Object Toolbar

The toolbar contains the main tools and commands that can be applied to a specified element in the workspace, or that can be used to add a new element to the workspace. For reasons of clarity, the icons are grouped according to topic in toolboxes.

If you hover the mouse cursor above an icon, a tooltip will appear describing the tool.

As there is insufficient space to display all the tools in the toolbar, some of the tool boxes feature a " ... " symbol which displays the hidden tools when clicked.

Tip:
You can also show many of the tools from the toolbar and several additional commands in the pop-up menu of the element or the editor by clicking with the right mouse button.

The following toolbars are not always available in all editors. In which case they are "greyed out".

 

General Toolbar

"Save" Icon

With this icon, you can save your product at any stage in the editing process.
If you have not already saved this product, then a dialogue box will open up in which you can specify where you want to save it and the files name.

"Open" Icon

Here you can open projects which you have already saved and continue working on them or place an order.
A dialogue box opens in which you can select the file name and where it is saved.

"CEWE PHOTOBOOK Assistant" Icon

Opens the assistant for the respective photo product, for example the CEWE PHOTOBOOK Assistant which simplifies and automates most of the workflow.
Creates a draft CEWE PHOTOBOOK, which often requires minimal, if any, reworking.

"Save as" Icon

This has the same function as Save, but you can give the product another file name, for example to create a copy of your product or archive various versions or editing statuses.

"Price details and product specifications" Icon

Opens up a dialogue window containing the features of the product being edited and the price details.

It is possible to edit the features later, for example, in the case of a photobook, the type of cover, the number of pages, the type of paper and the sizes.

 

 

The "Editing" Toolbar

"Undo last action" Icon

Undoes your last action.
(Only available if an action was performed previously).

"Redo last action" Icon

Redoes the last command that you undid.
That is, it undoes the last "Undo" command.
(Only available if an "Undo" action was performed previously).

"Delete" Icon

Deletes the selected element or multiple selected elements.

"Delete selected elements" Icon

Copies the selected element or elements to the clipboard and removes the original/originals.

"Copy selected elements" Icon

Copies the selected element or elements to the clipboard and keeps the original/originals.

"Paste from clipboard" Icon

Inserts elements from the clipboard into the editor workspace.

 

 

The "Layout" Toolbar

"Grid" Icon

This displays a non-printable grid to help you position the layout frames.

If the "Magnetic object snapper" is switched on (next icon), then the layout frames snap to the grid intersections.

You can set the gridline spacing in "Settings" in the "Editor" section.

"Magnetic alignment" Icon

Turns on the "Magnetic alignment" function.
This makes it easier to align the layout frames.
The layout frames snap onto each other horizontally and/or vertically.
Automatically superimposed gridlines extend the sides of other objects and aid general alignment.

You can set the sensitivity of the "Magnetic alignment" in "Settings" in the "Editor" section.

"Rotate element anti-clockwise" and "Rotate element clockwise"

These tools rotate the selected layout frame (including content) by 90°.
To invert an image or text, simply click the tool twice.

"Move object one level forward" and "Move object one level back" Icons.

The layout frames can overlap and cover each other partially.

These commands organise the order in which the frames are superimposed, that is, which frame is in the foreground and which frame is in the background of the layout.

Text frames are always in the foreground and can be moved around but never behind a photo.

"Use next layout" Icon

If a saved page layout is available with the same number of images, the software will apply this if you click this button.
This way you can try out the available page layouts one after another to find out which one you prefer.
Text fields are not taken into account as part of this process, and text boxes that have already been used are deleted!

"Automatic Layout Tool" Icon

When you add a new layout frame to a product page or remove a layout frame from a page, the software automatically applies the next saved layout that matches the number of images to ensure the best possible distribution of layout frames. If no matching layout is available, the software will display a message to this effect.
You can toggle this function on and off by clicking this button.

"Save layout" Icon

After customising a layout or creating a new layout, you can save the layout before applying it to other pages.
The layout then appears in the page layout selection area and is marked with an asterisk.

 

In the expanded area:

"Centre object horizontally" Icon

Aligns the selected frames next to one another on a horizontal line.
The first selected object is the master object.

"Centre object vertically" Icon

Aligns the selected frames next to one another on a vertical line.
The first selected object is the master object.

"Align object with the left margin" Icon

Aligns the selected frames on the left-hand side.
The first selected object is the master object.

"Align object with the right margin" Icon

Aligns the selected frames on the right-hand side.
The first selected object is the master object.

"Align object with the bottom" Icon

Aligns the selected frames at the bottom.
The first selected object is the master object.

"Configure page numbers" Icon

This is only available for CEWE PHOTOBOOKS which comprise several pages.

Check the "Show number of pages" option to enable or disable the page number display.

