En2502 album template editor user manual

Album Template Editor User Manual EN2502

Imaxel Lab SL, 2005-2012 2

History

Date Doc version Description Author

26.06.2009 1.0 Created by Esther Vigil

Last update



Índice

1. Introduction 6

2. Getting Started 6

2.1 Paper Setup 6

2.2 Margins 7

2.3 Special sheets 7

2.4 Summary 7

3. Album Properties 9

3.1 Album Summary 9

3.2 Album thumbnail 10

3.3 Setup the album sheets 11

3.3.1 Normal Sheets 12 3.3.2 Special Sheets 13 3.3.3 Design Margins 14 3.3.4 Cut Margins 15 3.3.5 Crop Marks 16 3.3.6 Variable Spine 17

3.4 Ranges setup 19

3.5 Work Options 20

3.5.1 Work mode 21 3.5.2 Framing mode 21 3.5.3 Design options 22

4. Sheet Layout 23

4.1 Tasks: Album sheets 26

4.1.1 Add and copy sheets 26 4.1.2 Set background colour 26 4.1.3 Set background image 27 4.1.4 Set background texture 28 4.1.5 Add a clipart image 28 4.1.6 Clear the sheet background 29

4.2 Tasks: Sheet properties 29

4.2.1 Allow to change the background 29 4.2.2 Allow to edit the design 30 4.2.3 Use in composition 30 4.2.4 Print this sheet always 30

4.3 Tasks: Layer Control 30



4.3.1 Visible 30 4.3.2 Selectable 31

4.4 Working area 31

4.4.1 Zoom tool 31 4.4.2 Rulers 31 4.4.3 Hand tool 31 4.4.4 Arrow keys 32 4.4.5 Grid and Margins 32 4.4.6 Preview / Design View 32 4.4.7 Selection tool 34 4.4.8 Sheet background colour 34

5. Frames 35

5.1 Create frames 35

5.1.1 Photo Frame 36 5.1.2 Photo Frame below background 36 5.1.3 Text Frame 37

5.2 Edit Frames 38

5.2.1 Frame size 38 5.2.2 Frame rotation 38 5.2.3 Frame properties 39

5.3 Default frame properties 42

5.4 Set frames ratio 43

5.5 Organize and align items 44

5.5.1 Organize menu command functionalities: 45 5.5.2 Mirror 46 5.5.3 Swap pages 47

5.6 Arrange Items 49

5.7 Set frames order 49

6. Sheets options 50

6.1 Add sheets 51

6.2 Organize sheets 51

6.3 Delete sheets 52

6.4 Scale sheets 52

7. Themes 53

7.1 Add theme 54

7.2 Edit theme 55



7.3 View album themes 55

7.4 Delete theme 56

7.5 Setup themes in the photo kiosk 56

8. Product options 58

8.1 Add a new Category 59

8.2 Add a new Item 60

9. Saving templates 62

10. Keyboard shortcuts 63



1. Introduction

Welcome to the Album Template Editor for the Imaxel Kiosk Software module. The Album Editor will let you create your own personalized products in order to optimize your kiosk business by adding new functionalities and features. The new templates you’ll create can be easily added to the Station Manager program which controls your kiosk in order to easily offer them to your end users. WARNING: To add new products, you must have an open catalog which allows you to add and modify the local products setup in your kiosk. If you’re not sure whether you have or not an open catalog available, please contact your local distributor or directly with Imaxel Lab in case you already are an authorized dealer.

2. Getting Started

Open the Software Album Editor by double click on the icon.

Click on Create a New Template or Edit an Existing Template, in order to edit a template already created.

Fill in the following fields: Paper Setup, Margins, Special Sheets and Summary (please, note that these options can be edited or entered at a later stage, in Album Properties (see page 8)

2.1 Paper Setup

These fields refer to the printing support measurements. It’s very important to write, the exact value of the paper you will use to print, in the fields: Width (mm) and Height (mm) Select any of available formats in the menu list or, select Other if you want to entry a different format. You can select one or two pages per sheet, in order to type of binding.



2.2 Margins

These margins are just a help tool for design purposes, since the final customer will not see them. The margins value should be indicated here in millimeters.

