Updated 3/21/2010 Registered users sent no charge update. Bug fix, added 3 panel wall panel where ratio of panels is 1 : 2 : 1.
have created a Photoshop action that will take an image and cut it into 2, 3 or 4 panels for printing on canvas. Easy to do if you are printing on paper, just cut the image in Photoshop, and print the 2 to 4 panels. However, if you are printing on canvas you need to provide for a wrap. If you treat each panel as an individual image, you can wrap each panel with a solid color or mirror. However, if you want the part of the wrap on each panel that is adjacent to another panel, it becomes complicated. Instead of simply cutting the image, you need to grab 2 inches from the panel on the right for the wrap on the panel to the left and vice versa. This action does that in a blink. To use the action, take your image with whatever wrap you intend to use already applied. Select the number of panels you would like to produce and then save or print the panels from the history states.

On the right you will see an image I made up for this demonstration. Beautiful composition don’t you agree? Ha-ha! I call it “Four of a Kind,” but “Test Strip” was a close second… In any case for the purpose of an example let’s say you have an image that you decide might look good as a part of a panel display. After deciding how many panels are appropriate for the image, ( I chose 4 – The image will usually dictate the choice, but not always as clearly as it did here ) You need to cut the image up and get it on paper, canvas, etc. If you are going to face or surface mount you might be able to simply print on one piece and take a razor to it and slap some glue. On the other hand you may print them separately and frame each one – you might want to print them on canvas. If you print them on canvas and simply do a mirror or solid color for the wrap you can cut the image and wrap each one individually.

Wrapping each image like that is easy, but a photographer I know asked me if I could make an action that would cause Photoshop to cut an image up and fill the wrap that exists between the images with face image from the adjacent image.

This is not easy to describe, but hopefully the images I am posting here will make it clear what I am doing. Out of the frame. As you can see this photo consists of 4 areas of equal size. If we were to print this on canvas as one image, we might chose to do a solid color wrap. I will do a two inch wrap of a contrasting color so you can follow the cuts more easily. In this example the wrap is a #878622 color in case you fall in love…On the right is the original image with a solid wrap. As you can see if you then cut the image, there will be no image for a wrap on the side near a neighbor piece. So what do we put there? The part of the image from the face of the adjacent piece. Like this!

This is just an illustration of what goes where when you run the action. Presented with this exact print, most printers would do a wrap that matched each frame and not pull the neighbor color in. But now that you can see where the pieces go, lets take a look at a before and after of another type of example.

(LEFT) This example is untitled. It is a work of art. How can you tell? Notice if you will the last two letters. See? Art. The reason I chose this is to hopefully illustrate how two adjacent panels pull face detail from the neighbor panel.

(RIGHT) As you can see from this image if you pushed all the panels together they would form the entire image.

(Below) Looking at only the left two panels, this is the output from the action, before printing. As you can see the letters are duplicated on both panels. This is so the panels, when viewed on the wall from an angle will have a natural extension of their image around the side. Again, the images will look continuous across the faces if you push the panels together. If you didn’t do this and simply wrapped three images without this type of duplication, there would be loss of image on the faces if you pushed them together.

How to use this action. Very simple. Your image should be print ready including the wraps as though you were going to print a single large canvas. It must be flat. Select either the 2 Panels, 3 Panels or 4 Panels option. After a short while, the panels will be found in the history states. You can then activate each history state and print or save that panel. The action needs to know how much of the image is going to be in the wrap, so select the number of panels that you want in the proper wrap size section.

As with any action that resizes images, you need to be careful to have integer DPI’s and file dimensions. i.e. a 20 by 60 image at 300 DPI will not cause any rounding error, while a 21.1254 by 58.2688 by 167.235 DPI image is sure to have problems. Please check your images at 100% before printing with expensive ink and canvas.

If you need more than a 2 inch wrap, or have any specific requirements that this action does not meet, let me know as I am interested in altering it for you. – Paul

This download is a Photoshop action designed to be used with Photoshop, not Photoshop Elements, Photoshop LE, or Lightroom. It has not been tested with versions of Photoshop prior to Photoshop CS. This action has been found to fail to run with installations of Photoshop in languages other than English. If you have any compatibility questions about this action, please contact me PRIOR to purchase. While this action may function with those versions full compatibility is not implied or guaranteed. This is a software download and no refunds can be issued so make sure you are buying the software you need.

Gallery Wrapped Wall Panels Action - License - Professional use

Price: $35.00