AUTO CLASS COMPOSITE USERS GUIDE FOR VERSION 9
Requirements:
This program requires a PC equipped with Windows® OS and Adobe® Photoshop® version CS or higher for the PC version and an Apple Macintosh® computer with Mac OS X® 10.7 or higher and Adobe® Photoshop® version CS or higher for Macintosh version, we recommend version CS3 or higher to be able to make multiple layer selections.
Filling the demo template:
Run Adobe Photoshop and load the file Sample_composite.psd available at the Documents\Auto Class Composite\Sample folder.
Start Auto Class Composite
Select the folder Documents\Auto Class Composite\Sample\Teachers click on Fill Composite.
Select the folder Documents\Auto Class Composite\Sample\Students and click on Fill Composite.
Close the program.
Using Auto Class Composite:
Copy all photos to a hard drive folder, this folder should contain only the photos to be inserted into the Composite in jpg ,tiff or png format.
Rename the picture files to match the name of the person photographed, including accents and spaces.
The program sorts the photos by:
a) Lastname and firstname: Put in the lastname first, then a comma (“,”) and finally the firstname, for example: William, John.jpg or Schumacher, Joe.jpg; the program orders the pictures by lastname but will print by firstname + lastname becoming William, John printed as John William.
b) Firstname: Place it directly in the file name that way, for example: John William.
c) If you prefer a different sorting way you may add at the beginning of the name _999_ like _005_John William.jpg, this will indicate the application to order the pictures by number ( of course numbering will not be printed in the composite).
Please note: Use a # simbol for placing a new line in the text.
Open in Photoshop® a composite template, resize it in Photoshop or by using the Adjust template option in the application ( please remember that you have to adapt manually the composite frame to the new size).
Now you have to create as many Shape layers as pictures you will add to the composite, this can easily be done with the auto layers generation option of the application ( in Adjust template), please select a shape layer in Photoshop and input the number of rows and photos by row to create, then click at Create shape layers, the application automatically creates copies of the selected shape layer and places them in the appropriate order. If the number of pictures is not divisible allow some more and then remove the unneeded layers in the last row at Photoshop ( please remember that you may use Photoshop’s alignment and spacing features available at the options of the Photoshop’s Move tool).
The order of the layers in Photoshop layers palette ( from top to bottom) is the order used by the application to fill the composite.
Shape layers may have different sizes, eg small for teachers and larger for students and of course with different shapes (round for teachers and rectangular for students, for example)
You can include anagrams of the school, drawings, photographs, etc., provided that the shape layers (or Formas in the Spanish version) are reserved for the application to import photos.
Select in Photoshop the first shape layer from which start to place pictures, this can also be done using the move tool in Photoshop having selected “Auto Select Layer”
On the application select the folder containing the pictures, the number of them will be shown. The template must have enough shape layers to contain all the photographs.
Make the needed adjustments to the text at the bottom of the photographs.
Click on Fill Composite and wait until Photoshop® finishes filling it.
You may adjust later the text for very short or large names, please see more information in texts.
The program resizes and places the pictures automatically in the predefined shapes and will place the name bellow the picture.
Save the document in Photoshop ® and print if desired
Applying effects to the pictures:
You may apply shadow, stroke, bevel,etc effects to the pictures easily by applying this effects to the shape layer, if you apply it to the first one and then generate the shape layers the effect will be copied into all shape layers for the composite.
Texts:
All texts bellow the pictures are put together in Photoshop layers palette ( at top), this way you may easily select all text layers and change the font, size, etc without having to refill the composite. If using version CS2 or higher you will benefit from the multiple layer selection feature and change all at once.
Designing your own template:
To design your own template you only have to take in mind that you need the same number of shape layers than pictures you will place in the composite.
Therefore we have included a feature to easily copy a shape layer in a predefined number of rows and pictures per row but you need still to draw the first shape layer ( or take one from the predesigned templates).
To draw a shape layer please use Photoshop’s Rectangle tool, you may select square shaped rectangles, rounded corners, ovals or even custom forms.
Once your master shape layer is finished you may add an effect like a stroke, bevel, shadow, etc and finally use our integrated feature ( at Adjust template) to copy this shape layer into the needed rows and pictures per row.
It’s also possible to predesign a shape layer with a mask so that the pictured person head is cut out from the background, you need to define a standard head mask for all pictures and then retouch the mask where needed.
Main window description:
Adjust templates: Allows you to resize the template and create shape layers automatically, you must enter the number of rows and pictures per row you want. After resizing the template you will have to adapt the frame manually to the new size.
Encodings: This is a new option in version 9 and allows you to set a special language encoding for your file names. Use the default ISO-8559-1 for the main languages like english, spanish, french, etc.
