Affinity Photo Contact Sheet

[Sapfromcornwall]

Any idea when the capability will exist within the product to produce contact sheets?

Be really useful I feel.

[GarryP]

This sort of functionality has been requested quite a few times – just search the forums for contact sheet and see how many threads there are.

The latest response from Serif that I could find is from about a month ago: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/194353-contact-sheet-creation/

Serif generally don’t give us timescales for new features (or tell us if they will ever arrive); the best we can do is to follow the relevant beta forums and wait and see what happens.

[Sapfromcornwall]

thanks. it is weird that it is not offered. I can take the photos into almost any other product (even apple photos) and produce a contact sheet! 

[GarryP]

Without wanting to put words in someone else’s mouth, there are so many other options available to people – irfanview, xnview, etc. – that Serif may not think it’s worth adding this functionality just at the moment, given their current workload, etc.

Something that is vital for some people may be something that is not used at all by other people.

With so many requests coming in to a finite and small number of people at Serif, things have to be prioritised.

[loukash]

1 minute ago, Sapfromcornwall said:

it is weird that it is not offered

It is not because Affinity Photo is not an asset manager but a photo editor. Vive la différence.  
There are many solutions for that purpose on the market, inluding free ones like Digikam or XnViewMP. Or, as you have already noted, Apple Photos.

On Mac, since almost 20 years (!) there's even a dedicated built-in Automator action named New PDF Contact Sheet which will create PDF pages from images passed to it. Just launch Automator and check it out yourself. 

[v_kyr]

Quote

Nope! - You've to use some other third party tools and/or workarounds for those purposes.

Maybe ...

• Capture One Express (for Sony)
• rawContactSheetGenerator
• Contact Sheets (Java based)
• ... etc.

See also related ...

• contact sheet site:forum.affinity.serif.com

[loukash]

15 minutes ago, loukash said:

On Mac, since almost 20 years (!) there's even a dedicated built-in Automator action named New PDF Contact Sheet which will create PDF pages from images passed to it. Just launch Automator and check it out yourself. 

Hm… I should have checked it out myself first before posting it. Silly me!  
I've never used the New PDF Contact Sheet action in all those 20 years, but it appears to be broken on Ventura. Or is it just me? In any case, the cog wheel in the menu bar is spinning and spinning, but I'm getting no result.

[loukash]

26 minutes ago, loukash said:

Or is it just me?

So… obviously not: https://tinyapps.org/blog/201902200700_contact_sheets.html

But as noted on the aforelinked page, the contact sheet solution is still built in in MacOS as of Ventura, and it works. Just tested.

1. in Finder select Go menu → Go To Folder
2. paste the following path and press Return:
   /System/Library/Image Capture/Automatic Tasks
3. create an alias of the MakePDF app somewhere in your home directory for future easy access
4. launch MakePDF
5. File → Open → select which ever images you want
   or drop a folder with images onto the MakePDF icon in Dock or on your alias in Finder
6. in the Layout menu, select your layout or create a new one
7. save
8. voilà

Same for the Build Web Page app in the same location. It has a few adjustable settings like image sizes and background color. The generated web page directory will appear in your ~/Pictures folder and automatically open in your default browser.

~~~

Conclusion:
Even after 35 years on Mac and 23 years with OS X, I can still learn new tricks I had no clue about!  

[markw]

3 hours ago, loukash said:

23 years with OS X, I can still learn new tricks I had no clue about!

Same goes for me!
Have to wonder why Apple buried it deep in the system, almost like they didn't want people to use it!

[loukash]

41 minutes ago, markw said:

Have to wonder why Apple buried it deep in the system, almost like they didn't want people to use it!

There are more goodies like this. For example in /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications
Or the /System/Applications/News.app which is hidden in many territories but it works just fine if you happen to find it.
Also, Xcode comes with a couple of useful utilities hidden in /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications, particularly the Accessibility Inspector if you want to script apps via System Events, including Affinity apps.

[nickbatz]

10 hours ago, loukash said:

 

On Mac, since almost 20 years (!) there's even a dedicated built-in Automator action named New PDF Contact Sheet which will create PDF pages from images passed to it. Just launch Automator and check it out yourself. 

Could you possibly explain the steps to "pass images to it?" I see the action in Automator but have never used it, and it's not obvious how to get it to work.

Thanks!

[loukash]

Just now, nickbatz said:

it's not obvious how to get it to work.

Read on above. It doesn't work on Ventura for me either. Follow the steps how to utilize the actual hidden app instead.

[nickbatz]

Just now, loukash said:

Read on above. It doesn't work on Ventura for me either. Follow the steps how to utilize the actual hidden app instead.

Thanks. Yeah, I haven't updated to Sonoma (because I'm still reading reports of problems, and I use music and audio software with 101 plug-ins).

[v_kyr]

11 hours ago, loukash said:

On Mac, since almost 20 years (!) there's even a dedicated built-in Automator action named New PDF Contact Sheet which will create PDF pages from images passed to it. Just launch Automator and check it out yourself.

See therefor ...

• Create a Contact Sheet of Thumbnails with Automator in Mac OS X (...on OSXDaily from 2013)

... but also ...

• Automator new pdf contact sheet

... and other net references about that. - Other than that there's also a free ContactPage Lite for macOS.

[nickbatz]

Thanks!