How To Add 3-up 4×6’s to the Picture Package Layouts

I was always baffled by the fact that Photoshop’s Picture Package command did not offer an option for three 4×6’s on a page. Little did I know, it’s extremely easy to customize these layouts and create your own just by editing a plain text file. These instructions also work for Photoshop Elements and Photoshop Album.

1. Important: Mac OS X users much first apply an update to Photoshop before attempting to customize the Picture Package layouts. Information and and a download link can be found at http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/
2. Copy the next five lines and paste them into a text editor, like NotePad or SimpleText:

# I 8 10
Letter (3) 4×6
0 0 6 4
0 4 4 6
4 4 4 6

1. Name this file FourBySixes.txt
2. Copy the file to your Adobe\Photoshop X.0\Presets\Layouts folder where X represents your version of Photoshop.
3. Open Photoshop and try it!

Tips:

1. The ReadMe.txt file in the Layouts folder explains how to make your own custom picture package layouts.
2. If you’ve never used the automated Picture Package function in Photoshop 6 and up, it can be found under the File > Automate submenu.
3. Adobe Photoshop Album and Adobe Photoshop Elements use the same format for Picture Packager layouts, so this tip will also work in those programs.

Any suggestions, ideas? Feel free to comment on this article!

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How To Prepare Photoshop For Creating Web Images

If you primarily use Adobe Photoshop for creating Web images, there are a few program changes you should make. These few tweaks will result in better Web graphics.

1. Go to File > Preferences > Saving Files

2. Set Image Previews to Never Save.

3. Go to File > Preferences > Units and Rulers

4. Set the Unit of measure to pixels.

5. Click one of the color swatches on the toolbar and check the box for Only Web-Safe Colors.

Image previews have been known to cause problems for AOL users viewing JPEG images through AOL’s default browser.

It also adds several bytes to the file size.

Pixels are the standard unit of measure for Web images.

72 pixels equal approximately one inch on a standard monitor.

Restricting the color palette to web-safe colors will ensure that colors will not shift or dither when your images are viewed on another computer.

Any suggestions, ideas? Feel free to comment on this article!

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