Layout revisited

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davidh
Posts: 835
Joined: June 9th, 2009, 2:16 am

Layout revisited

Post by davidh »

Alpha 15-Sep-2018

I often need to create a layout strip (layout page) about 8 x 2 cm or longer with about 4 or more crops 2 x 2 cm.
It has to be a strip so that I could place it anywhere in the print preview.

1. open Layout
2. set the page to 8 x 2 cm
3. add a panel -> it locates itself in the upper left quarter of the page
4. select Panel size matches image dimensions
5. load an image bigger that the layout page
6. confirm or cancel the message about Panel size exceeding output size... -> the message will pop up repeatedly
7. to close the massage you have to close the Layout first

Something that might help:

1.Before you load the first image, drag the bottom border line of the first panel down to span across the full height of the page. After you load the image, adjust the panel width and go on to the second panel.

2.When you add the second panel and load the image, the panel gets more flat with white margins above and below. This time you cannot drag the border lines up or down, but click into it instead. It expands to fill the page so adjust its width, etc.

3. At one point a newly added panel does not expand to fill the page and clicking into the panel will bring PWP down.


There may be some important relationship between the panel width and the page width that I did not discover. But I never enconutered this problem with panels spanning most of the page length. (Meaning small page, such as 8 cm or so wide.)
Also, the image probably needs to expand to fill the panel or the page if it is larger than the page.

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One more observation:
if you drag the left or right border line of the cropping rectangle outside the big input image preview, the image in the layout preview alternately disappears and reappears.

And, Snap Grid and Display Grid settings are not saved into Default Settings
jsachs
Posts: 4203
Joined: January 22nd, 2009, 11:03 pm

Re: Layout revisited

Post by jsachs »

Panel size matches image dimensions was not designed to be used the way you are trying to use it. It assumes you have a collection of images of known size that you simply want to insert into a layout and arrange, without cropping or resizing them. In this mode, adding an image larger than the layout is an error that forces the image to be cropped to fit. Once it fits, it fills the entire layout and can no longer be moved. To use this mode to create print test strips, you would first have to crop all the images first to the panel size, similar to what you would have to do if you were using the Juxtapose transformation.

I think what would work better for your purposes is a different mode that holds the panel size fixed when you import an image into it, and crops the image to fit the panel, letting you move the cropping rectangle around the image (but not resize it).
Jonathan Sachs
Digital Light & Color
davidh
Posts: 835
Joined: June 9th, 2009, 2:16 am

Re: Layout revisited

Post by davidh »

...In this mode, adding an image larger than the layout is an error that forces the image to be cropped to fit...

I am not adding an image larger than the layout, I am just adding a small crop from an image larger than the layout. If the page is small, any image will probably be larger. But even this is not a problem and it works well if it is done in a certain way. See below.

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....Once it fits, it fills the entire layout and can no longer be moved...

This is true. But you can make it narrower by adjusting its cropping rectangle in the input image preview and then reposintion the crop in the page.

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...To use this mode to create print test strips, you would first have to crop all the images first to the panel size, similar to what you would have to do if you were using the Juxtapose transformation...
...I think what would work better for your purposes is a different mode that holds the panel size fixed when you import an image into it, and crops the image to fit the panel, letting you move the cropping rectangle around the image (but not resize it)....

I have never encountered the problem with error popping messages when I created the strip beginning with a fully expanded crop and added the others one after another making each of them narrower by adjusting the cropping rectangle.
This way I achived the same with crops overlapping each other.

I am sure this procedure can be used to create small print strips. There seems to be a hidden problem difficult to chatch. I think it will have something to do with the size of the page, the crops and their positioning next to each other in the page.

If necessary, I will email some detailed description of the steps with print screens.
Last edited by davidh on September 19th, 2018, 10:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
davidh
Posts: 835
Joined: June 9th, 2009, 2:16 am

Re: Layout revisited

Post by davidh »

I may just have found a confirmation that the page size can be involved in the problem,

A.
1. create a page 12 x 12 or 14 x 14 cm (not so small)
2. add a panel (it always seems to be 1/4 of the page)
3. select Panel size matches image dimensions
4. load the image to crop from and confirm the error message
5. the crop gets centered inside its rectangle and cannot be repositioned at this moment
6. click into the crop and it fills the whole page
7. go to the input preview, adjust the cropping rectangle and then you can reposition the crop in the page

B.
Now do the same with the page set to 13 x 13 or 15 x 15 cm. When you get to the step 4 PWP you get the Warning message popping up.

C.
Do the same with the page set to 16 x 16 cm. When you get to the step 6 PWP stops working.

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And now an interesting point. You can also do it a bit differently:

3a. leave it at the default option: Scale image to fit in panel
4a. load the image to crop from
5a. select Panel size matches image dimensions and confirm the error message
6a. not necessary
7a. the same as 7

If you do it this way, you will avoid the problem with PWP crashing in B.
However this will not help with the Warning popping in C.
jsachs
Posts: 4203
Joined: January 22nd, 2009, 11:03 pm

Re: Layout revisited

Post by jsachs »

I already found and fixed the problem causing the repeated error messages - if was a roundoff error that only sometimes reduced the size of the panel by not quite enough to make it fit. I have also fixed the problem of the snap settings being lost.

I understand that new modes are not strictly necessary, but I believe they would make what you are trying to do much easier. Anyway, I am most of the way finished adding two new modes that respect the panel size and then crop the image if it is too big to fit in the panel -- one new mode sets the cropping rectangle in physical units and the other sets the cropping rectangle in pixels. If the image is smaller than the panel, it is centered in the panel.
Jonathan Sachs
Digital Light & Color
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