GUI Quickstart

This walkthrough takes you from zero to a print-ready PDF using the GUI.

Step 1 — Create a project

When you open fotobuch for the first time, a welcome screen appears. Click New project, give it a name (e.g. Italy-2024), choose a folder to save it in, and set the page dimensions in millimetres (e.g. 297 × 210 mm = A4 landscape).

fotobuch creates the project and opens it automatically.

Step 2 — Add photos

Click Add in the toolbar (or press Ctrl+O). Select a folder — all photos in that folder are imported into the Photo Pool on the left. You can add more folders at any time; each folder becomes a separate group.

The Photo Pool shows all your imported photos. Unplaced photos are available for placement; the count is shown at the top.

Step 3 — Fine-tune the configuration

Click Config in the toolbar to open the project configuration. Key settings:

• page_target — how many pages you want
• search_timeout — how long the solver runs (increase for large books)
• gap_mm — space between photos on a page
• book.margin_mm — inner margin around the page content (default 0.0)
• book.bleed_mm — bleed zone added at the page edges, trimmed in the final PDF (default 3.0); set to 0 if your print service does not require bleed

Most settings preview instantly. The page and per-page targets only change how the layout is built, so rebuild the affected pages (R) to apply them to existing pages.

Step 4 — Create pages and place photos

Click Rebuild in the toolbar (or press R) with no pages selected, then confirm Rebuild all in the dialog. fotobuch creates all necessary pages and distributes your photos across them automatically.

Alternatively, drag photos from the Photo Pool onto the dashed drop zones between pages in the Central Panel to create pages and place photos manually one by one.

Step 5 — Browse and adjust

Use the Nav Bar on the right to scroll through all pages and jump to any page with a click.

If a page doesn’t look right, hover over it in the Central Panel and click the ↻ button in the HUD to rebuild just that page. fotobuch re-runs the layout solver for that page and shows the updated result.

Moving and swapping photos between pages:

• Right-drag a slot in the Central Panel to start a drag.
• The toolbar mode switch (or press M) controls the drag behaviour:
  • Swap — the dragged slot and the drop target exchange positions.
  • Move — the dragged slot is inserted at the drop target; other slots shift.

Adjusting photo weight:

• Select a slot and press W to open the weight slider.
• Or right-click a slot and choose Set weight…
• Higher weight = more space for that photo on the page.

Undoing changes:

• Press Ctrl+Z to undo, Ctrl+Y to redo.
• Click History in the toolbar to browse and jump to any earlier state.

Step 6 — Export for print

When you’re happy with the layout, click Release in the toolbar (or press Ctrl+Shift+B).

fotobuch re-renders all images at full 300 DPI and writes {project-name}_final.pdf in your project folder. The file opens automatically when the build is done; you can also find it in the project folder as {project-name}_final.pdf.

Do not upload the regular preview PDF ({project-name}.pdf) to a print service — it renders at screen resolution only.

See Printing & Export for print-service requirements such as bleed and colour profiles.