5. Printing, Sharing, and Exporting
Lesson Overview
In previous lessons you’ve imported images from a range of sources, explored a variety of ways to organize and find your files, and created projects and presentations to showcase your photos.
In this lesson, you’ll learn how you can output your images and creations to share them with family, friends, or the world at large:
• Printing at home and ordering prints online
• Fine-tuning the composition of an image in the print preview
• Sharing photos by e-mail and Photo Mail
• Backing up and synchronizing your files
• Synchronizing multiple computers
• Creating your own Online Album or Web Gallery
• Using an online sharing service
• Exporting images for use on the Web
You’ll probably need between one and two hours to complete this lesson.
Now that you’ve learned how to find your way around the Photoshop Elements workspace, how to organize and find the photos and other media in your growing collection, and how to create photo projects and digital presentations, you’re ready to share your images and creations with the world as printed output, by e-mail, or online.
Getting started
To start, you’ll import the sample images for this lesson to the CIB Catalog that you created at the beginning of Lesson 1.
1. Start Photoshop Elements and click Organize in the Welcome Screen. If the Backup/Synchronization dialog box appears, click Remind Me Later. You’ll learn about this feature later in this lesson.
Before you start working on this lesson, make sure that you’ve installed the software on your computer from the application CD (see the Photoshop Elements 10 documentation) and that you have correctly copied the Lessons folder from the CD in the back of this book onto your computer’s hard disk (see “Copying the Classroom in a Book files” on page 2). You should also have created a working catalog (see “Creating a new catalog” on page 8).
2. Check the name of the active catalog in the lower left corner of the Organizer window. If your CIB Catalog is already loaded, you can skip step to step 3. If another catalog is currently loaded, choose File > Catalog, select your CIB Catalog in the Catalogs list, and then click Open.
3. Choose File > Get Photos And Video > From Files And Folders. In the Get Photos And Videos From Files And Folders dialog box, locate and select your Lesson05 folder. Activate the option Get Photos From Subfolders and disable the automatic processing options; then, click Get Media.
4. In the Import Attached Keyword Tags dialog box, click Select All, and then click OK. Click OK to close any other alert dialog box.
Thumbnails of the images you’ve just imported appear in the Media Browser.
About printing
Whether you wish to use your home printer or order professional prints from an online service, Photoshop Elements offers a range of options for printing your photographs, as well as your Photo Projects such as photo books, greeting cards, and collages.
You can print your photos individually or in picture packages with one or more photos repeated at a variety of sizes on the same page, or preview a multiple selection of photos printed as thumbnail images arranged on a contact sheet.
Printing a contact sheet
A contact sheet is a great way to print-preview a multiple selection of images by printing them at thumbnail size, arranged on a single page in a grid layout.
To learn how to set up a contact sheet on Mac OS, skip ahead to page 126.
Printing a contact sheet on Windows
1. Click the Show All button in the Find bar above the Media Browser.
2. In the Keyword Tags panel, click to activate the Find box beside the keyword tag To Print (in the Imported Keyword Tags category), and then press Ctrl+A to select all the images tagged with the keyword To Print.
The Prints dialog box opens. The column on the left displays thumbnails of all the photos you selected for this print job. At center stage is the print preview.
You can also open the Prints dialog box in contact sheet mode from the Create tab in the Task pane. Click Photo Prints, and then click the Print Contact Sheet button.
4. Set up the options in the Prints dialog box as shown in the illustration below. Choose a printer from the Select Printer menu. For the purposes of this demonstration choose Letter from the Select Paper Size menu. From the Select Type Of Print menu, choose Contact Sheet, and then disable the Crop To Fit option.
To remove a photo from the contact sheet, select its thumbnail in the image menu column and click the Remove button (
) below the menu pane.
The contact sheet layout includes all the images in the thumbnail menu column at the left. With a four-column layout, all twenty photos fit neatly on a single page; the page count below the print preview indicates that you are viewing page 1 of 1.
