Adobe gives you all the tools to make your contact sheets pretty

I held a 2-hour presentation last week based on InDesign tips and tricks. My audience was an exclusive group from RGD. They were rather attentive (either that or they were bored to sleep) and many asked where they could get some of the files I showed during the session. I, of course, highlighted the keyboard shortcuts file, providing all the rationale behind the changes. I also showed some of the custom templates and settings that I use for the InDesign contact sheets that are initiated through Bridge.

Bridge is the launching pad for many script-based routines triggering other Adobe applications. Photoshop and InDesign both have contact sheets, but I find InDesign’s implementation to be much more flexible. The basic template used by the script is meant to be a starting point. The idea is for the user to make adjustments to all aspects — objects styles, paragraph styles, colours, margins, etc. Once the user has created their own template, they can replace the generic look with their own brand.

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branding contact sheets

Making use of less-often used features; 1) nested styles to better format metadata beneath images, 2) adjusted margins to allow for custom sidebar, and 3) text variables for dynamic labels for multiple page contact sheets. A preview of built contact sheets based on the neutral templates.

I’ve updated the downloads and gallery sections of the site with the contact resources and screenshots. At the end of the day I wanted to develop a branded contact sheet that was still generic enough that I could share with others. The downloads are grouped based on colour and orientation. I’ve also included the sample images and sample PDFs. Unfortunately I can’t distribute the font that I used in the sidebar (Myriad Pro Light Condensed).

• colours – black / gray / white
• orientation – portrait / landscape
• fitting options – fill frame proportionally / fit content proportionally

resource around the net

I’ve also utilized some great resources around the net. Special thanks to all of them for helping me dig into the various possibilities.

• blogs.adobe.com/scratchdisk
  • allowing InDesign documents (CS3, CS4) to be included in contact sheets in addition to the regular fare of images formats.
• layersmagazine.com
  • customizing margins to allow for sidebars, header, etc.
• blog.gilbertconsulting.com
  • adjustments made to the Bridge script that was bundled in CS3. He also includes links to other related scripts and his InDesign Magazine article
• creativescripting.net
  • Bob Stucky, original creator of the Bridge-based script, is working on a CS4 version on his own. Adobe is really trying to push the enhanced web and PDF galleries provided by Bridge CS4. In doing so, they omitted the InDesign and Photoshop scripts from Bridge. Bob is rebuilding the InDesign contact sheet script from the ground up and is selling it on his website. It’s currently in beta

It’s important to think outside the box. Aside from colour variations, I made some enhancements to the base template. For some screenshots, check out the gallery

• custom look metadata
• stroked images not their graphic frames
• running header for multi-page contact sheets
• dynamic footer information

If you have any questions on how I built any part of the templates, drop me a line.

March 2, 2009
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