As shown in the image above, the images placed on the spread are enclosed in an orange box, this is the Drop Zone for this particular design.

Moving images around is extremely simple and intuitive with the introduction of Drop Zones 2.0. Experience creative freedom when designing album spreads. Add images by selecting a group of thumbnails and dragging them onto a spread to automatically create a Drop Zone or add images to an existing Drop Zone. Images can be moved within a Drop Zone by dragging them. A yellow box will appear indicating where images can be placed. Images can be swapped by dragging one on top of another.

In this example, two images were swapped. The design adapts to the new arrangement, adjusting to the orientation of the images in the Drop Zone.

Drop Zone has the ability to align images in columns or rows, using the brand new toggle. Above is the Drop Zone selected with the toggle set as columns.

Above is the Drop Zone toggle set to rows. The design concept is maintained and updated as rows. 

Adding a new row or column of images is extremely easy. Drag an image onto the edge of a Drop Zone or between two rows or columns.

To add an image to a Drop Zone, drag the image from the Image Well and drop it into an existing Drop Zone. The Drop Zone will dynamically adjust the design instantly.

To delete an image from a Drop Zone, select the image and hit the Delete key or right-click the image and choose 'Remove Image' from the menu.

The corners of the Drop Zone allow changes to the size. Place the mouse over the corner, the cursor will turn into a double-ended arrow icon indicating the ability to scale is present. To maintain the aspect ratio while scaling the Drop Zone, hold the shift key while moving the corner.

To move the Drop Zone around the spread, simply hover over one of the blue edges of the Drop Zone. When the cursor changes to a hand icon, click and move it around the spread.

Select each individual image within a Drop Zone to further adjust the size, proportion, position and transparency. The selected image will be surrounded by a yellow frame. There will also be a toolbar at the bottom of the image.  

1. Aspect Ratio:  Change the aspect ratio of the selected image (3:2/1:1/Original/Horizontal/Vertical). Holding down the Shift key and choosing an aspect ratio is a quick way to change adjacent images.

2. Open in External Editor: Clicking this will open the selected image in the selected image editing program. (Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Alien Skin Exposure 6, etc.) for editing. Once finished editing, save the image and it will automatically update in Fundy Designer. Select the image editing program under the menu: Edit > Choose External Editor.  

3. Apply BW or Sepia Filter: Apply one of 3 Black & White or Sepia filters (including a Contrast slider) to the image.

4. Flip Image Horizontally: This allows horizontally flipping the image within the Drop Zone.

5. Additional Image Adjustments: Clicking this will open a sub-menu with three options for further image adjustments. Set Image Opacity slider, Set Image Magnification slider (zoom) and Adjust Image Rotation to rotate and straighten the image. 

At the right of the selected Drop Zone will be a toolbar with 12 different tools.

1. Aspect Ratio: This provides the ability to switch all the images in a Drop Zone between different image ratios: (3:2/1:1/ Original/Horizontal/Vertical).

2. Fit/Fill: Fit adapts the design keeping the original image proportion within the Drop Zone. Fill adapts the design to fill the entire area of the Drop Zone frame leaving no white space.

3. External Editor: Clicking this will open all of the images in the Drop Zone in the selected image editing program (Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Alien Skin Exposure 6, etc.) for editing. Once finished editing, save the images and it will automatically update in Fundy Designer. Select the image editing program under the menu: Edit > Choose External Editor.

4. Layers: Arrange the layer order of a Drop Zone (Move Forward/Move Backward/Move to Front/Move to Back). Example, If an image covering a Drop Zone contains text, choose to move that image behind the text.

5. Shuffle Images: Allows shuffling of the images within a Drop Zone while maintaining the current design.

6. Alignment: This opens up (7) Drop Zone and (5) image alignment options. The first (7) Drop Zone options give the ability to align and snap the Drop Zone either to Horizontal Center, Horizontal Vertical, Center, Left, Right, Bottom, or Top of the canvas. The next (5) image alignment options give the ability to align images to the Center, Left, Right, Bottom, or Top of the Drop Zone.

7. Background: This will allows changes to the background color and opacity, as well as adding a horizontal and vertical buffer to the Drop Zone.

8. Apply BW or Sepia Filter: This will allow application of one of 3 Black & White or Sepia filters (including a Contrast slider) to all images in the Drop Zone.

9. Edit: Provides even further creative control over designs with 3 different options (Spacing, Stroke and Drop Shadow), including color options. These settings will override global album settings per Drop Zone, as used. The Spacing and Stroke sliders are dynamic ratio based on canvas size so it's consistent in multiple versions of the same album at different sizes.

10. Columns/Rows: Switch Drop Zone organization from columns to rows or vice versa.

11. Help: Click the question mark icon for quick access to the manual with assistance for Drop Zones.

12. Delete Drop Zone: This simply allows deletion of the selected Drop Zone.

Image ratios can be overwritten, a horizontal image can be overwritten to a vertical and vice versa. This can be applied to one image, or by holding down the shift key, it can be applied to all images in that row or column. In this example a single image in a Drop Zone is changed from Horizontal to Vertical.

When the image ratio was changed to Vertical, the design adapted, but kept the original design concept.

Here is an example of holding down the shift key and selecting the 1:1 ratio. All of the images in that column of images changed to square and the design adjusted.

Additional Drop Zones can be added to a spread by selecting the image(s) and dragging them over to an empty space on the spread. *Please note that this will only work in Designer View.

Images can be swapped or replaced within a Drop Zone. To do this, select the new image and drag it over the same spot as the image to be replaced. Once the yellow selection box appears around the image, drop the new image into that spot, replacing the original image. Images can be swapped within a Drop Zone or replace an image by dragging a new one from the image thumbnail well.

Drop Zones are automatically created by dragging images onto a spread. If you drag a group of images onto a spread, all of them will be placed into a single Drop Zone. If there is more than one Drop Zone on a spread, they can be grouped together. As Drop Zones are moved next to another one, they will automatically snap, respecting the spacing distance in the settings.

Sometimes, if the Drop Zone is set to Fit (keeping the original aspect ratio of the image) there will be a lot of empty space in the Drop Zone. This can seemingly prevent placing images next to each other if they are in separate Drop Zones.

By double-clicking on the orange border of the Drop Zone, it will automatically collapse the Drop Zone to the edges of the image or group of images. Now the Drop Zone can be moved closer to another Drop Zone or to the edges of the spread.

Creating panoramic images is very easy to do with Drop Zones. In this example, a single image is placed on the spread in its own Drop Zone. By default, it is in its original 3:2 proportion and the Drop Zone is set to Fit. This means that the image is filling the Drop Zone so that it fits, without changing its original proportion.