disclabel help: what is disclabel?

Transcription

1 disclabel help: what is disclabel? disclabel helps you make great-looking labels for your CDs, DVDs, and related materials mightier than the pen. Features: Start with a pre-designed template, or make your own Import track lists from itunes, iphoto, and idvd Import images directly from iphoto albums Print to a wide array of label and paper types Purchase high-quality labels & supplies directly from the disclabel Store Download additional templates (and share your own) via the Internet Include (and edit!) multi-line text laid out in a circle Automate label creation with AppleScript Available in English, Japanese, German, Italian, and French

2 disclabel help: step-by-step from itunes To create a fantastic-looking label from one of your itunes playlists: 1. Press the Template function button 2. Select disclabel Templates from the Category: menu 3. Click the templates in the Work Area to preview them 4. Select a template you like and press New Design from Template 5. Enter a name for your new design in the Design List 6. Press the itunes import button 7. Select a playlist from the menu beneath the itunes button 8. Press Apply to Selected Design 9. Press the Paper function button 10. Follow the Printing instructions to print your creation Notes: Typically, you can scroll the template previews to see more of them Registered users can change the Category: to see user-submitted templates You can double-click a template preview to make a new design

3 disclabel help: step-by-step building a new label These instructions show you one way to build a new label starting from scratch, without using a template. 1. Start with a blank label Click the plus button or choose New Design from the File menu. The new design is automatically added to the design list on the left hand side. 2. Name your new design Type a name for your design and press return. Your new design is selected and you will see a blank disc in the Edit function. 3. Choose a photo for the background Click the photo import button, and choose to import from the iphoto library. Select an iphoto album, click the photo you want to use, and click Import. Note: if you don't have iphoto, or you have no photos in your iphoto library you can drag an image file from the Finder onto the disc editing surface to import a photo. You will see the photo you chose in the new design, and it will be selected - small selection handles (boxes) shown at each corner 4. Crop your photo Click the cropping button (it is only enabled when a photo is selected). The cropping sheet appears. Click and drag the mouse over the area of the photo you want to use. Check Fit Original Size if you want it to cover the same surface area. Now click Crop and your image is replaced with the portion you chose. Drag the image around by holding the mouse down within it and dragging. Resize the image by clicking and dragging one of its selection handles.

4 5. Change the opacity of your photo Change the opacity of the image by first clicking the color button And then dragging the opacity slider down to fade the image - this allows any text placed on top of the image to be read more easily. 6. Import some tracks Select the Import function, click itunes, and choose a playlist. Click Assign to Selected Design to associate the playlist with your design. If you don't click Assign to Selected Design before going back to the Edit function, then you won't get to use your playlist with the design. disclabel automatically chooses Edit for you. 7. Place the tracks on your design Click the bottom track region button to see your tracks. Click a different track region button if you want them in a different place. 8. Put each track on a new line Click after the length tag in the tag display area. Press return. 9. Remove the Artist tag Double-click the Artist tag. Press delete. See the result on the disc surface.

5 10. Add a Title Click the text button Drag a text area over the disc where you want the album title to be. Double-click the text that appears to select it. Now choose Album from the Insert Tag pop-up menu. Press return. Now choose Artist from the Insert Tag pop-up menu. To see your title as imported Choose Preview (or press command-e) from the preview pop-up menu on the bottom right. Note that preview is automatically turned off when you edit text. 11. Change the title font First make sure your album/artist text object is still selected (has corner selection rectangles). Click in the text once to select it if it doesn't. Choose Font->Show Fonts from the Format menu Pick a new font and size. Your disc is now complete. 12. Making a CD cover To make a cover you could repeat the above steps for each cover element. It's much easier, however,

6 to duplicate the objects you created for the disc into a cover. To duplicate the elements: - first choose Select All from the Edit menu - next choose Copy from the Edit menu - choose which design element you want to work with next - choose Paste from the Edit menu To clean up: - drag the corner of the background image to make sure the area is fully covered (hold down the shift key to keep the image resizing proportional) - fix the track text by repeating steps 8 and 9 above - drag any of the text elements to fine-tune their position 13. Making a CD tray insert Follow the steps in 12 but instead use the CD tray insert design element To add text along the spine of the CD tray click the horizontal text button and drag out a horizontal text region approximately as wide as the CD tray is high. Double-click the text and insert - the Album and Artist tags like you did in step 10. This time do not put a return between the two tags, instead use a separating mark, such as a bullet point (option-8 on the keyboard). Rotate the text so it is suitable for the spine of the CD tray Click the rotate around center button, and drag the text item by clicking and dragging within one of the selection handles. Hold down the shift key to constrain the rotation to 45 degree increments as shown below.

