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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