Ready, Set, Action!
If you have been around digital scrapbooking for a little while, you have probably heard mention of actions. What are actions? Simply put, an action is a set of steps in Photoshop that have been recorded and can be played back. Actions are perfect for automating repetitive tasks, or helping you achieve more advanced techniques without having to decipher more complicated features. Any time you have to repeat the same task a number of times, an action can help save you time by doing in seconds what it might take several minutes, or more, to do on your own.
Installing actions is not hard to do, but it is different depending on the version of Photoshop CS or Elements that you use. Consult your manual, or refer to the instructions that come with your action for specific instructions for your version. Actions must be recorded in Photoshop CS, but if created properly, they can be used in Photoshop Elements as well. Make sure you check the product descriptions prior to purchasing actions to make sure they are compatible with your program.
So, how can actions help you when it comes to your favorite Shutterfly products? A properly designed action can transform your pages into Shutterfly-ready pages. Let's back up just a little bit. Shutterfly has provided a set of exacting specifications to ensure that each photo book, calendar, or card is printed as expected. It is tempting to just upload a layout you've already created and ignore the specifications, but the fact is that taking a little time to resize your digital layouts to the specification will ensure that your page prints exactly like you want it to.
Let's look at a 12x12 photo book. Shutterfly photo book pages are printed at 11.95 x 11.95, then trimmed down to 11.75 x 11.75. So, if you upload a 12x12 page, without making any adjustments, Shutterfly will resize the page to 11.95 x 11.95, then cut off 0.1" all the way around (approximately 1/8" off each side). In addition, once the pages are bound into the book, up to 1/4" can be hidden in the inside edge of the book. So, if you design your pages with items falling off the edge, titles on the outer edge, journaling close to the folds, or photo clusters that bleed off the edge of the page, you might just find that some items on your page are unexpectedly cut off or hidden.
Adjusting for the bleed (the area cut off after printing) and the live area (the area that is safe for journaling and photos) is not hard if you still have your original layered files. Simply resize your layout to the LIVE MATTER size, then enlarge your canvas size to the BLEED size. Then, select your background paper and any non-important items you want to bleed off the edge of the page and enlarge them to fill the canvas.
These steps are not difficult, but if you have 20 to 100 pages to resize, you can see how recording an action for those few steps can save a lot of time and repetitive work. Luckily, in the process of creating my own Shutterfly photo books, I've created the actions for you! And, the best part is that I'm always available for any questions you might have along the way.
So, I hope that helps introduce you to the world of actions. They are huge time savers and who doesn't need more time!
Here are some other common questions and answers regarding Shutterfly's process.
1. How should I save my layout?
For best possible quality, your digital layouts should be 300ppi, and sized to the Shutterfly's recommended canvas size for the size photo book you are printing, then flattened and saved as a JPG. Using sRGB color profile is recommended by Shutterfly. And, using a compression level of 12 will ensure the best possible reproduction.
2. Can I use my layouts from my web gallery?
Web-ready layouts are not recommended for printing. You should go back to your original layered Photoshop files, created at 300 ppi for best quality. If you do not have a full-size original file to work with, Shutterfly does offer a small 4x4 brag book size book that might be a good compromise.
3. What is Vivid Pics and Easy Crop?
Vivid Pics and Easy Crop are tools created by Shutterfly for use when creating books with their built-in templates. Vivid Pics applies complex color correction to your untouched photos for superior results. Easy Crop helps crop your pictures when placing them in the built-in templates. However, these tools should NOT be used when you are using the DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKING options. Your photos and digital papers and element, ideally, have already been color adjusted prior to uploading to Shutterfly. So, you do not want Shutterfly to adjust them over again by applying Vivid Pics to them. And, if you upload a page you have designed in a specific way, you do not want Shutterfly's Easy Crop software cropping it differently. So, it is recommended that you turn these options off when you upload your photos.
4. How do I turn off Vivid Pics and Easy Crop?
Upload your photos to a new album. Once you have done that, select all the photos by checking them. Then, click VIEW & ENHANCE. Select any one of your pictures. Select the "Effects" tab on the right hand side. Check "Don't apply automatic correction to picture." at the bottom of the page. Click on "Apply this effect to other pictures" right above it.
4. My calendar previews don't show full-bleed pages or don't allow me to get rid of the caption boxes.
To print products using your digital scrapbook pages, you should use the Digital Scrapbooking section of the site. When you click through that section, you will automatically see the products that are designed to be used with your own pages. This is especially important with the calendars. The calendar option in the Digital Scrapbooking section is the Collage Calendar (NOT the Classic Calendar). After you select the Collage Calendar and get started, it will ask you to choose one of their pre-designed pages. Select any theme. It is not imporant. Once you do, the next screen will allow you to drag a full-bleed photo page onto your workspace. Once you set the page to a full-bleed page, you can drag your scrapbook page onto the interface.
5. I did not save my original layered files. Is there anything I can do?
When you only have a high-resolution JPG file to work with, it depends on the design of your page. If you have designed the page with most of the important items away from the canvas edge, you may be able to use the page without adjusting to. To find out for sure, resize the page to the proper canvas size. (For 12x12 books, that is 11.95 x 11.95; for 8x8 books, that is 7.95 x 7.95, etc.) Save your file. If you own my Shutterfly templates, you can open up the flattened template file and drag it on top of your layout. Lower the opacity to about 30%. Anything outside the TRIM line will be cut off and anything outside the LIVE AREA may get hidden in the fold of the book. If everything important falls in the live area, you can use the page as is! If you do not have my templates, after resizing the canvas, crop your canvas size to the trim size (11.75 x 11.75 for a 12x12 book). That will show you what gets cut off. Then, crop the canvas to the live matter size (11.25 x 11.75 for a 12x12 book) to see what might get hidden in the fold of the book.
If you find that important items will get cut off or hidden once you do that, I recommend placing your layout on the page with a white or paper border behind it. Resize your layout to the width of the live area (11.25 x 11.25 for a 12x12 book) using the IMAGE SIZE command. Then, increase your canvas size back out to the proper size for your book (11.95 x 11.95 for the 12x12 book). And, if you want a paper background, simply drag a paper behind your layout, flatten and save!