7 Click the arrow button to stop rotating, and click and drag in the text to drag the text object into its new position on the spine. Center the text by choosing Text->Center from the Format menu. Finally duplicate the spine text to the other side by dragging the text object to the other side while the option key is held down. Turn preview on again to see the finished result. Choose Save As Template from the File menu if you wish to reuse this template with different imported tracks in the future. You can fairly quickly reuse this design with a different image.

8 - First, delete the image from the three design elements you've used (click the image, and press the delete button in each design element) - Now import another image from iphoto or the Finder & size and crop it as you like - Choose Send to Back from the Arrange menu to get it behind the text - Copy the image by choosing Copy from the Edit menu - In each of the other design elements, paste the image & size & position the image as you like. Don't forget to send the image to the back each time.

9 disclabel help: getting around The easiest way to get started with disclabel is to follow the step-by-step guide for creating a label for an itunes playlist. disclabel is a single-window application with these parts: a. Design List: choose or create design, which may contain several parts b. Work Area: view, edit, and prepare to print your labels c. Function Buttons: choose what you wish to do d. Design Element Selector: choose to work on a disc, CD cover, CD tray, folding CD cover, DVD cover, disc spine, DVD insert, slimline CD case, CD core, mini CD, business card CD, VHS wrap, VHS face, or VHS spine e. Function Area: perform function-specific actions such as importing from itunes Template functions Category: - select a category of pre-designed templates to show in the Work Area; My Templates contains templates stored using Save As Template from the File menu; disclabel Templates are provided by SmileOnMyMac, LLC. Use Internet (registered users only) - check the Internet for new templates shared by other disclabel users New Design from Template - create a new design from the currently-selected template Share Template - share your template with all other disclabel users (only available when the Category is My Templates ) (Note: If you wish to share your template with specific users, use the Export command in the File menu.) Name, Author, Description, Web Site, - fill in these fields when creating templates in the My Templates Category; when sharing your template, this information is provided to other users Import functions itunes, iphoto, idvd - select an application from which to import tracks Test Playlist - choose a playlist / album / project or select Make My Own

10 Assign to Selected Design - assign the current track list to the selected design Track List - double-click to edit anything in the list; drag & drop to re-order tracks Add Row, Remove Row(s) - add or remove row(s) from the track list Edit functions From top to bottom, left to right: Selection Tools - select (move, drag), rotate around center of design, rotate around center of object Object Tools - line, oval (circle), rectangle (square), rectangular text, circular text; select object tool then click and drag in design to create object Apply Color - select object(s), click, and set color in Mac OS X color palette Stroke / Fill - select object(s), then choose either stroke width or fill Zoom - drag to zoom in or out of design; click pictures on end for zoom to fit Insert Image - click to insert image from your iphoto library or from a file of your choosing Crop Image - click to bring up the cropping sheet Track Format Editor - edit track format here by inserting tags, changing font / style / color, etc. Insert Tag - inserts any available tag in the track format editor or a rectangular or circular text object (Note: You can type chevrons using option-\ and shift-option-\) Track Format Navigation - move forward and backward, show format number of total, and permit adding and removal of track formats Hole Size - specify whether this design should have a small or large hole (only applies to parts of type disc) Track Regions - click to specify in general where you'd like tracks to be laid out then resize to your liking Preview - toggle track preview, select your imported tracks or one of several pre-defined track sets for preparing or testing your design Paper functions Stylus C82 - select printer Print Mark - prints calibration mark for you to measure with a ruler Left / Top - indicates distance of calibration mark from edge for this particular printer Update Labels from Internet - update your list of label types with the latest and greatest

11 Labels: - select label type to show in paper view in Work Area Print Label Outlines - print a sheet with just outlines of the labels (useful for planning designs) Print Labels - print the labels which appear in the Work Area above (Note: Drag from the design list on the left to the blank labels in the Work Area.)

