Image Field Formatting

Color Palette: Refer to the chapter on Color Palettes for how to set your palettes. In this drop down you will choose which color palette you want to use (if any) for this particular field of text. This option will insure that the customer will only be able to choose from specific colors you want them to. This is great for situations such as stamps and thread where only certain colors are available.

Stacking Order: Specifies layering of text or image in relation to an image or other object. (This use of the word “stacking” has nothing to do with “stacking groups”, described later.) You may set your fields on different layers for many different reasons. Setting a stacking order of -1 would put the field behind the background. An example of this might be a template with a frame image with the center set as transparent. You want the customer to upload an image and have it behind that background in your master PDF. You will also use this option if you are using the Overlay Option. An overlay must be on layers 100-110 and these layers have specifically been reserved for the overlays and must not be used otherwise. Options for stacking order:

• -1 = below master PDF

• 1-100 = normal fields

• 101-110 = overlay fields - In Interactive Designer templates, these fields cannot be edited by the user and will always appear over user-added fields.

Rotation: Applies an angle to text or image based on the value, in degrees entered into the field. With the Interactive Designer you will also be able to let the customer change this rotation if you set it up to do so in the Rules Tab.

• 0° value =no change 

• 90° = vertical text 

• 180° = upside down

• -90° or 270° = vertical reversed

Image Border: The image border option will draw a frame around the image fields, and lets you specify the thickness and color.

• Thickness: Enter a thickness for the border.

• Color: Enter a CMYK value for the border color putting a space in between the color numbers. Example for black: 0 0 0 100 (100% black).

Image Fit Type (Only applies to Forms Based templates and not Interactive Designer): When you choose "Standard Image Upload" from the Data Capture tab, field "User Control Type:", there is no option to crop the image to make it fit within the size of the form field. Because of this, Online Template Builder needs to know how to treat images that are not a perfect size for the space allowed. Your choices are:

• Stretch: This option will stretch the image to fit the size of the field. If necessary it will distort the image but the entire area set by the form field will be filled with the image.

• Scale: This option will scale the image so that the entire image is shown without distortion. This means that in a square field you could end up with a shorter image area if a very short and wide image is uploaded. If you add a border around the image, it will adjust to the scaled size and not keep the border around the size of the original form field. It will scale to the left, and bottom.

• Crop: This option will crop the image to fit the field size of the field. It will fit the shortest side and then crop in the middle of the image. If you would like the customer to be able to crop the area they feel will work best, you will want to choose the Advanced image upload option in the Data Capture tab.

Set these rules in the "Rules" tab for Interactive Designer templates.

Field Usage: Drop down defines four options for how the field will be viewed.

• “Proof and Production” viewable in all outputs

• “Proofing Only” will exclude the field from the production file.

• “Production Only” viewable on the proof, not included on the production file.

• “Hide Field” conceals the field from both production and proof files. Use this for fields where the user enters a value that is used elsewhere in scripting formulas.

Repeat Field: You can set this field to appear at the exact same position on subsequent pages of your template by checking this box. Your options are: Do not repeat field (on by default), On subsequent odd pages, On subsequent even, and On all subsequent pages. This option is not available in Interactive Designer templates. See Chapter 27 - Repeating Fields

Common Questions:

Can I change the shape of an uploaded image?

If you would like to change the shape of an uploaded image to a circle, the you will need to have a graphic file with a circle transparency above the image field for upload. You can do this by uploading the circle transparency as a masked object. So, you would upload the master pdf without the circle transparency. You would set in acrobat two form fields, one for the circle transparency and the other for the photo that the customer is going to upload.

To create the masked image, create a layered Photoshop file with the center area transparent. This PSD file should not have the background layer so you can see the transparency. Save the Photoshop file as a PDF preserving transparency. Newer versions of Photoshop may not have a Preserve Transparency option showing in the save dialogs. The transparent portions of the image will show a checkered background when viewing in Photoshop, the transparent areas should not show as white.

You will upload this frame PDF in the image upload area for the template. In the Field Setup area for the template in the "Field Type" tab set this to graphic file and "Data for this field will come from:" should be set to graphic file. In the "Data Capture" tab select the circle transparency PDF file you uploaded. Make sure to use the Stacking Group option so the image the customer uploads is set below the layer the circle transparency is set to.

Previous Chapter: Chapter 16a - Field Setup: Format for Text Fields

Next Chapter: Chapter 16c - Setup: Format for Barcode Fields