The question of the week (2)

As announced last week, in this new section on the blog, I would like to tackle a question asked by one of the blog’s readers. That reader might very well be you, so if you have a Lightroom-related question, just mail to questions(at)morethanwords.be, and while I cannot promise to answer every question, the most relevant and interesting (to other readers that is -  I assume your own question should at least be of interest to yourself ) ones will be handled on the blog. You might also put your questions in the comments section. It’s up to you.

So here’s question number two (number one is a few entries back but as it dates from before the time this blog switched to English, it is only available in Dutch).

This question comes from blog reader Christina after viewing my two-part video on how to create a Print Template in Lightroom. Christina wanted to know how to create a custom page size in Lightroom for Windows, as this is a little different than it is for Mac. I will get to that question in a second, but let me first talk about some other differences you might encounter between the Mac and Windows version of Lightroom (most of which are to the advantage of the former).

• If you want to add music to a slideshow, all you have to do is to select an iTunes playlist in Mac. In the Windows version, you would have to create a folder with mp3’s, and if you want those mp3’s to play in a particular order, you should rename them using a naming scheme that starts wit ‘01 ‘, ‘02 ‘, … Quite prehistoric, isn’t it?
• Mac users also have a little more options to add drop shadows to text in the slideshow module, which can not only create cooler looking slideshows, but also creates more legible type when you want to put things like exif-info or titles on top of your pictures instead of below or above them. Since the content of the pictures is likely to change, a text with a shadow is likely to be more legible than a text without, which might be very legible on one type of picture but not at all on another.
• In the Print options (bottom left of the left Panel of the Print Module), Windows users will only find the ‘Page Setup’, whereas Mac users will find both a ‘Page Setup’ and a Printer Settings button. And this is where we get to Christina’s question…

In order to define a custom page size (one of the steps in the template video), in the Mac version of Lightroom, you do so by clicking on the Page Setup button. In the ensuing dialog box,  next to the ‘Paper Size’ entry, you can choose ‘Manage Custom Sizes’ in the dropdown list and create a custom paper size (which absolutely does not have to be the size of the paper that you are finally going to print on, by the way).
In Windows, as usual, things are a little more complicated, and you have to define a custom page size somewhere in the printer driver, that you see when you hit Lightroom for Windows’ (only) Page Setup button.

I’ll illustrate it with my HP C7280 Multifunctional printer. The process might be a little different for your printer, but should be quite comparable. If you hit the Page Setup Button in the Windows version of Lightroom, you will get a dialog box that lets you choose the printer you want to be working with. Next to the dropdown box is a ‘Properties’ button. If you click that, you will open the printer driver for that specific printer, which will of course be different from printer to printer. For my printer, the ability to enter a custom page size is hidden behind the ‘Properties’ (again)-tab of the Printer Driver. There, under ‘Size’ is a dropdown-list that, in addition to the standard featured A4 size features a ‘More…’ and a ‘Custom…’ possibility. Clicking the ‘Custom….’ option lets you define a page size. You can then save your newly created page size, and the next time you hit Lightroom’s Page Setup, you will be able to select your new paper size from the dropdown list in the ‘Paper Size’ section of the dialog box.

The whole process actually sounds more complex than it is, so be sure to give it a try!