5. Under Select A Layout, click the down arrow button beside the Columns number or type 3 in the text box: With only three columns the images are larger, but only nine photos will fit on a single page at this paper size; the page count below the print preview now indicates that you are viewing page 1 of 3. Use the Next Page and Previous page buttons on either side of the page count to navigate between the pages. Change the number of columns to nine, which is the maximum. You can see that a single letter page can accommodate many photos at this setting. Return the layout to four columns.
6. Click to select any photo in the print preview; then, use the slider below the print preview to zoom in. Drag the photo to reposition it within the frame of its image cell. Select another image, and then use the Rotate buttons to the left of the zoom slider to change the photo’s orientation.
7. To print information extracted from the images’ metadata below each photo on the contact sheet, first click to activate Show Print Options (just below the Columns setting), and then activate any or all of the Text Label options.
8. Click Print or Cancel and skip to “Printing a Picture Package” on the next page.
Printing a contact sheet on Mac OS
On Mac OS, you need to initiate a contact sheet print from the Editor. For this demonstration, in which we’ll use all the photos in a single folder; it will be quicker to open the Editor without first making a selection in the Organizer. If you want to print a contact sheet with photos drawn from multiple folders, you’ll need to select the images in the Media Browser, and then switch to the Editor.
1. Press Shift+Command+A to deselect any images that are currently selected in the Media Browser. Click the small arrow on the Fix tab at the top of the Task Pane and choose Full Photo Edit from the menu.
2. When the Editor opens choose File > Contact Sheet II. Set up the Contact Sheet dialog box as shown in the illustration at the right. Choose Folder from the Use menu under Source Images. Click Choose and locate your Lesson05 > Printing folder. Under Document, specify a size for your contact sheet. Under Thumbnails, specify the order in which the images will be placed. Activate Use Auto-Spacing; then, type 4 and 5 in the Columns and Rows text boxes respectively. Your Columns and Rows settings are reflected in the layout preview at the right. Disable Rotate For Best Fit, and activate Use Filename As Caption.
The alternative option in the Use menu under Source Images fills your contact sheet with whatever images are already open in the Editor. This is the setting you would use if you had made a selection of images in the Media Browser before switching to the Editor.
3. Click OK, and then wait while Photoshop Elements places the image thumbnails.
In our example, all twenty images fit onto a single page. When the number of images selected for printing exceeds the capacity of a single page at the layout settings specified, Photoshop Elements will generate more pages to accommodate them.
4. Select the contact sheet page(s) in the Project Bin. Choose File > Print if you wish to print the contact sheet. If not, choose File > Close; then, click Don’t Save.
You can also open the Contact Sheet dialog box from the Create tab in the Task pane. Click Photo Prints, and then click the Print Contact Sheet button. If you do this from the Organizer, you’ll see a message asking if you’d like to open the Editor to initiate printing.
Printing a Picture Package
A Picture Package layout lets you print a photo repeated at a choice of sizes on the same page, much as professional portrait studios do. You can choose from a variety of layout options and range of image sizes to customize your picture package print.
To learn how to set up a picture package on Mac OS, skip ahead to page 129.
Printing a Picture Package on Windows
1. Select two or more pictures in the Media Browser, and then choose File > Print.
2. In the Prints dialog box, choose a printer from the Select Printer menu and a paper size from the Select Paper Size menu. Which layout options are available for your picture package depends on your choice of paper size; for the purposes of this exercise, choose Letter.
3. Choose Picture Package from the Select Type Of Print menu. If a Printing Warning dialog box cautioning against enlarging pictures appears, click OK; for this exercise you’ll print multiple images at smaller sizes.
You can also open the Prints dialog box in picture package mode from the Create tab in the Task pane. Click Photo Prints, and then click the Print Picture Package button.
4. Choose a layout from the Select A Layout menu, and then activate the option Fill Page With First Photo. This will result in a page with a single photo repeated at a variety of sizes, according to the layout you have chosen. If you selected more than one photo in the Media browser, a separate Print Package page will be generated for each photo selected; you can see the print preview for each page by clicking the page navigation buttons below the preview pane.
The layout options available for a Picture Package depend on the paper size specified in the Prints dialog box, the page setup, and the printer preferences. To change the paper size, choose from the Select Paper Size menu or click either the Page Setup button at the lower left of the Prints dialog box or the Change Settings button under Printer Settings. Depending on your printer, you may need to look for the paper size options in the Advanced preferences settings.
