Free Presets – 5 Across Vertical Print
It’s time for another print preset and this one came out of one of the Mothers Day gifts I prepared for my wife. Actually, truth be told, I stole the idea from Scott Kelby. See, he was photographing his kids the Friday before Mothers Day as a gift for his wife and asked that I come take some photos of all of them together. Then, almost as if a lightbulb went off (or it could have been when Scott asked “hey, you want me to leave everything set up so you can shoot your kids too”), I got the idea to do the same for my wife. So I did, and I played a nice slideshow for her on Mothers Day morning and then printed some of the photos for her. While I was processing the photos I wanted to create a neat looking print template and I just happened to have 5 vertical photos selected when I went into the print module. Now…I had actually tried my hand at creating a similar preset earlier this year but there were some issues with a Lightroom update. Anyway, after a bit of playing around these presets are what I came up with. Now, you could just as easily create this with 5 landscape photos as well but I found it looks better with portrait oriented photos or at least photos that you can force into that space. So have it ’em. There’s actually 2 – one centers everything with no room for a name or identity plate and the other one is weighted toward the top with room on the bottom for some text. Enjoy!
PS: Oh yeah, if you didn’t get it. Make sure you install these while you’re in the Print module – not the Develop module. Sorry, as you can imagine, I’ve gotten a lot of questions on this. Just right click in the Preset area in the Print module and choose Import.
Click here to see a sample of the preset.
Click here to download Matt’s 5 Across Vertical Print presets
Click here to see a video on how to install presets.
When I installed the 5 across preset to my print templates it changed ALL my LR templates to the five across format. How can I get my original settings back?
Please help!
Thanks-
Amy
Hey Matt,
I love all the free presets you give out on your blog. I have a request (if you could be so kind). If I didn’t print my own work and sent my files to a lab instead – can I utilize the print module in Lightroom and use presets such as this one or others that I may create? I can find no way of creating a print layout made of several images and saving that layout as a single file to be printed at a lab. I am not yet skilled enough in Photoshop to do it there.
I would love some advice! Thanks again for the informative blog and presets!
Shaun
thx for the great stuff
i love this!
but…i can’t get my name to show up. what do i go?
Hey Matt, thank you for this and each preset you put out there for us. I get use out of each one.
Is there anyway to make the 5 across preset here, 4 across?, i.e., removing / deleting one of the “boxes”
Thanks again.
Tom
Update: Well even on my IP 5200 I got it to look close to the preview showing on the left side. Change your paper size to 11 x 5. Landscape, Cell spacing horizontal is like .25 and you should be close. If you want more square pictures you can try 4 columns instead of 5.
If you want a larger version of this, and you have a printer that can do 13 x 19 prints, use a custom paper size of 19 x 7, Left, Right Margins = .25 Top =.50 and bottom = 1.5. 1 Row 5 Columns, cell spacing .50 and Zoom to Fill Frame checked. Of course you can tweak these to what you like.
I hope this help everyone.
Eric
Everyone, I have been having issues also. I’m on a XP machine with a Canon IP5200 Photo printer. For a lot of people getting 8 1/2 x 11, that is because is the last thing you printed (or your default paper size for your print driver). I think Matt was printing on a 13 x19 paper, and set the cell size to 11 x 5. I will see if I can install the driver for a Canon Pro IP9000 which can do a 13 x 19 print and let you know how it goes. I think for a lot of us, it’s a limitation on our printers. I tried to set my IP 5200 to 13 x 19 and the printer rejected it saying it was too big, then scaled down the 13 x 19 so it would fit on a 8.5 x 11 paper.
Matt if you can let us know your paper size, and then cell size I think it will help some people. I for one would like you to continue to provide these print presets. Love the podcast, keep up the great work.
Eric
Matt,
I loaded your preset and my epson 2400 will not print it. It keeps saying paper not loaded properly. I checked with the standard paper sizes and it prints with no problem.
What paper size and setting should I use so the epson printer will work. It simply will not load the paper into the printer when I use your preset (which I think looks great on my screen). I have a Mac and using Leopard.
