Digital newbie with a few questions about printing and formats

[Lucky Forward]

In the past two months I’ve jumped into digital with both feet and nearly wiped out my bank account: I bought a new Dell PC, a 20D with the 17-85 IS, and a Canon i9900 printer. Here are a few questions:

1) When I print an 8.5x11, I know I will lose part of the image because of the format difference. A straight print will crop some off of each side. Let’s say I want to lose all of that difference from the right side only, to better center the image. Do I need to crop in Photoshop and then save and print that file, or is there a way in printing process where I can choose where the format-induced crop will occur, that is, choose exactly what area of the image will make it to paper without having to make a separate cropped image file?

2) If I do crop in Photoshop, is there a way to automatically crop so that I get the full image height along with the proper width for the 8.5x11, without having to draw a rectangle and guess that I’m grabbing the proper width for the format?

3) Why aren’t there more paper formats that follow the 2:3 proportions of the original image? I haven’t seen any 8x12 or 12x18 paper available…do they exist?. And can someone explain what formats like A1 and A3 are all about?

4) Finally, is there any quality difference in the result if I printed the same image from within Photoshop or from software like Canon Zoombrowser that simplifies the process for newbies?

Thanks for your help!

[weemannie]

Hi

1 - Use PS. There's no way I know of to accurately locate an image from within the printer settings dialogue.

2 - You can enter the dimensions required for a crop in the boxes at the top of the screen, just below the menu bar. Simply type the height i.e 11in amd the width i.e 8.5in. Make sure to include the in (for inches) to tell PS what unit of measurement you're using.

3 - A1 A2 etc are standard paper sizes, each one twice the size of the previous one. A5 is twice the size of A6, A4 twice A5 and A3 twice A4 etc.
There may be alternate sizes out there, but generally, If I want a size different from the standard size I use a paper trimmer. :)

4 - I prefer PS for printing, but many people use alternatives like Zoombrowser, try both and see which you prefer.

Good luck

[ejwebb]

Try Qimage for printing. It allows you to process and save your original file once at full resolution (in PS or whatever editor you use) and then crop for printing in whatever dimensions you need. It even saves previous crops based on the dimensions in case you want to print it again. All of this is done in the form of filters that are used at print time - the file is not resaved and your original file is not affected. There is a free download here:

http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage/

Controls are kind of clunky and take some getting used to (I am still learning) but it can do what you are asking. The software also has great resizing and sharpening algorithms that simplifies the process.