Creating a template project

A template project consists of a .pttp2 project file and a PSD file. The Template Creator lets you create a project file together with a PSD file.

The Template Creator allows you to generate drafts for all types of templates. It generates a set of groups and subgroups with valid names, minimizing the error probability while creating the template structure.

As soon as you launch the Template Creator, Photoshop will start automatically (if it is not already open). The Template Creator startup dialog ( The Beginning) will appear. It lets you create / open a project or reparse a PSD file open in Photoshop.

You can ignore this dialog, or even disable it from appearing each time you launch the Template Creator, if it bothers you.

Alternatively, to create a new project, go to the "File" menu and select "Create Project".

A dialog will open, where you need to fill the parameters of your template and save it in a selected directory.

The new project dialog allows you to:

• Select a project type. Depending on a project type, the Template Creator generates drafts with different structure in a Photoshop document (PSD). Also, different template types let you employ different artistic means.
• • Universal orientation.
  • Several orientations inside the same document (more information here).
  • Several orientations, while each of them will be stored in a separate document.
• Create a project based on existing PSD files open in Photoshop.
• Specify sub-sizes.
• Tell the Template Creator to avoid photo scaling, that is not to scale up user photos when processed by the template (automatic resizing of templates)
• Use animation in your template.

If you selected the ‘New PSD document’ option, the Template Creator will generate a new PSD file in Photoshop. This file is associated with a new project and has the necessary structure of groups and subgroups of layers, according to your project settings.

If there are open documents in Photoshop, the new project dialog will allow you to make a project based on an existing document:

Select one or several PSD documents to include into the project, depending on your template type. To select a PSD document from the list of existing ones, specify its orientation using the drop-down list on the right. As a reminder, you can use several PSD documents in one template. In this case, specify an orientation for each of them.

Binded PSDs as well as other parameters of the project can be changed, if needed, after the project was created.

When you finish working with your template, be sure to save the project. If there are unsaved changes in your project, an asterisk will appear in the Template Creator window title bar.

Saving a project means that only the project file is saved; changes in the PSD document are not saved automatically. Save your PSD document manually, if needed.

Besides, you can use the Save Project and PSD as option letting you save the project file and related PSD documents with a new file name.

You can see the projects you recently worked with, if you select File -> Recent Projects.

If you want to work with several projects at the same time, launch a separate copy of the Template Creator for each of them.