General

The following page number formats are available:
Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, ...)
Lower case Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, ...)
Upper case Roman numerals (I, II, III, ...)
Lower case letters (a, b, c, ...) and
Upper case letters (A, B, C, ...).

The text for the page number defaults to "%".
The percent sign is a placeholder for the page number and must not be deleted; you can define the rest of the text freely.

"Page %" gives "Page1", "Page 2", "Page 3", etc.

"- % -" gives "- 1 -", "- 2 -", "- 3 -", etc.

and "Photobook page %, Jill and Paul’s Wedding" results in "Photobook page 1, Jill and Paul’s Wedding", "Photobook page 2, Jill and Paul’s Wedding", etc.

You can set the distance between the page number and the edge horizontally and vertically from 0 to 50 mm.

It is also possible to set a "Background colour" for the text box of the page number.

 

Arrangement

The following settings apply to the arrangement of page numbers on pages:

Page 1

Page 1

 

Page 1

Page 1

Upper centre

 

Upper outside

Page 1

Page 1

 

Page 1

Page 1

Lower centre

 

Lower outside

Text Properties

The text properties for the page numbering supports the typical font type, font size, and font style (bold and italic) definitions, along with the text colour.

You can also enable or disable font outlines of various thicknesses and colours, and a variety of background colours for the page numbers.
E.g. if you have a dark/black font colour, a pale/white letter border will ensure the page number is easily readable on a pale and a dark background.
The same applies to a dark letter border with a pale font colour.

Text Preview

The text preview lets you check the effect of your settings.

"Add new double page" Icon

Inserts a new double page before the current double page.

"Add single page left" Icon

Inserts a new left-hand page into the current double page.
All subsequent pages, including their contents and backgrounds, move up a page.

"Add single page right" Icon

Inserts a new right-hand page into the current double page.
All subsequent pages, including their contents and backgrounds, move up a page.

 

Please check the backgrounds of all subsequent double pages.
Backgrounds laid across a double page are split if a single page is added or removed.
This also applies to your own photos used as a background!

It is therefore advisable, if you insert a single page into a book with double page backgrounds, to add an extra single page after it, or to remove one.
After this, any double page backgrounds that have been separated should be put back together again.

"Align object with the top" Icon

Aligns the selected frames at the top.
The first selected object is the master object.

"Align object rotation" Icon

Aligns the rotation of the selected frames.
The first selected object is the master object.

"Align object size" Icon

Scales the selected frames to the same size.
The first selected object is the master object.

"Delete current background"

Replaces the background of the current page with a white background.

"Delete double page" Icon

Only active if there is a design on the page.

Removes the design, leaving behind an empty page.

"Delete double page" Icon

Deletes the active double page.

"Left side clear" Icon

Removes the "left-hand" page from the current double page.
The page and its content are deleted. The subsequent pages move up a page, including their backgrounds.

"Right side clear" icon

Removes the "right-hand" page from the current double page.
The page and its content are deleted. The subsequent pages move up a page, including their backgrounds.

 

Please check the backgrounds of all subsequent double pages.
Backgrounds laid across a double page are split if a single page is added or removed.
This also applies to your own photos used as a background!

It is therefore advisable, after you have removed a single page from a book with double page backgrounds, to add an extra single page after it, or to remove one.
After this, any double page backgrounds that have been separated should be put back together again.

"Position object (Size, position and rotation)..." Icon

The "Position frames" dialogue window gives you absolute control over the position, rotation, size and zoom factor of your content. You can select multiple layout frames to apply the same values to at the same time.

The dialogue window contains the three tabs "Position", "Rotation" and "Size".

The options "Keep ..." are turned on by default.

"Position"

With these alignment options, you can place photos and text boxes in the page layout to the nearest millimetre.

The page width and page height of the total page layout area are given as reference points for verticals and horizontals respectively.
Therefore, the page width of CEWE PHOTOBOOKS applies to the whole double page.

The possible alignments are:
Previous/initial situation:     "Move the selected photos in their current layout"  
"Align the centre point on a horizontal line"     "Align the centre point on a vertical line"  
"Right vertical alignment"     "Left vertical alignment"  
"Lower horizontal alignment"     "Upper horizontal alignment"  

Centre, Right, Left, Upper and Lower all refer to the layout frames.
Horizontal and vertical relate to the page layout workspace.
For the central point options, there is the additional option of centering the layout frame to the middle of the page.

Caution: Do not drag images or text beyond the visible area of the editing window. Once you lift a highlighted image, you cannot drag it back again. It is automatically removed from your order as soon as it is outside the workspace.

"Rotation"

The option "Set rotation" rotates the images completely. Rotation relates to the editor workspace.

