How to make a contact sheet of a folder of photos

Contact sheets come from File > Automate > Contact Sheet in Paint by Zaweba. Point it at a folder and it builds pages of thumbnails, each with its file name underneath as a caption. The captions are ordinary text layers, so you can edit them, and the pages can be printed or saved like any other document.

The contact sheet is a habit from film days, when photographers printed a whole roll small on one sheet to choose which frames to enlarge. It's still useful: it lets a client circle favourites on paper, gives you a quick record of what's on a memory card, and makes a printed index for an archive box.

Step by step with contact sheets

Gather the photos you want in one folder first. If it's a big shoot, copy just the shortlist to a new folder, as fifty thumbnails a page get very small.

Choose File > Automate > Contact Sheet and pick the folder. Paint lays the thumbnails out in a grid across as many pages as it needs, with each file name as a caption. Look the result over. Because the captions are text layers, you can change the font or size, or add a note to a particular picture, using the Type tools.

Then print with File > Print, or use Save as PDF from the Print window to send the sheets by email. A PDF is often the easiest way to share proofs with someone who'll look at them on a tablet.

Making the sheets useful

File names matter more than usual here, because they are what people will quote back to you. Camera names like IMG_4821 are fine as long as they're unique, but if you're sending sheets to a client, consider renaming files to something like the date and a number first. Batch has name tokens such as {date} that can help when exporting renamed copies.

Add a title to the first page. A text layer at the top with the event name, date and your contact details turns a stack of thumbnails into a proper proof sheet.

Getting the size right with contact sheets

Fewer thumbnails per page means bigger pictures and easier choices. For portrait sessions where expressions matter, keep them large. For a quick catalogue of a day's shooting, smaller is fine. Print a test page first and check the faces are readable at arm's length.

Related tools

Picture Package, under the same File > Automate menu, does the opposite job: it repeats one photo at fixed sizes on a page, for ID photos or a set of prints. Image Processor converts a folder of photos into JPEG, PNG, WebP or TIFF, which is handy if the folder has HEIC or RAW files you'd like as JPEG copies.

A few cautions

Contact sheets are for choosing, not for judging fine detail, so don't decide focus from a thumbnail. Zoom in on the full size file for that. And remember the sheet shows every file in the folder, so take out duplicates and test shots first.

Paint by Zaweba is free software and works offline, so making proof sheets of private client photos keeps everything on your own computer.