Printing help needed (basic)

[aam1234]

I'm trying to prepare some photos for printing in terms of dimensions, so I read "printing" sections of two books but it's still not clear. My question is how do you adjust the photo size (inches/cm's) for a specific output size.
Planning to print them at the shop with A4 size. And I'm using PSE.

Since we are at it, let me ask another question if I may. If you resize the photo, will the resizing be permanent. I mean is it like cropping the photo.

Thanks, and would appreciate any advice.

[Scottes]

I'm hoping that PSE has the same things as PS CS for the following...

The easiest way to get to the right size is to first change the image to the desired DPI. Image... Image Size... uncheck the "Resample" box... enter "300 pixels/inch" for the DPI.

Then resize the image: Image... Image Size... check the "resample" box... For the "Document Size" switch the measurement to "mm"... And then enter the dimension of A4 paper, 210 x 297. Actually, you'll just enter one number OR the other, either 210 or 297. But make sure that the other number is large enough so that you can Crop to 210x297. Hit OK and the image will resize. (Does PSE offer resampling methods? If so, choose Bicubic Sharper, otherwise you might just have Bicubic. Ignore any others if they exist.)

If you have to Crop I prefer to use the Marquee tool, set it's Style to Fixed Aspect Ration, and enter 210 and 297 in the boxes (adjust for portrait/landscape of course). Crop your image.

Convert to sRGB - Image... Mode... Convert to Profile... sRGB.
If necessary, Convert to 8-bit. Image... Mode... 8-bit.

Sharpen appropriately, and save as a JPG with a new name. File... Save As... JPG. Make sure that "ICC Profile" is checked. For JPEG options, Matte=None, Quality=12, Format Options = Baseline Optimized. Click OK. For the filename I will tack the size on, so IMG_5425 becomes IMG_5425_A4.jpg

Doing this, the resize will be permanent but under a new name so the original is untouched. If you need space, delete this new file once you get the print back, but I'd save it until then to make sure that the sharpening & saturation, etc, look OK.


Note also that I set the DPI to 300 pixels/inch. You should check with the printing company in case they use metric measurements, but this should be a safe bet.


Also note that the way I re-sized is very good, but maybe not the ultimate if you want to really spend some time to tweak a little bit more out of the image. But that's a whole different conversation...

[aam1234]

Thanks a ton Scottes. Will try it on one photo and then report back to you as how it went.

Thanks again

[aam1234]

Boy, that was easy. So easy that I'm sure I've done something wrong. Let me ask you if I may:

Step 1- "Then resize the image: Image... Image Size... check the "resample" box... For the "Document Size" switch the measurement to "mm"... And then enter the dimension of A4 paper, 210 x 297"

If you do the above step, do you still need to do this step:

Step 2- "But make sure that the other number is large enough so that you can Crop to 210x297".

I mean if you do step 1, do you have to do step 2 (cropping the photo to the desired output).

Thanks again.

[Scottes]

You may have to Crop - you probably will.

You camera takes pictures in a 2:3 aspect ratio. Consider that 2:3 is the same as 200:300, but A4 is 210:297 - very close, but not perfect. So you'll want to crop the image to fit perfectly on A4, otherwise the printer will have to crop, and who knows how they'll crop. Perhaps they'll crop the left edge and nick off the tip of someone's nose since you obviously would have cropped off the right edge...

[aam1234]

You may have to Crop - you probably will.

You camera takes pictures in a 2:3 aspect ratio. Consider that 2:3 is the same as 200:300, but A4 is 210:297 - very close, but not perfect. So you'll want to crop the image to fit perfectly on A4, otherwise the printer will have to crop, and who knows how they'll crop.

That's exactly what I asked in the original question. So how do you go about cropping it to the desired output size.

Btw, I copied and pasted your earlier response for future reference, again!

[Scottes]

If you resized the image as I stated you'll most likely have an image that's a little too big to fit on A4. So, as I said:

"If you have to Crop I prefer to use the Marquee tool, set it's Style to Fixed Aspect Ratio, and enter 210 and 297 in the boxes (adjust for portrait/landscape of course). Crop your image."

Or am I misunderstanding the question?
If so, perhaps this tutorial on Cropping will help: http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=34567
(The sentence I quoted is explained in more detail, along with screen captures.)

[aam1234]

You are right Scottes, you already mentioned it. What threw me off was "If you have to Crop". It sounded like an optional thing to do.

[Scottes]

Yep, shoulda been "You will most likely need to crop..."