5. Try a few of the options in the Select A Frame menu. For this demonstration, we chose Antique Rectangle 2. You can select only one style per picture package print; it will be applied to every picture in the layout.
6. Toggle the Crop To Fit option and assess the result; the Crop To Fit option may fit the multiple images more closely to the layout to better fill the printable area, especially when your photo is of non-standard proportions.
The images in a Picture Package layout are automatically oriented to make the best use of the printable paper area for the layout you have chosen. You cannot manually rotate the image cells (or print wells) in a picture package layout; however, you can still zoom or rotate each image within its print well using the zoom slider and orientation buttons below the preview. Drag any image in the picture package to adjust its position within its print well.
7. Click the Add button (
) below the photo menu at the left. In the Add Photos dialog box, you can add images to your print job by choosing from those photos currently visible in the Media Browser, from your entire catalog, or from the images included in a specific album or tagged with a particular keyword. Choose one or more photos from any of these sets, and then click Done; the selected images are added to the print job and now appear in the photo menu column in the Prints dialog box.
8. Drag the thumbnail of one of your newly acquired photos from the thumbnails column onto any image cell in the print preview; the original image is replaced.
9. Click Print or Cancel and skip to “Printing individual photos” in 136.
Printing a Picture Package on Mac OS
1. If necessary, switch to the Organizer, leaving the Editor open. Select two or more photos in the Media Browser.
2. Click the small arrow on the Fix tab at the top of the Task Pane and choose Full Photo Edit from the menu.
3. When the Editor opens, double-click whichever image in the Project Bin that you’d like to print first. Choose File > Picture Package.
4. Under Document in the Picture Package dialog box, make a selection from the Page Size and Layout menus, and then click the Edit Layout button below the Layout preview box.
You can open the Picture Package dialog box from the Create tab in the Task pane. Click Photo Prints, and then click the Print Picture Package button. If you do this from the Organizer, you’ll see a message asking if you’d like to open the Editor to initiate printing.
5. In the Picture Package Edit Layout dialog box, click to select an image in the layout preview, and then click the Delete Zone button in the Image Zones options at the left. Select another image in the preview and drag it to a new position on the page preview. Drag the handles on the image’s bounding box to scale it or change its orientation.
6. Option-click an image in the Edit Layout preview and try out some of the menu choices; then experiment with the other settings and buttons in the Image Zones options. Click Cancel, and then click No to avoid overwriting the default settings for the layout preset you selected.
7. Click OK in the Picture Package dialog box, and then wait while Photoshop Elements creates a new document and places the images for your Picture Package. If you wish to see the Picture Package printed choose File > Print; otherwise choose File > Close All, and then click Don’t Save.
Printing individual photos
The Photoshop Elements Prints dialog box presents all your printing options in one convenient place and also enables you to fine-tune the placement of each image within its own print well (its frame in the print preview). You can zoom or rotate an image with the controls beneath the preview and drag to reposition it, enabling you to get the image placed just right for printing without first editing it.
1. In the Organizer, Ctrl-click / Command-click to select eight or more images.
2. Choose File > Print. Alternatively, click the Create tab in the Task pane, click Photo Prints, and then click the Print With Local Printer button. On Mac OS, click Yes to continue to the Editor, where printing will be initiated.
3. In the Prints / Print dialog box, select a printer, paper size and print size from the menus at the right. On Windows, choose Individual Prints from the Select Type Of Print menu. If you see a print resolution alert, click OK to dismiss it.
On Mac OS, the options in the Print dialog box differ from those illustrated here. For more detailed information on printing on Mac OS, please refer to Photoshop Elements Help and search other online resources in Community Help.
4. Experiment with the controls below the Print preview. Click to select an image in the preview and zoom in and out inside the image cell using the zoom slider. Use the Rotate Left and Rotate Right buttons beside the zoom slider to change the orientation of the image within its print well frame. Drag the selected image to reposition it within the frame. Toggle the Crop To Fit option below the Select Print Size menu and observe the effect in the print preview.
