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Automated Image Importing and Insertion

Business Card Composer allows you to automatically insert images onto your card when you print multiple cards (each card contain a different image). Images can be taken from the following locations:

• Address Book. This image source is useful for printing name badges when personal records contain contact information and photos.
• iPhoto and Aperture. You can print multiple images from iPhoto or Aperture on your cards in a series. Use this to create a sampler, to print name badges, or for other tasks.
• Text File. If your pictures are stored in one or several folders on your hard disk, you can create a text file where images are listed (image paths).

An image from the selected source will be shown on the document right after the source is selected. The other images will appear on the consecutive cards in the print dialog.

Address Book

To insert images from the Address Book:

1. Select Insert > Image > Merge Image in the menu.
   
   
2. In the Image tab of the Inspector, select Address Book in the drop-down list below the Merge Image checkbox.
   
   
   
3. Select a person in the Source panel. Then select File > Print.
   To print images from several Address Book contacts, choose File > Print for Several People, select the contacts, and click Print.

Note: Images are automatically inserted onto cards after you start printing. Images will look the same as in the selected source unless you have edited it in the Image tab of the Inspector. The effects applied to the image in the Image Tricks plug-in will not retain while printing. If you want to edit one, print it separately.

iPhoto and Aperture

To insert images from iPhoto or Aperture:

1. Select Insert > Image > Merge Image in the menu.
   
   
2. In the Image tab of the Inspector, select iPhoto or Aperture in the drop-down list below the Merge Image checkbox.
   
   
3. Select the images you wish to print.
   
   
4. Select File > Print to start printing.

Note: Images are automatically inserted onto cards after you start printing. Images will look the same as in the selected source unless you have edited it in the Image tab of the Inspector. The effects applied to the image in the Image Tricks plug-in will not retain while printing. If you want to edit one, print it separately.

Image Titles from iPhoto and Aperture

To add image titles from iPhoto or Aperture to the design:

1. Add a new text field using the Text Field tool in the toolbar. In the pop-up menu, select the type for this field: iPhoto Title or Aperture Title.
   
   
2. In the Text tab in the Inspector, click Choose in the Text Fields section.
   
   
3. Select images whose titles you wish to import and click Choose. The imported titles will be listed in the Inspector.

Image titles will be pasted in your design during the printing process.

Text File

Business Card Composer can print images listed in a text file (the path to each image must be there, one per line).

To insert images using a list of their locations:

1. Select Insert > Image > Merge Image.
   
   
2. In the Image tab of the Inspector, select Image List in the drop-down list below the Merge Image checkbox.
   
   
3. Click the Browse button and select a file.
   
   
4. Set up the data import from the selected file.
   •  Select the First row is header check box to skip information in the first line.
   •  Select the text encoding. If you don't know what to choose, leave the default selection.
   •  Select whether data in the text file is organized in one or several columns. If you choose Multiple Column Data, select the delimiter (a symbol that separates data in each line) and select the number of the column. The "delimiter" and "column number" are described in Structure of the Image List File.
   
   
5. Select File > Print to begin printing.

Note: Images are automatically inserted onto cards after you start printing. Images will look the same as in the selected source unless you have edited it in the Image tab of the Inspector. The effects applied to the image in the Image Tricks plug-in will not retain while printing. If you want to edit one, print it separately.

Structure of the Image List File

The text file contains paths to graphic files.

Data in the text file is distributed among lines and columns. There can be a single line or column. Every cell of this imaginary table contains some data (in our case, the path to an image). Cells are separated by a specified symbol (delimiter). This can be a space, tab, comma, or other symbol.

The file may have the following structure:

[IMAGE PATH][DELIMITER][IMAGE PATH][DELIMITER]...[IMAGE PATH][RETURN]
...
[IMAGE PATH][DELIMITER][IMAGE PATH][DELIMITER]...[IMAGE PATH][RETURN]

Or more simple:

[IMAGE PATH][RETURN]
[IMAGE PATH][RETURN]
...
[IMAGE PATH][RETURN]

You can also use a combination of different sorts of data in a single text file. For automatic name badge creation, put contact information and an image path into the same file.
Look at the sample below.

001,Russell Simmons,Manager,347-12-567,Users/Admin/Seminar Participants/Russell Simmons.jpg
002,Shirley Kaiser,Accountant,653-54-444,Users/Admin/Seminar Participants/Shirley Kaiser.jpg

Here, each personal record (line) has five data fields (columns). Text data from the first four columns can be automatically inserted into File Data text fields. The last column contains paths to photos.

Settings to import text data (column numbers are different for the name, title, etc.):

Setting to import image paths:

When you are creating such a data file manually, don't use a symbol as the delimiter if it is present in in the text data or path. In our example, the space symbol couldn't be used as the delimiter because the personal names and image paths contain spaces.

How to create a list of images to import?

Your list may already be stored in a database or spreadsheet. In this case you should export it to a text file (usually tab- or comma-delimited).

To create a list manually:

1. Open a new document in the Text Edit application.
2. Switch to the plain text format (Format > Make Plain Text or Cmd-Shift-T).
3. In Finder, open the folder containing your image and drag and drop one or several images into the text file. The path to the image will be added there.
4. To add one more image, move the cursor to the end of the last added path and press Return. Then repeat Step 3.
5. Save the file.

Do not add any unnecessary symbols! Otherwise you will break the file structure.

Note: Only files in the plain text format can be imported correctly.