Creating Your First Layout Using FxFoto

For your first layout, let's start with something simple. As you work with FxFoto Creative more, you will no doubt want to try new filters, crop patterns and effects. But for now let's start with the basics.

We will be making the layout on the above using the Colours of Heritage by Katie Mann which is included in FxFoto Creative Editions when installed from CD-ROM.

The image above is a low resolution version of the scrapbook page and is not as crisp as the real thing. But it is good enough to help you follow along as this tutorial explains how to create the collage with FxFoto.

Note: If you have not installed the FxFoto Creative Edition or Creative Media Edition CD-ROM, the Colours of Heritage kit will not appear. Only the Creative Editions on CD-ROM contain extra scrapbooking kits and graphics. However, most of the features described in this tutorial also apply to the Deluxe Edition and you may still find it helpful.

What you need

For this tutorial we will assume that you are already somewhat familiar with FxFoto and that you are comfortable with importing photos and basic photo editing like cropping. The Quick Start Guide in the Help section of FxFoto contains instructions for importing and editing.

As you use FxFoto more and more, these instructions will become routine and you will find yourself wanting to explore some of those options. Go right ahead! You will find that there are lots of cool things you can do with FxFoto!

Getting Started

When you start up FxFoto, you will see this dialog box labeled Startup Shortcuts and Tips. You can also reach it from the File menu.

Click on 8x8 Scrapbooking Page Collage.

Now you will see the FxFoto_Clips folder that is shown in the screenshot on the left. Choose the Colours of Heritage folder, which is highlighted in blue, and click Open.

Note that FxFoto_Clips appears only if you have installed the FxFoto Creative or Creative Media Edition from CD-ROM.

Now here, on the left, is a screen shot of the Colours of Heritage folder. Click the red paper with the sun and click Open. As you can see we have highlighted the background in blue and are about to click Open.

Finally, is what your FxFoto screen should look like now. The red background has appeared in the main working pane of FxFoto. A green outline around it marks the edge of the 8x8 size (but is hard to see because of the dark red color). When you print your page, only the material inside the green box will be printed. However you may use the white space around the background to put elements, papers and photos that you may want to use in your layout.

Digital Kits

Scroll down the left hand folders until you find a folder with a green background labeled Colours of Heritage. In the screen shot above you can see the folder in the left pane and you will find a complete digital scrapbooking kit with papers and embellishments. Also note that the first box is beige and labeled Collage - Katie Mann. This is the kit preview. The next three boxes are pre-made pages in which you may just drop your photos.

You will also notice some embellishments like paper clips, ribbons, and a sun charm. In the folder they appear to be on white paper, however when you move them onto the page, the background will be transparent. These elements use partial transparency PNG files, a standard used in all digital scrapbooking kits. Since FxFoto supports partial transparency PNG files, you may use any kit to create layouts in FxFoto.

Adding Photos and Elements

To add elements and photos to your layout, simply click on the photo or element and it will appear in the right pane. If you would like more than one, just click on it as many times as you want. You can click on any element in any of the other kits to add it to your layout too. If you would like to add elements from kits not included in FxFoto, you can certainly do so. You can find directions for using other kits are at the end of this tutorial.

Moving and Resizing Photos and Elements

In the layout you may move an element or photo by dragging it. If you are not familiar with drag and drop, here is how you do it. First, click on the element to select it. You will see the move sign … a + sign with arrows pointing in all directions. Hold down your left mouse button and move your mouse to move the element. Once you get it where you want it, release the left mouse button and it will stay there.

To make an element or photo smaller or bigger, move your mouse over one of the corners until the standard pull box appears. An arrow pointing in opposite directions will appear. Once you see it, just hold down on the left button and pull with your mouse.

To rotate an element or photo, simply point to the rotation circle at the top left corner and turn the element. You can rotate it to any position you want.

You can also rotate by precisely 90 degrees. To do it, select the object and then right click on it. A drop down box will appear - you can see it in the screen shot below. Look for Rotate Collage Image Left and Rotate Collage Image Right and click on one. The image will turn 90 degrees exactly!