2.3 Special sheets

If your album is going to have special pages: Lining, Cover, Back Cover, Front page or Back page, you can select them.

Select Special sheets clicking on the checkbox

2.4 Summary

Fill in the relevant fields. Album Title: It’s the name that displayed in the software interface, below the picture of the product. Album Description: It is an additional information about the product. Displayed below Album Title. Author: It’s the designer’s name or the name of the laboratory. Product Name: It’s the product name displayed in the ticket order.

IMPORTANT: The Code Number must always be a numeric value and cannot begin with the number 0. It’s very important that the Product Code is the same one than in Station Manager.



Once the start up values have been set, you can start working with your new template.

Click on Create the new Album. There are three tabs to set up and edit the product: Album Properties, Product Options and Sheet Layout. To begin with, first click on Album Properties:



3. Album Properties

Click on Album Properties on the top left part of the screen. The left side of the screen contains the configuration menu with the following options: Album Summary, Album Thumbnail, Setup album sheets and Work Options.

3.1 Album Summary

By clicking on Album Summary you can fill or change the following fields: Album title, Album description, Paper description, Product code, Product name and Author.

IMPORTANT: The Code Number must always be a numeric value and cannot begin with the number 0. It’s very important that the Product Code is the same one than in Station Manager.



3.2 Album thumbnail

Click on Album thumbnail to use to one of the template’s sheet or you can load an image from a file.

This image will be visible, on the kiosk or on the software online ImageDesk, for the final customer to choose the product. It must be a PNG or JPG file and is better to use a small size picture (around 50 mm x 50 mm and 72 dpi is recommended)



3.3 Setup the album sheets

Click on Setup the album sheets. A new menu will open:



You can enter different values like: size of normal and special sheets, number of pages per sheet, design and cut margins, crop marks and variable spine. You can setup sheets ranges too.

Click on Sheets Setup button to get the next window and setting up more details about Margins, Special Sheets, Crop Marks, etc.…

3.3.1 Normal Sheets

Enter the size of the normal sheets, and also decide whether you want one or two sheets per page.



3.3.2 Special Sheets

There are two types of Special Sheets: Fixed Special Sheets: Front Page and Back Page. They have the same measures as normal sheets since they’re internal sheets too. Variable Special Sheets: Lining, Cover and Back Cover. Their measures can be different compared to normal sheets. The size changes according to the number of internal sheets. The measure of the cover and the lining will have the size of the normal sheet + minimum width of the spine (see page 16) Use the Special Sheets tab to define the size of the Lining, Front Cover, Back Cover, Front Page, etc.

NOTE: Special sheets must be included in the template only when you’ll be printing them together with the rest of normal sheets.



3.3.3 Design Margins

The Design Margins are used as a guide for the sheet layout, but are no visible for the end customer.

Select Design Margins. Enter the margins values desired for Inner, Outer, Upper and Lower margin.



3.3.4 Cut Margins

The Cut Margins will define the useful area of the template. Any part of an image or text in a composition, which is out the cut margins, will be cutting.

Select Cut Margins tab, enter the margin values



3.3.5 Crop Marks

These marks will help you in the cut and composition process.

Select Crop Marks in output image if you want to print the crop marks in the output image.



3.3.6 Variable Spine

You must enter these values when the album has the following features:

The template contains a customizable cover.

The album has not a fix number of sheets. This number can be variable depending on the sheets ranges entered (see page 18)

Variable spine in Cover / Lining

Enter the minimum width (mm) of the spine of the Cover / Lining will have. Variable spine formula

Enter the exact values of the parameters A and B in order to calculate the width of the spine, when the number of sheets has exceeded the minimal width value of the spine, the formula for variable spine begins to work automatically.

