HELP: Output for collection of family photographs

[James Orr]

I would like guidance and information.
I use Windows 11 PRO.

I'm working on a project to digitize and then make a book of family photos.
The photo history extends from daguerreotypes to modern prints and negatives.
I have been digitizing the collection over the past ten years or so, and there is a mixture of formats, including JPG, TIF, PNG, DNG. Counting duplicates of the images (from the same image in different file types as well as the same image digitized from different family albums)
there are more than 3000 images.

On many of the images, I've researched and determined cases who the individuals are, when and where the image was taken. Sometimes I even know who made the picture. I've put the results of the research as text in digiKam's "CAPTION" field. In some cases, I have placed a single line in digiKam's "TITLE" field.

Within digiKam,
In EXIF tab, CAPTION IS IMAGEDESCRIPTION; TITLE is OBJECT NAME
In IPTC tab,  ;CAPTION IS CAPTION; TITLE is OBJECT NAME
in ExifTool tab, CAPTION is IMAGEDESCRIPTION; TITLE is OBJECT NAME;

When I use TOOLS|PRINTCREATOR, I can select from a number of options. I don't yet quite understand how to make an option of my own choosing.

I selected the 9x13 cm (1 photo) option to test the system. The Page Preview showed a landscape orientation rotated clockwise 90 degrees, with the image in the upper left corner in the view. Setting the output to Microsoft Print to PDF option, and setting the print options from Portrait to Landscape, did not change the Page Preview image.

In the Caption Type tab, I chose the Custom format option and entered the %c to print item comment. I noticed that the item window showed the image Thumbnail, File Name, and Caption. The Caption showed the multi-line CAPTION. There is no option to include the TITLE.

In the Crop and Rotate Photos, I selected the Do not crop option and the first the Rotate left option; I made a second test not rotating the image.
The Next option led directly to digKiam - Print where there was no preview available. I selected as Printer Microsoft Print to PDF

Leaving Orientation at Portrait, the first PDF page was in landscape orientation and showed the image at the left edge of the page with white space top, right, and bottom. The Caption was displayed in multiple lines from the bottom of the page, extending past the top of the page. The second PDF page was in landscape orientation, with the same image and data display as in the first image.

From my point of view, this is a mess.

What I want to do now is to create an album for printing where the photo is centered on the top of the page, with a one-line caption below it (taking data from the TITLE field) Below that I want to insert the text from the CAPTION field so that it continues to the end of the page and adds more pages as needed to contain the text in the field.

It seems to me that I should be able to find a solution to insert the photo into an image space on the top of the page (I know how to do that in a variety of text processing programs). Then I should extract from the Digikam TITLE data a line for the caption under the image. Following that, I should extract from the Digikam CAPTION data all the text contained there.

I would be able then to edit the text and format of the objects as needed.

For the life of me, I haven't been able to find a process to do this at all, not to mention easily or automatically.

I would love guidance and counsel. I'm willing to receive email directly if this is best.
--
James M. Orr
Fresno CA 93726
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