How to install Picture package into Photoshop CS6
Yes! It can be done! Don’t let anyone tell you it can’t.
Ok, so if you read some of the information that’s available on the web you’ll be lead to believe that, in Photoshop CS6 the Picture Package feature has at last been permanently removed from Photoshop and only the Contact Sheet feature is available.
You’ll also read that the Picture Package is not a supported plug-in. Well, it might not be supported but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. If you are a Windows user then it does work – in fact it works just fine. And thanks to J. J. Mack’s research here, step by step is how to put the Picture Package back in Photoshop CS6 for Windows.
Step 1
Download the Picture Package and Contact Sheet add-in for Photoshop CS5 from this location: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4688. It is part of the Optional Plugins collection.
Step 2
Once you’ve downloaded the plug-in zip file, open it up because what you want is two parts of it. You want the appropriate ContactSheetII.8LI file and the layouts.
So, once you’ve unzipped the file use Windows Explorer to locate your Adobe folder – you will need the C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS6 <64 bit or 32 bit>\Presets folder. Depending on whether you are using the 32 or 64 bit version of Photoshop, you will need to locate the correct folder. On my machine, I am using the 64 bit version of Photoshop so the folder is: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS6 (64 Bit)\Presets.
Put the folder of Layouts that were in the zip file into this folder – so you will now have a Presets\Layouts folder with a set of layouts in it.
Step 3
Locate your Adobe Photoshop \Required\Plug-Ins\Automate folder – the Required folder is at the same level as your Presets folder so, on my computer it is here:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS6 (64 Bit)\Required\Plug-Ins\Automate
Into this folder copy the ContactSheetII.8LI file from the zip download.
Step 4
Once you’ve done this simply close and restart Photoshop.
Choose File > Automate and you’ll see the Picture Package option.
You’ll also find that you have two Contact SheetII entries – you want to use the second one of these as this is the one that is installed with Photoshop CS6.
If desired you can use the Edit Menus feature to remove the unwanted entry from the Automate menu to make things neat and tidy.
Step 5
To run the Picture Package plug-in in Photoshop CS6, choose File > Automate > Picture Package. You can now proceed as you did with earlier versions. You can edit layouts, open layouts, you can click on an image to add it, you can go and add a file to the layout and basically do anything that you used to do with the Picture Package in any earlier version of Photoshop.
So when someone tries to tell you that Picture Package is not available in Photoshop CS6 feel free to send them here to prove that it can be done.
I think I love you! Thanks so much!!! This has been bugging me so much since the upgrade!!
Thanks Angie!
Hello,
How can I install picture package in PS CS6 for imac?
Sorry, Andrew, I don’t believe it can be done. You can do it in CS6 in Windows but apparently not even this fix works on the Mac.
What a time saver, Thank you Helen!
Hi Helen,I was very relieved to see this post.I followed your instructions , and then rechecked it…twice.Im using windows 32bit and CS6.I run the “picture package” and I see that it runs perfectly selecting the image i choose..BUT…at the end all I have is a transparent locked layer sitting ontop of the images in the thumbnail.I unlock the layer and reverese the with the images on top of the transparent ( I can see the image in the thumnail in layers) BUT the image is still a transparent view ? I cannot merge it,nor flatten it to see the finished completed process.BUT, I can save it as PSD,jpeg or save for web…then i can see the flattened finished image?? Voo Doo??Im using 8 bit/chanel..in PS6..is that an issue?..thanks for the post, It will save me hundreds of hours a year If I can get it running reliabley…cheers…ric
P.S I turned on the gamut warning..now I see the image..Got any clues? maybe its just a glitch to my system…thanks again…ric ( australia)
Hallelujah – patience paid off in googling this question and at last finding your solution. Thank you.
Yeah, we’ll done Deborah, it is hard sometimes not to take the first 10 posts as the definitive answer – but persevere and sometimes your gut instinct that there has to be a way to do something pays off!
Glad to be of help.
Helen
I have two computers both having Photoshop CS6 with different licenses. This process worked perfectly for my laptop, but I am unable to get it to work with my desktop? Any suggestions
I found and followed your instructions a while back and it worked great for my CS6 64-Bit copy. But there was an update today and I updated my copy of CS6 PS and now the picture package function is not working!
I came back to these instructions to try it again to see if I can overwrite any changes that disabled the plug-in but no success.
Any ideas?
Great Job! worked without error
None as yet. You are right, the most recent update of CS6 has removed this functionality. It really makes no sense at all Adobe really dropped the ball on this. A lot of people like and use it and it is an existing plug-in so why go to such lengths to remove something that works and is used.
