If want to know how to load your new photostrip template into Darkroom Booth, just follow the steps below. All of the instructions provided here are basically shown in a very quick way on this short Darkroom Booth video. If you’re new to Darkroom Booth, you may find the video isn’t thorough enough for you. In that case, just follow the detailed steps below. If you are stuck or really need help, please contact us. We’d be happy to help you in any way we can.
Here’s How to Load a New Photostrip Template Design into Darkroom Booth
- In your Darkroom Booth software, click on “New.”
- On the window that appears, at the very top you can give this new template a name in the “Description” field (in the “Template or Border Name” section). The next section down is titled “Page Settings.” Look for “Page Size:” in this section and then change the setting to “2×6” (this means your layout will be 2 inches wide and 6 inches tall – normal photostrip size). Further below this, make sure the “Resolution” is set to “300” Pixels Per Inch (this is normal print resolution. Anything less than this probably won’t look very professional). For “Page Color,” you can just leave it white and leave all other settings as they are.
- Click “OK.”
- You’ll now see a long, vertical, blank photostrip. To add the template design you purchased a license to use, click on the “Add Artwork” button at the bottom of your screen.
- On the window that appears, click “Browse” to find an image of the template layout. In the zip file package you downloaded from ProStarra.com, find either a background.jpg file or an overlay.png file (with a background.jpg file, you’ll place your designated photo areas over top of the layout. With many of our overlay.png files, the holes have already been cut for your event photos. So you will place your designated photo areas behind the overlay.png file after you load it you’re your Darkroom software). For now, just browse your computer, choose a PNG or JPG file, and then click “Open.”
- If you are opening a .png image file with transparent areas in it, you’ll want to tell the software here to make those areas transparent. If you don’t, those areas will be white rather than transparent when you open them up in Darkroom Booth. So to set the transparent areas to transparent, on the options box you’re looking at now, under “Options” you should see “Transparency.” Under the “Transparency” option, select “Use image alpha channel (32-bit targa or png),” and then click “OK.”
- You’ll now see the template layout you purchased displayed as a photostrip.
Please note: for many of our template layouts, a little bit of the design will flow over top of the photo areas on the photostrip. If you use one of our fast overlays that already have holes cut for photos, then this overflowing design will work appropriately once you position your photos behind the overlay.png layout. If you are using a background.jpg that doesn’t have holes cut in it and you know that part of the template design will flow over a portion of the photos, then in these cases a special overlay.png image file will be located in the same folder as the background.jpg file. You’ll need to place this special overlay.png image over top of the background.jpg image and over your designated photo areas. You can do this by selecting “Graphic List” rather than “Single Graphic” when you load the template layout as described above. Alternatively, you can click “Add Artwork” at the bottom of your screen, and add the special overlay.png image as another graphic layer (png files can have transparent areas in them; jpg files cannot. So whenever we indicate on this page that a png file is needed, it will have transparent areas cut out of it, or in the case of the special overlay.png files mentioned here, the whole image may be transparent except for a specific part that is mean to go on top of our event photos).
Add Photos to the Photostrip
- To add places were the event photos can be placed, either click on “Add Photo” at the bottom of your screen (to add designated photo areas one by one) or click “Add Photos” to quickly drop in a column of 3 or 4 designated photo areas.
- If you want to quickly add 3 or 4 photos and click on “Add Photos.”
- To add 3 photos, choose “Rows” “3” and Columns “1” or
- To add 4 photos, choose “Rows” “4” and Columns “1”
- For the size of each photo, you can try the default setting and see how it looks and then play with it (Darkroom allows you to visually drag and resize the column of photos once you have loaded them. Doing this can allow you to get just the right size and look that you think is appropriate). To go with the photo size that the template is built around, open the “Photo Positioning Coordinates” image that came with the template package. It will show you the “Width” and “Height” of the photos.
- You can now use your mouse to move your photos around on top on the template design and position them just right.
- If you want to use one of our quick one image overlays that already have holes cut for photos, after you’ve positioned your photos in the right places, move the overlay.png image over top of your photos by using the “Template Items” list located near the top right corner of your screen. You can click on any item in this list and drag it higher up the list (that will put it over top of other items) or you can drag it down the list (that will put it behind other items).
Adding Text to Your Template
- To add text such as the name of the event, the bride and groom’s names, or the date, click on “Add Text” at the bottom of your screen.
- In the window that appears, just start typing the message or text you want to appear on the photostrip. You’ll see it show up in the window.
- In the options found in this window, you’ll see you can select the font, font size, text color, opacity (transparency), and other settings. If you would like to use the same font we used in sample versions of the template, look on the “What is Included” PDF file that is included with the template package. It will tell you the font name(s) and where you can get the font(s) for free. We try to use free fonts that can also be used for commercial purposes for free. It will also tell you how to install the font(s) on your computer.
- When you’re done, press “OK” and then position your text on the template layout.
Add a Graphic to Your Template
- Your client may want you to add a logo or graphic to the template, or you may wish to add your company’s logo. To do this, click “Add Artwork” at the bottom of your screen.
- Click “Browse”
- Find the image on your computer, select it, and click “Open.”
- Then click “OK.”
- You can now position the image on your photostrip.
Re-Ordering Layers or Positioning One Layer Over Top of or Behind Another Layer
Darkroom Booth allows you to position images, text, and photo areas over top of or behind each other. You’ll need to use this feature to position your designated photo areas either on top of the template background (.jpg) image you’ve imported or behind the image if it is a .png overlay (with transparent holes cut in it for the event photos). To move images, text, or photo areas behind or in front of other object layers, first create some of these objects on your screen using the steps listed above. Once you have at least two different objects (such as text, photo areas, or an image) open on your Darkroom Booth template workspace screen, look at the right side of your screen. You should see a white column labeled “Template Items.” In this column, you should see labels for each of the objects you’ve loaded into your template. These labels represent layers in your template. You activate a layer by clicking in the box beside it. A check mark then shows that you’ve selected that layer. Once a layer is selected, you can click on it and hold down the click on your mouse. While holding the click down, you can drag the layer either up or down. As you drag it, you’ll notice that its position is changed on the list. This moves the layer either behind other layers or in front of them. You can play with moving the layers up and down to arrange them in the order that works best for the template you are assembling. You can see a demonstration of re-ording layers on the video below.
All of the instructions provided on this page are basically shown in this short Darkroom Booth video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akluM6mXY7E
Related
If you need help installing the fonts your template uses on your computer, see this short step-by-step guide.