5. Select any image thumbnail in the menu column on the left side of the dialog box and click the Remove Selected Photo(s) button ().
6. Click the Add Photos button () below the thumbnails menu. In the Add Media dialog box, choose a source option under Add Media From; select from photos currently visible in the Media Browser, from your entire catalog, or from the images included in a specific album or tagged with a particular keyword. Choose one or more photos from any of these sets, and then click Add Selected Media. The selected images are added to the thumbnails column in the Print dialog box, and the Add Media dialog box remains open. Choose a different source option, select one or more photos; then, click Done to add the photos to your print job and dismiss the Add Media dialog box.
You can add images to the selection to be printed only if they are part of the currently active catalog.
If you’ve selected more pictures than will fit on one page at the image dimensions you specified, Photoshop Elements automatically generates extra pages.
7. Check the page count below the Print Preview. If your print job has more than one page, preview the other pages by clicking the arrow buttons at either side of the page count.
8. Click the More Options button at the bottom of the dialog box and explore the settings available in the More Options dialog box. In the Printing Choices section, you can choose to print text details with your images, add image borders or a background color, and print crop marks to help you trim your images. The More Options dialog box also offers Custom Print Size and Color Management settings. Click Cancel to close the More Options dialog box.
9. In the Prints / Print dialog box, click Print if you wish to see these images printed; otherwise, click Cancel to save your ink and paper for your own prints. On Mac OS, choose File > Close All.
Ordering professionally printed photos online
If you want high quality prints of your photos and photo projects—for yourself or to share with others—you can order professional prints from an online service.
Photoshop Elements provides integrated links to online printing partners that you can conveniently access from anywhere in the workspace. In this exercise you’ll learn how to order individual prints from the Organizer.
1. In the Organizer, select one or more photos in the Media Browser, and then do one of the following:
• Choose File > Order Prints > Order Shutterfly Prints.
• Click the Create tab at the top of the Task pane. On the Create tab, click the Photo Prints button, and then click Order Prints From Shutterfly.
2. In the Order Shutterfly Prints dialog box, do one of the following:
• If you are already a Shutterfly member, click the “Already a member? Sign in.” link, enter e-mail address and password and click Sign In.
• If you are not already a Shutterfly member, create a new account by entering your name, e-mail address, and a password of at least six characters. If you accept the Shutterfly Terms and Conditions, click the check box below the personal details fields, and then click Join Now / Next.
Whether you choose to order prints from Shutterfly or Kodak, the experience is similar. Both services lead you through the ordering process in easy-to-follow steps.
3. In the first step—Size/Qty for Shutterfly, Customize for Kodak—you can customize your order by specifying print sizes and quantities for the photos in your order. Click Remove under a thumbnail image in the list on the left side of the dialog box to remove that photo from your order.
Icons beside the thumbnails let you know whether your selected photos have a high enough resolution for high-quality prints at the sizes you’ve selected.
4. When you’re done reviewing your order, click Next.
5. As you proceed with your order, you’ll add the names and delivery addresses of recipients, review your order—making changes if necessary, provide your credit card details in the Payment / Billing dialog box, upload your images and confirm your order. For this exercise, click Cancel. A dialog box appears to ask if you want to stop using this service. Click OK.
Sharing pictures
In this section we’ll look at a variety of ways to share your pictures with friends, family, clients, or the world at large.
Sharing photos in e-mail
Perhaps the most basic way to share a photo is by attaching it to an e-mail. The Organizer’s e-mail function makes it easy—automatically optimizing your images specifically for sending via e-mail.
1. In the Media Browser, select a photo to attach to an e-mail. Click the Share tab at the top of the Task Pane; then click the E-mail Attachments button.
2. Drag another photo from the Media Browser to the Items pane to add to your selection for e-mailing.
The first time you access this feature you may be presented with the E-mail dialog box. Choose your e-mail client (such as Outlook Express or Adobe E-mail Service / Mail or Microsoft Entourage) from the menu, and then click Continue. You can review or change your settings later by choosing Sharing from the Preferences menu.
