Easy Proof Sheets with Adobe Bridge

Most designers I know can probably count on one hand the number of times they’ve opened Adobe Bridge. But Bridge really does have some useful tools. One of my favorite uses for Adobe Bridge is selecting a series of pictures and creating a customized proof sheet.

I’ve seen people try to do this in InDesign and Photoshop, but with versions 5 and 5.1, Bridge makes it incredibly simple and provides lots of options.

Pick your images

Open Bridge and go to the Output Tab in the upper right. Finding the folder with your images on the left. You’ll need to select the specific images you want included from Content section in the bottom center. All images you select will appear in the Preview section in the top center.

Your proof sheet can include bitmap images (jpg, tif, png, gif and more), vector images (.eps), PDF files and even native Adobe files (.indd, .ai and .psd). Of course, the documents with multiple pages will only show the first page in the proof sheet.

Build a PDF Proof Sheet

To the right of the window is the Output tab with two options, PDF and Web Gallery. Select PDF and look at some of the default templates. 2x2 Cells will give you four pictures per page. 4x5 Contact Sheet will give you 20 per page. Click the Refresh Preview button and a preview will appear in the middle of the screen.

To generate the PDF, go to the bottom of the Output palette and press the Save… button.

Options to customize

Let’s say you want to customize your proof sheet. Bridge provides many options. (Just look at the screenshot of the entire Output Panel to the right.) The interface is divided into several sections:

Document - Change the size of the paper, resolution of the images and background color. Plus you can add a password to the document.

Layout - Change how the images are placed, how many columns and rows, the spacing between the images and more.

Overlays - Determine how the filenames are displayed and add page numbers.

Header and Footer - Two separate sections to add text to header and footer areas, set their dimensions and customize the appearance.

Playback - Want your PDF to open in Full Screen Mode and have transitions like a a PowerPoint presentation? Set it in this section.

Watermark - Add images or text as watermarks, either for individual images or for the entire page.

Brand your proof sheet

By combining several of the options, it’s possible to add a company logo to your page and then save it for future use.

Go to the Watermark section and select Add Watermark. Select Insert Image: and select the path for your logo. By default, the logo will be placed in the middle of your page, which you probably don’t want. Change the size and placement of the logo with Scale, Horizontal Offset and Vertical Offset sliders.

You may also want to customize your header and footer to add other details. I’ve added a title in the header and a copyright statement in the footer.

Remember that you can hit the Refresh Preview button at the top of the page to see a sample of your proof sheet.

Once you have it exactly the way you want it, look back to the top of the Output palette. Next to the template list is a new page icon and a trash can. Click the new page icon to save your design as a template. (And if you want to delete one, you guessed it, click the trash can.)

Thumbnail of custom Sketchbook B proof sheet.

Next time you need to make a proof sheet for a client, select your template and click Save… at the bottom.

If you want to see how the various elements can be combined, check out this PDF sample of my Sketchbook B proof sheet showing some of my Flare effects. I’ve included my logo in the upper left, changed the typeface to SBB Periodic and added a title at the top of the page.

Sketchbook B: Letterhead and Envelopes

Finally, after at least 4 years of using the Sketchbook B name for my personal projects, I have letterhead and envelopes.

Once the cornerstone of a corporate identity, letterhead and envelopes are becoming an endangered species. Digital communication is replacing written correspondence. And many people just print from a word processor with a logo at the top. (I personally think this has to do with how impossible it is to figure out how to load letterhead into a laser printer.) Pre-printed letterhead has become a luxury.

I printed business cards earlier in the year, but I hadn’t even considered doing letterhead and envelopes. I just don’t send that much written Sketchbook B correspondence.

I started reading Letters of Note and Letterheady and was inspired to start working on concepts. Something that would work for small quantities. Maybe a stamp or a label. But I couldn’t quite settle on something I was happy with.

One day, I was helping clean out a cache of old materials at the office and ran across a bin of old media – CDs, SyQuest drives, Zip disks, 3.5 inch diskettes and even 5.25 inch diskettes.

The 5.25 inch disks brought back memories of my Commodore 64. Using Print Shop for the C64 was the first time I used a computer to create and print a “design.” And it was likely the first time I ever thought about typefaces.

I had found my inspiration:

I took the dimensions of a 5.25 inch floppy disk label and worked up a concept. I’m sure at some point in the not-so-distant past, a floppy disk label was part of the standard corporate identity package.

All of the type in the system was initially designed with Fontstruct and later refined with other software. SbB Periodic is used for the address information and SbB Dradis for the logo.

The labels are odd dimensions - you can’t exactly buy precut labels that size anymore - so I had a local vendor print them on crack-and-peel on their Indigo press. I ordered a small quantity of Pop-Tone Sour Apple paper and envelopes from French.

On the letterhead and envelopes, the label wraps around the paper so the address is on the back. And the label can be used on folders, CD cases, binders and more.

Pixel First?

I’m a big fan of pixel-based modular typography and had to reference Gustavo Ferreira’s interesting post about using pixel designs as the foundation of type design. In a lot of ways, “The Primacy of the Pixel” reminds me of the “Mobile First” movement among web designers – to start with the most constrained design challenge and move out from there.

With the bitmap approach, type-designers work directly on the pixel grid, painting the exact pixels that readers will see on their screens. Nothing gets lost in translation, and nobody is left out.

Great post. It’s a new site and I hope he will continue to post more. Gustavo is the designer of Elementar, an fascinating pixel font with a variety of weights and widths.

As an aside, I wonder though how long before the pixel is so small, that it’s irrelevant as a unit of measure. High density displays are becoming more common and as display quality increases, the need for dedicated “Pixel First” typefaces decreases.