NatureScapes.net Forums

I was reluctant to post such a basic question here but I have spent too much time in tutorials and all and to date I have not made any progress in the Adobe forum so here goes. [font=adobe-clean-serif] I want to spread 9 images that have already been sized around the viewing field. I have done file>scripts>place in stack so I now have my nine images stacked. All have the visibility eye open. I want to slide them off the stack and place them around the screen with the move tool. I click the top icon on the stack of nine to select it. I then hold the move tool down, but when I drag it either nothing happens or it moves but the image disappears leaving a checkerboard rectangle where it had been. I have tried holding down the shift key, control key, and both keys but no dice. I feel there is a simple answer to this but thus far I haven't figured it out. What technique am I missing that will permit me to move these images one at a time out of the stack retaining their visibility as I do so?[/font]

Why not simply open the nine images without stacking them and it will be easy to move them around by just placing the cursor on the top bar of each image.

What are you trying to achieve overall. If you want to make a poster type image with the images then you will need to create a new blank file in the size you want and drag each open image on to that with the move tool. Make sure it is in the same colour profile and the same resolution as your images.

Kim, thank you very much. I did as you suggested and, although it is not quite the way I would like as it has borders and print that I would prefer not be there, I have a result that I can use (see below). I initially stacked the files because several tutorials and searches indicated that was an easier way to start. I still don't understand what I laid out in the beginning but I probably won't be needing to do it again in the near future and I have already pent enough time doing this. Again, thank you very much.

If money is not an object, a RIP like Imageprint handles this sort of thing with ease and it insulates you from all of the nuances of poorly designed printer drivers.

Hi,

When you tried to drag the image and got the checkerboard, it's because you were dragging the image and not the entire layer that the image was on. Click on the layer instead of the icon.

I'm not sure why the frames are showing as I've never had that happen.

Have Fun,
Jeff

I assume you are making a montage to print. The frames are there because they are individual images and you can't print this. You need a blank canvas and copy and paste each individual image onto the canvas. It might take a couple of steps to get the scaling right - that is to say the blank canvas needs to be big enough in pixel dimensions to accommodate the individual pics. You could do some quick calculations to size them up say you wanted to print 8 x 10 at 300 dpi that's a 2400 x 3000 canvas. Then work out what size approximately the images need to be to fit and resize them before you move them.

What I do when doing this is open each image I want to use then copy and paste it to the blank canvas and move it into place with the move tool. Once they are all in place you can fine tune but you need to click on the layer you want to move to "activate" the image. You can only move the active layer around with this method.

Thank you all. Very helpful. This project was not something I do but I think I will have at it again in hopes of learning from this experience.