Where is Contact Sheet II in Photoshop?

File → Automate → Contact Sheet II. Point it at a folder, set the page size and resolution, choose the columns and rows, and tick Use Filename As Caption to label each frame. If Automate is greyed out, finish editing any text layer or close the open dialog first.

How do I make a multi-page contact sheet PDF in Photoshop?

Contact Sheet II creates one document per page. Save each page, then open File → Automate → PDF Presentation, add the pages in order, choose Multi-Page Document, and save them as a single PDF.

Can Photoshop put filenames on a contact sheet?

Yes. Tick Use Filename As Caption in the Contact Sheet II dialog and choose a font and size. Around 8pt is the smallest size that stays readable when the sheet is printed.

Why is Contact Sheet II so slow?

It opens and resamples every image at full size, one at a time. Export small JPEGs — around 1,600px on the long edge — and point it at those instead of raw files or full-resolution exports.

How to Make a Contact Sheet in Photoshop

Contact Sheet II step by step: where it lives, the settings that matter, how to turn its pages into one PDF, and when another tool is faster.

6 Oct 20264 min read

Photoshop makes contact sheets through a tool called Contact Sheet II. It is quick to run, gives you less control than Lightroom, and has two or three quirks that cost real time if nobody warns you about them. This is the whole process, the settings worth changing, how to get one tidy PDF out at the end, and the point at which a different tool makes more sense.

Before you open Photoshop

Put the images in one folder, in the order you want them. Contact Sheet II lays frames out in filename order, so if the sequence matters the filenames have to carry it. Fix them first with the batch file renamer if they do not.
Export small JPEGs if you are starting from raw files. Contact Sheet II opens and resamples every file at full size. Pointing it at 400 raw files is the difference between a coffee and a lunch break; around 1,600px on the long edge is plenty for a thumbnail.
Decide the paper. A4 is 21 × 29.7cm, US Letter is 8.5 × 11in. You will type these in, so know which one the client is going to print on.

Step by step

Open File → Automate → Contact Sheet II. If Automate is greyed out, you are probably still editing a text layer or have another dialog open — commit or cancel it first.
Under Source Images, set Use to Folder and choose the folder. Tick Include Subfolders only if you mean it.
Under Document, set the units, width, and height for your paper, and the resolution: 150 pixels/inch for a sheet read on screen, 300 for one that will be printed.
Leave Flatten All Layers ticked. Unflattened, every thumbnail and every caption becomes its own layer — occasionally useful, mostly just slow and heavy.
Under Thumbnails, choose to place across first (rows, the way people read) and set the columns and rows. Leave Use Auto-Spacing on for the first run.
Leave Rotate For Best Fit off. It turns portrait frames sideways to fill landscape cells — tidier on paper, miserable to review.
Tick Use Filename As Caption, then choose a font and size. Around 8pt is the smallest that survives printing.
Click OK and wait. Photoshop opens each image, scales it, places it, and closes it again.

Turning the pages into one PDF

Save each page Contact Sheet II produced — JPEG is fine — into its own folder, numbered in order.
Open File → Automate → PDF Presentation.
Click Browse and add the saved pages, or tick Add Open Files if they are still open. Drag them into the right order.
Under Output Options, choose Multi-Page Document, then click Save.
Pick a PDF preset: Smallest File Size if the sheet is going by email, High Quality Print if it is going to a printer.

Add a header to each page before this step if you want one. Contact Sheet II has no header or footer option, so the client name and date have to go on each page by hand — a text layer you copy between documents.

The settings that actually matter

Setting	What to set	Why
Resolution	150ppi on screen, 300ppi in print	300ppi has four times the pixels of 150ppi. On a sheet nobody prints, that is file size for nothing.
Columns × rows	4 × 5 to choose, 5 × 7 for proofs, 6 × 8 for an index	Keep it to 20 frames a page or fewer when somebody has to decide.
Auto-spacing	On, then adjust	Manual spacing with no live preview is guesswork.
Caption size	7–9pt	Smaller vanishes in print. Larger eats into the frame.
Flatten All Layers	On	Unflattened sheets are slow and very large.
Rotate For Best Fit	Off	Sideways portraits are hard to judge.

Where Contact Sheet II falls short

No live preview. The dialog shows a diagram of the grid, not your photographs. You only see the real spacing after every file has been processed, so each adjustment costs a full re-run.
Order is set outside the dialog — by the filenames, or by Bridge's sort order if you send images from Bridge. You cannot drag frames around.
No header, footer, or frame numbers. Everything that makes a sheet a document has to be added by hand.
One document per page, reassembled afterwards with PDF Presentation.
No watermark. It is a separate action, or a layer on every page.
It needs Photoshop, installed and licensed, on the machine in front of you.

When to use something else

If you already work in Lightroom Classic, its Print module does all of this with a live preview and saved templates — see how to make a contact sheet in Lightroom. If Bridge is already open for culling, its Output workspace writes PDF contact sheets directly.

And if the files came from somewhere else and you just need a labelled PDF, the browser contact sheet maker is quicker than either. Drop the folder in, set the grid with the page updating as you type, add a header, frame numbers, and a watermark, and download one multi-page PDF. Nothing to install and nothing uploaded. There is a side-by-side of every option in contact sheet software compared.

Common questions

Where is Contact Sheet II in Photoshop?: File → Automate → Contact Sheet II. Point it at a folder, set the page size and resolution, choose the columns and rows, and tick Use Filename As Caption to label each frame. If Automate is greyed out, finish editing any text layer or close the open dialog first.
How do I make a multi-page contact sheet PDF in Photoshop?: Contact Sheet II creates one document per page. Save each page, then open File → Automate → PDF Presentation, add the pages in order, choose Multi-Page Document, and save them as a single PDF.
Can Photoshop put filenames on a contact sheet?: Yes. Tick Use Filename As Caption in the Contact Sheet II dialog and choose a font and size. Around 8pt is the smallest size that stays readable when the sheet is printed.
Why is Contact Sheet II so slow?: It opens and resamples every image at full size, one at a time. Export small JPEGs — around 1,600px on the long edge — and point it at those instead of raw files or full-resolution exports.