Layout

This transformation is used to create an image that consists of a background page of a specified size overlaid with one or more panels. The background may be a solid color or tiled with (covered with multiple copies of) an image. Each panel may contain solid colors or images, and/or text and can be placed anywhere on the background with any size or transparency. Panels are like layers -- you can control the order in which they are applied to control how they overlap.

Layout images are created as top-level images since they have no input image, although panels may contain other images.

This transformation provides a convenient way to create various page layouts for printing, slide shows, or presentations. And, layouts can be saved as templates and used again later to create a consistent set of images.

Various controls are displayed down the left side of the dialog box; the right-hand side is used to display a preview of the final layout. This preview also has a ruler displayed in the current units along its top and left edges. The layout preview is automatically updated as you change the layout settings. The Layout dialog box can be resized to make the preview either larger or smaller. Just above the preview is a preview button -- clicking this button recomputes and refreshes the full-size output image in case you need to see the results in more detail.

By default, the initial layout contains no panels. To add a panel, click the + button on the tool bar. This creates a new panel and selects it. Whenever you select a panel, additional controls are displayed to let you edit its properties.

Clicking on a panel in the layout preview causes it to become the current panel. The current panel is highlighted by a rectangular outline with small squares displayed at the corners and a cross in its center. You can reposition or resize a panel by clicking and dragging its interior, corners, or sides. Clicking on a part of the preview where there is no panel deselects all panels and hides the panel property controls. You can also select a panel by clicking the > button in the tool bar until you get to the one you want. This can be useful if you want to select a panel covered by other panels.

The location and size of the selected panel is displayed in the dialog box. If you wish, you can set panel size and location by clicking the ... button next to the location and size readouts. This pops up a dialog box you can use to edit the size and position of the current panel.

Tool Bar

The layout tool bar at the top of the dialog box lets you perform a variety of operations:

 Add a new panel -- Clicking this button adds a new panel to the current layout identical to the current panel except not containing an image or text.

If no panel is selected, a gray, blank panel is added in the upper left corner of the layout. If a panel is selected, the new panel is placed just to the right of the current panel, if there is room. If the new panel will not fit to the right of the current panel, it is placed below the current panel, all the way to the left of the layout. If there is not enough room for the new panel there, it is placed in the upper left corner of the layout.

Panel property controls are displayed to let you edit the new panel’s appearance.

 Remove the current panel -- Clicking on this icon deletes the current panel (if any) and removes it entirely from the layout.

 Move panel back one layer -- Clicking this button sends the current panel one level lower in the panel stacking order. This means that it can be partially or totally covered by another panel that sits on top of it.

 Move panel forward one layer -- Clicking this button raises the current panel one level higher in the panel stacking order. This means that it can partially or totally cover other panels that are below it.

 Select next panel -- Clicking this button selects the next higher panel in the stacking order. If the current panel is the topmost level, then the bottom panel is selected.

 Center current panel horizontally -- Clicking this button causes the current panel to be horizontally centered on the background.

 Center current panel vertically -- Clicking this button causes the current panel to be vertically centered on the background.

 Shrink rectangle to fit image -- Clicking this button causes the current panel to be reduced in size to match the dimensions of the image it contains.

 Create a grid of panels within the current panel -- Clicking this button displays the Create Grid dialog box. This dialog box lets you create a grid layout of sub-panels within the current panel (or within the background image if no panel is currently selected).

A preview of the panels that will be created is displayed to the right of the controls. Click the Preview button as necessary to update the preview area.

Width, Height, and Resolution

These controls are used to set the resolution and size of the background image onto which the panels will be placed. You can specify the background size in pixels, in, mm, or cm.

If you modify the Resolution setting while the units are set to pixels, then the image size in pixels remains unchanged while the image size in in/mm/cm is adjusted accordingly. If the units are set to in/mm/cm, changing the Resolution setting keeps the physical dimensions of the image the same and adjusts the image size in pixels accordingly.

If the units are set to pixels, rulers display in the default units as set in File/Preferences, based on the resolution in dots/inch. Regardless of the units setting, font sizes are always specified in points (one point = 1/72 inch).

Snap Grid

This setting lets you specify a grid interval to which all panels will be aligned when you drag them. To disable this feature, set it to zero. Using a snap grid makes it easy to precisely position and align panels on the background without having to enter the coordinates manually.

Display Grid

This setting lets you specify a grid which is superimposed over the layout as an aid in positioning panels. To disable this feature, set it to zero. The grid is in the current units – for example if units are inches, setting Display Grid to 1.0 draws a grid line every inch.

Background and Background Scale

This image picker control lets you select how the background is colored. You can either select a solid color for the background or an image that will be tiled (repeated both horizontally and vertically as necessary) to cover the entire background.

The background scale slider is used only when an image is selected for tiling the background. In this case, adjusting the scale slider lets you vary the frequency of the tiling pattern by making the tiled image larger or smaller.

Description

This control lets you enter a short (1000-character max) description of the layout to document its intended use. It has no effect of the output image. For example, if you are creating a layout to be printed, you can include the page size and margins for which the layout is designed.

Size and Location Readouts

In the next section of the Layout dialog box, the size and location of the current panel are displayed in the current units. If there are no panels or if the background is selected, the size of the background is displayed instead.

To enter the size and position of the current panel directly, click the  button just to the right of the readouts which brings up a small dialog box.

Panel Property Controls

The following controls are displayed only when a panel is selected. If you select a different panel, the controls are updated to reflect the properties of the currently selected panel. Panel properties are divided into three categories represented the three tabs at the bottom: Background, Text and Border.

Background Tab

The background controls let you specify if the panel is transparent, filled with a solid color, or filled with an image. If the background contains an image, you can further control its transparency, orientation and proportions.

