Placing pictures in Layout by Zaweba, and the formats it takes

Pictures arrive in every format going. A photographer sends TIFFs, a phone sends HEIC, the client's logo is an SVG or an EPS, the advert is a PDF, and the designer's artwork is a layered Photoshop file. Layout by Zaweba places all of these directly, so you don't have to convert files before they can go on the page.

The formats you can place

Ordinary picture files cover most needs: PNG, JPEG, TIFF, BMP, GIF and WebP. Newer phone and web formats, HEIC, HEIF and AVIF, go in too, which saves a conversion step when photos come straight off a phone.

Layered PSD and PSB files place with their picture layers and layer comps available. You can choose which layers show, or pick a layer comp the designer set up, without opening another program. One file can then give you several versions of an image, such as a product shot with and without a background.

EPS files are placed by their preview. SVG places as vector artwork, which suits logos and icons. A PDF page can be placed, which is the usual way to put a supplied advert into a magazine. A page of another .zala, Layout's own document format, can be placed too, so a finished advert or panel made in one Layout document can appear in another.

Linked or embedded

Each picture can be linked or embedded. Linked means the document refers to the file on disk; the file stays separate and can be updated when it changes. Embedded means the picture is stored inside the document itself.

Linking is the normal choice for print work. Documents stay smaller, photos can be retouched and updated without placing them again, and the Links panel shows you the status of each one. Embedding suits small graphics that will never change, or a document that must travel without its folder. When a job goes to the printer, the package command collects linked pictures together for you anyway.

Placing many pictures at once

Choose several files and the cursor becomes a place gun, loaded with all of them and showing thumbnails so you can see which picture is next. Click to put each one down, either into an existing frame or onto the page to make a new one. For a picture heavy layout, such as a catalogue spread, a holiday brochure or a photo book, that is far quicker than placing pictures one at a time.

Getting good results with placed pictures

Plan frames first, then place. With a grid of empty frames ready, the place gun drops each picture into the right box and fitting options can size them consistently.

Mind resolution. A photo that looks fine on screen can be too low for print once it is scaled up. Live preflight flags low resolution pictures as you work, and the Links panel shows both actual and effective ppi.

Watch the colour. RGB pictures in a print document are fine in many workflows but are worth knowing about, and preflight can flag them.

Keep linked files organised. Put pictures in a folder beside the document from the start. Pictures linked from a downloads folder or a memory card are the ones that go missing later.

Where placing fits into a page

Placing is the first step. After that, fitting options size the picture in its frame, corner options and strokes shape the frame, text wrap pushes text around it, and captions can be built from the picture's own metadata. The Links panel keeps track of every file, and preflight makes sure nothing is missing or too low in quality before the PDF goes out.