Deleting a Photo or Element

To get rid of an element or photo, you can delete it from your collage by selecting it. Then right click on it and a drop down menu will appear. You can see the drop menu in the screen shot above. Click on Delete Image from Collage. A dialog box will appear to make sure you want to delete it. Click on Yes.

Shadows

Adding shadows gives your layout a 3D appearance and makes the elements look much more real. In FxFoto, it is best to add the shadows when you open the elements. Why? Because then you won't forget! What happens to the shadow when you rotate an object? FxFoto automatically changes the shadow so it is in the right place. Take a look at the ribbon in the layout below. As the ribbon is turned the shadow turns with it!

To add a shadow, click on the Info button in the upper toolbar. Now click on the tab that reads Image Placement and Shadow. You can see that dialog box.

Click on the Add Shadow and type the number for shadow height you would like. Then click Apply. If you don't like it, click on Undo.

How much shadow is up to you! Look at the screen shot above and you will see examples of shadow heights of 100 and 50. Here are some suggestions for shadow height for various elements:

Photo: 30 to 50
Mat: 30 to 50
Small elements like paper clips, buttons, brads: 2-5
Medium elements like tags, titles: 10-20

Cropping and editing photos

You can either edit and crop photos before adding them or edit and crop your photos while doing the layout. Here I am going to assume that you have done the basic photo editing already - that you got rid of red eye, used auto improve etc. FxFoto contains a Quick Start Guide which you can find in the Help file which is located on the top toolbar.

You can crop both photos and papers so you can make your own journaling blocks and mats. And you can choose from a huge variety of shapes - blocks and ovals with edges, shapes like stars and butterflies, alphabet stencils and torn edges.

Cropping: Select the photo or paper you want to crop and click on the Crop button. Take a look at the box - you can crop in a rectangle or oval by clicking on the button. Then go to the selected image. Your cursor will now look like a + sign in a dotted box. Left click on the upper right corner where you want the crop to start and drag the mouse down to the right. A box or oval will appear as you drag your mouse. You can see the crop box (blue outline on the black marble paper) in the screen shot below. Here we are cropping the mat that will be used under the photo.

Stop and release the mouse where you want to stop. Did you get it just right? Great! Click on Crop Image.

Not quite where you wanted or the edges aren't quite right? You can move or adjust the crop. Move your cursor along the dotted crop edge. You will see it change to a double pointed arrow or to the move symbol. Once it does, left click and hold and use your mouse to move it. Want to try a fun shape? Click on Pull or Adjust Pattern, then click on the down arrow to produce a drop menu. From the drop menu, choose Cutters Library.

Feathering: You can create a feathered edge when you crop. Find the Feather at Outline Edges slider and use it to give a professional edge to your photo. In the example below, the red oval has a feathered edge. In our layout, we will use feathered edges on the photo. We used a feathered edge of 28. Be sure to set the feathering before you crop.

Making Mats (using the same shape to crop several papers):

Now let's crop some paper for the photo mats. To make the photo mats, we have cropped the photo of the girl and the mat paper with the same shape. Then we adjusted the mat by pulling on it to enlarge it a bit beyond the photo.

You can do this by using the Keep Crop Rope box. Here is how we did it: Select the photo. Click on Crop. Click on Pull or Adjust Pattern and choose Some Rounding. Now click and pull your shape and then adjust it if need be. Click on the Keep Crop Rope box. Move feather slider to 28 and click on Crop Image. Now your photo is cropped. Move your cursor so the move symbol appears, then holding down the left mouse button, move the photo from under the blue crop rope. In the screen shot above, you can see the cropped photo is being moved away from the crop rope. And you can see the black patterned paper which we will crop next.

Now click on Correct. The crop rope will remain. Click on the black marble -patterned paper and the plain red paper in Colours of Heritage folder. They will both open in the main pane. Move the black paper under the crop rope and click on the Crop tab. Move the Feather slider to 0 and click on Crop Image. Now do the same thing with the red paper.

On the left you can see we have cropped the photo and patterned paper and we are about to crop the red paper. You can do this to create your own journaling blocks and mat them too.

To make the journaling block we will crop it out of the gray paper. We used the same crop shape - Some Rounding - but when we clicked and pulled it, we made it more horizontal.

