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Make a CD print index

Posted: 6 Jan 2001

Make a CD print index - Peter Bargh demonstrates how to make an index print for your photos stored on CD or DVD.

Words and photos by Peter Bargh ePHOTOzine

As you discover the low cost of using a digital camera you are likely to take many more pictures and it won't be long before your computer hard drive is bursting full of images. Backing up to a CD or DVDis your best option, but locating pictures once the files are on the disk can be tiresome. Fortunately it's easy to make an index print using a image editing program such as Photoshop.

The program has an auto script that will open pictures from a user selected folder, resize them and positions them on the page ready to print out.

1.Go to File>Automate>Contact sheet to call up the set up dialogue box.

2. From here you select the CD or folder containing the pictures you want to index. I chose the subfolder on one of my CDs. This contained 70 or so pictures that were taken at a hill climb event, that I'd never had time to organise, edit or caption. At least if I have an index print I don't have to keep referring back to an image viewer to see what they are.

3. Set the page size. This is set to A4 as default but we need to resize to 12.2mm x12.2cm to make it fit in the CD jewel case. If you have a larger video-shaped DVD shaped box measure and follow using the different dimensions

4. Set how many pictures you want to appear on the sheet. You can choose horizontal and vertical quantities. I think five across and seven down works best - it's up to you.

5. Click okay and go off and do something else while Photoshop opens each picture resizes it and drops it into place. About five or so minutes later you'll have an index sheet containing 35 pictures, or several, depending on how many images you have in the folder.

6. You could now hit print and output onto photo quality paper. Or, to save space, resize the canvas of one of the index sheets setting 244mm and indicating that the new canvas area is to the left, right, top or bottom.