May 2001
President's
Message
Making Thumbnail Images for CD Storage Discs
Making Thumbnail Images for CD Storage Discs
- Bill Talarowski
For those of us who are into the digital game, it didn’t take us long to find out that the more stuff you had packed on the hard drive, the slower your computer worked. It became painfully obvious early in the game that we had to do something with the storage of our finished images. Early on, the way to go was to use Zip Disks. With each slide file running about 35MB in size, it didn’t take a mathematician to see that you were going to need a lot of Zip disks. This was further complicated by their cost that was about ten dollars each when purchased in quantities.
Happily, along came the CD disk and CD Recorder. Now you had a storage capability of from 600 to 800 MB of memory at a fraction of the cost of Zip disks. Along with the recording capability you also had a program that made a cover for your jewel box where you could list all the contents that were on that particular disk. You had of course to confine your titles to short titles but this was better then listing them by hand lettering. A small problem was you had to depend on your memory on just what image was "Amish Buggy".
Then I discovered a small, buried program within the Photoshop program itself that did everything I needed to identify my images. I was able to produce thumbnail images of each image that was on a particular CD disk including the titles assigned to the image without having to change any file sizes or file types. Turn your color printer on. Open up Photoshop, Click on File, Click on Automate, Click on Contact Sheet II, and a box will open. In the upper left corner you will click on Choose. Here you designate what file your images are stored in. Once you have given this information click OK. Right below that is the Document Size window. You want to enter 4.7 on each of two lines. This is the size area your information will be printed to and this is also the dimension that is needed to fit into the cover of the jewel case. In the Resolution window type 72 to 50, depending on how good you want the thumbnail image to look. In the lower half of the same box is the Thumbnail Box. It will ask you, "How many rows and columns do you want"? Let’s say for the sake of argument, we have 20 images that are stored on the CD disk. In the first window click "Across First". In the next "Column Window" enter 4. In the "Row Window" enter 5. This means there will be 4 images across the page and 5 images down like a plastic slide storage page. Under "Font Type" enter "Arial" and in the "Font Size" window enter 8. Click OK. The program takes off and prints thumbnail images and titles assigned to the image that will insure a quick recovery of any image. When finished, trim the printed page to 4¾ square and insert it into the jewel case lid. If you want more or less then twenty images shown, each image will be scaled smaller or larger. If you have perhaps 36 images and you still want to keep to the 20 image layout, it will automatically print the first 20 on the first page and 16 others on the second page. If this is the case, the printer will produce the last page first and then you will have to tell the program to print the first page.