Let's add shadows to each of these cropped papers to give them some depth. First click on the photo to select it. Now in the tool bar click the tab marked. Click on the tab marked Image Placement and Shadow. For the photo and mats we will use a shadow of 25 so click on the Add Shadow box and type 25. Now click on Apply and the shadow will be applied to the photo. Now go ahead and add the same shadow to both the black marble and red mat as well as the gray journaling block as seen below:

Arranging your Layout

Now let's put the photo together with the mats and arrange our journaling block. To do this we need to get the various items to go either over or under each other. In FxFoto, you can have any object go over or under any other object, much like you do with paper.

The black marble mat is going to be on the bottom, so click on it and move it into the lower left corner of the red background. Now move your mouse over a corner of the black mat until you see a double headed arrow. When you click and hold it, you can enlarge the black marble mat. Make it bigger so that it is about half the width of your page.

Now, click on the next mat which is the red cropped one to select it. Right click it and from the drop menu, choose, Show Image on Top. Now it will slide over the black one. Using the same technique as you used with the black one, enlarge it a bit so the black shows around the edges.

Lastly, click on the photo to select it. Right click and choose Show Image on Top. Now, slide the photo on top of the red mat and adjust the size so you can see some red around it. That's it - you're done with matting!

Now move the journaling block to the right lower corner and adjust the size. Your page should now look like this:

Adding the Title

The Colours of Heritage kit comes with an alphabet which we will use to create a title. Scroll down the folder and click on the letters J, O and Y. They will open in your main pane.

Let's give them some depth to the letters by adding a shadow. First click on the letter to select it. Then click on Info and Image Placement and Shadow > Click on Add Shadow >15 > Apply. Do this for each of the letters. Move them by dragging them to the upper gray strip and arrange them.

Text

What would a layout be without text for journaling and word art? You can use any font you have installed on your computer in FxFoto. In addition you can use alphabets, such as the one included in Colours of Heritage, too.

Click on the Text button in the upper pane. In the Text box there are several choices for adding text as you can see.

Click on New Text Object and the box you see on the right will open.

Here you can choose a font, font size and select a font color. Select a font (here we used Jokerman in black with a font size of 72) and type your journaling. Then click on OK.

There are loads of interesting things you can do with text. You can arrange in arcs, waves or circles. And you can jitter the letters to make them a bit crooked. You can find controls for both of these tools in Background and Arc. You can also apply some fun effects to your text like beveling, shadows and a raised 3D effect. To see the list of effects, click on the down arrow next to Effect.

Embellishments

The final touch and perhaps the most fun, is adding embellishments. Often called elements in digital scrapbooking, these are ribbons, brads, staples, paper clips etc. On this page we have added a paperclip to the photo and two ribbons to the journaling block.

Paperclip: to make the clip really look like it is holding paper, you need to take away some of the clip. In paper scraping this part of the metal clip would be behind the paper. But in digital scraping, we just make that part of the clip transparent.

First, click on the paper clip to select it. Now add a shadow of 5 by using Info >Image Placement and Shadow > Add Shadow > 5 > Apply. Now position it where you would like on the photo. We rotated it slightly and left a bit of the upper clip above the black mat.

Now click on the clip to select it and then zoom way in on it as shown below. Now click on the Correct button. Then look for the Color Brush. Choose the Square Color Brush and your mouse cursor on the paperclip will be a small blue square as you can see below.

Now look for New Color bar which is in the middle section of the Color Brush tab. Below the bar is the Transparency slider. Move the slider all the way over to the right (255) and your brush will make whatever it touches transparent. With this amount of zoom, we chose a Brush Width of 35.

Move your cursor to the section of paper clip that would be behind the paper - that is the middle section. Hold down the left button and move the brush along the area you want to make disappear. In the screen shot below, you can see we have removed part of the clip. Just keep going until you have erased the middle of the paperclip. Zoom out and your paperclip will look just like it is holding paper!

Ribbons and Staples

Click on a ribbon twice to get two ribbons. Now apply a shadow of 10 (Info >Image Placement and Shadow >Add Shadow > 10 > Apply). Drag the ribbons to the journaling block and resize to get the right proportions. Right click on the ribbon and from the drop menu choose Show Image on Top. You can rotate them a bit to make them look more natural.