Variable spine formula = A + B*N A: The cleft size (mm) of the spine. B: The thickness (mm) of a normal sheet + the thickness (mm) of the cover. N: It’s the number of sheets. Value used for N is always 1



For example: Cover width 593,50 mm Cleft 2,50 mm Cover & normal sheet thickness 0,50 mm Minimum spine width 9,00 mm

Normal sheets Number Spine width (mm) Increase (mm) Final cover width (mm)

1 3 0 593,5

2 3,5 0 593,5

3 4 0 593,5

4 4,5 0 593,5

5 5 0 593,5

6 5,5 0 593,5

7 6 0 593,5

8 6,5 0 593,5

9 7 0 593,5

10 7,5 0 593,5

11 8 0 593,5

12 8,5 0 593,5

13 9 0 593,5

14 9,5 0,5 594

15 10 1 594,5

16 10,5 1,5 595

17 11 2 595,5

18 11,5 2,5 596

19 12 3 596,5

20 12,5 3,5 597

21 13 4 597,5

22 13,5 4,5 598

Before the page 13 the formula is not applied, since the minimum value has not been reached. From the page 14 on, the final cover width increases by step.



3.4 Ranges setup

In the same product album, you can setup several ranges of minimum and maximum sheets in order to the end user could choose according to the number of photos selected or price. If the template has a cover / lining and the spine width can be variable, you must enter the values in Variable Spine screen (see page 16)

Default range means that when the end user selects this template, the initial range of sheets will be the default value.



Click on Add when you want to create a new sheet range.

Click on Edit to change any value of the sheet range.

Click on Delete if you want delete a sheet range.

Click on Default to mark a sheet range by default.

3.5 Work Options

Here you can set the working mode of the template in order to:

Work mode

Framing mode

Design options



3.5.1 Work mode

By selecting Only manual mode, the end user program will fill in the pages one after another.

By selecting Only automatic mode, the program will trend to fill up as many pages as possible according to the number of pictures selected by the end user and the maximum number of pages defined. For example: The minimum number of pages is 3, and only three pictures have been selected to create an album. In this case, the program will take one template containing a single frame, and will repeat it three times. Anyway, the end user can re-edit the album later on, and change the number of frames in each page.

Select Automatic and Manual Modes, if you want that the end user can decide between Automatic and Manual mode to compose an album.

Select Express Mode to allow to the end user only a basic edition. The album will be composed automatically, using the templates according to the number of photos and the sheets range chosen.

3.5.2 Framing mode

Select the Framing Mode for the pictures. It applies to the pictures which are not proportional to the frame to be put in.

Fit: The photo is placed completely inside the frame. If the frame isn't proportional to the photo, part of the frame can be blank.



Fill: The photo fills completely the frame, without blank areas. But if the frame is not proportional, part of the photo will be cropped.

3.5.3 Design options

Enable the template selection menu: To allow your customers to access the menu template selection. For example, the template has different layouts, with this option the customer can choose or change the layout.

Disable the template selection menu: A typical example happens with the calendars to be printed in several pages: select the Disable the template selection menu to avoid customers changing templates and avoiding errors with the order of the pages.



4. Sheet Layout

The sheet layout window is divided in three working areas:

Thumbnails: It shows the thumbnail of the sheets created and the quantity of photo frames created.



Sheet: Composition work area.



Tasks: This panel shows the design and setup options frequently used in order to create a composition. This panel is divided in three sections: Album sheets, Sheet Properties and Layer Control.



4.1 Tasks: Album sheets

4.1.1 Add and copy sheets

Add new sheets to the current album template. You can add new sheets, with the same size, or make copies of the sheets created.

4.1.2 Set background colour

By default there’s no colour assigned to a background, so the Transparent option is showed. To set a background colour Select a colour among three options showed (System, Web or Custom), or click on More Colours to get a specific one.



4.1.3 Set background image

This option allows you add a background image to the sheet. Previously, the image had made with an image editor like Photoshop, for example. The format file of the background image must be jpg or png (if it contains transparency areas)



4.1.4 Set background texture

This option allows you to apply a pattern image to the sheet. This pattern will repeat many times to fill the background. The advantage to use a pattern is that the image is smaller than a background image and therefore, the template is not so heavy.

4.1.5 Add a clipart image

It allows you to add an image object that be set on any part of the composition. The clipart image can be edited (sized and rotated) and moved over the sheet. The clipart will be located in an upper layer of the sheet.



4.1.6 Clear the sheet background

Use it to remove a background image of a sheet.

4.2 Tasks: Sheet properties

The sheet properties at the panel Tasks will allow you to configure the proper permissions for the end users in order to avoid the template modification.

Click on the checkbox option to activate/deactivate each one of the available options.

4.2.1 Allow to change the background

If this option is enable, the customer will be allowed to change the sheet background.



