Printing at a lab - how to dimension

[tommykjensen]

Ok, I wanted to get a 30x20 cm print of this photo. (http://photo.klein-jensen.dk/photohtml.php?n=collage.jpg) The black outer frame is just for web on the actual file to the lab that frame is not present.

Well I picked it up today and even though I specifically had said to them that there was a white frame I wanted on the end result it was missing.

They told me that it was because of a 3% "loss" in the size when printing?

A 30x20 cm print at 300 DPI is 3543x2362, my photo is that exact size including the white frame. If what they told me is correct I would have lost 9 mm in the sides and 6 mm in top and bottom if I had not had the white frame. Can that be right or are they just giving me an excuse because they s....... up (and don't want to reprint to save a measly $2)?

[Scottes]

Are you saying that they printed only ~19.8"x29.8" of you image onto a piece of paper that was 20x30? And thus the white border in your image was cut off?

If so, this happens to me, too. I can't fathom why it happens, but it happens, and I have to make my print oversized for them to come out right.

I'd love to know why they do this. And I'd love to know why they don't tell people.

[tommykjensen]

Yep Thats what happened. If I had not added the white frame myself some of the actual photo would have been cutoff.

The print itself is ok and I am sure the zoo trainers will be happy about it but it annoys me that the shop did not tell me that I have to add a margin of 3%.

[Scottes]

Yep, I agree wholeheartedly.

They cut off 3%, then you put it in a frame that cuts off anohter 3%, and suddenly the tail is cut off, or the top of a person's head... Grrrrr.....

[PacAce]

Are you saying that they printed only ~19.8"x29.8" of you image onto a piece of paper that was 20x30? And thus the white border in your image was cut off?

If so, this happens to me, too. I can't fathom why it happens, but it happens, and I have to make my print oversized for them to come out right.

I'd love to know why they do this. And I'd love to know why they don't tell people.

When you ask for a borderless printing, they purposely let the edges "bleed" over to ensure that what you get is truly borderless. By default that happens to my i9900 printer, too, and I have to manually set the overlap to 0 so that nothing gets chopped off the edges. I guess that's how it works in the "borderless printing" world. The fix, like Scott said, is to oversize the image with some fluff along the edges although this might be a little more dfficult in Tommy's case due to the white "piping" border.

[Scottes]

The fix, like Scott said, is to oversize the image with some fluff along the edges although this might be a little more dfficult in Tommy's case due to the white "piping" border.

The first time it happened I made an estimate of the pixels lost by comparing to the image on screen. I now compensate by a little less. They chop 17 pixels so I add 15 of white border.

Only when necessary though, like when I've got a close crop.

[Moppie]

Prehaps it goes to the government, as a 3% photo tax?


One question, is this likely to be a universal thing, or a USA thing?
Im looking to get some prints down this afternoon so I guess Ill find out, but it would be interesting to here from others.

[tommykjensen]

Prehaps it goes to the government, as a 3% photo tax?


One question, is this likely to be a universal thing, or a USA thing?
Im looking to get some prints down this afternoon so I guess Ill find out, but it would be interesting to here from others.


I am in Denmark.

[Moppie]

I really should read the location under your username :oops:

I just got 4 prints done on a Kodak digital photo booth at local photoshop (seems to be a global idea, the brochures and ad's we got for them were definitly american in origian). .

Thier not bad prints (I expected better for what it cost), but comparing them to the image as displayed in my monitor it appears they have lost about 3% from around the edges. They are only 6x4 however, and some cropping had to be done from the orginal 3mp image from my A80 or 2mp from my A40.

[QuantumCowboy]

Im not sure I understand this correctly. If I add a border around the edge of an image (that is, going outward not inward) and then resized the whole thing to fit a print size, are you saying the image would be cropped by 3% or the border?

Sounds like you could add a buffer to the outside that becomes 3% of the dimension, and just lose the buffer, preserving the original image. Is that right?