I can only suggest you write to Adobe and complain.
I’ll keep looking out for solutions though as I am too use this feature a lot. Right now I have to crank up CS5 to use it.
Helen
Is it the same process for the Cs4 please? Thank you so much!
Thanks so much!!!
خیلی ممنون
I followed your instructions and when I click on picture package it says “Coul not complete the picture package command because this version of Photoshop does not supply the services required by this plug in module”….so how do you get it to work at this point????????
Adobe broke it again with their most recent update. The newest update for CS6 has destroyed this functionality. I’m still trying to find a solution.
thanks a lot , great.. 🙂
Thanks, Helen! Love it! Works great in CS6.
Just want to say thank you for your efforts in helping us find a solution to this problem!
It was great while it was working.
I’ll continue doing some research of my own and if I find anything I’ll share if you’d like.
Also, for anyone that says that it is working right now, beware that any future updates from Adobe may break this functionality like it did for me and others!
Thanks so much for this tut, i thought i would prefer CS5 now, lolx
Oh my god! Thank so much for this tutorial! I did help me bigtime!!!!
I love you mwah mwah!!!
I can’t find Layout folder
Wow..thanks a lot..it works fine! Staybless!
Really appreciate everyone sharing – and Helen for your clarity. One question – how adding a paper size of 13×19 – doesn’t want to do that..unless I make a template EACH time under custom….doesn’t seem to save it.
Any help?
Thanks!
So I have the Adobe Creative Cloud license of CS6. After following the instructions posted here, I get the following message when trying to run Picture Package after restarting… “Could not complete the Picture Package command because this version of Photoshop does not supply the services required by this plug-in module.”
Is there a fix for the Creative Cloud version?
Unfortunately Adobe permanently broke this workaround a few weeks ago. The only fix is now to not update. Personally I am keeping my copy of Photoshop CS5 installed so I can use this feature and also the Pixel Bender plug in which is now not supported in CS6.
THANK YOU!!!!!!
Thanks a ton!!!! Maybe thanks a mega ton! I just hate it when I do updates, and then go to use a feature, and there it isn’t!! I know I had the picture package in CS6 at one time, but have had a couple of updates, and it disappeared. So thanks so much for this post!!
Hi, does this also works with windows 8??
I downloaded the plug-inns but in my 64 bit folder there is no contactsheetII.8LI only a contactsheetII.
And my layouts only contents text.
Can and will you please help me??
Helen,
First, THANK YOU for this quick and easy tutorial. It worked for me! 🙂
Second, what version of PSCS6 are you running that has broken the functionality? I don’t recall when I last updated, but I am running version 13.0.1 32-bit and it is working just fine.
Very helpful. Thanks a lot.
Wow this was so helpful – all these features are so helpful – Thanks
Hi Helen
This only partially worked for me – I never had an earlier version so i didn’t know what i lost with CS6. I only get a contact sheet to play with – should there be other layouts. The current layout download file only has text file in it. Am I missing anything?
Thanks Brian
Brian, If you installed the plug-in following the steps exactly then you should have a second Contact Sheet option and a Picture Package one – it is critical you follow the instructions very carefully and put all the pieces in the right places or nothing will work. You might want to check again that you did everything correctly. Then close and relaunch Photoshop.
Helen
Thanks Helen I reinstalled it and everything went ok then – thank you very much.
Also – do you know if it is possible to put a border around each photo at same time or is it best to do that in PS before using Picture Package
Brian
Works flawlessly on cs6. Thank you! You’re a lifesaver 🙂
Hy and thanx for this page, however, it doesn’t appear to be working for my CS5 version 12.1 Photoshop. I don’t trust Adobe these days to not take something away because I don’t want their cloud subscription version. So is there a way to have the ‘Picture Package / Contact Sheet’ feature back with CS5? Thanx, Myke
Thanks, I’d been plugging away for too long on CS4 and installed cs6 a while back. I don’t usually use the automate picture package. I had a request for a layout and looked for it. Not there. Thanks!!
Works flawlessly on cs6. Thank you! You’re a lifesaver
Perfect.
Thank you SOOO much, I have been struggling with adding this, you made it very easy!!
Thank you, I need this and it works fine!
Thanks for writing Install Picture Package in Photoshop CS6 – step by step « projectwoman.com, actually love
it.
This plugin is just a contact sheet, right? Not a package withe different sizes of the same image. I tried to do as described, but just got a contact sheet, which was allready available in the standard set-up???
Regards Jens