Rainbow_stamps_and_coins: Making your own album 25

Wednesday, May 5, 2021

Making your own album 25

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5.3.3 Creating own variations

As you can see in the previous exercise, we need a txt-file to add a decorative border to our album. This is a small text file, on your computer.

Actually, before generating the PDF, we are also programming a txt-file with the commands.

5.3.3.1 Choosing images

Before we can start making the text file we need, we have to find some ‘corner element’-images that we can use for the corners of our frame.
Online there are many images available in PNG-format.
Make sure the images are transparent (see my remark in 4.3.1.3).

There are many free images available on -: https://www.pngegg.com/nl/

We have put decorative lines in the album examples/decorations. Now we can put the corner decorations in the same folder. Add the images you like to use or to try in the same folder, and give them a logical name; “deco corner 01 for example.
If you plan to use multiple styles in your albums, you can specify the names, but keep it simple and logic. : deco corner red 01 / deco corner nature 01…

Remark : The program offers the opportunity not only to put images in the 4 corners, but also in the middle of each border (W/E/N/S), you can look for additional (small) images to put on those places. It’s important to use really small images, as ‘less is more’.
In a theme collection on plants, it can be nice to add a leaf in the margins, or a paw print if you have an animal collection. A small flag of a country or area, a scouting sign, a small football, …. Plenty of possibilities.
If you want to try this option, look for PNG-files, and place them in the same folder. Also here, look for simple and logical names : deco margin 01, deco margin nature 01, …

5.3.3.2 Creating the text file

Once you have found and saved the PNG-images, we can start making the TXT-file we will need in the programming. This TXT-file, can be made in AlbumEasy 4.2.1 too.

Open an empty program pages, and copy-paste the 3 command lines below :

IMAGE_SCALE(0.12)

IMAGE_CORNER ("decoration/deco corner 01.png")
IMAGE_CORNER_PAD (5.0 6.0)

As you will notice, the command lines will not turn purple, like before. This is because the linges are no real ‘commands’ for programming. However, what is between double (straight) quotes, will turn blue, like before.
Each line has some parameters too.

IMAGE_SCALE(0.12) to scale the inserted image (smaller or larger than 1 (100%))
IMAGE_CORNER ("decoration/deco corner leaf 01.png") : folder + images.extention*
IMAGE_CORNER_PAD (5.0 6.0) pm to move the image horizontally and vertically.

* this is my example, the images are not included in AlbumEasy 4.2.1, neither is the folder.
You need to take YOUR chosen folder and YOUR chosen images.

Although your page has 4 corners, we only need to enter the corner decoration once. The chosen image therfore has to be a corner image that points towards the norhtwest, (or a round element) You cannot work with two corner elements. It’s whether none, or four. If you only want one corner design, you can work like in 5.1.

In addition to the 4 corner decorations, we can optionally add 4 (small) items in the border frame too. Here you have the option to work with one, two, three or four decoration.
For this, you’ll need to add one or more extra lines in the TXT-file :

Optional : IMAGE_SCALE (0.05) : to scale the margin decorations (1 = 100%)

IMAGE_EDGE_LEFT ("decoration/deco margin leaf 01.png")

IMAGE_EDGE_RIGHT ("decoration/deco margin leaf 01.png")
IMAGE_EDGE_TOP ("decoration/deco margin leaf 01.png ")
IMAGE_EDGE_BOTTOM ("decoration/deco margin leaf 01.png")

With those 4 (or 5) lines, you can choose 4 identical or 4 different images.
You can also use pairs of images N and S – E and W
The IMAGE_SCALE – code, can be used for each line too, when placed before the EDGE-code, it will be valid for all following codes.

Another option could be, to skipp the IMAGE_CORNER code and to work ONLY with the margin (EDGE) images.
Plenty of possibilities, but remember : less is more!

Once you have selected the corner or edge decorations you want, you can save the txt-file as : Own Design 01

It can be useful to create such a ‘border decoration txt-file’ as a basic design, including all 7 code line. If you don’t need one or more decorations for a certain album, you can use the # (hashtag) to disable a line for the time being.
If you need that line for anoter album, save the basic txt-file under a different name, to have a series of possibilities. Save the variations as ‘own design 02 /03 …

Remark : As said earlier, these codes are no commands in AlbumEasy 4.2.1 this means, we cannot generate a PDF to check the result. The txt-file we just made, will be inserted in the program.

Remark: when making the TXT-file to create a specific border, the chosen images need to be SMALL !
Images that are larger than 1 Megabyte will create an error if you insert the TXT-file to the program.
By clicking left on your chose image, you can select ‘properties’ to see the size of the file.

Images that are too large, will not be accepted by AlbumEasy 4.2.1.

5.3.3.3 Inserting your own design in the program

Now we have created our own ‘border’ design, we can reopen Test Design 11:

ALBUM_PAGES_SIZE (210.0 297.0)

#210.0/297.0 for A4 – 215.9/279.4 for US LETTER
ALBUM_PAGES_MARGINS (22.0 15.0 10.0 10.0 )
#4 pm (in mm) working space: W/E/N/S
#ALBUM_PAGES_BORDER (0.60 0 0.60 0.75)
#4 pm (in pt) frame lines : line 1/ line 2 / line 3 / distance in-between
ALBUM_PAGES_SPACING (6.0 4.0)
#2 pm (in pt) letter spacing / line spacing
ALBUM_PAGES_TITLE (TB 20 "My collection")
#2 pm (font and size) + “title text”

PAGE_START
# 0 pm – needed to start a page

PAGE_RULE_H (0.1 -1 8)

PAGE_TEXT_CENTRE (TB 12 "\nMy own frame")

As we will not need the default frame lines, we can disable this command by adding a hashtag (#) in front of the command.

To test if our recently created border decoration is in the right position, we can add 2 temporary commands underneath de ALBUM_PAGES_TITLE ():

ALBUM_PAGES_BORDER (0.1 0 0 1.0)

COLOUR_ALBUM_BORDER (red)
ALBUM_PAGES_DECORATIVE_BORDER("Own Design 01.txt")

The first two – temporary – commands will create a (red) reference frame to see where our corner or edge decorations will be positioned, in proportion to the middle of the page, where we want to create our album pages.
The third line is where we insert the corner and / or edge decorations, through the txt-file we created before.
If the result is what we wanted, the Album_Page_Border-command and the Colour_Album_Border-command can be erased again. (or disabled with a #)

Click Generate – if no error is generated, than you can see the PDF:
IF the program generates the following error :

PDF generation error: Error (1043) while processing the image file C:/Users/MV/Documents/AlbumEasy/examples/decoration/deco corner leaf 02.png

Then it means the chosen image is too large.
Simply change the image in your (decoration) folder, by a smaller image, or choose another one for your the Txt-file.
In that last case you will need to reopen the ‘own design txt document again.
Try Generating the PDF again.

Possible results :