Four numbers and a decision
A grid on a printed board is settled by four numbers: how many rows, how many columns, how much space between the cells, and how much space round the outside. The cell size is not a fifth number — it is whatever is left once the other four are taken out of the board, which is why changing the board size changes the cells and never the spacing.
- Rows and columns. Up to forty of each. The generator warns rather than guesses when the numbers leave no room inside the margin.
- The gap. Entered in the board’s own unit, so a centimetre is a centimetre on the paper whatever the DPI happens to be.
- The edge margin. Larger than the gap, nearly always. It is also the only guide this board draws for the edge of the paper.
- What happens inside a cell. Trim to fill, or keep the whole photograph and let the cell show around it.
A grid that stays a grid, until you release it
The layout grid is made of rows and columns and the cells laid over them. Split a cell and a new line goes through that cell only; merge two and the line between them goes; drag a divider and only the two tracks either side of it change size, so the board and every other cell stay exactly where they were. Every one of those is one step on the undo stack.
When the structure is right and you want to break it — one photograph turned across two rows, one pulled out to overlap — Release this page to the free board. Every cell becomes an ordinary frame with handles, and the grid page is still waiting in the other view. The free board also keeps its own one-shot generator, which lays rows and columns straight out as loose frames.
Even spacing without a generator
For a handful of photographs the generator is overkill. Select them, line their top edges up with one button, then even out the horizontal gaps with another, and you have a row that is exactly as regular as a generated one. Select in a sweep or with Shift held; both work, and align needs two frames while evening out the gaps needs three.
The grid is a layout, not a page-layout program: cells hold photographs, and the only text it sets is the optional line of numbers and file names under each one. Every page shares the board size; a poster and a postcard are two documents.
Asked and answered
How do I get a 5 by 5 grid?
Five rows, five columns, and the cell size follows from the board and the two spacing numbers. Twenty-five cells want twenty-five photographs; if the tray holds fewer, the leftover cells simply stay empty and you can fill them later or change the numbers and run it again.
The photographs are different shapes. What happens in a square cell?
One of two things, and you choose which. Fill the cell trims the long sides off each photograph so every cell is completely covered and the grid is perfectly even — the usual answer for a wall of faces. Show the whole photograph keeps every pixel and lets the cell breathe around it, so a mixed portrait-and-landscape set comes out ragged on purpose.
Can I change which photograph is in which cell?
Drag a photograph onto another cell and the two trade places, or select a cell and press Alt with an arrow key. Dragging a thumbnail from the photo panel onto a cell replaces what is in it. A locked cell refuses all three, which is what the lock is for.
Can one cell span two rows?
Yes. Shift-click the cells you want joined and press Merge; if together they make a rectangle, they become one cell and the lines nobody uses any more disappear. Split does the reverse — into two columns or two rows — and neither operation moves any other cell by a pixel.
What does the percentage on each cell mean?
How much of that photograph survives into the cell. A 3:2 landscape in a square cell keeps 67% at best, and less once you zoom in. The suggestions are ranked by the same number, so the layout at the top is the one that trims your photographs least.
Is the grid locked once it is laid out?
No. The layout grid stays a grid while you work on it — dividers, merges and swaps keep it tidy — and Release this page to the free board turns every cell into an ordinary frame you can drag out, turn four degrees or send behind its neighbours. The grid page is still there if you switch back.
What gap should I use?
For a printed board, a gap somewhere between a third and a half of a centimetre reads as deliberate at arm's length and does not eat the picture. Set the edge margin larger than the gap — twice it is a reasonable start — because a frame that ends exactly at the paper edge looks like a mistake even when it was not.
