolution if you use Picture Package, too, by the way.) Then, File>New and open a new blank canvas. Set it to about 8 X 10 1/2, either a white or transparent background, and make sure the resolution is the same as that of your images. Leave that open on your desktop, too. Select the Move tool and click on the first image you want to move. Simply drag it on to the new canvas, and then do the same with the next image. Each one will go on a separate layer, so if one needs to be turned 90 degrees in order to get a good fit on your paper, just select that layer and go to Image>Rotate>Rotate Layer.
Once you have all of your pictures moved, adjust them for the kind of spacing you want. I think the Picture Package assumes no white space around each picture. You can do it with or without when you do it manually. When it looks the way you want it, go to Print Preview, and Print. It’s up to you whether or not you save the new canvas. I usually don’t, or sometimes I go through and delete all the image layers and start over with a new batch of images for printing.
If you have any trouble, just repost and let us know where you’re hanging up. Good luck!
George, do it the way most of us do it>create a ‘new’ document at 8X10 (unless you have a full bleed printer that will do letter size )in the same resolution as your images and then just use the move tool and drag your images onto the new document. This gives you many options for adding pozazz to your album pages by adding drop shadows etc…etc.. to your images because this technique puts all your images on their own layers until you merge them.
OH geeze Beth, wish i had of waited before replying here cause ya weren’t here when i started…how the heck are ya ?
I’m fine, Jodi! How are you doin’?
I’m doing…ya know…. weather is creeping up towards that nasty time….Jack ever make it to your doorstep last season ? I must have kicked the bugger over there at least 22 times…i knew you needed/wanted his stuff…that white stuff.
still do not get it. i open a "new" document at 8 X 10 but when i use the move tool to bring both my images into the "new" document nothing happens. the image i want to move doesn’t.
OK, George. One of two things. The first is the possibility that the image you want to move has layers and that the layer selected is an adjustment layer of some kind – without the image! In that case go to Layer>Flatten and THEN move the image. (I’ll tell you below how to undo this if you want to retain the layers.)
The other possibility is that I forgot to give you enough detail. You select the Move Tool, click and hold the mouse button down on the image you want to move and keep holding and sliding until it copies on to the new canvas. The click>hold>drag part is important.
If you had to flatten the image in order to move it: Once the move is complete, click on the image again to activate it and then go to Edit>Undo. Since flattening was the last thing you did to that image before moving it, you should see something like "Undo Flatten Image." Or, you can use Step Backwards until your layers reappear.
Let us know if this did the trick.
ok…….one last try tonight. i open PSE 2, go to "file", "new" a box opens which lets me choose the W as 10" the H as 8" (or visa/versa) and the resolution as 72, which is the same as the original pic. then a "new" blank canvas opens up. i then open an image that i either have stored on the computer, or i take it directly from my CF card, which is in my CF card reader. the image then opens and when i select the "move" tool, and click & hold and move the image to the "new" canvas. i then repeat this with another image, but the 2nd image is on top of the first image. i no longer can see the 1st image. if i try to do it another way here is what happens. i open 1 picture and select from the file menu "picture package" it then makes 2 5X7 images of the same pic. i can then click on one of these images and a box opens up which asks me to choose another image. i select another pic (from either the CF card or a folder on the computer) and all is fine and good. then i go to print and when the pic prints i get 2 differant pics on 1 page but………..neither pic is 5X7. both pics are close to 5X7 but they both are either the wrong H or the wrong W. as i said they are close, but shouldn’t they BOTH be a true 5X7, since that is the size i choose in "picture package" ? sorry about asking so many stupid questions, but for some reason i just can’t seem to get this tonight. thanks very very much for helping a confussed and frustraded "photographer"……..LOL
OK, this isn’t too hard for me, but I can see why you’re frustrated!
First, before going any further, if you’re going to print the pictures, I (and many other people on the forum) think you’d be much happier with the quality of the print if you use a resolution significantly higher than 72ppi. That’s a common resolution to use if you want to e-mail a picture to someone or if you want to post something on the internet, because it makes for a small file size. But it’s a very low resolution for printing; the standard "target" range is somewhere between about 150ppi and 300ppi. And if you’re moving these right from your compact flash card, you might also want to read up a little on image format, because many cameras store images in the JPEG format. It’s fine for many things, but not always your best choice. That’s a later discussion, though.