In paper scrapbooking, these types of ribbons are usually attached using a staple and so we will add a digital staple. Click on the brass staple in the kit. Now drag it to the ribbon. Right click on the staple and from the drop menu choose Show Image on Top. Now adjust the staple size to match the ribbon size.

Saving your Layout

In FxFoto you may save your layout as either a collage or as a static image (jpg file) or both. If you save it as a collage, then you can go back and edit it later but you cannot edit a static image.

To save as a collage, click on the Collage button. Then click on the fifth button down which reads Save Collage Document. Decide whether you want to save it as a new collage or if you are replacing an old one and name the folder where you would like it saved. Then click Next. Make sure the Multi-photo Collage button is depressed and then click Next. On this dialog box, there are a number of options which you may want to play with later but for now just click Finish.

To save as an image, click on the File on the very top tool bar. Look down the menu for Save Image As. In the dialog box, click on Entire Collage and then click Next. Decide whether you are replacing an old image or adding a new one and also select the folder. Then click Finish.

Congratulations on your first layout!

Changing Your Collage Settings

If you ever want to change the size (like you decide you would rather do 12x12 than 8x8) or you don't like the background, you can change these things and more by using Collage Settings. Click on the Collage button in the upper left corner. From the drop menu choose Collage Settings.

Once you click on Collage Settings, you will see the dialog box below:

Change the Background If you would like to change the background, click on the Background and Theme tab. Click on Background Image and you can navigate as you did before to a folder and pick a new background.

Change Collage Size If you would like to change the size, click on the Page Guides tab. You can see that tab in the box below. Click on the size you would like and then click OK.

Using Other Kits

Since FxFoto supports partial transparency PNG files, you are not limited to using just the kits that came with FxFoto Creative. To use another kit in FxFoto, you would first need to download to your computer.

To use another background, click on the Collage button and then go to College Settings. Select Background and Theme which you can see in the dialog box above. Check Background Image and then navigate to the folder where the kit is stored. Open the paper then click OK.

To add elements from a kit to your layout, click on File on the top tool bar. Then click on Open or Add Image. In the dialog box that opens, navigate to the folder where the elements you want to use are stored. Select the item you want and click Open. Then click on Browse to locate the folder and click OK.

Printing Your Layout

On your printer:

Click on one or more left-pane photos to open them. Press the Print button and a thumbnail of the collage page will appear. Select your layout by clicking to add a green tag and press Next. Choose various Printer Settings, such as title and caption text to print at the top and bottom of each page, and press Next again. Choose the "Entire Collage" and you will see previews of the page. Press Finish and the final printer control dialog will appear.

On a Print Site:

Upload makes it easy to send photos to online printing and sharing sites. Click on one or more left-pane photos to open them. Press the Upload button and thumbnails of all open photos appear. Select one or more to be uploaded by clicking to toggle on their green tags and press Next. Choose the upload service from the available list. FxFoto can automatically send files over the Internet to most listed services.

The Generic choice places your selected photos in a special folder to make it easier to manually upload them to other services. This folder is called FxFotoUpload and is located in My Documents. After pressing Next again, choose the style of the images to be uploaded and see them previewed. Also choose whether to Deresolve for faster uploading (but too much deresolution can make prints fuzzy). Press either Next or Finish and follow the instructions for the selected service. For most services a browser window appears after selected photos have finished uploading so that you can organize them online or order prints.

When you print your layouts, you need to make sure that elements, titles, photos etc are not right up against the edge of the layout. If they are you may find they are cut off when they are printed. Here is what Mpix (www.mpix.com) says about this problem, "Digital printers have what is called oversizing. Oversizing is a process in which the image being developed onto the photo paper is magnified by a certain percentage in order to counteract paper shift within the printer. Photographic paper is loaded into the printer in rolls. As the paper travels from the roll through the machine it can drift up to 1/8 inch by the time it reaches the lasers that expose the paper with the image. No amount of calibration on the paper path can prevent this drift." They therefore recommend leaving a margin of about 1/4 inch on your layout edges.