How to Make a Contact Sheet in Lightroom (and a Faster Way)

Lightroom, Photoshop and Bridge can all produce a contact sheet, and all three assume the same starting position: the catalogue is already open, the images are already imported, and the subscription is already paid. When that is true, Lightroom's Print module is the most capable option on the list. When it is not, you are looking at a twenty-minute detour for a two-minute job.

Here is each route, honestly, and when to use which.

Lightroom Classic: the Print module

1. 01Select the images in the Library grid. Only what is selected prints, so select the whole folder if you want the whole take.
2. 02Switch to the Print module.
3. 03In Layout Style on the right, choose Contact Sheet / Grid. This is the setting people miss — the default is Single Image / Contact Sheet and it behaves differently.
4. 04Set Page Setup at the bottom left to your paper size and orientation.
5. 05Open the Layout panel and set rows and columns. The Cell Size sliders update as you go; the preview is live, so change the numbers until the page looks right.
6. 06Open Page and tick Photo Info to print filenames. Pick Filename from the dropdown and set the font size — 6pt is about right.
7. 07Add an Identity Plate from the same panel if you want your logo on it.
8. 08In Print Job, set Print To: JPEG File or use Print to PDF, set resolution to 150 or 300ppi, and export.

Save it as a User Template in the Template Browser the moment you have it right. Rebuilding the layout on every job is where most of the time goes, and the template panel is the one part of this workflow that genuinely pays for itself.

Photoshop: Contact Sheet II

File → Automate → Contact Sheet II. Point it at a folder, set the document size and the columns and rows, tick Use Filename As Caption, and run it. It builds a flattened PSD you then export. There is a full Photoshop walkthrough, including how to get one multi-page PDF out of it.

It is faster to set up than Lightroom and gives you far less control. The preview is a thumbnail diagram rather than the real thing, so you find out what the spacing actually looks like after it has finished processing. On a large set that feedback loop is slow enough to hurt.

Bridge: the Output workspace

Bridge's Output workspace produces PDF contact sheets and is free with any Creative Cloud plan. It was removed in the 2015 release, which sent a lot of people looking for alternatives, and restored as the Output module in 2018. If you already have Bridge open for culling it is a reasonable route; almost nobody opens Bridge specifically for it.

Where the Adobe routes cost you

The real cost is not any single step. It is that all three assume the images are already inside Adobe's world. If the files came in over WeTransfer an hour ago, importing 400 frames into a catalogue to print one page of thumbnails is the expensive part, not the layout.

When to skip Adobe

• Someone else's machine, or one without a subscription on it.
• Files you were sent rather than files you shot, which do not belong in your catalogue.
• A client on the phone who wants to see the take now.
• Lightroom CC rather than Classic, which as above simply cannot do it.
• You need selects back, not just a document — a review link gets you filenames and notes instead of a reply that says "the third one".

The browser contact sheet maker covers the same ground for the common case: drop a folder on the page, set columns and rows, turn on filenames, add a header and a watermark, download a PDF at up to 300dpi. It runs entirely on your machine — the images are never uploaded — and it works on a laptop that has never had Adobe installed. There is a full step-by-step walkthrough if you want the detail.

What it does not do is replace Lightroom. If you are already in a catalogue with develop settings applied and a print template saved, use the Print module — it is better at this, and it is right there.