And now about the issue of "losing" the image after you move it. It’s just simply hidden under something else so you can’t see it. Go to your pallet well and drag the little tab that says "Layers" down on to your desktop and make sure it’s open before you start creating your new canvas. When you make your new canvas, it’ll show up in the Layers pallet as your "Background" image. That’s fine. Now when you move the first picture on to the new canvas, you’ll see that it shows up as a new layer. Then, when you move the second image on, it’ll get its own new layer, too. What you need to do is click on the newest of the two new layers and then take your Move tool again and click on the picture on your new canvas. By holding the mouse button down, you can drag it around. When you do that, you’ll find the other one underneath. You can then use the Move tool, and by clicking and holding on either picture, you can slide it around anywhere you want it.
Now the subject of your "almost but not quite" 5 X 7 images. If you’re moving these in directly from your compact flash card, you are running into problems caused by the "aspect ratio" of the image saved by your camera. There are very few cameras made (if any) that produce a picture that is exactly the same size of one of the standard size prints we’re used to seeing, like 3 X 5, 4 X 6, 5 X 7, etc. They are usually slightly longer or wider, or a little bit of both, so they should be opened first in Elements and cropped down to the exact size you want.
Most of us move all of the images from our compact flash card into a folder on our hard drive before we try working with the pictures in any way. Furthermore, we usually save our original images and use a copy for any editing or printing we want to do. That way, if we screw up, we have a nice fresh one to come back to so we can try again.
OK, I’ve gotta log off. We’re having a wind storm, and I’m going to shut down the computer. I think somebody else will be around if you need more help, because I doubt I’ll be back before tomorrow! Good luck – and sorry to abandon you, but… 🙂
Beth,
thank you so much for all your help last night in trying to solve my printing problems.i just got up for work (4:30am…..god awful time isn’t it) and before i have to leave this morning i will try doing what you said. i may not have enough time to do this but i am going to give it a try. if not i will try again when i get home (11:30AM…..gotta love that) and hopefully i will be able to get it right this time.i will let you & everyone else know how i make out. once again thank you so very much for your help and i hope everything is ok with you after your wind storm last night.
still don’t get it…….i open up layers on the desktop and it shows the new canvas, and the 2 pics, each seperatly.when i go to move the first pic to the new canvas it takes up the whole thing. moveing the second pic to the new canvas covers the first pic up and no matter how much i move the pics around there just isn’t enough room for the two pics. i have the "new" canvas size set as 8.5 X 11. should i have "resized" the pics to 4X5? if so when i do that i go to "image", "resize" and a dialog box opens up.it says, document size and the orignal pic dimentions are 28.44 W X 21.33 H. i then change the W to 7 and the H automatically goes to 5.25 at a resolution of 292.571. i then do the same for the second pic. now i drag the images onto the new canvas and once again there isnt’ enough room for both pics to fit. the second image covers the first and no matter how i move them around it seems like the canvas is too small. i have to go to work now but if i am unable to figure this out when i get home i just may take up tennis or vollyball, instead of photography/printing.
ALL RIGHT!!! I see the problem! Once you gave me the dimensions you’re working with I was able to quickly spot what’s happening. Now humor me here, please. We’re going to go step by step from the original images from your camera to a page for printing two 5 X 7 pictures. My workflow is pretty conservative, but if you start out by following it, you’ll get the most out of what your camera gives you. When you learn your way around better, you can modify it to suit you.
Choose two images you want to print. If they are still on the camera card, copy them to a folder on your hard drive before doing anything else. We want two brand new, shiny, never- before-touched image files. Or, even if you’ve touched them, they still should be the original size, just as they came from the camera.
Now open Elements and go to File>Open and find the first of the two images and open it on your desktop.