The option "Rotate photos" rotates the images relatively. Rotation refers to the image and/or the layout frame. If the layout frame has already been rotated, the new rotation is added to the existing rotation.

You can also use this command to rotate text boxes.

"Size"

The size of the layout frame is given in centimetres for height and width or the image is scaled by a percentage. The same applies to text boxes.

"Zoom"

The zoom factor determines how the image scales within the frame.

You can either keep the current zoom factor or set a new zoom factor.
The zoom factor is defined as a numeric value in percent.

This function does not apply to text boxes. To change the font size, you must format the text.

The "Text" Toolbar

"New text box" Icon

Creates a text box in a page layout that you can fill and customise with your own text.

The new text box can now be resized on the page using the mouse.
You will see the standard text "- Your text -" in the text box to begin with.

"Font" Selection Field

A list in the toolbar showing the fonts installed on your computer. The font types are listed with their names and in the relevant fonts.

Icons
"Bold"
"Italic"
"Underline"

For the font style (bold, italic) and to underline the highlighted text.

"Change text colour" Icon

To set the text colour of the highlighted text.

"Edit text box background colour" Icon

Colours the entire background of the text box in the colour of your choice.

"Font size" Selection Field

A list in the toolbar with the available fonts. You can also enter a numeric font size of your choice in the box.

 

In the expanded area:

Icons:
"Align with left margin"
"Align with right margin"
"Centre text"
"Justify text"

These are the paragraph formats for aligning the text within the text box. They apply to the entire highlighted text box.

If you want to align individual paragraphs inside a text box, use the "More text settings..." option in the pop-up menu of the selected text box.

Icon: "Edit text boxes"

The dialogue window "Text settings" will open.
Here you can enter general settings for all the available properties of a text box, e.g. font type and colour, but also the distance between text and text frame (indentation) and coloured outlines, which you would not otherwise have access to.

Click the checkbox in front of the text property that you would like to change.

Caution:

These settings affect all areas of a text box.
Therefore, if you change the font size and have a section as a heading with a larger font in one or more text boxes, this formatting will be overwritten.

With the checkboxes you can apply the amended text settings to the highlighted text box (or the highlighted text boxes) only, to all text in the CEWE PHOTOBOOK and as a basic setting for newly created text boxes.

 

Text formatting changes

Formatting changes only affect new text written to the right of the text cursor or highlighted text sections.
Therefore, if you would like to format text after you have entered it, you must first select the text.

You can highlight text areas by moving the mouse over your selection whilst holding down the left mouse button, or by placing the text cursor at the beginning of the text to be formatted, holding down the shift key, and then clicking at the end of the text to be formatted.
You can highlight a single whole word by double-clicking on it.
You can highlight the entire contents of a text box using the key combination "Ctrl" + "a".
Then click on the formatting command.

The "Photos" Toolbar

"New image area" Icon

Creates a new layout frame for an image on a page layout, which you then fill with content from the "Photos" selection area.

You can change the position, size and alignment of these frames.

When you create a new layout frame and have just selected a layout frame in the workspace, the new layout frame has the same size as the one you previously selected.
You can then quickly and conveniently insert several layout frames of the same size in the workspace.

See the chapter entitled "Working with page layouts".

Icons:
"Reduce image"
"Enlarge image"

Change the view size within the layout frame. If an image is larger than its layout frame, you can hold down the mouse button to move the image within the frame and therefore define a cropped image.

Zooming in and out is easier if you use the mouse scroll wheel.

Pay attention to the quality display smiley! If the photo is enlarged, the image resolution will decrease.

Automatic Image Optimization (AIO) Icon

Automatic Image Optimization (AIO) is software in the photo lab which automatically corrects the exposure, white balance and other image properties of your photos in order to obtain the best possible quality.
You can switch off automatic image optimization for images which you have optimised yourself using an image processing program.
You should also switch off automatic image optimization for colour-critical images such as sunsets, to ensure you do not distort the colours. Automatic white balancing would fade the red tones of a sunset.

"Quality indicator" (Smiley) Icon

The quality indicator, the smiley in the toolbar, is a useful aid when resizing images ("Scale down image" / "Scale up image") that allows you to evaluate the quality of the image for printing.
This icon cannot be clicked to execute a command.

A blue smiley means: No photo has been selected.

A green smiley means: The photo resolution is high enough to achieve a good quality result when printing or developing the product. There will therefore not be any loss of quality with the photo at this size.

A yellow smiley means: The photo resolution is not ideal to achieve a good quality result when printing or developing the product. This means you should either expect some loss of quality with the photo at this size, or reduce the photo.

A red smiley means: The resolution is too low to achieve a good quality result when printing or developing the product.
(This is also indicated by a "Warning!" icon in the photo itself.)
You should not use the photo at this size, as it will be of significantly reduced visual quality. You should therefore either reduce the photo or use a different photo of higher resolution.

