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A background image can be added to a plan to use as reference when planning your garden. The image could be a high-quality aerial photo of your garden or a landscape plan. Aerial photos should be taken directly from above, saved as an image file (PNG, JPEG) and be no more than 30MB.
Please note Google Maps screenshots are not suitable as they do not contain sufficient detail.
To add a background image to a plan, first click on Plan Background Image icon in the right hand toolbar, to open the panel.
Click on Add Background Image.
Either click on 'Choose a file to use' to search for an image saved on your device, or drag the file from your documents into the Garden Planner.
If you need to remove an unnecessary area of the image you can crop it out. Check the 'Crop' box and drag the handles on the image to cut out any areas you need to. Then click Save.
It is important that the image is resized to match the scale of your plan. The image can be resized (click and drag the corner handles), repositioned (click and drag inside the the image) or rotated (click and drag the circular handle):
If the image is repositioned so that any part of it is off the planning grid, this part will not be visible when creating your plan. The sections that are not within the planning grid will not be permanently deleted and can be accessed again by either editing the background image or changing the size of the planning grid.
The size of the image, position (coordinates of the center of the image) and the orientation can also be changed manually using the options in the right hand column. The opacity, visibility and layout of the image can also be edited here.
There are 4 preset layout options:
Fill reduces or enlarges the image to make it fit the current size of the planning grid. This will stretch or distort the image and will no longer maintain the aspect ratio of the image.
Contain resizes the image, maintaining the aspect ratio, so it becomes as large as it can be whilst fitting on the planning grid.
Cover resizes the image, maintaining the aspect ratio, so it fully covers the planning grid. This may mean some of the image does not fit on the planning grid.
Once you're done, click on Finish Editing at the bottom of the right hand panel.
The right hand panel can be minimized to give maximum planning space.
The background image can be changed, removed or edited at any time by clicking the Plan Background Image icon on the right hand toolbar.
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Click on the Live Chat icon in the Garden Planner if you need help or have questions for our gardening experts.
