All Image settings are located at the Image feature icon in the top menu bar. If a frame with the Image feature is selected the tab shows the settings for images.
Every image can either fit into a frame fully visible (fit) or fill out a frame entirely (fill). Additionally Printess features an AI based fitmode which is described below. In fill mode one can additionally define if the image should keep its aspect ratio or - if switched off - should get entirely squezed into the frame potentially squezing the content (neccesary e.g. for Image Filter Snippets). Additionally one can crop an image to apply an individual clipping.
In both modes one might use the Fit Frame To Image button which will adjust the frame to the size and position of the full image, also removing any cropped area.
When using the fill option the focal point setting is taken into account. E.g. if set to the center-top it will center the image and move its top to the top of the frame. This ensures that the focal point area stays visible even with differing aspect ratios between frame and image.
By using the Crop button one can choose the visible area of an image. In crop mode, the frame changes and shows the visible area surrounded by larger white bars and the complete size of the image as a slightly grayed out area with normal frame manipulators. Both frames can be manipulated independently and by clicking the center of the visible area one can also move the image inside the visible area. Press the Close Crop button or use Esc to leave crop mode.
AI mode uses image analysis to set the cropping area for Images. This setting stays active in buyer mode so every buyer uploaded images will be cropped based on this setting. Each AI fit mode also has a possible setting.
As a first available analysis option Printess supports AI face detection. This is useful e.g. for photo books where buyer uploaded images should automatically focus faces.
Each uploaded Image will undergo an analysis and the crop area will be set based on the face mode:
Face - Group Mode
Face detection will try to identify all forward looking faces and focus to the boundnig box arround all detected faces.
Face - Portrait Mode
Face detection tries to find the largest face in the image and focus to it.
Here is a comparison between fill, Face-Group Mode and Face-Portrait Mode on two images.
Images can be masked by either a shape or a single line text. To use this option the frame must contain either a Shape or a Single Line frame feature. To switch on masking, click on either the Shape or Text button and the image will be masked with the selected feature. Only the fill area of the feature will be used for masking. If a stroke is present it will be drawn without masking.
If a frame with an image feature is selected, one can also change the image shown by clicking on one of the loaded images in the Change Image area. If the former image had crop selected the frame will automatically switch to fill mode to ensure the new image is not distorted. If Fit or Fill was selected the setting will stay.
Pixel Mask halftone masks a given image by stretching the set Mask-Image to cover the entire image, then masks the Frames-Image with it either with Inverse switched off (white = image visible, black =image not visible) or the inverse of this, when Inverse is switched on. Additionally, one can select between masking by image content (Masking Channel = image) or by its alpha channel (Masking Channel = alpha). If image is selected and the mask image is a color image the combined color channels will be reduced to a gray image before masking.
This mode is for images used in monochrome engraving which should be full color above a certain threshold. It also uses the set engraved/not engraved color for displaying on buyer side.
Check out our Engraving example to see this powerful feature in action!
Printess allows users to easily change basic image properties like brightness, contrast or saturation directly in the Image tab.
Additionally, one can use an adjustable sepia effect or rotate the hue of the image, effectively rotating all colors in the image:
This allows for Gamma changes of the image either for all or for separate channels. This filter is especially useful to change light color like skin tones. Have a look at our Avatar example where this feature is used extensivly.
Color multiply simply multiplies a given (RGB) color onto an image. This comes in handy in case you’d like to color comic elements like hair, skin etc. all white areas will become the selected color, all black areas simply stay black.
This is a special feature only for SVG graphics. It lets you replace up to three different colors in a SVG graphic.
First put the HEX-Code of the color you want to replace in the Form Field “…color to find”. Then choose a color to replace it with from the Form Field below. Click on the small pipette symbol on the right to pick a color from screen.
Notice: Be aware that this feature will replace the HEX-Codes inside the SVG file. So it will only work properly, when given the exact HEX-Value. For example: If the HEX-Code inside the SVG file had six digits (#000000), using a three digit code (#000) would not work.