LumaPix :: FotoFusion
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After starting a new project, you will need to bring your images onto the canvas.
You can add images into a collage several ways:
| • | from the  hover, to quickly select and drop photos directly on the canvas. |
| • | from the Browse for Images  Toolbar icon. |
| • | within the Organizer, via the Buckets hover, the most precise way to organize your images and bring them to your canvas. |
| • | dragging them directly from Windows Explorer. |
| • | from the File menu's Add Images... option. |
| • | the web from Windows Internet Explorer (Enhanced and Extreme versions only) |
An image can be also be assigned to the background frame by dropping your image onto the grey area around the canvas. If the image is already in a normal frame on the canvas, right-mouse select it and "Set as Canvas Background", or pick it up by the frame number and drop it outside the canvas. The image (or texture) will snap to fill the entire frame. To move the image to the canvas as a normal frame, right-mouse select an empty space on the background image, and select "Set as Regular Frame".
After you have brought the images into FotoFusion, the next step is to:
| • | drop the images onto the canvas OR |
| • | drop the images into existing frames OR |
| • | add blank frames on the canvas to hold the new images and use AutoTools to automatically place the images on your canvas. |
The Images Hover
Whether you are building a new collage from scratch, or adding pictures to an existing collage, you will need to select pictures on your computer and bring them into FotoFusion.
You can open a file browser window by clicking on the hover.
Specify the location of the files you wish to view by clicking on the arrow next to the file path name.
Select the images you wish to use images in the browser (hold down the Ctrl key to click on more than one).
The selected images will attach themselves to your cursor, ready to be dropped -- this is called the Dropper.
Once you have added images onto the Image tab, they will be checkmarked in the Image hover. If you use the same image more than once within the project, the number of usages will also be indicated.
In this example, three images have been used, one of which has been dropped on the Canvas twice times. Right-mouse down on the image thumbnails to display additional options:
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| • | Preview Images launches an Image previewer within FotoFusion, displaying the image location and other options. |
| • | Rotate left/right corrects the alignment of images. |
| • | Go to Page... is available for multi-page projects (Extreme only). Your page view will change to display the page on which the image is used. |
| • | Apply to selected frames will drop images selected in the hover to frames selected on the canvas. This is particularly useful if you are using a template to set up a sheet with multiple versions of the same image (eg. wallet-size). |
| • | Send to Windows Recycling Bin deletes your images from their source location. |
Note to Extreme Users: Images can also be dragged from the Images Hover directly onto thumbnails in the Pages Hover.
If your page is empty, your images will AutoCollage onto the page. If your page contains empty frames (eg. a blank template), your images will AutoPopulate into the empty frames.
The Organizer
Click here to learn how you can use FotoFusion's organizer to manage your image files and to sort them effectively for your projects. This powerful tool will help you organize your projects quickly.
Drag and drop from Windows Explorer
You can drag images directly from the Windows Explorer into FotoFusion's main interface:
To bring images in from Windows Explorer,
1. Open Windows Explorer (to browse all your available files). There are several ways to do this, including:
Holding the 'Windows' key down and pressing 'e', or
Opening the Start menu and selecting 'My Computer', or,
double-clicking on 'My Computer' on your desktop.
2. Find the folder containing the images you want to use.
3. Hold the 'Ctrl' key down and click on as many image files as you like to select them, and release the 'Ctrl' key when you are done.
4. Move the cursor over one of the files you have selected, then press and hold the left mouse button.
This will 'pick up' the set of files you selected in step 3.
5. Drag them to FotoFusion:
If you can see the FotoFusion window below the Windows Explorer, simply drag the files to the FotoFusion window, then release the mouse button.
If you can't see the FotoFusion window, you will need to 'switch tasks' to bring the FotoFusion window to the top. To do this, you can either:
a) drag your selection to the Windows task bar at the bottom of your screen. This will pop up with a list of open applications. Drag the selection to the 'LumaPix FotoFusion' button on the task bar; the FotoFusion application will appear.
b) while continuing to hold the left mouse button down, press and hold the 'alt' key and tap the 'tab' key on your keyboard. This will pop up a window listing the open applications on your system. Keep tapping the 'tab' key without releasing the 'alt' key until you see the FotoFusion application highlighted - when you release the keyboard keys, the FotoFusion application will appear.
Bringing in images from the Web(Enhanced and Extreme versions only)
Images used in some websites can be dragged into FotoFusion. Currently this feature is only available in Windows Internet Explorer.
This is useful for, for example, building websites that point to other websites.
To accomplish this, simply drag the image from the web page into FotoFusion. Be sure that the IMAGE tab is selected (not PAGES or SETTINGS) or the image will not be dropped. You will probably want to set the default DPI for the canvas to 96.
Some images will not work as they are embedded directly into the webpage and cannot be selected. Non-Internet Explorer browsers (eg Firefox, Chrome) may also prevent this feature from working.
Now what?
Now that you have pulled images into the collage, you can distribute the images to get exactly the effect you are trying to achieve by using the Auto Tools or by manually arranging the images.
