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Quick Start Guide
The instructions below explain the basic use of the tools in the Template Designer. You can use the Template Designer on any of our pre-existing album templates, standard size prints , and proof book covers. The Template Designer is similar in use to many page layout programs. You use its tools to draw boxes and then put images or text into those boxes. In the Template Designer, any box that can hold a picture or text is called a 'node'. When you see the tern node in the instructions below, it is referring to a picture box or a text box.
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Starting the Template Designer
Click the Toggle Template Designer button to turn the template design tools on and off. The tools will only work on certain products, such as album pages.
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Creating a New Node
1) Click on the Draw button to start an image node, or Text Draw to start a text node.
2) Move your cursor into the template’s layout on the location the node should begin.
3) Click and drag the cursor towards the point you would like the node to end and you will see the node begin to draw. You can hold the mouse button down and adjust as long as needed to create the desired size. Simply release the mouse button when you are done to see the created node.
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Select the Image button to move an image within the frame once it has been dropped into a node. The image button tool works just like cropping in a standard layout, click and hold the mouse button and drag the image to the desired crop.
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Select the Draw button then click and drag in on the page to create new image nodes in a template.
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Select the T Draw button then click and drag in on the page to create new text nodes in a template.
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Select the Save button after completing your template design modifications to save the new modified template for future use. The dialog below will open:
Simply type a new name for the template and press Enter to save it. You will see the new template appear in the My Templates window.
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Modifying a Node
To alter a node, click the Edit button and move your mouse over the nodes in the layout. Once inside/on a node,you will see the mouse cursor change to one of the following below, depending upon the cursor’s location: Editing a node without changing the size: This can be done by either moving the node completely or by rotating it.
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Moving a Node
If you hold your mouse in the center of a node, this cursor will appear to allow you to move the node. Click and drag it to a new desired location on the layout.
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Rotating a Node
If you hold your mouse just inside a node’s corner this cursor will appear to allow you to rotate it. Click and drag to a new desired location on the layout.
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Resizing a Node
Resizing a node can be done from either the sides or the corners.
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Resizing a Node - from the sides
If you hold your mouse over one of the node’s bounds lines (except a corner) this cursor will appear to allow you to alter the node’s height or width. Click and drag the line in towards the center of the node to reduce the size or away from the center to increase it.
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Resizing a Node - from the corners
If you hold your mouse over one of the node’s corners, this cursor will appear to allow you to alter the node’s height and width. Click and drag the corner in towards the center of the node to reduce the size or away from the center to increase it.
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Removing a node
To remove a node, right-click on it and select Remove Node. (On the Mac, hold down the control key and clcik on it.)
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Moving layers up or down
Use the Layer + and Layer - buttons allows you to put one newly created node over or behind another.
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Aligning nodes to a grid
The Grid button allows you to view and set spacing on a visible grid that can be used to arrange nodes against.
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Additional Design Capabilities
The Template Designer offers the ability to add various design elements to the layouts and created nodes. There are built in options for adding color options, shading and shadowing, and studio-supplied backgrounds and masks.
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Strokes
The Stroke button allows you to add color strokes to selected nodes. The screen below will to allow you to set the width, colors, and opacity settings.
TIP: Try to select fairly standard colors - some color ranges may not transfer well through photographic printing, rendering the printed result slightly different from what was submitted.
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Fills
The Fill button allows you to add colors backgrounds to the layouts. The screen below will appear, allowing you to set the color and opacity settings.
TIP: Try to select fairly standard colors - some color ranges may not transfer well through photographic printing, rendering the printed result slightly different from what was submitted.
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Text Color
The Text button allows you to set text colors on created text nodes. The screen below will appear, allowing you to set the width, colors, and opacity settings.
TIP: Try to select fairly standard colors - some color ranges may not transfer well through photographic printing, rendering the printed result slightly different from what was submitted.
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Opacity
The Opacity button allows you make a node partially or fully transparent. The below slider will appear to allow you to set the level of opacity on the current selected node.
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Drop Shadows
The Shadow button allows you to add a drop shadow to the current selected node. The below screen will appear, offering sliders to set the Blur level, Opacity level, X location (right or left of the node) and Y location (above or below the node).
TIP: Drop shadows take a lot of processing power, you may want to add them to nodes as your last step in designing a template
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Backgrounds and Masks
The Background and Mask buttons allow you to add in your own image as a background for the layout or as a mask on a node. Selecting either button will bring up a browse window of the local system to locate the desired image.
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Node Options
The Node button allows you to select from various lab supplied options to apply to individual nodes, such as font types or image tone selections. A list similar to the one below will appear with selectable items:
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