12 disclabel help: templates Designs and Templates The list on the left hand side of the disclabel window is a list of designs. Designs are the things you import tracks into, edit, and print. All designs you make are automatically saved along with tracks that have been assigned via the Import function. Frequently it is helpful to work from a template in order to make your design. A template is simply a design with no imported tracks assigned to it. From the Template function clicking the button New Design from Template is what turns the selected template into a design that you can work with. Making a new Design If you don't want to start with a template you can create an empty design also by clicking the + button, or choosing the File New Design from the menu. Saving your own Templates When you make a design you want to use again and again, you can save it as a template by choosing File Save As Template from the menu. Your template is saved into the template category named My Templates. Select it, and choose New Design from Template, and you'll find you can make as many designs with it as you like. Sharing Templates with Friends A template can be shared in one of two ways: Export it by first selecting it in the Template function, and choose File Export from the menu. Alternatively, drag the selected template to the Finder. Your template file can be imported by doubleclicking it in the Finder or by choosing File Import from the menu. Share your template with other disclabel users by first selecting it, and then clicking the button Share Template.... Follow the on-screen instructions to share your template. You get to choose which of the template categories you'd like it to appear in. Where are my Files Stored? How do I move them to a new Computer? Your files are stored in the folder ~/Library/disclabel where ~ is your home folder (Go Home from the Finder).

13 You can copy them to another computer by copying this directory into the same relative place in your home folder on your other computer.

14 disclabel help: import Customizing Import Sometimes you don't want to import from just one of the main import sources: itunes, iphoto, and idvd. You may wish to edit what you've imported, or even make your own list of tracks. Either way, it is necessary to import from one of the applications first as they provide the tag columns you will want to use. The itunes set of columns is generally the most flexible. NOTE: whenever you import tracks or whenever you edit tracks manually using any of the following steps you must click Assign to Selected Design or your tracks will be lost when you change Function to either Edit or Paper. You can preview your changes in a template without first assigning them. Removing Tracks To remove a track, first select the track you wish to remove by clicking on it. Now click the Remove Row(s) button. You can select multiple rows at once by holding down the shift key and clicking. You can make a discontiguous selection of rows one at a time by holding down the command (or Apple) key and clicking. Adding Tracks Add a track by first clicking on the track you wish to add one after, then click the Add Row button. Editing Track Information Edit individual elements of a track by double-clicking the element you wish to change. You can then edit the text normally. Reordering Track Information Change the order of tracks by clicking any track you wish to move and then dragging it to the position you want.

15 disclabel help: editing Selecting Click on an object in the Edit function in order to select it for editing. Hold down the shift key and click to select more than one object, or to toggle the selection of a particular object. Sometimes you can't see the selection handles of large objects. If you zoom out a bit in the edit view you can see the selection handles on images or other objects that lie partly outside of the design. Click on the large or small disc images either side of the zoom slider to fit the design back into the editing area. If you can't select an object you're trying to select, it might be locked (see Locking) or other objects might be in front of it (see Arranging). You can try locking objects that get in the way and then selecting again. Moving Click on an object and drag the mouse to move it around. If multiple objects are selected (via shiftclick) you can move them all around at once. Hold down the shift key while dragging to constrain the dragging to the closest axis (horizontal or vertical). Duplicating As well as using copy and then paste to duplicate the selection, you can also drag while holding down the option key. This duplicates the objects being dragged, leaving the selected objects in their original positions. Sizing To resize an object, first select it and then click and drag in one of its corner handles. Release the mouse button once it is the size you want. You can resize an object proportionally, or constrain dragging to a particular axis (whichever is closest) by holding down the shift key while you resize the object. Locking Using the Lock function from the Arrange menu can help with selection when multiple objects are getting in the way. Locking a troublesome object that you don't want to select allows you to select only the object you want. In disclabel's templates you will find the background image is usually locked, and generally this is good design practice. Select the menu item Arrange-Unlock All to unlock all objects so they can be selected and

16 manipulated once again. Arranging All objects are drawn in order (back to front). They are also selected in order (front to back). You can change whether an object lies in front of another by using the Arrange menu. Your choices affect only the selected objects. Rotating You can rotate objects as well as drag them. To do this you use the following palette controls: Rotate around center of design With this palette control selected any object you drag rotates around the center of your design. This is great for working with discs, or moving text upside down on a design. Rotate around center of selection With this palette control selected any object you drag rotates around its own center. You can constrain rotation to 45 degree increments only by holding down the shift key while rotating. You can also make a rotated duplicate of the selection by holding down the option key while rotating. Don't forget to click the arrow palette control to drag and size objects normally once again. Importing an Image To import an image click: The sheet that appears shows pictures from albums in iphoto you can use, or you can choose a file via the button at the bottom of the sheet. A faster way to import a file is to drag and drop it from the Finder (or even a web browser) into the editing area. You can also copy and paste graphics into disclabel. You can import an image of any size and scale it in disclabel to effectively get any resolution you want. So, for example, a 1500 x 1500 image at 72dpi, when scaled across a 5" disc will yield 300 dpi, and a 750 x 750 image at 72dpi will yield 150 dpi, etc. Drag the selection handles of a selected image to change its size. Don't forget to hold down the shift key if you want to keep its proportions. Scale or crop your image by double-clicking on the image or by first selecting the image and clicking: The image scaling & cropping sheet will appear. Note that this button won't highlight unless there is a single image selected. From this sheet you can reduce the image by dragging the slider. Click Fit original size to reduce only the resolution of the image (and how much disc space it requires) as you drag the slider. Drag a rectangle over the image to choose a region for

