Best Way To Create A Template for Inserting into Photos

[gist901]

Hello forum members,

This is my first post as I was given an assignment that seems to be pretty simple on the surface but more difficult, well at least for me. I have been messing around w/ it for about a day now and have not gotten any where. Thus I turn to you for help.

What I am looking for help on is creating a template that I can save and simply insert over many different pictures. The template would need to include the companys information, such as the Name, Website and Phone Number. The company would also like there to be a border around the photo.

Since there are hundreds of these photos, it does not make sense to go into each one and create a new border and insert text. Thats why I think it would be easier to just have a template that I open, put that layer on top of the picture save and move on. Maybe there is a simplier way. The real place I am stuck is not with the text but with the border.

Either way any help or insight would be greatly appreciated, the picture size is 640x480, low res for faster upload to the website.

Thanks

gist

[oma]

make one frame with centre portion transparent. the plugin by madjik for frames gives nice options with centre portion transparent.

next

add a layer and place company logo (which should be a .png image) any text etc.

flatten

save it as a .png image

open your photo use layers import and add the frame you just made. flatten and save as .jpg or .png or what ever format you require.

[gist901]

cool got it done!! Took about 2secs with your directions.

I have one last question that I have run into.

We are not putting a logo in, just text which actually looks nice. The only problem is that in some pictures the text (which is in black) blends in with a dark object in the background, making it a little bit harder to read.

Any suggestions to help make the text jump up out of the photo to make it easier to read?? I would like to stay with a classy Black, not have to go w/ a different color.

thanx

gist

[APShredder]

You could try to put a small outline around the text.

[gist901]

Do I need to get another plugin for that b/c I try it under Effects - Stylize - Outline, but it just really ends up blurring my text, making it unrediable.

Also, is there a way to get Paint to show me the exact center of the photo - divide my photo in quarters??

thanx for ur responses, ur helping me out a ton

gist

[APShredder]

For the outline, you could use either pyrochild's Outline Object or BoltBait's Outline Selection.

As for dividing the image into fourths, there's no built in way to do it, but you could always make a new layer and make lines as needed.

[gist901]

I just need a way to make sure that my Text is properly centered in the photo. Right now I am eye balling it and using the ruler.

What can I say, I am a perfectionist.

thanx for all your help

gist

[Sozo]

The align object plugin can help you center your text.

[gist901]

everything you guys have told me to do has worked and I am truly grateful for your help.

I just have one last request.

I have my template created, now I just need to apply it to about 100 photos.

Any way of doing a batch process?? (save myself some time and anguish)

gist

[oma]

at one time scriptlab had a batch process (part of pyrochilds plugin pkg) haven't tried it since his latest version so not sure if that feature is still avail. You might just pop into his thread on scriptlab plugin and give it a read.

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=21706 <== download spot for pyrochilds plugins

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=20403 <== info re scriptlab you may wish to read before downloading

other than that I beleive I there is still free program called Irfanview avail that does do batch processing.

but check pyrochilds out first before you go learning a whole new program. I've used Irfanview before and its not as easy to use as this program.