Options

PhotoFramer provides a range of customization options.  These are configured using the Options window which is accessible from the About menu.  The Options window has a series of tabs across the top that correspond to the different sets of parameters.  Each of them is discussed in detail below.

Image Save Options

Figure25 - Image Save Options

These options control how images are saved when you choose the Save As… menu item from the File menu.  If you check the Query for quality and dimensions on each save checkbox, then each time you save, the Image Sizer window will be displayed to allow you to set the size of the image before you save it.  If this item is not checked, then the settings listed in the rest of the window will be used when saving an image.

The Image Dimensions and Compression settings show the current default settings for the saved image’s pixel dimension and compression settings.  To change these default settings, click the Change Settings button.  The Image Sizer window (see page 22) will be displayed to allow you to set the parameters as you wish.

Email Options

Figure26 - Email Options

These options control how images are managed when you choose the Email… menu item from the File menu.  If you check the Query for quality and dimensions on each save checkbox, then each time you email, the Image Sizer window will be displayed to allow you to control the size of the image you email.  If this item is not checked, then the settings listed in the rest of the window will be used when emailing an image.

The Image Dimensions and Compression settings show the current default settings for the email image’s pixel dimension and compression settings.  To change these default settings, click the Change Settings button.  The Image Sizer window (see page 22) will be displayed to allow you to set the parameters as you wish.

Print Options

Figure - Print Options

These options control how images are managed when you choose the Print… menu item from the File menu.  If you check the Query for size on each print checkbox, then each time you print, the Print Sizer window will be displayed to allow you to control the size of the image you print.  If this item is not checked, then the settings listed in the rest of the window will be used when printing an image.

The window displays information about how the image will be scaled and positioned on the page.  To change these default settings, click the Change Settings button.  The Print Sizer window (see page 24) will be displayed to allow you to set the parameters as you wish.

Online Update Options

Figure28 - Online Update Options

PhotoFramer includes an automatic update notification that allows you to be notified if a newer version of PhotoFramer is available for you.

The Online Updates option controls how PhotoFramer checks for updates.  If your computer is connected to a broadband internet connection, then you should set this setting to Check automatically on start up.  When this option is chosen, PhotoFramer will occasionally check the Pixlabs server when you start the program to see if there is a newer version available.

If your computer is not connected to a broadband internet connection, you should select the Do not check automatically option.  In this case, we recommend that you occasionally select the Check for newer version… menu item from the About menu to manually connect to the Pixlabs server to check for an updated version of the program.  This will assure you that you will be running the most up to date version of the program.

General Options

Figure29 - General Options

Some significant processing is required for PhotoFramer to render its photorealistic frames.  Fortunately, Desktop computers are very powerful and almost able to do this rendering in real time.  However, it does take some time to perform all the required calculations.  In addition, today’s digital cameras are recording very large, high-quality images.  The larger the image the more processing is required.  In order to make PhotoFramer as responsive as possible, it offers the option to Downsample working image to fit the screen size.  When this option is checked, if the image you are working with is larger than the screen you are working on, the image will be reduced in size to fit on the screen.  This translates to fewer calculations for PhotoFramer and thus faster response time.  Whenever an image is output via email, save or print, PhotoFramer will re-render the frame based on the original image to assure that no quality will be lost.  Unless you are doing critical work that requires zooming in to carefully choose colors, or running on an extremely fast computer, we recommend leaving this option checked.

The second option allows you to set how the filename will be generated when saving your image.  By default an image named mypic.jpg will be saved as mypic-framed.jpg by PhotoFramer.  You may enter an alternate filename string in this box.  Note: Make certain this option is NOT blank or you may accidentally overwrite your original image.  We recommend that you always keep an untouched original version of all your images.