Jack
Matt, i also have a problem importing this preset into the print module. I am on a windows platform. When i right click in the preset area it does not give me a import option. I copied and pasted the preset into the proper folder but all I get is an 8×11 page. not sure why this is. This is the same with any print preset that i try to import.
Thanks
Don
Thanks for all the presets. They are awsome.
Set paper size to 11X5 landscape (thank you Peter), and all seems to be working fine.
cooksfriend
I’ve made a template in CS3 to look like Jasmine Star’s wedding templates and then I add my pics with layers and clipped them. If I were to take the template (without the clipped pics of course) and merge it down could I save it as a template in the print module? Would it work or is there more to making the templates in LR that I need to know?
Thanks
Kathleen
love your blog!
Hey Matt,
I opened your template (that didn’t come in correctly at first) using my web browser (Firefox) and did the same with the one that I tweaked for my printer then saved and the only change I could fine was in the line –
_printInfoBase64 =
I think that there are some things happening behind the scenes that I know I can not figure out (at least not yet).
I might have mentioned this before, if you right click on a template and then ask to update with present settings – the actual file size of the template will tend to double in size each time.(VISTA Machine)
Go to Print Template and open the template file folder so you can see it on your desk top and then watch the file size change as you ask to update with present settings.
If I figure out what’s going on I’ll let you know for sure.
Peter
Krystal – Here’s a video I did on printing. Make sure you don’t let the Printer manage the colors.
http://www.lightroomkillertips.com/2008/video-printing-101/
Frank (and anyone else) – I wish I knew what the deal was. I’m about to give up on print presets forever. I’ve tried them on both a Mac and PC here at work and they work fine. I can’t for the life of me figure out what you guys are having problems with them.
Paul – Right next to the checkbox to enable the Identity plate in the Print module, is an angle/rotate setting. Just try changing the rotation setting until it looks right.
Thanks everyone!
Matt K
I can not get preset to work unless I keep the keep square box checked.
Tried everything talked about above.
cooksfriend
Hi Matt,
G’day from Oz! You have shown me the way with LR. I was just swamped with proofing on CS3, and now I just adore LR, and your presets rock (I love the auto adjustments). Just a question, I tried printing from LR and the colours came out all wrong, compared if I printed from CS3, is there a trick to it?
Thank you for enlightening me with LR!
Krystal
Works great Matt…thanks!
Hi Matt,
Thought I had the same problem as “cooksfriend” on a VISTA machine.
I made sure the page set up is set to the correct printer, page size and to landscape.
I change my R2400 printer to 11×5 and landscape and all seems good.
Since the last Lr upgrade, I have been having issues with many of my previously installed templates, much as “cookfriend” described and I had to reset my printer and update templates to get them to “stick” ?????
Nice presets but I have one issue – adding the name plate makes the name appear upside down or wrong way up and I don’t know how to correct that. Any ideas?
Thanks Matt
Matt if I Keep Square turned off the image goes 5 across BUT they are from top of page to bottom, nothing like your samples. I am on a PC with XP.
cooksfriend
Hi Jen,
I used 14 inches x 5 inches. I’m not sure why the page setup doesn’t follow though. It did with the presets I tested.
Frank – I actually turn Keep Square off because I want the photos to be taller then wide.
Gavin – First off, great website. I’ve been following your stuff for a while. As for full collage and page spreads, I’d guess it’ll be a while before we can do that. It would be cool though 🙂
Thanks everyone.
Matt K
Thanks Matt, super cool. I think I’ll to start spending more time with print presets.
It seems to have a lot of power, but it also seems a bit clunky, and hard to manage color.
I wounder if it’s possible to actually to full collage, and page spreads (ie for wedding albums)
Gav
Thank you for this preset. It could be very useful..
Be sure you have the “Keep Square” box checked to get them to look like Matt’s sample.
cooksfriend
Hi Matt. Thanks so much! Just one question. when I download these, I cant seem to get the page setup to look right. My lightroom always takes your template and puts it on an 8×11 page. What are the demensions of your template?
Thanks for the wonderful preset, Matt. I really like the clean, simple design of the layout and the long narrow proportions.