4.2.2 Allow to edit the design

If this option is enable, the end user will be allowed to edit the template, change or resize the photo frames and text frames (only in software online Image Desk)

4.2.3 Use in composition

This is a special option which gives special category to a sheet. When an automatic album is created, sheets tagged as Use in Composition will have preference between of the rest the sheets.

4.2.4 Print this sheet always

If this option is enable, the sheet will be always printed even though no image has been inserted in the sheet. This feature is used, for example, in these cases:

To leave a blank sheet in a concrete place of the album.

To print a corporate logotype or a Copyright no matter which kind of album you’ll be making. By default this option is disabled.

4.3 Tasks: Layer Control

The Layer control menu allows you to set useful options while you are designing the sheets. This option is very important when you have several items display at the sheet, since it will allow you to quickly edit it. Except the background, all other items of the composition have available two options: Visible and Selectable.

4.3.1 Visible

Set whether the element is visible or not during the composition designing process.



4.3.2 Selectable

Set whether the element is selectable or not during the composition designing process. This option is useful when you want to edit items in lower levels shapes that are covered by other upper elements which doesn’t allow you to select the desired item.

4.4 Working area

Frequently you may need some tools in order to design more accurately. The rulers and zoom tool will help you with this:

4.4.1 Zoom tool

Use the Zoom tool in the Toolbars to increase or decrease the working area. Also you can use the keys + and – in the numeric keyboard.

4.4.2 Rulers

Use the rulers in order to move the composition horizontally or vertically. Click over one ruler and without dropping the mouse, drag it in order to scroll the working area.

4.4.3 Hand tool

When the template is bigger than the working area, use the hand tool to move quickly over the template. The hand tool allows you scroll the sheet template in any direction. Click and drag in the desired direction.



4.4.4 Arrow keys

You can use the arrow keys (in the keyboard) in order to move over the working area.

4.4.5 Grid and Margins

You can help yourself with the grid. The grid gives you a visual guide for positioning the items in the composition. You can also choose whether to show or not the margins by clicking on View Margins.

Working area with grid and margins

4.4.6 Preview / Design View

Preliminary View: This option allows to see the final result of the composition. Photo frames will display predetermined pictures.

From View menu, select Preliminary View



Preview

Design View: Selecting Design View, the Preview will be turned off and you will return to the original edition screen.

From View menu, select Design View



Design view

4.4.7 Selection tool

Click on Selection button to select one or several items.

4.4.8 Sheet background colour

You can change the background colour with this tool.



5. Frames

5.1 Create frames

The frames are the containers in the composition where the customer upload the images. You then need to define the spaces where the personalised pictures from the end user application will be located. You must create as many frames as pictures you want to be featured on a sheet.

The frames can be:



5.1.1 Photo Frame

When the background is completely opaque you must use this frame, in order to define the space where the end user’s photo will be located. The image will be on the background. The size of the frame appears in the centre.

Click on Add frame to create a photo frame

5.1.2 Photo Frame below background

This type of frame is used when the background image features a transparency. In this case, the size of the frame will have to be 4 mm (approx.) bigger on each side in order to avoid white strips around the picture. The photo will be below the background.

Click on Add frame below background



5.1.3 Text Frame

Add Text Frame to enable the end customer to insert a text. When you add a text frame, the font tools will activate to define: typography, color, size... Common typographies should be used. Since the predefined font in the template, must be installed in the photographic kiosk in order to avoid any mistake.

Click on Add text frame



5.2 Edit Frames

5.2.1 Frame size

You can edit the frame size created click on the frame and dragging the circular controls sited in both sides and at the corners. Drag any of these controls in order to resize it horizontally (width) or use the controls in the upper and lower sides of the frame in order to resize it vertically (height). By dragging any of the controls at the corners´ frame, you can resize the width and height at the same time. The control in the upper side is used for manual rotation.

To resize the frame, drag the frame control and press the Shift key at the same time, in order to preserve the ratio (proportion) of the frame.

