Hello! This beginner is stuck!

I set up a simple invoice layout, and wanted to insert a jpeg made in Photoshop for the company logo. Two things went wrong that I don't understand.

1. When I do "insert" "picture" the jpeg comes in about 20 times too big, despite the fact that the logo measures (in inches) slightly smaller than the field measues (in inches). I've tried just inserting the logo directly onto the header, and I've tried putting it in a field -- behaves the same both ways. Does anyone know what I can do to fix that?

2. I dragged the graphics handles until the logo was small enough, and thought it was weird but would be OK. Then I printed out a test copy of my invoice. Everything else is on there just fine (even other text from the Header), but the jpeg of the logo is absent. It shows up in Preview fine, but does not print. I am sure I didn't turn off printing for that part, 'cause I checked "Set Sliding/Printing" just to be sure there wasn't some kind of default left over from some body fields that I did set not to print.

I can't find any mention of this in any troubleshooting sections in my Filemaker Pro books, nor did I find anyone posting about similar problems when I scrolled through these forums during lunch today.

If anyone has any insight on either of my mistakes, I'd sure appreciate hearing from them!

You can try resizing the image in photoshop to match what you need for output. If it's just for screen viewing, try setting the resolution to 72dpi, if it's for printing, try using 300dpi.

If you still have trouble getting the graphic to show on printouts, try changing the image's file format to something else, and then re-inserting it into your FileMaker layout.

Thank you for the suggestion. While changing the resolution of the jpeg to 72 dpi imports an image that fits, the logo still doesn't print with the rest of the invoice.

However, I'm now wondering - are there preferences or other settings I should adjust for layouts that will be printed? 72 dpi will look awful on top of an invoice sent out to clients -- if I ever get it to print!

Thanks to anyone who can share experiences solving similar puzzles.

Is there a way to write a script that works with another program? for instance, can filemaker elicit adobe photoshop via a "resize" script? if so, how?!

FileMaker can run an AppleScript, via Perform AppleScript, and AppleScript can tell Photoshop to run a script. I don't have Photoshop on this machine, but as I remember it's scripts (or actions) can be called just like FileMaker's can, with the do script command.

If you are just resizing a photo, or converting formats, then there is a background application bundled with Mac OS X, Image Events, which can do this. It is meant to be run via AppleScript. There is also a command line sips which can do the same, which also can be run from AppleScript, via do shell script.