I'm a strong believer in sending a file that doesn't require any [mis]handling by the printer. So I would send a perfect 210x297mm at 300 DPI.

They're probably going to screw it up anyway. :wink:

[aam1234]

Yep, shoulda been "You will most likely need to crop..."

Actually, and if you ask me, it should have been "you must" crop. No need to make noobs like me more confused :D



Thanks a lot Scottes.

[Scottes]

Actually, and if you ask me, it should have been "you must" crop. No need to make noobs like me more confused

Well, my normal workflow is to crop as the very first thing. So I rarely crop later in the workflow. (Though if I want a 4x6 and an 8x10 of the same image then I *have* to crop because the aspect ratios differ.) But If I took an image that I knew was going to become an 8x10 and nothing else then I'd crop to that aspect ratio as the very first step.

But yes, I see what you mean... How about: "At this point you should crop to the same aspect ratio as the final print."
:-)

[Scottes]

One of these days I need to make a "Printing for Noobs" tutorial...

[aam1234]

As a follow up, I have a couple of questions, if I may.

"If you have to Crop I prefer to use the Marquee tool, set it's Style to Fixed Aspect Ration, and enter 210 and 297 in the boxes (adjust for portrait/landscape of course). Crop your image."

For some reason I was expecting the Marquee tool to take a fixed size, the size you input (in this case A4) then you move a box around to select where you want it to crop. But this didn't happen, it was a "free" tool. Wonder how this works.

"(Does PSE offer resampling methods? If so, choose Bicubic Sharper, otherwise you might just have Bicubic. Ignore any others if they exist.)"

Nothing major here, but just to clarify whether one should use Bicubical or just leave it alone (in PSE 2.0).

Thanks.

[Scottes]

1) Marquee
As you drag the Marquee it will keep to the correct aspect ratio. Once you let go you can then move the box around. You CAN do it how you want - choose Fixed Size then set width to 3508 and height to 2480. (That's A4, 297x210, at 300 DPI.) Click anywhere and you'll get a box which you can drag around.

2) PS CS has 3 version of Bicubic. If PSE2 has only 1 version then just choose Bicubic. For this type of stuff Bicubic is far better than the others. But with PS CS it's a whole 'nother story....

[aam1234]

Gotcha ;) ...Thanks again.

[Jonny]

The easiest way to get to the right size is to first change the image to the desired DPI. Image... Image Size... uncheck the "Resample" box... enter "300 pixels/inch" for the DPI.

Then resize the image: Image... Image Size... check the "resample" box... For the "Document Size" switch the measurement to "mm"... And then enter the dimension of A4 paper, 210 x 297. Actually, you'll just enter one number OR the other, either 210 or 297. But make sure that the other number is large enough so that you can Crop to 210x297. Hit OK and the image will resize.


BUMP...bringing back the dead here :-)

Anyway, why do you set the DPI first and then go back and resize? Why not just set the dpi and image size required and hit enter to resample to the correct size and DPI in one go?

Also if i take and image and change it to 300 DPI without resample. And the go back and resize to say A4 the DPI changes automatically from 300 when i enter the A4 measurements in. Am i missing something here?

[aam1234]

Jon. S, where did you get this thread from?

This thread shows how great some of the people here are.

Was a total noob and Scottes literally walked me through the printing process. I have most what he said copied & saved for when I need to print.

Thank you Scottes

[Scottes]

Jon S - I'm a control freak. I might change the DPI and Save, the resample and Save to a new file with the new size. Thus I leave an "untouched" copy around. If I really wanted to do this "easily" I'd do a 1-step Crop & Resize using the Crop tool. I don't like "easy" since it almost always means a loss of control. I'm an old dog, so new tricks are hard. I also do a lot of things over and over so I create Actions. I have one to "Convert to 300DPI" and another to "Convert to 8x10" so that's how I think about it.

There's nothing much wrong with doing it in 1 shot as you say. But the little things that are "wrong" in my opinion would launch into a long discussion of high-quality resizing and process control and other such things that I've discussed here many time. Even I'll admit that those conversations are all nitpicks and possibly make a 1% difference, but doing 10 steps of processing and doing each one 1% better means a noticable difference in the final product.



Aam1234 - Any time, and "Thanks" to you. I appreciate being appreciated. :-)

[Rick Baker]

I wrote an article on printing your pictures in Photoshop that may help you

http://www.rickbakerimages.com/photography_advice/edit_resize_print_photos.html