Pimping your Identity Plate.

I secretly have been hoping someone would ask about the cool fonts I've been using in my ID plates and Copyright Watermarks. But of course noone has. Shame really because it would lead me to telling you about my favourite place for comic books fonts on the net. They're even free..

Yep... Free. Of course they do sell fonts as well, but they have a wealth of the coolest free fonts to use to create your Identity Plate. And they are Blambot. Check them out. Cracked is one of my favourites, but isn't there any more. Recently I've been using Crime Fighter and my new, about to be released, Website in a Gallery: LRB Portfolio, uses Mainframe. Seriously though have a look..

Getting a hard copy of your Identity Plate

So you spent a bit of time playing with fonts and colours, and you're pretty happy with the results for your new Identity Plate. Of course, if you create a new catalog, it's not there. And if something happens the current catalog (God forbid), you've lost that work. Personally I keep all the ID Plates I design in a folder called 'ID Plates', that way I can choose one as needed (remember I also use the ID plates for frames and textures in Print and Slideshow!).

Here's a quick way to get a hard copy (I'm not referring to the Save menu in Identity Plate setup here, which to me is a 'soft copy').
1. After creating your Identity Plate, go to Web.
2. With a few images selected and the Identity Plate on in your gallery, export the gallery. The Lightroom HTML gallery is a good one to use.
3. Go to the folder you just exported.
4. Open the folder marked 'contents'.
5. Inside is a file called 'logo.png'. This is a graphical version of your ID Plate. Save it to your ID Plates folder, with a new name.
6. That's it. Once you've moved the logo.png file, you can delete the gallery you exported (unless you were going to upload it of course!)


This allows you to work on a number of designs, and can be used with a watermarking Export Plugin like LR/Mogrify.
If you want to switch to this hard copy, save the soft copy in the drop down menu, and choose 'Use a graphical identity plate' from the Identity Plate setup dialog and then choose the 'logo.png' file (or however you named it). Remember to rename if you plan on creating a few, so that you don't overwrite the older versions.

TTG Shadowbox Gallery Updated to 2.7

Matthew Campagna has announced that TTG Shadowbox Gallery 2.7 is now available. This update requires Adobe Lightroom 2.0 and contains the following changes:

• Upgraded to Shadowbox 2.0 and Mootools 1.2.


• Shadowbox GUI now supports 29 languages.


• Implemented BoxOver hovers on thumbnails, color labels and selection checkboxes.


• Automatically reads Color Labels and Color Label Sets from the Library module.


• Revamped the selection gallery.


• Added optional thumbnail ID plates.


• Added Output Sharpening.


• Ratings are out in favor of the improved color label support.

There are a few other changes. Because Shadowbox 2.0 is quite different from 1.0, skins are out until further notice and a few options that are either no longer relevant or no longer options were removed.

Keyword Export issue fix

Adobe has published a technote containing a script that fixes the 'Include On Export' issues users are seeing with their keywords. The note details ways of solving the issue with or without the V1.x Catalog available.

A quick thanks to Matt K.

A quick shout out to Matt Kloskowski from Lightroom Killer Tips for mentioning the HSWeb gallery!
Cheers Matt!

Workflow with Smart Collections

John Beardsworth has produced a set of Smart Collections to control your workflow. Based on a 'Current Work' collection, these Smart collections allow you to see at a glance all work you've done, and still need to do, from Flagging to Metadata Entry, along with Edit Status. There's even sections to help apply the correct Noise reduction for set ISO's. All in all the set is superbly put together. This post is not a tit for tat on John's comment on my Grad Presets, I'm genuinely impressed with the list and the previews John presents of it. In fact I think his use of Smart Collections for this purpose is rather inspired. As to Price? Rather than set a fixed price, John directs those who find them useful to his Amazon Wish list.