# instax-printing — User Guide ## What is instax-printing? instax-printing arranges **three photos** onto a single **4R (15×10 cm) print sheet**, each one composited inside a full instax-mini card — the classic white border, thin at the top and sides, thick at the bottom. Send the sheet to a photo lab (or print it at home), cut along the marks, and each piece looks like a real instax mini. The whole point is that you never print one tiny instax at a time: three of them fit on one cheap standard 4R print. --- ## The Workflow at a Glance 1. **Load** three photos — one per crop slot. 2. **Frame** each photo inside the instax-shaped crop — drag, zoom, rotate. 3. **Generate the 4R sheet** once all three are ready. 4. **Save or Print** the sheet. 5. Cut along the light-grey trim lines. --- ## The Main Window ``` ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Load three photos, then drag / zoom / rotate each … │ ├────────────────┬────────────────┬────────────────────────────┤ │ │ │ │ │ [ crop #1 ] │ [ crop #2 ] │ [ crop #3 ] │ │ │ │ │ │ Load ⟲ ⟳ Reset│ Load ⟲ ⟳ Reset│ Load ⟲ ⟳ Reset │ │ Zoom ────────│ Zoom ────────│ Zoom ──────── │ │ Angle ────────│ Angle ────────│ Angle ──────── │ │ ≈ 312 DPI │ ≈ 289 DPI │ ≈ 205 DPI │ ├────────────────┴────────────────┴────────────────────────────┤ │ 2 / 3 images loaded … [ New sheet ] [ Generate 4R sheet ]│ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ``` Each of the three columns is an independent **crop station**. The **Generate 4R sheet** button stays disabled until all three photos are loaded. --- ## Loading Photos Click **Load #1** (and #2, #3) to pick an image. Supported formats: `.jpg` / `.jpeg` / `.jpe` / `.jfif` · `.png` · `.tif` / `.tiff` · `.bmp` · `.webp` - The dialog opens in the last folder you loaded from — that folder is **shared across all three slots**, so you can load three photos from one shoot without navigating each time. - File paths with **accents, ñ, or non-Latin characters** load correctly on every platform. > **Empty folder in the file dialog?** The app lists both lower- and upper-case > extensions (`*.jpg *.JPG`) precisely so photos never get hidden by a > case-sensitive filter — a common problem with the native Linux dialog. --- ## Framing a Photo Each crop station shows the **whole photo** with a blue **instax-shaped frame** over it. Everything outside the frame is dimmed, and a rule-of-thirds grid is drawn inside it to help you compose. Only what's inside the frame ends up on the print. The frame is locked to the **instax-mini image ratio (46×62 mm, portrait)** and is always kept fully inside the photo, so a crop can **never** contain blank white edges — even when rotated. | Action | How | Result | |--------|-----|--------| | **Move** | Left-drag on the photo | Slides the frame around the image | | **Zoom** | Mouse wheel, or the **Zoom** slider | Tightens (in) or loosens (out) the crop, 1.00× – 8.00× | | **Rotate 90°** | **⟲ 90** / **⟳ 90** buttons | Rotates the frame a quarter-turn left / right | | **Fine rotate** | **Angle** slider | Any angle from −180° to +180° | | **Start over** | **Reset** button | Returns the frame to centred, full-size, level | The **Zoom** and **Angle** sliders and the mouse/wheel gestures stay in sync — dragging the wheel moves the Zoom slider, and vice-versa. > **A higher zoom means a tighter, more magnified crop** — the instax frame > covers a smaller part of the original photo, so fewer source pixels fill the > print. Watch the DPI readout (below) as you zoom in. --- ## The DPI Readout Under each crop station is a live **effective print resolution** for that crop, e.g. `≈ 312 DPI`. It's the number of original photo pixels that will be printed per inch of instax image at the current zoom. - **180 DPI or above** — good; the print will look crisp. - **Below 180 DPI** — the readout turns **red** with a `⚠ low-res` note, and the bottom status bar names which photos are soft. The print will still generate, but that photo may look a little fuzzy. Zoom out (loosen the crop) or use a higher-resolution source to recover sharpness. The status bar at the bottom summarises the whole sheet: - `2 / 3 images loaded — load all three to continue.` - `Ready — note: photo(s) 3 are below 180 DPI and may look soft.` (red) - `All three ready and at good resolution ✓` (green) --- ## Generating the 4R Sheet When all three photos are framed, click **Generate 4R sheet**. Each crop is placed inside a full instax-mini card and the three cards are packed **edge-to-edge and flush to the top** of the 4R. A preview window opens showing the finished sheet at **15×10 cm**. ### What the sheet looks like - Three **54×86 mm instax cards** across the width, white borders and all. - **Cut marks** only where you actually need to cut: - two **full-height vertical lines** between the cards, and - one **horizontal trim line** across the bottom of the cards. - The **left, right, and top edges are the sheet's own trim edges** — nothing to cut there. Because three 54 mm cards (162 mm) are slightly wider than the 4R (152 mm), the cards print a touch under full instax size — the difference is a couple of millimetres and not noticeable once cut. --- ## Saving and Printing The preview dialog has three buttons: ### Save… Opens a save dialog. Choose **JPEG**, **PNG**, or **TIFF**. The file is written at **300 DPI with the physical size embedded**, so a photo lab (or your own printer) reproduces it at exactly 15×10 cm without you having to set the size manually. The dialog opens in the **folder you saved to last** (during the session) and suggests the next free name — `instax_4r.jpg`, then `instax_4r_1.jpg`, `instax_4r_2.jpg`, and so on — so **saving another sheet never overwrites an earlier one**. You can of course rename it to whatever you like. ### Print… Opens the system print dialog and sends the sheet straight to a printer at 300 DPI, scaled to fit the page while keeping its aspect ratio and centred. ### Close Dismisses the preview and returns to the crop stations — your three crops are kept, so you can tweak one and regenerate. --- ## Starting a New Sheet Two ways to start over: - **Reset one photo** — the **Reset** button on a crop station returns just that frame to centred, full-size, and level (the photo stays loaded). - **New sheet** — the **New sheet** button in the bottom bar clears **all three** photos at once so you can build a fresh sheet. It asks for confirmation first (as long as at least one photo is loaded) so you don't wipe your work by accident. --- ## Cutting the Print 1. Make the **two vertical cuts** between the cards (full height of the sheet). Each cut splits the shared white gutter into an even ~3.7 mm border on both neighbours. 2. Make the **one horizontal cut** along the bottom trim line to remove the strip under the cards. That's it — three cuts total, and you have three instax-mini-style prints. --- ## Tips - **Batch a shoot:** load all three from the same folder (the dialog remembers it), frame quickly, generate, then load the next three over the top. - **Rotate before zooming** if a subject is tilted — the frame stays inside the photo at any angle, so you won't fight blank corners. - **Keep an eye on the DPI colour** — green everywhere means a sharp print. - **Regenerate freely** — closing the preview keeps your crops, so it's cheap to nudge one frame and make a new sheet.