5.2.2 Frame rotation

Automatic rotation Frames can be rotated gradually from 15º to 15º or they can be turned over in 90º by using the commands available in the menu Rotate. Later on in this manual we will see how to rotate the frames manually. Use the menu options in order to rotate automatically the frame:

Click on Rotate and choose one of the following options: Turn over: Turn the frame in 90º Rotate right / Rotate left: Turn the frame 15º left or right. Make horizontal / Make vertical: Set the frame position to horizontal or vertical.

NOTE: Turning or turning over the frame will affect the image inserted by the customer. That means the image inserted will take the frame rotation angle.



Manual Rotation You can use the circular control in the upper side of the frame to rotate it manually. When the frame is parallel or perpendicular to the frame, purple colour guides will be shown, in order to help you matching the frame in the composition.

5.2.3 Frame properties

Click on Frames menu to change its properties. A window will be displayed where you can enter the following values: Size and position Define the personalized values for Size, Position and Rotation. This tab allows you to enter values more accurately than with the automatic or manual edition of the frames.



Borders

Click on the tab Borders to show the borders in the frame.

Click on the check box Draw borders

Enter the values in mm, and select one of the available colours in the menu.

Click on More colours… to open the mixer colours.



Shadow

Click on the tab Shadow in order to show a parallel shadow around the frame.

Click on the check box Draw shadow

Enter the value in mm of the shadow displayed, selecting a colour and a percentage of opacity in % (0-100)

Shape and text Define the frame shape and the text orientation selecting one of the options available in the menu. Additionally, you can choose additional options in order to adapt it to other writing style like Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, etc…



5.3 Default frame properties

With the new version 1.42 you can define the default size, borders and shadow values that will have all the frames by default when adding to the template.



5.4 Set frames ratio

You can define the default ratio size for all the frames added by default to the template.

Click on Frames menu

Select Set frames ratio

Select the ratio desired

You will be able to select sheets and define the new ratio for all the frames in the selected sheets.

Click on Frames menu

Select Set frames ratio

Select the sheets to change frame ratio

Select the ratio desired



This option is only available from version 1.42 on.

5.5 Organize and align items

The Organize menu allows you centre the item horizontal and vertically in the composition. You can also align in several ways the different items inside the composition. Please, note that the Align and Make the same size options will only available when you have created more than one item in the active template.



Hold the Control key (Ctrl) and click on several items to select several ones. Also you can select some of them by dragging and clicking your left mouse button.

5.5.1 Organize menu command functionalities:

Align Up Align the items selected at the upper “borderline” side. Align Down Align the items selected at the lowest “borderline” side. Align Left Align the items selected at the “borderline” left. Align Right Align the items selected at the “borderline” right. Align Horizontally Align the items selected based on a horizontal central axis of all the items selected. Align Vertically Align the items selected based on a vertical central axis of all the items selected. Align Centers Align the items selected based on a horizontal/vertical central axis of all the items.



Center Align the item selected in the center of the template. Center Horizontally Center the item selected horizontally in the template. Center Vertically Center the item selected vertically in the template. Make the same size, both Establish the same (width, height) size to the items selected, taking like a reference the first item chosen. Make the same size, width Establish the same width size to the items selected, taking like a reference the first item chosen. Make the same size, height Establish the same height size to the items selected, taking like a reference the first item chosen.

5.5.2 Mirror

The function Mirror allows to move the items of a page to the opposite page. The process is the following: Deletes all the items of the opposite page. Duplicates all the items of the page and moves them to the opposite page. The items placed between the two pages are not reflected. This option is available only in sheets with two pages.

From Pages menu, select Mirror left / right page



Original design

Design with the right page reflected

5.5.3 Swap pages

The option Swap pages allows to exchange items of a page to the opposite page.

From Pages menu, select Swap pages



Original design

Design with swap applied

The background image remains always fixed. Only the position of items has changed.



5.6 Arrange Items

When you have several frames in the composition, you can establish your stack arrangement. That means you can decide which frames would be shown in front or behind of others. Cliparts will be located, always, in an upper layer.

Select the items to be arranged

Click on Arrange menu

Click on the available options

5.7 Set frames order

You can set up the order in which the photos will be placed in the frames of a sheet with this tool:

Click on Set frames order in the toolbar

Select, clicking on the frames, one to one, in the order wished



The photos will be placed on this sheet of the album in this order. This option is available from v.1.42 on.

