42. SETTING PRINT PREFERENCES

WHEN YOU LOOK at the Lightroom Print module, it may seem like there are a lot of things you need to focus on, but it’s pretty straightforward, provided you go through it in a specific manner (Figure 42.1).

The first thing I usually do in the Print module is adjust the page setup. Think of it this way: the one thing you know right now is the size of the paper you’re going to use to make a print, so take care of that first.

Click on the Page Setup button in the lower-left corner of the Print module. This will open the Page Setup dialog where you can select your printer and paper type (Figure 42.2). Make sure that your printer driver is set up and that your printer is connected to your computer via a USB cable or a wireless network. If the correct driver is installed, you should see the printer in the Format For drop-down menu. The paper sizes that your printer is able to support will be listed in the Paper Size drop-down menu in the Page Setup dialog.

Next, select the Orientation for your picture: landscape or portrait. I usually leave the Scale option at 100%—there’s no real need to touch it. Click OK to save the page setup.

From here, you have three different options to make a set of prints. Let’s cover the basic ones that you see in the Layout Style panel. In a Single Image setup, you’re printing just one picture on one sheet of paper. If you select the Picture Package option, you have the option to use the same size sheet of paper, but you can add multiple copies of the same image at different sizes by clicking on the options in the Cells panel (Figure 42.3). You can select from commonly used picture dimensions, or click on one of the drop-downs to set a custom size.

The Custom Package option allows you to make even more changes to the page. The benefit of this option is that you can add different pictures to a single page (Figure 42.4), whereas the Picture Package option only allows you to add the same image multiple times. If you want to print two different images to a page, Custom Package is the option to use. All you have to do is drag each picture from the film strip onto the page and you’re good to go.

For this example, we’ll focus on setting up a single picture for print. Highlight the picture you want to print in the filmstrip and select Single Image from the Layout Style panel. You can adjust how the margins of the page are going to affect the picture with the settings in the Layout panel.

Figure 42.1 Your image is corrected and now you want to print it.

Figure 42.2 Select the printer, paper size, and orientation of your image on the page in the Page Setup dialog.

Figure 42.3 The Picture Package option in Lightroom. Select from common picture dimensions in the Cells panel.

Figure 42.4 The Custom Package option in Lightroom. You can arrange pictures of different types and sizes on a single page.

You can adjust each margin individually by moving the slider, or you can click on the margin measurement to the right of the slider and type in the specific measurement you need, which is what I like to do. Use the tab key on your keyboard to move down from one field to the next.

This adjusts the overall size of the image, but you’ll see a guide (black line) that appears around it. This is usually the cell size, and the cell size could be different from the margin size. You can adjust the cell size with the Cell Size Height and Width sliders at the bottom of the Layout panel. To avoid confusion, I recommend adjusting the Height and Width sliders until the cell size matches the boundaries of the picture (Figure 42.5).

Figure 42.5 Adjusting the layout guides to match the boundaries of the picture.

Here’s a quick tip to keep in mind: when I’m printing a picture, I like to set a light stroke inside the border of the picture (Figure 42.6). There are times when I’m printing a high-key image and the white background will blend into the page that the image is printed on, making it difficult to see where the picture ends. A simple one-point stroke helps to define the boundary of the picture itself.

I also find the Dimensions checkbox in the Guides panel to be extremely useful when I’m making a print, so make sure you have that selected (Figure 42.7). This shows the dimensions of the image on the screen, so you always know the exact size of the image you’re working with.

When you’re printing a single image, you can also add a caption and title information. In the Page panel, put a check in the Photo Info checkbox and select Title and Caption from the drop-down menu (Figure 42.8). Lightroom will read the EXIF information embedded in the file and add the title and caption to the bottom of your image. You can adjust the font size with the drop-down menu at the bottom of the Page panel.

So there’s your simple setup: set the page, adjust your margins, and add any additional information, and now you’ve got a pretty good layout that you can use for printing.

Figure 42.6 A one-point stroke will make a picture stand out from the paper. This is especially helpful when you’re working with a high-key shot.

Figure 42.7 The Dimensions setting makes it easy to see the size of the image you’re working with at any time.

Figure 42.8 Adding text information to a picture in Lightroom.