17 cropping. Drawing Lines, Rectangles, and Ovals Click one of these palette controls to add a line, oval, or rectangle to your design. Choose where to add your object by dragging out the desired size in the edit area. Changing Fill or Outline Width When you have a line, oval, or rectangle selected you can change whether it is filled or outlined, and the width of the outline by choosing one of the options from the Fill/Outline control. Note that Fill does not apply to a line. Color To change the color of an object, first select the object by clicking it. The color control updates to show the present color. Click the color control to show the color palette and choose a new color. Note that you can also change the opacity of a color so objects behind show through. You cannot change the color of an image, but you can change its opacity. The color control works in one of two modes - connected or disconnected. When connected, its border is shown highlighted and any color you choose is applied to the selection. When disconnected the border is light gray, and you can only change the color displayed. In this mode you can apply a color by dragging the color swatch in the color window to the color button. This is useful when you don't want the color of the selected object shown in the button to affect the color in the color window, so you can apply a color you have chosen to multiple objects as you select them one at a time. When text is selected internally the color you choose applies only to the selected text. Change the color of text shown in track regions by selecting the track region and changing the color, or select text in the track text region and change its color: Adding and Editing Text

18 Click one of these palette controls to add horizontal or circular text to your design. Choose where to add your object by dragging out the desired size in the edit area. Clicking in the edit area inserts text of the default size (especially useful for adding circular text around the edge of a disc). Edit the text by clicking in it. If the text object is not already selected, the first click selects it, and the second click starts editing. A double-click selects a single word. A triple-click selects the entire text so that typing will replace it completely. Choose format options (including Font) from the Format menu. All format options work on the selected text and require text or a text object to be selected in order to operate. Change the justification of the selected text by choosing Format Text and your desired justification from the menu. Alternatively display the ruler via Format Text Show Ruler and choose justification via the buttons displayed in the Ruler window. To center circular text around the bottom or top of a design you must first have your circular text selected. Now choose Format Text Center. To get your centered text at the top, rotate it around the center of the design with the shift key held down (see Rotating above). Tags Tags are used to specify imported data within text that gets replaced when you print. You can see the imported data when Preview is on. Toggle preview on or off by selecting Preview from the Preview control. Normally you preview using your imported tracks. If you are building a template for general use you may want to preview with some of the sample playlists provided in the menu to test how your template looks. When you click in any text to edit it while preview is on, preview automatically turns off so you can edit the tags. Turn preview on again from the menu to see your imported tracks. Insert any of the tags at the text cursor position by choosing from the Insert Tag control. The tags in this control are grayed out when there is not a current text cursor position. Note that depending on the import source, not all of the tags will be available. For example, if you import from iphoto, the Composer tag does not make any sense. Tags that are not valid for a particular set of imported data are replaced as empty strings when printed, or when preview is turned on. You can use non-breaking space between tags if you don't want a line break to come between them when formatted. To do this, instead of typing a space into your text,

19 hold down the option key and type a space. Track Regions The track regions are for tracks imported via the Import function. Click one of the region buttons and you'll see the tracks imported appear in that area (provided preview is on). The text to the left of these buttons can be edited to change the format of what appears in the regions. You can enter anything into the text and it will appear within each track. You cannot edit text of a track region directly - you have to use the special editing area. The tracks are formatting into a single piece of text by expanding each track from the tags displayed until all tracks are done. Click at the end of the tags (after («Length»)) and press return and all tracks will have a new line following. Press return twice and you'll get a blank line between tracks. You can put any text between tags, and it'll also appear. You can remove tags by double-clicking the tag you wish to remove and pressing delete. You can add tags via the Insert Tag menu. Place the text cursor where you want to insert the tag, and choose the tag you want from the menu. The tracks displayed automatically update (provided Preview is on). Normally there is only one track format, which is used to display every track on the disc. For most purposes this is perfect, and you never need to Add track formats. You would use multiple track formats, however, when, for example, you wanted fonts to alternate on a track by track basis. Use the + button on the bottom to add another format. Select the text, and change the font to something drastically different (notice also that the format number says 2/2 now). Don't forget to add a return at the end if you want a new line after. Use the arrow control to move back, and you'll see the previous text. Any track region present will display alternating fonts per track. You can keep adding more track formats if you want to vary formatting even more on a track by track basis. It's a fairly advanced function, but can produce some nice funky-looking stuff. You can change the font or color of any of the text displayed for each track by selecting the tags and or/text you wish to change, and choosing Format Font-Show Fonts to change the font or by clicking the color button to show the color palette and change the color. You can select and resize any track regions you add as you like to fit your design. Note that left/right opposing regions will automatically change their text justification (left or right) to oppose the opposite region if present and balance out the design. In cases where this behavior is not desirable add two track regions on the same side of the design and move and size them to achieve the look you want without the opposing justification. Note that track regions are somewhat special in that they always shrink text so all the tracks fit. Hole Size If you're editing a disc, then the hole size is important.