6. Sheets options



6.1 Add sheets

(see page 25)

6.2 Organize sheets

Now, from v. 1.42 on, is possible to change the order of the sheets with a drag-and-drop movement. To access this menu right click in a sheet and select Organize sheets.

Click on Sheets and Organize Sheets

Select the sheet , drag and drop it to the whished place



6.3 Delete sheets

You can delete any sheet created selecting Delete Sheet.

6.4 Scale sheets

In the menu Sheets-Scale sheets now, the designer has the possibility to rescale a template and reuse the frame organization for another proportional size. The Template editor will preserve the aspect ratio of the frames and the disposition.



7. Themes

With themes, you can design several groups of backgrounds related to a theme. It allows the end users to choose the theme more appropriate for their photos. You must create two templates: One with frames only...

...and the other one only with groups of backgrounds, without frames.



Both templates must be same size.

7.1 Add theme

To create a new theme, click on Themes, Add theme and a pop up window opens

Define the theme properties: Theme title, Theme description and Theme internal code

Load an image to show the theme as a thumbnail. It can be a picture or a sheet of the template.



By default, the theme is always available, click on the tag box to activate it.

7.2 Edit theme

Select Edit theme in order to change any property or the thumbnail of the theme

7.3 View album themes

Select this option to see all the themes created. The thumbnails appear in the right side of the screen.



7.4 Delete theme

To delete a theme, select Delete theme or right clicking on the thumbnail of the theme.

7.5 Setup themes in the photo kiosk

When the two templates have done, you must rename only the file of backgrounds template. For example: the name file of original template is themes_portrait.imaxel-af will be themes_portrait.imaxel-theme This file will have to be at: C:\ProgramFiles \Imaxel\StationManager\productos\themes



In the Station Manager, the product (frames template) will be associated with the backgrounds template.

Open Station Manager, in Management open Products and Prices

Select the album and click on Edit Product button

Click on Themes tab and click on checkbox to select the themes that will be associated with the album



Customer Picture Theme (bottom right of the window) means that the background sheets of album will be the user’s photos.

Click on checkbox to select this option This option is only available from version 1.42 on.

8. Product options

You can create an album with different variables. For example: different cover, colour... In Products Options screen you can enter these variables.

Click on Product Options on the top left part of the screen. The scroll down menu, on the right of the screen, will display two options, Categories or Items. These



two options are now active. In order to add a new item, you must previously create a New Category. Also you can add categories and items from the Task panel located in the right part of the screen.

8.1 Add a new Category

Click on Add a new Category. A window will open up where you can decide the Category title, its description, the internal code and whether this category is available or not

Once this is done, click on OK



8.2 Add a new Item

Each category can be composed of different items. To add an item:

Click on the chosen category to highlight it. Then click on Add a new Item

A pop up window will appear. Enter the details of the item (category title, description, code)

Click on Load image to load a miniature of the item. You can load an image from the clipart gallery or add one from another file.



Click on a Category to see all the items related.

Right click on an item to add another one, edit it, delete it, and move it upwards or downwards in the list.

You can also do this by using the menu Tasks on the right side of the screen.



9. Saving templates

To save a template:

From File menu, select Save or Save as

The template stores all images, both the used ones and the ones not used. When you save a template, a pop up window opens with the images not used. Now, you can choose between delete or preserve them.



10. Keyboard shortcuts

File menu CTRL + U – New file CTRL + A – Open file CTRL + G – Save file Edition menu CTRL + Z – Undo CTRL + Y – Redo CTRL + X – Cut CTRL + C – Copy CTRL + V – Paste SUPR – Delete CTRL + E – Select all Other shortcuts F4 – Frame properties CTRL + R – Rotate right CTRL + T – Rotate left ALT + Mouse wheel – Zoom in / out CTRL + Mouse wheel – Move left / right Mouse wheel – Move up / down Numeric key ‘+’ – Zoom in Numeric key ‘-‘ – Zoom out Arrows – Move up / down / left / right



CTRL + H – Activate drag tool CTRL + S – Activate selection tool START key – View all SHIFT + drag frame controller – Change frame size, preserving the ratio

En2502 album template editor user manual

Software

imaxel lab

top left part

items selected

cover lining

template selection

composition

ctrl

add text frame