Print formats
The Print formats tab is the place where we can set the sizes of the available photo formats and the price list, which may depend on the number of prints ordered.
The basic information we can find here is:
Print format name
Name of the folder in which the photos will be placed
Format status (it decides whether the format is available to customers)
Creation and last modification date
By default we have 5 basic photo sizes with sample prices, but you can freely modify them or add your own print formats.
The display order of the formats can be changed by placing the mouse cursor over the ID column and dragging an item up/down in the table.
Editing a format
Size
- Name
The name of the format, which will appear as a selectable option for customers when placing an order.
- Folder
Determines the folder in which the photos will be placed when the package with photos to download is prepared.
- Format description
An optional short description (max. 150 characters) shown to customers under the format name on the selection screen, e.g. “Most popular postcard format”.
- Popular
Ticking this option will highlight the format on the selection screen with a “Popular” badge in your theme colours. This setting applies to all price groups.
- Miniature
Your own photo of the format shown to customers on the selection screen instead of the default graphic. The image will be cropped to the proportions of the format. Available in the
PROversion.
Price groups
On the right-hand side there are price lists for each price group separately.
- Price list status for size
Determines whether the format is available to customers using this price group. The format is active only when its status in the given group is set to
Active.- Quantity / Price
A price list that can be varied depending on the number of photos the customer decides to order. This allows us, for example, to offer a more attractive price if a larger number of photos is ordered. We define the number of photos from which a different price applies. Further thresholds are added with the green plus button and removed with the red icon next to a given threshold.
We can have many price groups, which allows us to offer selected customers special prices for prints. More details can be found on the Print prices page.
Paper types
The Active paper types option determines for which paper types the format will be available. By default, every paper type is available for all print formats. Sometimes, however, we want to introduce some exceptions and this is possible here, e.g. we can set that the 9x13 format will only have glossy paper available.
Cropping
The Cropping option determines the minimum width and height of the photo (in pixels) that can be set when the customer crops the photo while placing an order. Note that this option is only needed if we want to allow customers to crop photos. We have devoted a separate article on our blog to cropping.
The values set here should guarantee adequate photo quality after printing. The same values are used to
assess the photo quality if the Show photo quality information option based on minimum cropping dimensions
is enabled in the order settings.
Tip
Pay attention to the dimensions you enter, because they are also responsible for the proportions of the photo. When changing the dimensions, remember to keep the proportions correct for the given print format.
If you do not know what dimensions to enter, use the resolution converter for prints - the link to it is located directly below the fields.
Minimum photo size
The Minimum photo size option determines the minimum size of the photo in MB that a photo must have in order to be printed without problems. If the size is smaller, the customer will see a warning that the photo may be of too low quality.
Change the dimensions of a photo
This option allows photos to be automatically reduced to the given dimensions. This is very useful when customers upload large photos but want to order smaller print formats. Thanks to this option, we can quickly scale the photos and obtain a smaller package of photos, which means the photos will be downloaded faster.
It should be noted that if the uploaded photos do not exactly match the defined proportions, they will be reduced proportionally - without “flattening”, i.e. the correct proportions will be preserved.
If the customer uploads photos with smaller dimensions than we have specified, such photos will not be processed in any way and will be sent in their original form.
Adding a format
Adding your own format works in the same way as editing an existing format.