What you arrange in the grid can leave the program as a document. Choose the page layout, the order and the crops, and export the pages as PDF or as JPEG files. A photo book with a thousand pictures is done in a few minutes, and it looks exactly like the grid did. This is the fastest way we know to turn a selection into something you can print, send or hand to a layout program.
The PDF contains the original, uncropped JPEG data of every picture. The crop you set in fotoARRAY is stored as a frame around the picture. A layout program like Affinity Publisher or InDesign can open the PDF and change the crop of any picture later, because the whole picture is still inside. Unlike most programs, fotoARRAY does not recompress the pictures for this export, so the quality is that of your files. The pages carry no footer.
( Sample PDF - with low resolution JPEG to reduce download size )
An exported PDF in a viewer, the original JPEG embedded
Each page is rendered as one picture at the resolution you choose and embedded in the PDF. The result is small and opens everywhere. The Free Edition exports this kind of PDF with the text www.fotoarray.com in the footer. With PRO the footer can be switched off.
The pages are written as numbered JPEG files into a folder. This is the path for photo book services that want pictures instead of a PDF, for slideshows on a television and for collages.
You set the page width in centimetres or inches, the height follows the page format of the layout. The resolution in dpi limits the size of the embedded pictures, so a book for the screen stays small and a book for the printer stays sharp. A page range like "1-3,7" exports only the pages you need. The developed version of a picture is used when a recipe exists.
Select pictures in the grid and export them as files. The RAW engine develops each picture with its recipe and writes JPEG, TIFF and DNG at the size and quality you choose. The export runs in the background, on the server if you like, and you keep working. Large exports are handed to fotoARRAYRAW as a job, so they never block the catalog.
F6 – Copy tool: Copies the RAW files of the selected images to a folder for further editing.
In PRO, the sidecar files are copied along with the RAW files.
The other way is to export the original files. Put the pictures for a project into an album and export the originals with their sidecar files into a project folder. fotoARRAY can write XMP sidecars with stars, colours and keywords for the pictures that have none, and it can add developed JPEG copies next to the originals. Develop the pictures in the RAW program of your choice, and fotoARRAY copies the changed sidecars and the finished results back. This is described on the page Work with other programs.
The page layout is a photo book layout. Set the format of your book, arrange the pictures with the manual order of the album, correct the crops on the tiles, and export. If the book service wants a PDF, take the editable PDF and let the service or a layout program do the fine work. If it wants pictures, take the JPEG pages. For a slideshow on a television, export JPEG pages in 16:9 and put them on a stick. For a collage, set a square page and a small margin.
The old fotoARRAY web site offered two sample PDF files for the square and the row layout. New samples made with version 3 will follow on the download page.
FREE Page layouts in the grid, flattened PDF export with footer, JPEG output from the open developer.
PRO Editable PDF with full JPEG data, JPEG pages, PDF without footer, batch export of developed pictures in JPEG, TIFF, DNG and HEIF, export of albums with sidecars for other programs.