3. Choose one of the smaller size options from the Maximum Photo Size menu and adjust the image quality using the Quality slider. The higher the quality setting, the larger the file size will be and therefore, the longer the download time. The estimated file size and download time for a 56 Kbps dial-up modem are displayed for your reference. When you’re done, click Next.
4. Select the example text in the Message box and type a message of your own.
5. Click the Edit Recipients In Contact Book button (
) above the Select Recipients box to create a new Contact Book entry. In the Contact Book dialog box, click New Contact.
6. In the New Contact dialog box, type in the personal details and e-mail address of the person to whom you wish to e-mail the pictures. Click OK to close the New Contact dialog box, and then click OK again to close the Contact Book dialog box.
7. Make sure that there is a check mark beside the new contact in the Select Recipients box, and then click Next. Photoshop Elements automatically launches your default e-mail application and opens an e-mail message with the images you selected already attached. You can edit the Subject line and the message as you wish. When you’re done, either click Send if you want to go ahead and send this example e-mail, or close the message without saving or sending it.
8. Click the Organize tab above the Task Pane to switch back to the standard Elements Organizer workspace.
Using Photo Mail
Photo Mail is not supported on Mac OS; if you’re working on Mac OS, you can skip ahead to “Creating an Online Album” on page 136.
On Windows, another way to share your images by e-mail is to use the Photo Mail feature, which embeds photos in the body of an e-mail, within a customized layout.
1. In the Organizer, select one or more photos in the Media Browser, and then click the Photo Mail button in the Share panel.
2. Activate the Include Caption option beside Items, and then click Next.
3. In the Message text box, delete the default text and type a message of your own.
4. Select a recipient for your Photo Mail from the list in the Select Recipients pane. If your recipient list is still empty, click the Edit Recipients In Contact Book button () and create a new entry in the Contact Book dialog box.
5. Click Next. In the Stationery & Layouts Wizard dialog box, click each category in the list at the left in turn to see the range of designs available. Choose a stationery style appropriate to your selected photos; then, click Next Step.
If this is the first time you’ve accessed an e-mail feature in Photoshop Elements, you’ll be presented with the E-mail dialog box. Choose your e-mail client, enter your name and e-mail address, and then click Continue. You can change these settings on the Sharing tab in the Elements Organizer Preferences.
6. Customize the layout by choosing a Photo Size and Layout option. Choose a font; then click the color swatch beside the font menu and choose a text color. To edit the message or caption, first click the text to make it active. Click Next.
Photoshop Elements opens your default e-mail application, creates an e-mail, and embeds your layout in the body of the message.
7. Switch back to the Elements Organizer.
Creating an Online Album
A great way to share and showcase your photos is by creating an Online Album. You can choose from a variety of interactive layout templates that are optimized for viewing photos on the Web. Photoshop Elements guides you through the process of adding and arranging photos, applying templates, and sharing your files.
You can only share your album to Photoshop.com if you are a U.S. resident and have already signed up to Photoshop.com. For information on the other album sharing options, refer to Help.
1. Click the Show All button in the Find bar. From the sorting menu above the Find bar, choose Date (oldest First). In the Keyword Tags panel, click to activate the Find box beside the keyword tag Wedding, and then Shift-click to select the first ten wedding images in the Media Browser.
2. Click the Share tab at the top of the Task pane; then click the Online Album button. The Share panel presents you with a choice of options. Activate the option Create New Album; from the Share To options, select Photoshop.com.
3. Click Next; the selected photos are added to the new album and their thumbnails are displayed in the Content pane on the Share tab.
If you find that you can’t activate the Photoshop.com option, make sure that you are signed in with your Adobe ID. If the option is still unavailable, activate the Backup/Sync Is On option on the Backup/ Synchronization tab of the Elements Organizer preferences.
4. In the Album Name text box under Album Details, type Annie & Jim’s Big Day.
Customizing your Online Album
1. In the Media Browser, select half of the photos that have not yet been added to the album; then, click the Add Items Selected In Media browser button () below the Content pane. The selected photos now appear in the Content pane.
2. Drag the remaining images directly from the Media Browser into the Content pane. All sixteen photos should now be included in the album.
