Stump the PC Club is a free tech-advice column written by members of the North Orange County Computer Club, which has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org. And don’t forget to stop by the Gadgetress’ home for the PC Club, at ocregister.com/link/pcclub, to find out how to ask a question and read past answers.
QUESTION: I have a Dell Inspiron 530, with Windows XP Pro, Service Pack 3, 4GB of RAM, and 160 GB HD. I have Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 installed and have been using it. My problem is I cannot make multi-photo printing work, but just single photos are being printed ok. After the setup of multi-photo printing was done, even though the “Print” button is clicked nothing happens: the computer and printer do not go any further.
It has been printing multi photos well, but I found out it is not working when I tried to make prints a couple of weeks ago. I should have mentioned that I already had reinstalled the Photoshop Elements Program and 3 printer drivers, but that did not solve the problem.
PC CLUB: First of all, I assume that your printer is functioning correctly and is able to print documents other than multiple photos correctly. If not, please see a previous article titled How to Reinstall a Deleted Printer in Windows (link: bit.ly/printerinstall).
Printing multiple photos on the same sheet of paper is one of the tasks at which Photoshop Elements excels. The process has not changed significantly between earlier versions and the most recent version, Photoshop Elements 8. Elements is really two programs in one. The first one is the Editor where you can enhance or correct your photos and the second one is the Organizer. In the Organizer program you can print multiple photos on a page.
Here are the steps to print multiple photos:
1. In the Editor program, choose “File” and then “Print Multiples.” You will be taken to the Organizer.
2. Open the Organizer, if not already open. Before printing multiple photos you should prepare the photos to make the task a little easier. Make sure that all of the photos that you want to print have been added to the Organizer and subsequently cropped, color corrected, etc. as necessary. It also helps to assign Tags to photos to make it easy to locate them in the future, especially if you have a large collection.
3. Select the photos you want printed while in the Organizer. To select several rows of photos, select the first photos and then while pressing the shift key, select the last one. Or, if you only need random photos, select the first one, then press the Control key and select only the photos you want.
4. Next select File, Print. A new window will open with your previously selected prints showing along the left.
5. Choose your print package. On the right, you have a choice of printing Individual Prints, Contact Sheets, Picture Packages or Labels. In this case, Pictures Packages is what you want. This is under Item 4, labeled “Select Type of Print” (click image on right to enlarge).
6. Select the desired print size under Item 5. There is a box labeled “Fill Page With First Photo” that determines whether each page will contain multiple copies of the same photo or not. These settings are for Elements 8.0 and may differ slightly for earlier versions.
7. Prior to printing you can add additional photos to the Print Multiples window by clicking the plus (+) sign at the lower left. To replace a photo on the right of the window, just drag the newly added photo and drop it over the one you want to replace. To change back to your original choice, right-click the photo and select “Revert to Original.”
One thing you should know about printing photos is that the size of the print is not exactly the size chosen. For example, if you have chosen 5″ by 7″ prints, they will actually be 5″ by 6.67.” This assumes that your digital camera takes photos with a 4:3 ratio. Some cameras use a 2:3 ration and the prints will be slightly different. If you choose the “Crop to Fit” option, your images will be exactly 5″ by 7″ but some cropping will occur. An exception is when your camera can shoot in the 3:2 ratio and you select 4″ by 6″ prints, the prints will be exactly 4″ by 6″. That is because 3:2 or more correctly 2:3 has the same proportions as 4″ by 6.”
8. Click the Print button after making all of these choices and check your results against your expectations.
Always write down all of your choices in case the results are not what you expected. – Ed Schwartz, NOCCC member. View his Web site at www.edwardns.com.