Task 1 How to Build a Contact Sheet

A contact sheet is a Photoshop file with thumbnail references for all the images in a given folder. You can use contact sheets for a number of tasks, such as sending clients a list of images for approval, archiving, or just organizing your graphics visually rather than with archaic filenames. When you set up contact sheets, you have full control over the page size, the thumbnail size, and the spacing on the page. You can optimize the format of contact sheets for any printer or format.

1. Select the Images

Click the Go to Bridge button on the Options toolbar and navigate to the folder containing the images for your contact sheet. Click the thumbnail of the first image you want to include and then (Ctrl+click in Windows) the thumbnails of the remaining images you want in your contact sheet.

2. Open Contact Sheet II

In Bridge, select Tools, Photoshop, Contact Sheet II. The Contact Sheet II dialog box opens.

3. Specify Document Settings

In the Document area of the dialog box, specify the size of the contact sheet you're building. Enter the dimensions and resolution in the spaces provided. Set the resolution to 72 pixels/inch if you're just viewing onscreen, or use a setting of 300 pixels/inch for printing. The preview area on the right side of the dialog box changes as you modify these values. Leave the Mode drop-down menu set to RGB Color and verify that the Flatten All Layers check box is enabled.

4. Determine Page Grid

Make a selection from the Place drop-down list and specify the numbers of Columns and Rows you want on your contact sheet. Watch the preview area to see how the values you provide affect the size of the thumbnails (based on the overall page dimensions).

5. Set Captions and Fonts

Enable the Use Filename As Caption check box if you want the filenames of the images to appear below the thumbnails on the contact sheet. From the Font drop-down menu, select the font you want to use for the captions, and enter the caption font size in the Font Size box.

6. Build the Sheet

Click OK to start building the contact sheet images. Note that the contact sheet is a Photoshop file; you can modify it any way you want. Consider saving the file as a PDF file because this compact Adobe file format is especially suited for emailing to clients or when disk space is limited. To save an image as a PDF file, select File, Save As and select Photoshop PDF from the Format drop-down menu.

How-To Hints

Using More Than One Folder

If you have more than one folder of images to make into contact sheets, consider copying them to a temporary folder and then using the Folder option from the Source Images drop-down list in the Contact Sheet II dialog box. Don't include any images you don't want on your contact sheet because this method cannot skip any images in the folder.

Labeling Contact Sheets

You might want to take the time to label each contact sheet with the folder and path to the images. With the contact sheet still open in Photoshop, use the Type tool to add a text layer with your name, the date, and the folder and path to the images on the contact sheet.