Manual Concepts

Concepts

The vocabulary the rest of the manual assumes. Read this once and the other pages will make sense.

The vertical-scroll format

Platemaker's core model is the virtual strip: your ordered input images are treated as one tall image, scaled to a single target width, and then cut into fixed-height slices. Nothing is processed page by page.

Workspace

→ Workspaces

Project (chapter)

→ Projects

Input files and ordering

→ Projects

Canvas profile

→ Canvas profiles

Output profile

→ Output profiles

Template

→ Templates

Slices and the render

→ Rendering

How the pieces relate

Workspace  (.platemaker.json)
├── Canvas profiles ────── generate ──► Templates  (<workspace>/templates/*.psd|*.png)
├── Output profiles
└── Projects (chapters)
    ├── input files (ordered)  ──┐
    ├── assigned canvas profiles │
    ├── selected output profile  ├──► render ──► output slices
    └── output directory  ───────┘

Where your data is stored

What	Where
Workspace	The .platemaker.json file you chose
Templates	<workspace folder>/templates/
Workspace fonts	<workspace folder>/fonts/ — active while this workspace is open, see [[Workspaces
Rendered slices	The output directory set per project
Source images	Wherever they already are — Platemaker never moves or modifies them

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See also: Quick start · File statuses · Main window