3. To rearrange the order in which the photos will appear in your album, select two or more thumbnails in the Content pane and drag them to a new position. Move more photos singly. If you’re not happy with the order of the photos once you’ve finished creating your album, you can always return to rearrange them later—even once the album is shared online.
4. Click the Sharing tab at the top of the Content pane. A progress bar appears while Photoshop Elements builds a default album preview. A filmstrip menu across the top of the preview shows thumbnails for available album templates. Hold the pointer over a thumbnail to see a brief description.
5. Double-click the Classic template in the filmstrip menu. The preview is updated to reflect your choice. A semi-transparent Slideshow Settings panel floats in front of the preview; it becomes opaque when you move the pointer over it.
Click the check-box beside the name of any contact in the list at the right to send an automatically generated e-mail invitation to view your album. Type a message to be added to your e-mail invitation in the Message text box. To add more contacts to the list, click the Edit Recipients In Contact Book button (), and then create new entries in the Contact Book dialog box.
6. In the Sharing pane at the right, activate the option Share To Photoshop.com. Activate Display In My Gallery to share the album publicly; leave the option disabled if you wish the album to be accessible only to invited friends.
7. Scroll the templates menu to the right. Locate and double-click the Photo Book template. To hide the Slideshow Settings panel, click the Show/Hide Slideshow Settings button (
) above the templates menu.
The View Online button in the Sharing pane will not become active until online sharing has been initiated and the upload is complete.
8. Click Done; then click the Organize tab. In the Albums palette, the new album is marked with an Online Album badge (
). You may see an icon with a pair of green arrows to the left of the Online Album badge; this indicates that Photoshop Elements has not yet completed uploading the album. Wait a minute or so until the green arrows disappear, and then right-click / Control-click the new shared album and choose View Annie & Jim’s Big Day Album Online. Your default web browser opens to show the album in your Photoshop.com gallery.
Provided you have a Photoshop.com account, it’s easy to convert any existing album into an Online Album. Either click the Share button (
) to the right of the album’s name in the Albums panel, or click the Share tab, and then the Online Album button. Select the album you wish to share in the Online Album sharing options. Make sure the options Share Existing Album and Share To Photoshop.com are activated; then click Next to set up a template and sharing options.
9. Switch back to the Elements Organizer. Click Show All, and then click the entry for your new album in the Albums panel. In the Media browser, a number in the upper left corner of each photo indicates its place in the album. Below each thumbnail, the Album badge (
) shows that the photo is part of an album. You may also see a Backup/Synchronization Complete icon (
) indicting that the image has been successfully uploaded.
10. (Optional) Click the Stop Sharing button (
) to the right of the album name to stop sharing it to Photoshop.com. Click the Share button () to edit the album or send more e-mail invitations before reactivating sharing.
Backing up and synchronizing media files
If you’ve signed up for Elements Membership, you can choose to synchronize the files in your Photoshop Elements catalog with your Photoshop.com account, making your photos and videos available to you anywhere through Photoshop.com and Photoshop Express. You can manage your media from any web browser: add, delete, edit, or re-organize items at home or on the road. Any changes you make online will be synchronized back to Photoshop Elements on your desktop. Don’t worry; the Synchronization feature will not overwrite anything on your base computer—Photoshop Elements creates a Version Set on your computer, so you’ll still have the original file. If you delete something online, a copy is kept on your computer unless you confirm that you want it deleted from your catalog.
This feature is available only to Photoshop Elements users in the U.S. who have signed up for Elements Membership and a Photoshop.com account.
In previous versions of Photoshop Elements only Albums could be backed up and synchronized in this way, but in Photoshop Elements 10 you can choose to back up your entire catalog, making it easier to protect your precious files. Another exciting feature in Photoshop Elements 10 is Multi Machine Sync. If you have separate installations of Photoshop Elements on more than one computer—perhaps on desktop computers at home and at the office, as well as the laptop you use when you travel—you can now synchronize them all to your Photoshop.com account. Any changes you make in your catalog on one computer, such as adding, deleting, editing or reorganizing images, will be replicated on your other computers.