Panel

This control lets you select whether you want a transparent background or if you want the background to be a solid color or image. Transparent panels are useful for positioning text within a layout. Color/Image panels are useful for placing images into layouts.

Color/Image

This image picker control lets you select the background solid color or image, assuming you have not selected a transparent background (in which case this control is hidden and the setting is ignored).

When you select an image, a cropping rectangle is displayed over the image when it is displayed in the main image area. You can resize and reposition this rectangle by clicking and dragging its corners, edges, or interior. Only the region outlined by the cropping rectangle will appear in the panel.

Amount

The Amount control lets you select the transparency of the panel. You can either select an overall transparency or you can specify an amount mask to vary the transparency for different parts of the panel. If you select an image, the amount mask must have the same dimensions as the image; if you select a solid background color, the amount mask can be any size.

Orientation Tool Bar

This tool bar lets you change the orientation of the panel's background image and text by rotating them in 90 degree increments. Rotating the panel orientation also rotates the cropping rectangle for the background image, if any.

Proportions

This control lets you specify how the image cropping and scale are related to the panel size.

Fill panel -- The proportions of the cropping rectangle of the image are locked to those of the panel, guaranteeing the panel is always completely filled. You can still adjust the size of the cropping rectangle, but the proportions are fixed. If the image proportions differ from the panel proportions, part of the image will be cropped. Use this if you want the panel to be filled with the image, even if it needs to be cropped.

Fit in panel -- You can adjust the size and proportions of the cropping rectangle of the image freely. The image is scaled to fit the full width or height of the panel, whichever is larger, but may not leave part of the panel blank. Use this option if the way the image is cropped is more important to you than the size and proportions of the panel. To eliminate empty space in the panel around the image, you can use the  button in the main tool bar to shrink the panel to fit the image.

Panel matches image dimensions -- The panel size is locked to the physical dimensions of the image. You can move the panel but not resize it; you can crop the image any way you want, up to the size of the output image. Use this setting when you have already set the physical size of your images and simply want to arrange them over the background without resizing them. If the image is larger than the layout background image, it is cropped to fit.

Panel matches image size in pixels -- The panel size is locked to the dimensions of the image in pixels.You can move the panel but not resize it; you can crop the image any way you want, up to the size of the output image. The image is copied 1:1 over the layout background. Use this setting when you want to arrange images on a background without any resampling. If the image is larger than the output image, it is cropped to fit.

Fit panel - scale to dimensions -- The size of the image's cropping rectangle is locked to the panel size in physical units. The size of the cropping rectangle is fixed, but you can move it around the image. Use this setting when you want to place part of an image, scaled to its size in physical units, in a panel of a given size. If the image is smaller than the panel, the panel size is reduced to match the image size - you can make it smaller than this, but not larger.

Fit Panel - scale 1:1 -- The size of the image's cropping rectangle is locked to the panel size in pixels. The size of the cropping rectangle is fixed, but you can move it around the image. Use this setting when you want to place part of an image, scaled at 1:1, in a panel of a given size. If the image is smaller than the panel, the panel size is reduced to match the image size - you can make it smaller than this, but not larger.

Text Tab

The text controls let you place text in a layer over the panel background.

Text

This multi-line edit control lets you enter one or more lines of text displayed over the panel image or solid color background. The orientation of the text is controlled by the Orientation tool bar (see above).

The easiest way to transfer large amounts of text from a document or other program is to copy the text to the clipboard and then paste it into the Text control. To paste into an edit control, simply click on the control and then press Ctrl-V. The clipboard text will replace all highlighted text at the caret location.

The alignment of text within the panel is controlled by the Alignment control (see below).

To position text freely in a layout, place it in a separate panel with a transparent background. You can then drag the text to any desired position.

To insert macros into your text, click the Macro... button.

To insert special characters into your text, click the Unicode… button which brings up a dialog box that lets you select and insert any Unicode characters from the current font:

Unicode characters are customarily specified by 4-digit hexadecimal codes. The first three digits are displayed down the left edge of the table and the fourth across the top. Scroll down to the character you want and click on it to insert it at the current location in the text field. Close the dialog box when you are done. Unicode is the current standard for encoding characters in fonts – it supports roughly 65,000 different characters including those used in different languages and many mathematical and other specialized symbols. While the situation is steadily improving, only a limited number of fonts support anything like the full range of Unicode characters – Google Unicode Fonts for more information.

Font/Bold/Italic

These controls lets you select which font the text will be displayed in. You can choose from any of the fonts installed on your computer. You can also select any combination of bold or italic

Font Size/Color

These settings let you select a font size (in points – there are 72 points/inch) or change the text color.

Line Spacing

This setting controls how tightly multiple lines of text and spaced together. It has no effect on single-line text.

Alignment

This control sets the justification and alignment of text within the panel rectangle. You can select any of the nine possible options to align the text with a corner or side of the panel or its center.

Offset

This slider controls the distance between the text and the alignment point you have selected. If Alignment is set to Middle Center, this setting is ignored.

Border Tab

The border controls let you place a border around the panel. Note that the border is drawn outside the panel so it is not reflected in the panel size or location readouts. If a panel is right up against the edge of the layout, the border will not appear.

Border Width

This lets you set the width of a rectangular border drawn around the panel. For no border, set the border width to zero

Border Color

This control sets the color of the border, if any.

Preview

A 1:1 preview of the layout result is displayed in the right-hand side of the dialog box.

If you enlarge the dialog box, you can make the sliders wider and the preview area narrower or vice versa by dragging the vertical separator line between them.

 Preview Button

Clicking the Preview button causes the full output image to be recalculated, not just the preview area. This can be useful if you want to view the entire image at once and not just a small section, but it can take longer to compute.