"Photo or video editing" Icon

Opens the photo show with image editing functions. (see the chapter entitled "The CEWE PHOTO SHOW".)
When closing the photo show, the edited image can be saved under its original name or a new name.
The edited image is imported into the product editor.

"Rotate image clockwise" Icon

This tool rotates the photo within the layout frame by 90° to the right (but without rotating the frame itself).
This is important, because if you choose a different page layout, a layout frame will remain rotated, but a rotated image will be reset to 0°.

"Image as background on both pages" Icon

This tool lets you use the currently selected image as the background for the double page.

"Edit image frame and shadow..." Icon

To emphasise photos or make them stand out better against the background, you can place a coloured border or frame around them, which is then also printed or developed.
You can specify the frame width (line thickness) and a colour in the frame properties.

You can also add a drop shadow to the image (attractive on light backgrounds), and this makes the image look as if it were floating above the background.
You can set the distance, the intensity (opacity), the level of blur ("softness" of the shadow border), the size (in relation to the photo casting the shadow), and the direction of the shadow. Using a control that you turn with the mouse, specify the direction of the shadow.

The preview lets you check the effect of your settings.

You can apply the frame and shadow properties either to the active (selected) image, to all the images on this page or to all images in the product.

 

In the expanded area:

"Find similar..."

This function searches within the same directory containing the selected image for images that were either taken at the same event (by date and time) and/or look similar. You can use the slider to set the degree of similarity. If you set the slider to a more restrictive setting, you will have fewer, but probably better, matches.

Icons:
"Image as background left"
"Image as background right"

These tools enable you to use the photo currently selected in the workspace as a background for the current right-hand or left-hand page of your CEWE PHOTOBOOK.

"Rotate image in frame anti-clockwise" Icon

This tool rotates the photo within the layout frame by 90° to the left (but without rotating the frame itself).

"Find image" Icon

In the preview display, switches to the directory from which the highlighted image was loaded and highlights the preview of the corresponding photo.

"Red-eye reduction" Icon

This function tries to detect red-eyes in the photo and to correct them.

Unfortunately this function is not always successful. It does not work with partial face views if only one eye is visible, or on photos of animals.

"Third grid" Icon

This function is a tool to help you align a photo section and displays a third grid on your image.

The third grid splits the layout frame into nine equal squares and makes it easier to find an optimum image detail for a well-formed image composition.

You can find an example of this in "Tips and Tricks".

The grid is not printed or output to film.

The "Web" Toolbar

"Customer examples" Icon

Opens an internet page with example photobooks provided by customers.
Here you can find ideas, themes and inspiration for customising your own photobooks.

"Upload text from the internet" Icon

Sometimes it is useful to have additional text information about places, regions or countries.
You can use the "Upload text from the internet" icon for this.

This command will open up a dialogue window to search for information in "Wikipedia GeoNames".

Enter a suitable search term (as you would in Google) and click on "Search".
The texts/articles found for your search term are displayed with a short text extract.

If you click on "Go to the article", the corresponding Wikipedia page will open in your web browser.
From here you can highlight desired text passages, and copy and paste them into a text box in the editor.

"New map" Icon

Do you like to have a map to remind you of places you have visited, or of where you took a particular photo?
Well, now you can add maps into your photobook.

NB: Adding a map will incur an extra charge.
Please note the price indicated.

Click on the "New map" icon and a dialogue window will open in which you can choose a map.

Specify map section

First specify the map section on the left-hand side.
It will be easier to choose a map section if you enter a search term.
Use the mouse to pan the map section and the buttons in the top left-hand corner of the map or the mouse scroll wheel to zoom in and out.
This way you will be able to specify a map section.

Select map style

Once you are happy with the map section, choose a style for the map from the centre of the dialogue window.
There are currently two styles available, but more may be added in the future.

Take this map of central Europe as an example
The first style corresponds to a topographical map. The second style is based on a general geographical map.

Click on "Apply" or on the style icon to see a preview of the map on the right.
This process may last up to several minutes depending on the map section. Don't worry if this happens.

Click "Transfer" to add a large-scale version of the map to the left-hand page in the PHOTOBOOK.
You can then scale and pan the map.
However, the map is recalculated each time the size is changed and you will need to re-apply the style.
A warning triangle on the map will alert you to this.

Notes

The map shown in the CEWE PHOTOBOOK is clearly of poor picture quality.
You will only be shown a low-resolution "Preview picture" in order to keep the amount of data and thus the download waiting time to a minimum.
This is because locr needs to create and download a new preview picture each time changes are made to the map section.
When you order the CEWE PHOTOBOOK, this preview image is replaced by a high-resolution map for production.
This reduces your download waiting time to a minimum.