Before doing anything else, go to File>Save As, and a dialog box will open. Near the middle of that box there is a place that says Format. It will probably display the format of the current open image as JPEG. Click on the arrow just to the right of that so you get a list of other format options. Scroll to the one the says Photoshop, which on my computer is at the very top of the list. Choose that one. A place at the top of that same dialog box should also give you the name of the folder on your hard drive where the JPEG image is stored, so make sure that’s the folder you want the new Photoshop (from here on known as PSD) file to be saved in. You can also rename the image if you want. If you don’t, it will have the same name as the original, but it will have a .psd extension instead of .jpg.
OK, now you have just changed your image format from a "lossy" format (JPEG) to a "non-lossy" format (PSD.) Right now just trust me that this is important. We’ll discuss why later, because I don’t want this to get ridiculously long for one post.
Now, with your new PSD image open on your desktop, go to Image>Resize>Image Size. When the dialog box comes up, first make sure that the little box near the bottom next to Resample does NOT have a check mark in it. (Which it shouldn’t, according to the numbers you posted, so that’s good.) Right now ignore the numbers for width and height, because I want you to work at resizing your image through manipulating the resolution, not the physical size. I tried using your numbers on a test image on my computer, and I came up with a slightly different outcome, so the experimenting will now begin. Hang in there!
Change JUST the Resolution number from whatever it now is (72ppi?) to 300ppi. Now look at the dimensions of your image. Are they close enough to 5 X 7 so that with just a small amount of cropping the picture would become 5 X 7? If they are, then that’s great, and you can click OK and leave the Image Resize box and go back to the desktop.
If the dimensions became too small using 300ppi to make a 5 X 7 image, go back to the Resolution box and reduce it down to about 290ppi. See how the width and height of the image got a little bit bigger? (According to your numbers above, this is probably the one that will give you the size you want, but I’m not positive.)
On the other hand, if the picture is still too big, and you’d still have to crop off a lot in order to get it to 5 X 7, increase the number in the Resolution box to about 320ppi. See how the physical size got smaller?
The point of this is to show you how to change the physical size of your image while still maintaining as much of the original image data as possible. You can play around with inserting various numbers in the resolution box until you get something you’re happy with. Once you get it, note the resolution, click OK, and go back to the newly resized image on your desktop. (It won’t look any different on your monitor, but Elements will know it’s different.)
Now, if you want to make any adjustments for Levels, Brightness, etc., this is the right time to do that.
Next we’re now going to crop to an even 5 X 7. Some people use the Crop tool, but since I’m the one typing this, we’re going to use my way.
Choose the Rectangular Marquee tool from the Toolbar. Once you have it selected, look in the Option Bar (the first one just above where your image is displayed.) Roughly in the center of the bar is a box that says Style, which probably says Normal, and it also has a couple of little arrows. Click on the arrows and choose Fixed Size. Now, one notch to the right insert the width you want your image to be, in this case 7, and then go to the next box for height and insert 5. Now – still with the Rectangular Marquee tool selected, click anywhere on your image. You’ll see that you get a selection box that is outlining an area exactly 5 X 7 inches. By clicking and holding down the mouse button somewhere within that box, you can drag it around until it is surrounding the part of your image you want to keep. Once the marching ants are encircling that area, go to Image>Crop. Your image has just become an even 5 X 7.
Are you still with me? We now have one of our two images ready to print. You might want to do a Save right now so it stays the way it is.
Go take a short nap, and then come back and go through these same steps with the second image you chose for this drill. Make sure, though, that you set it to the same resolution as the first one! If you don’t, our experiment will be a flop, and you and I both will be frustrated!
Once you have the second one changed to PSD, resized by resolution, edited, and cropped, have it open on your desktop along with the first one you did.
OK, so here’s where you ran into trouble – somewhere back in an earlier post, you mentioned you were working with a resolution of 72ppi, so I gave you instructions for creating a new blank canvas of that resolution. In reality, though, the pictures you were moving on to that new canvas were of a much higher resolution. That’s why they looked so outlandishly large after you moved them. (The "why" of this is another thing I won’t go into now.)
First, double check and make sure that both of your new images really are the same resolution. I’m going to pick the number 290ppi for the instructions, but when you do this for real, use the actual resolution of your two images.
