Photoshop Tutorial: Creating Your Own Contact Sheet

Need a simple but versatile promotional?

If you have Photoshop, Contact Sheets are great tool. They're easy to create, and can be used as a mini catalog of your products to stuff in packages and hand out at Craft Shows.

What do you need to get started?

• Photographs of your products that are all the same dimensions/size (Preferably in a folder all by themselves to make this easier!)
  
• Photoshop (I'll be using Photoshop 7)
• About an hour of free time

So you have what you need? Let's get started!

1. Open Photoshop, and click File > Automate > Contact Sheet

As you can see in the screenshot, it's really easy to find but most people don't even know it's there! Next, you will see the following window pop up:

First, under Source Folder.

Click the Browse... button. Select the folder that includes all of your images that you want on your Contact Sheet. I'm making a Contact Sheet for Etsian FancifulForm during this tutorial, so I have selected the folder on my desktop that contains all her images.

Next, under Document.

I have selected 8 by 10 inches as I want this to fit comfortably on a full sheet of standard paper. Resolution 300 DPI in CMYK Color mode - optimal for printing quality. I have unchecked the Flatten All Layers checkbox as I want to customize the text, if you choose not to add text, you can Flatten the Layers.

Next, under Thumbnails.

I have selected Place Across First, as I want the images to flow left to right from the Folder. The folder alphabetizes by file names, so if you want a particular order to your images, rename your file names to correlate. I have 16 images but want enough space across the bottom for extra information, so I have chosen 4 columns and 5 rows - this will seperate out enough space equivalent to one row on the bottom and leave it blank.

Next, under Use Filename as Caption.

I have checked the box so I can apply appropriate captions to the Contact Sheet, this is optional! I left the text options at default.

Time to click Ok! Photoshop will begin putting together your Contact Sheet and may take some time, go grab a cup of coffee. ;)

Well, here we are!

The default Contact Sheet is showing off all of FancifulForm's beautiful products and lists the filenames under each photograph.

Go through and redo all the text to your liking, I changed some formatting and replaced the filename text with the name of her product pictured and the price it is available for in her Etsy store.

In the blank row at the bottom, I added a simple box that tells about FancifulForm's collection, craft, and where to buy her products!


Save up the file, and print it whenever you need it. Here's what FancifulForm's Final Contact Sheet looks like on the left.

Suggested Uses:

• Handouts at Craft/Art Shows
• Mini Catalogs for Shipping, Consignment, Wholesale, and more!

You can also use the Etsy Poster tool to create a Contact Sheet from your Etsy listings, I'll try to remember to do a tutorial on that soon!