In Photoshop Elements 10 it’s easier than ever to manage and monitor backup and synchronization—simply click the Backup/Synchronization Agent icon (
), either at the bottom of the Organizer workspace or in the Windows System Tray (XP), in the Notification Area (Vista), or at the right of the menu bar on Mac OS.
Setting backup and synchronization options
It’s a good idea to become familiar with the Backup/Synchronization preferences in the Elements Organizer, where you can find out everything there is to know about the current Backup and Synchronization status of your catalog:
1. In the Organizer, click the Backup/Synchronization Agent icon () at the bottom of the Organizer workspace and choose Open Backup/Synchronization Preferences. In the Backup/Synchronization Preferences dialog box, click the triangle beside Advanced Backup/Sync Options.
2. Examine the Backup/Synchronization settings, from the top down:
• Backup and Synchronization is activated. The status bar shows how much of your online storage space is being used and how much free space you have.
• New albums are set to backup and synchronize by default, and by default you will be asked for confirmation before files deleted online are deleted from your computer. Conflicts between the data in your catalog and your backed-up data online will not be resolved without a decision on your part, and there is currently no restriction on backup for large files.
You’ll also find a status bar indicating online space usage, together with a link to manage your backup and synchronization preferences, in the Welcome screen.
• All media file types supported for import are enabled for synchronization. By default, creations built in Photoshop Elements will not be backed up.
• In the table below the advanced options, you can see that synchronization is not enabled for media that is not included in any album, and that only the album you created in this lesson is enabled for backup and synchronization. The Online Album icon () indicates that this album is currently being shared; the dimmed check-mark in the Sync column reflects the fact that synchronization cannot be disabled for an album while it is being shared.
In the Backup/ Synchronization Preferences dialog box, you’ll also find a button for upgrading your basic Elements Membership to Plus Membership, which increases your online storage space at Photoshop.com.
Above the synchronization table is a setting for specifying a downloads folder, and below it, a button to enable backup and synchronization for your entire catalog.
3. Click OK to close the Backup/Synchronization Preferences dialog box.
Checking backup and synchronization status
The Backup/Synchronization Agent () at the bottom of the Organizer workspace makes it easy to check on backup and synchronization status for your files without needing to open the preferences dialog box. It also offers additional commands that can be accessed without interrupting your workflow:
• View Backed Up/Synchronized Files command filters the Media Browser display to show only the photos for which synchronization is up-to-date.
• View Backup/Synchronization Status opens a dialog box that shows whether your catalog is currently in sync with your online account. If backup and synchronization is in progress, the Elements Backup/Synchronization Status dialog box shows a status bar tracking the real-time transfer of data from your desktop catalog to your storage space at Photoshop.com.
You can also find the Backup/Synchronization Agent in the System Tray on Windows XP, in the Notification Area on Windows Vista, and in the Mac OS Menu Bar. Here you’ll find some commands that can’t be accessed from the agent in the Organizer: Backup/Sync Only When Idle, and Stop Backup/ Synchronization. To access these commands, right-click the System Tray / Notification Area agent on Windows, or click the Menu Bar agent on Mac OS.
Synchronizing separate computers
To synchronize your Photoshop Elements catalog across multiple computers, you first need to connect the machines to be synchronized to the same Photoshop.com account by signing in from Photoshop Elements on each machine. It’s not necessary that you do this at the same time.
On each computer, turn on Backup/Sync and enable it for your entire catalog. By the time one or two synchronization cycles have run, all your computers should have identical catalogs, with exactly the same Albums, keyword tags, image captions, and so on. Don’t attempt to aid the process; for example, by deliberately recreating a new album on your laptop to match the one you created on your desktop computer. In fact, Photoshop Elements would see these as two different files and you would end up with multiple copies on each machine. Simply make your changes on whichever computer you’re working on and Photoshop Elements will update the other copies of your catalog.
The exception to this rule is that Photoshop Elements will not synchronize Stacks and Version Sets across multiple computers. The images inside your Stacks will be synchronised, but you’ll need to recreate the stacking on each machine. For Version Sets, only the top-most version—your edited version—will be synchronized.
If you wish to make sure that the changes you’re making on one computer are synchronized to your other machines before you need to work with them, click the Backup/Synchronization Agent and choose View Backup/Synchronization Status. In the Elements Backup/Synchronization Status dialog box, click Sync Now; then, do the same when you get to the next machine.