Go through the previous routine of File>New, but set the resolution of that new canvas at 290ppi. Now when you select the Move tool and drag each one on to the new canvas, they should fit just like you expect them to. (I hope.)
Like I said, my instructions are conservative, but you should now have a better idea how to manage your pictures, and you should also wind up with two 5 X 7 images printed on the same piece of paper. Good luck! And when you’re ready to get more information, post again. I think you should have success this time, though.
Edit: And after I got through typing all of this, I couldn’t get online. The Sun attack?! Is anybody else having trouble getting reliable connections? I can be on one minute and off the next. How frustrating.
George, I don’t know if I will be able to help you. But here is how I print multiple images on a single page.
The first thing I do is make all the changes to my photograph, including setting it to the appropriate size and resolution. As Beth has stated in a previous message, the resolution should be somewhere between 200 and 300 DPI. If you don’t want to erase your original image that you downloaded from your camera, save this new resized image under a new name. Repeat this process for all photographs that you want to include on this one page, making sure you use the same resolution on all pictures.
When you create your new document on which you will place these pictures, make sure that you use the same resolution as you did on the pictures. Otherwise, they will not appear in the same size on the multiple print sheet.
If you size of all of your pictures in the 4×5 range, or therabouts, you should be able to click on each layer in the layer pallette and then move the pictures around. You will probably find it easiest to start with the topmost layer and work your way down through the other pictures.
If you assign the same resolution to all of your pictures as well as to the new document that will contain all of your pictures, it should be fairly straightforward to move the pictures around. I have done collage pictures with as many as 30 small photos on a single page and have been fairly successful in doing so. If the resolution is different, you will experience some challenges. For instance, if your 8.5 x 11 document is created at a higher resolution, all of your photographs will appear smaller when you put them on this new print document. Conversely, if the resolution is lower, your pictures will be larger.
Beth…..almost got it
i came home from work and first thing i did was trash the PSE 2 plist on my mac and rebuilt it. then i opened a "new" canvas (300 res) at 8 X 10. i then opened a brand new shinny image from my CF card and converted it from JPEG to TIFF and saved it to a folder on my desktop. i then opened another brand new shinny new image, converted that from JPEG to TIFF and saved it in the same folder as the previous pic. i then opened the first pic i want to add to the new canvas and changed the resolution to 300, which is the same as what the new canvas is. i then changed the W and H to 7W and 5H. i unchecked the box for "constrain proportions" but left the box checked for "resample image" (bicubic). i was then able to use the move tool to drag both images to the new canvas and low and behold they both fit and i was able to move them around to where i wanted them on the new canvas. i then went to "print" and when the page printed it was so close to what i wanted (2 5×7 pics per page) that i jumped for joy. i then read your post and realized just how little i know about PSE 2 compared to you, and in all honest probablly most people. i immediatly printed what you posted so i don’t loose it. i am now sitting here getting ready to try it your way and i am sure it will give me 2 exact 5×7 pics per page. i think i am finally understand this.thank you so VERY VERY much for taking the time out of your busy day to help me. sorry to hear your having trouble getting online due to the sun, but as it is pouring out here now you get no sympathy (?) from me…….only kidding about that last part as i know how frustrating it can be when one min your online and the next your left out in the cold. once agin i want to thank you very much for all your help. if i were you i would get some rest, and get ready (in another day or two i promise) for another one of my stupid, but frustrating problems which i am sure will arise.
I’m just glad you’ve got it now!!! This digital imaging stuff can have a pretty steep learning curve to it, but it does begin to make sense after a while. Once you’ve got the basics down – and you’re getting there fast – you can begin doing the really fun stuff. It was a pleasure to help. And I’m ready for the next question whenever you are!
next question………after saving my two images a PSD file i then opened one and adjusted the levels. i left the second image alone. after opening my new canvas i used the move tool to drag my 2nd image to the new canvas with no problem. when i try to drag the first image, the one that i adjusted the levels too, it would not work. it dragged a gray box to the new canvas instead of the pic. i ended up with just the 2nd pic on my new canvas
Easy! Easy! 🙂
We’ll take the conservative way on this, too. In your Layers pallet, the layer on which you made the adjustment was probably the active one, which means you just dragged the adjustment layer. Do this: With your adjusted image open, go to Layers>Flatten (it’s all the way at the bottom of the list.) That will merge the background image with the adjustment layer. Now you can move the whole thing.
