Images can be manually laid out by selecting the "Custom layout" option which allows the size, position and rotation of each image to be specified on the page. This allows complex layouts where the images can be different sizes and don't need to be arranged in a grid. It is also simpler to setup for many less complex layouts and often these can be achieved using a single background.jpg containing logos and other graphics.
To use the custom layout option select "Preferences..." from the File menu and the dialog below will be displayed:
After selecting "Custom layout" click on the "Settings..." button to display the dialog below:
Up to 10 images can be positioned using the custom layout. The number of the image to be printed is selected using the drop down list and the position of each image is specified in pixels on the page with the point (0, 0) in the top left corner. The size is also specified in pixels. If both the width and the height are specified the image will be sized to fill the width and height and any excess will be cropped. Alternatively either the height or the width can be set to 0 and the image will be resized to match the specified size without cropping.
For example: assuming an image size of 3456x2304 (the medium setting from a Canon EOS 500D/Rebel T1i) the resultant image size for various width and height values would be:
width=1000, height=0: image resized to 1000 pixels wide by 667 pixels high (the app calculates the height as 1000*2304/3456)
width=1000, height=800: images resized to 1204 pixels wide by 800 pixels high and then cropped by equal amount left and right to give a final image size of 1000x800
width=0, height=800: images resized to 1200 pixels wide by 800 pixels high (the app calculates the width as 800*3456/2304)
Each image can also be rotated clockwise by between 0 and 359.9 degrees.
The settings in the screen shot above show how to define a simple layout of two strips of four images printed on 6"x4" paper using a 300 dpi printer.
The page size in pixels can be displayed by first setting up the printer to the required page size and resolution and then pressing the "Print Info..." button. The layout can be previewed on computer screen by pressing the "Preview" button or printed by pressing the "Print Test Page" button.
When the custom layout option is used the number of rows and columns, image border, rotate and crop settings in the preferences dialog are not applicable and are grayed out.
Please see this article on our website for worked examples of different print layouts.