20 You can switch the hole size to change how text and track regions format on a disc surface. Some papers print close to the center, and others only around a larger circle, called the core. A safe design uses the larger center hole, but many papers give you the space for a smaller one. Select your choice of hole size from this menu.

21 disclabel help: printing Calibration Most printers require calibration in order to print your labels dead-center: 1. Press the Paper function button 2. Select your printer from the list under Calibration: 3. Press the Print Mark button then hit Print in the sheet 4. Using a ruler, measure from the Left to the mark and change if necessary 5. Using a ruler, measure from the Top to the mark and change if necessary disclabel maintains calibration settings for each printer. The default mark calibration is at 20mm from the top and 20mm from the left. A perfect printer will print the mark at exactly those distances. Note that the mark is always printed uncalibrated whatever measurements you enter. Only the labels and the label outlines are printed using the calibrated distances you provide. Printing 1. Choose the type of label paper you will use 2. Drag your design from the list on the left to the part you wish to print 3. Drag from one part to another to print multiple copies 4. Press Print Labels 5. Set any printer options (such as output quality) and press Print Note: If you are not a registered user, DEMO: disclabel.com will be stamped on your labels. This is so that you can create printed labels even with the demo version. We strongly encourage you to purchase disclabel. Note: disclabel prints a 2mm bleed beyond the label perforation in all directions to cope with inconsistencies in setup accuracy and varying label types. Problem-solving Printing In the Paper function the display only changes based on the choice of label stock. In order to print the different parts of your design you must choose a label stock that will accommodate them, and then drag your design (which must contain the matching part) onto the labels. For example, to print a Jewel case you must have the Jewel case parts of your design defined as follows: In the Paper function choose a Jewel case paper type, such as Fellowes/NEATO A4 Jewel Case Tray Liners, or Fellowes/NEATO A4 Jewel Case Tray Booklet. Drag your design from the list on the left to the label portion of the paper, and you should see appear it for printing. Note you will only be able to drag a design to a label region if you have that part of the design defined already. If you don't, go back to Edit, and choose the associated design element, and

22 edit it to create what you want. After that you will be able to drag the design into matching label stock regions in the Paper function.

23 disclabel help: applescript disclabel includes extensive AppleScript support so that it's possible to automate the label creation process. Example scripts may be found in ~/Library/disclabel/Scripts (where the leading ~ represents the Home button in the Finder) after you've run disclabel at least once. You may view disclabel's AppleScript dictionary by dragging the disclabel application onto the Script Editor icon. If you create a script you'd like to share with other disclabel customers, please let us know. You're welcome to send such scripts to support@disclabel.com.

24 disclabel help: tips & tricks Track Format Tags You may type tags directly using option-\ and shift-option-\ to create the chevrons («and»). You may use tags in rectangular and circular text objects - either enter them directly or use the Insert Tag popup menu when editing a text object. You may use «+» to advance the track used for substitution. You may use «*» to repeat everything following for every track. You may use a track number enclosed in chevrons (for example, «2») to set the track to use for subsequent tags. You can use non-breaking space to keep the track number with the title. Enter non-breaking space with the option key+space. You may want to put a standard space before the track number if you do this in order to avoid the track text itself being split within a word in tight areas. For example: space«track #»option+space«title» Special Keys: Shift - constrain proportions with any of the object tools; create squares and circles with the rectangle and oval tools Option - copy object Design Hints: Option-drag during rotate around circle - use this with shape objects to create fun regularly-shaped patterns rotated around the label Image transparency - select an image and press the Apply Color button, then set the opacity to your desired level Colorizing an image - add a rectangle in front of the image you wish to colorize. Press the apply color button, and set the opacity of the rectangle below 100%, and change its color. The image beneath appears to be colorized with the transparent hue of the rectangle in front. We often use this technique to ghost out part of an image behind text with a white transparent rectangle. This makes the text easier to read.