NOW!!! You probably don’t want to save it with your layers flattened (I wouldn’t), so, after you’ve moved the image to the new canvas, go back to that image and go to Edit>Undo Flatten. You should get your layer back. Then you can save it with the adjustment layer still accessible.
should my new canvas be 8×10 to print my 2 5×7 pics? the paper i am using is 8.5 x 11? when i tried to use 8.5 x 11 as my new canvas size when i went to print a box came up saying the image is larger then the media, some clipping will occur. when it is set to 8×10 everything seems to be fine.
George, I get that message as well with 8.5 X 11 but I ignore it since Elements doesn’t seem to know I have a full bleed printer that will print to edge…otherwise you need to stick to 8 X 10 if you don’t have such a printer. I wonder if people with large format printers get this messaqge ???
Dang! I’d tried to come back for an Edit and had lost my connection again. This is driving me up a wall. Now that I’m here, I see I’d remembered to tell you how to flatten the image anyway, so I didn’t even need to come back. 🙁
But since I’m here – many printers have a 1/4 inch "no print" zone, which is why I suggested a canvas size slightly less than the paper size. I don’t know enough about the various printer models to know which ones need that space and which ones don’t, so that’s why I gave my instructions the way I did.
NEW PROBLEM…….when i resize my pics the way Beth told me too here is what happens. i am able to print 2 5×7 per page but when i went to cut the pics from the 8.5 x 11 paper for the first time (all the other times i printed the 2 5×7’s i left them on the paper without cutting them) one pic is shorter (4 3/4H x 7W) then the other (5H x7W) and will not fit in a 5×7 frame. this happens even though i have resized the pics the same way.this seems to happen EACH & EVERY time when i print 2 5×7 pics. since i came home from work i have made quite a bit of progress (thanks you Beth) with this but i am still not there yet. not giving up, not trading printer for a volleyball net or golf clubs. i will stick with this until i get it.
OK, this is a guess, but I’m basing it on personal experience. I don’t think your printer is actually centering that canvas on the piece of 8 1/2 X 11 paper. To check it, do the following experiment before you waste any more photo paper!
Open a new canvas, File>New. This one can be set to any resolution, but size it so that it’s 8 by 10 1/2 inches. In theory, this size should give you exactly 1/4 inch on all sides after printing.
Now, with that new canvas open on your desktop, select the Rectangular Marquee tool, set the format to Fixed Size in the option bar, and set the width to 8 and the height to 10.5. Now click on the image, and the marching ants will surround your entire canvas. Now go to Edit>Stroke, and set the width in pixels to something like 15 – this isn’t critical. The color isn’t critical, either, as long as it’s something besides white. Also choose "Outside", and then click OK.
What you should be seeing is a big rectangular space with a black line around it. (Or another color – it depends on what color was set as the foreground color.)
Now, go to Print Preview and make sure that "Center" is selected under Position. This is the default, so that’s probably what you’ll get. Now print this big rectangle on plain paper. Did it actually center? Or did it come out closer to one edge of the paper than the other?
Most Epson printers do a good job at centering, but there are a couple that don’t. And HP printers are notorious for not centering correctly.
If you find that big box isn’t centered on the page, that’s why 1/4 inch of your picture got cut off. You’ll have to compensate for that manually in some way. I usually run my 5 X 7 images toward the right side of my canvas, because my HP gives me a very small left margin. Your printer might be doing something similar.
One day last winter I spent the better part of an afternoon making rectangles in various sizes, printing them, guessing at what manual margin adjustments I needed to make on the Print Preview screen, and then writing down the notes! I hope you don’t have to resort to this, but you might.
I really can’t think of any other reason why one edge was cut off unless you accidentally got 4.75 entered in the Option bar instead of a 5. If you had accidentally gotten the resolution off, you should have noticed a difference in both length and width.