Exporting copies of your photos for the Web
As a final exercise in this lesson you’ll convert a file to JPEG format and optimize it for use on the Web. The JPEG file format reduces the file size and can be displayed by web browsers such as Internet Explorer. If your file contains multiple layers, the conversion to the JPEG file format will flatten them into one layer.
For this operation you’ll use the Save For Web feature, which enables you to tweak the export settings while comparing the original image file with the proposed web-ready version of the image.
1. In the Media Browser, select a photo you want to export for use on the Web.
2. Click the small arrow on the Fix tab at the top of the Task Pane and choose any of the three Edit modes—the Save For Web command is available from anywhere in the Editor.
3. In the Editor, choose File > Save For Web.
4. In the Save For Web dialog box, choose Fit On Screen from the Zoom menu in the lower left corner of the dialog box.
While you’re previewing photos in the Save For Web dialog box, you can magnify an image with the Zoom tool (
) in the toolbox at the upper left of the dialog box. Alt-click / Option-click the image with the Zoom tool to zoom out. While you’re zoomed in, you can drag either of the images with the Hand tool (
); the images move in unison so that you see the same part of the photo in both views.
5. Notice the file-size information under each view of the image. The view on the left displays the file size of the original document.
6. On the right side of the dialog box, select JPEG Medium from the Preset menu. Notice the change in file size for the JPEG image on the right.
To further reduce the file size, choose the JPEG Low setting. Tweak the Quality setting to specify levels between these preset options.
7. Under New Size, select Constrain Proportions and type 300 in the Width field. The Height is adjusted automatically to retain the image’s original proportions. Click the Apply button. Once again, notice the change in the file size displayed beneath the JPEG view of the image. If necessary, choose Fit On Screen from the Zoom menu.
8. Click OK. Navigate to the My CIB Work folder in the Save Optimized As dialog box, add _Work to the end of the file name, and then click Save.
The JPEG format reduces the file size by using JPEG compression, which discards some of the data. The amount of data lost, and the resulting image quality, will vary depending on the image you’re working with and the settings you choose.
9. In the Editor, choose File > Close, without saving changes.
Congratulations! You’ve completed this lesson and should now have a working understanding of the basics of printing and sharing your photos from Photoshop Elements. You’ve learned how to set up single or multiple images for printing at home, how to order professional prints online and how to share photos in e-mail or upload them to an online sharing service. You’ve created on Online Album and exported photos for use on the Web. Before you move on to the next lesson, take a few moments to work through the following review.
Review questions
1. What is Photo Mail? (Windows)
2. What is a Picture Package?
3. How can you fine-tune the composition of a photo for printing?
4. What are the advantages of backing up and synchronizing your catalog to your Photoshop.com account?
5. Is the Save For Web command available only in Full Edit mode?
Review answers
1. The Photo Mail feature embeds selected photos in the body of an e-mail within a colorful custom layout. You can tweak the layout and image size, choose backgrounds, frames, and effects, and add text messages and captions. You can send Photo Mail through Outlook Express, Outlook, or Adobe E-mail Service.
2. A Picture Package lets you print a photo repeated at a choice of sizes on the same page. You can choose from a variety of layout options with a range of image sizes to customize your picture package print.
3. You can now fine-tune the placement of each image within its own print well frame in the print preview, enabling you to get the image placed just right for printing without first editing it. Zoom or rotate an image with the controls beneath the print preview and drag to reposition it in the frame.
4. Backing up and synchronizing your catalog to your Photoshop.com account means that you can manage your media from any web browser—and any changes made to your catalog online will be synchronized back to Photoshop Elements on your desktop. Furthermore, with Multi Machine Sync you can now even synchronize your files across separate computers. Any changes you make to your catalog on one computer, such as adding, deleting, editing or reorganizing images or albums, will be replicated on your other machines. The capability to backup and synchronize your entire catalog now makes it even easier to manage and protect your precious files.
5. The Save For Web command is available in all three Edit modes: Full Edit, Quick Edit and Guided Edit.