For those of you printing your own photos

[Casperd360]

I have a hp photo jet printer. I have been using windows vista to print my pictures.
My problem is I am not getting true sizes. If I dont unclick fit to frame I lose some of my picture. Is this a resizing issue? Is it the program I am using?

Any help would be appreciated.

[tzalman]

What size paper are you using? What are the dimensions of the image and its aspect ratio? If you are printing, for instance, an uncropped 2:3 image on 8x10 paper, when 'fit to page ' is checked the printer will make the image 8 inches wide to fill the page and that makes the other side 12 inches. Those extra two inches will be lost.

[tkbslc]

If I dont unclick fit to frame I lose some of my picture.

It sounds like you just answered your own question. unclick fit to frame when printing.

[Casperd360]

Unclicking it prints my photos smaller.... I resize my photos in cs3 I usually size them 800 x 533. When trying to print almost any photo I lose some of it. Or if I unclick the box I dont get true sized photos like 4x6 or 5x7 or even 8x10 or bigger.

Photo paper size is 8.5 x 11

[tkbslc]

Firs step is not to resize them to 800x533. That is going to leave you with very low DPI for anything but 4x6 prints. 800x533 would print a very poor and grainy 8x10 or larger. Leave the photos unresized.

Second, if you have a photo that is a 2x3 ratio, there is no way to fit it on 5x7, 8x10, or letter sized paper without either leaving some white space, or cropping off some at the edges. They are different shaped rectangles. You can use the print preview to kind of let it crop for you (which it sounds like it is doing), or you can creatively crop using photoshop prior to printing. They should have crop guides available for any print size you want.

[Casperd360]

Ok this will sound stupid. What is a 2x3 ratio?

[tkbslc]

Ok this will sound stupid. What is a 2x3 ratio?

The sensor on Digital SLR cameras takes photos in a 2x3 ratio. I am having a hard time thinking how to explain it. Basically, for a standard photo, the width is a multiple of 3 and the height a multiple of 2. .

[Casperd360]

Gotcha. So I should be able to size photos in photoshop for actual print size though right? That I had to take to a place on my thumb drive to have printed will cs3 let me prepare it to a specific size to print before I go there? Like 16 x 20. or 20 x 24?

[tzalman]

I usually size them 800 x 533.
Why? That size will make some really nice postage stamps, not much else.
What is a 2x3 ratio?
One side is 1.5 times the other. It is the ratio aspect of your camera's sensor. Don't resize your images. Those pixels cost you a lot of money, why throw them away? But if you are printing 8.5x11 you will have to crop the image. Right now your printer is cropping for you, which means you don't get to choose what gets cropped away. 8.5x11 is a 1:1.3 ratio. That means you need to crop your image so that the long side is 1.3 times the short side.

[Casperd360]

Ok so using the crop tool in cs3 instead of resizing is how to do it then.

I am lost hahahaha. When I do 8.5 times 1.3 I am getting 11.05 for the long side. Which is longer than the 11. So confused. Sorry.

[Snydremark]

The sensor on Digital SLR cameras takes photos in a 2x3 ratio...

This number is true for SOME cameras; you need to find out what the dimensions that your particular camera uses. Some cameras do 3:2 (width:height), some to 4:3 and some will even do 16:9 (widescreen).

As mentioned earlier, you shouldn't resize your originals. Once you do that, you've lost a TON of image data and the images will not print very large anymore without looking awful. If you have need of a re-sized image you should save a copy of the original off to be re-sized.

Just for reference, it sounds like you've got a 4:3 ratio camera, assuming you are resizing by manually setting the width (800) and leaving the "constrain aspect ratio" option checked in whichever tool you're using.

[Casperd360]

This number is true for SOME cameras; you need to find out what the dimensions that your particular camera uses. Some cameras do 3:2 (width:height), some to 4:3 and some will even do 16:9 (widescreen).

As mentioned earlier, you shouldn't resize your originals. Once you do that, you've lost a TON of image data and the images will not print very large anymore without looking awful. If you have need of a re-sized image you should save a copy of the original off to be re-sized.

Just for reference, it sounds like you've got a 4:3 ratio camera, assuming you are resizing by manually setting the width (800) and leaving the "constrain aspect ratio" option checked in whichever tool you're using.

I am shooting with an xsi right now. Next week my 40d should be here. I dont know if they are different. And yes I am manually setting it at 800 and the 533 goes in automatically.

[Casperd360]

Ok I just found how to crop it to the size I am going to print in cs3. Thanks everyone.

[Sparky98]

I don't have CS3 but I do have PSE8 and I assume the crop function is similar. Use the crop function and select the ratio you want to use then crop the picture. If you want to print an 8x10 when you crop the picture using the 8x10 aspect ratio you will see how much of the picture you will lose because the original file is a 2x3 ratio. You will have to adjust the crop to include the part of the file you want to print.

If you want to print your picture without cropping the file then you will have to print at a 2x3 aspect ratio and that would equate to a 4x6, 8x12, 16x24, etc. If the aspect ratio is different from the size of the paper then you will either have a white border on the paper or lose part of the file if you print a boderless print.

[Casperd360]

Ok thanks.