So go make a couple of rectangles and see what happens. Then report back. WE WILL MASTER THIS YET! And hopefully before darkness. 🙂
did what you said and after clicking on the marque tool the box that forms is not centered, but all the way to the right side of the page. this leaves approx 1/2 inch on the left side, which is where i had put the two pics when i dragged them onto my new canvas. i am going to try to print 2 5×7’s but this time i will move the images over to the right side of the paper instead of the left. be back with the results shortly 🙂
moving both images to the right side of the paper yeilded the same results. the top image will ALWAYS be approx 1/4 inch taller (H) then the bottom image although the length (W) is consistent on both pics. to put it another way, the top pic measures almost (within a 1/16 ") 5 X 7 while the bottom pic measures 4 3/4 X 7. this is VERY close but i do not understand why BOTH pics do not measure a true 5 X 7.
You’re just determined that we’re going to have to work hard on this, huh? 🙂
Ah, wait a minute! I was thinking in terms of 4 3/4" being the width of the picture, because my mind clearly was somewhere else. So… Are you sure you’ve got that second image up far enough on the canvas? When you do two 5 X 7s, you are using up almost all of both the length and width of your photo paper, and it wouldn’t take much error to get some of the image cut off on either side or both. Take a look at your sample rectangle again – is the whole thing centered top to bottom, or might the printer be cutting off part of the lower one – like Space Cadet here was thinking was happening with the width of the picture? Duh. If that centering command is off just a tiny bit – and 1/4 inch isn’t very much – then that may be why you’re losing the bottom.
You did actually print that plain rectangle, didn’t you?
I’ve decided this has to be a printing issue if both of these images were cropped to an exact 5 X 7. Unfortunately, by now that will be a matter of you experimenting to see what the placement has to be in order to avoid cutting anything off. Now I remember why I usually do 4 X 6.
printing 2 4×6 imagies works like a charm. i get 2 perfect 4×6 imagies on a sheet of paper. now to figure out the 5 x 7’s and just suppose i want to print an 8 X 10, what then? maybe i should wait until tomorrow for that as i have taken up enough of your time for one day. sure wish you were my neighbor, just think how offten you would be over here helping me with all my printing troubles……..LOL.
one last note just to make things interesting. now my epson printer has so much ink in it someware (maybe from running the print head cleaning cycle so many times) that each pic has ink all over the place. glad i have a CIS instead of using ink carts. i remember this happening before but i forget how i cleaned it. looks like it’s time to search another forum……….LOL thansk Beth, i owe you big time.
Beth,
I want to thank you for your explanation back there in message number 12 – that answered my resolution question (that I posted on another thread) perfectly. I saved off a copy of my picture, unchecked "respample" and played with changing the resolution and/or the height and width. I see that the pixel dimensions didn’t change.
I also realized I need to pay attention to the zoom level of my images. They "look" small on screen because they’re zoomed at 33%, but then I copy them to a new place and they are smaller or bigger (depending on something).
Anyway, like someone else said, you ought to write a book…
-Trish
You’re welcome, George. And maybe taking some time away from this project would help clear your head. Getting this stuff mastered can be both a fun challenge and very stressful – often at the same time. Can’t help you with cleaning the print heads! That’s one advantage to using an HP, although there are many other things about Epsons that are superior.
Your problem does seem to be at the print driver end, so good luck in solving that.
Thank you, Beth! This is one of the best explanations ever, I am going to have a much easier time making my prints for the kids this Christmas.
Jane
You’re welcome Jane. Anybody found me that publisher yet?! I’m giving away all of my "best stuff"!! 🙂
‘The Power of Printing Multiples’
hmm, na, how bout
‘Multiple births’..no wait
‘Printing Multiples with Beth’ …just kidding Beth 😉
hmmm, hold on, it’s coming to me….
<pause..thinking >
‘ What’s Under The Lid ?’
~tips and tricks for Photoshop Elements~
by Beth Haney …includes the ever lasting question;
How To Print Multiples !
I GOT IT, I GOT IT, I FINALLY GOT IT…….i reset my new canvas size to 8.5 x 11.0, instead of 8 x 10 and carefully place my two 5 x 7 pics on there. making sure i allowed approx. a 1/2 inch on top & bottom edge. this worked perfectly, i now am able to print two differant pics on the same page at EXACTLY 5 x 7. with my new found knowledge i can’t wait to try an 8 x 10.
Congratulations George! You’ve just made a huge leap in the amount you know about digital imaging!!
I love success stories. 🙂 I’m sorry if I sent you off in the wrong direction on the size of the canvas, but I can get by with using that quite nicely. I never realized somebody else might have to use the entire paper size in order to get the right placement. I’m just glad you stuck with it long enough to figure it out. Go! Go! Go!
You go, Beth! Great explanations!
Cheering squad for Beth and George!!
I’ve been following your epic.
George and I thank you for your kind words. 🙂
I am having the same problem. I don’t want to waste ink by printing 8.5 x 11 inch pictures on my Canon I 950 6 color printer, nor do I want to waste expensive photo paper by printing only one print per page. Being able to figure out how to use elements to put two or more different pictures on the same page would be nice.
My only solution to date is to print small pictures on a big page , turn the paper around, and run it through again for a second picture. that really is tedious. Is the problem me or photoshop?
I could alternately cut the paper down to 4×6 size. My printer will accept 4×6 but when I download my nikon through nikon view every picture then has to be brought into elements and size adjusted for image and canvas size before printing. Is there not a way to set up a preference and just plain print individual 4×6, or alternatively, to put two different pictures on the same page easily is my question as well.
Hope you get an answer, and I’d appreciate hearing what it is.
Art
Art,
First of all, I’m going to assume that you know how to resize your photographs and do your editing the get the result that you are looking for. After you have edited your photographs, you should probably save them under a new name and with a resolution of about 300 pixels per inch.
Now, create a new document. I usually just create it to be 8.5 x 11 inches because that is the size of my paper. I always get a warning that the document is too big, but I ignore that message because I always make sure I leave enough border to accommodate that problem. The new document needs to be created in the same resolution as your photographs.
Next, open each photograph that you want to print on the single page, and drag it onto your new document. It will be placed on your new document on its own layer, and you can use the move tool to position the picture wherever you want it. Continue opening and dragging pictures onto your single page until you have the page arranged the way you want it. If you find that you want to rearrange the photos you will have to click on the appropriate layer in the layer pallette and then use the Move tool to move your pictures.
When you have all of your pictures placed the way you want them, print the full document. You might want to invest in a paper cutter to help you trim your pictures.
If saving money is a primary concern for you as it is for me, you might consider having your larger pictures or your bigger orders printed at a commercial photo lab. I do that occasionally and find that I save money doing so.
Art,
Did you read all of the posts on this thread? I think your answer is in there. You don’t mention what size your images are straight off your camera. If changing the resolution of your images to between 200-300 ppi gives you the size you want to print at…
Use the Batch command to change the contents of a whole folder to the desired resolution. Create a new document in PSE that is 8.5 x 11 at the same resolution as your images. Make sure your Layers Palette is open onscreen. Open one image, drag the layer from the Palette and drop onto canvas. Open the second image, drag/drop as above. Activate one of the layers in the Palette of new doc., get the Move tool and reposition the image so as not to overlap the other image.
You might need to crop each image a bit if changing the resolution does not give you the exact 4 x 6 aspect ratio.
Art,
I am going to quit following you around now, I seem to always be typing as you post…
Arthur, George is a happy camper, because he’s now printing two 5 X 7s per sheet. If you go back to the beginning of this thread and read my post #1, it pretty much duplicates the reply Jim just provided but is worded a little differently. If you read through this whole thread, I think you’ll get a lot of useful information. Did you start at the beginning?
now, thanks to Beth, not only can i print two exact 4×6 pics, two exact 5×7 pics and yesterday i figured out how to make a perfect 8×10. there is joy in mudville again.
You made my whole month George! Keep hanging out on the forum and you’ll learn lots of good stuff. Plus, we like people who have a good sense of humor and are tenacious! You’re gonna make a good helper around here, you know. 🙂
