sizing photos for printing at online photo services

[janieg]

I'm trying a variety of different online digital photo printing services. Nearly all seem to crop off the top of the pic. Is there a way to avoid this by resizing it somehow before submitting for prints?

Also, I was surprised to see that some pics that looked bad on my end (from overzealous "sharpening") actually turned out great when printed. Is this a correction they do on "their" end? I was sure I'd ruined the pic by oversharpening it, but it was fine.

Thanks for any help,
Janie G.

[scottfeldstein]

To avoid cropping use the following aspect ratios when prepping images to be sent for printing.

* For a 4 x 6" print, your photo should have an aspect ratio of 1:1.5.
* For a 5 x 7" print, your photo should have an aspect ratio of 1:1.4.
* For an 8 x 10" print, your photo should have an aspect ratio of 1:1.25.
* For an 16 x 20" print, your photo should have an aspect ratio of 1:1.25. (same as 8 x 10")
* For an 20 x 30" print, your photo should have an aspect ratio of 1:1.5. (same as 4 x 6")
* For a Wallet-size print, your photo should have an aspect ratio of 1:1.5. (same as 4 x 6")

(Cut and pasted from Ofoto. I hope they don't sue me.)

Speaking of Ofoto, they have an option to avoid what they term "zoom and trim." Selecting this option will result in photos that aren't cropped by them at all - even if that results in odd white bands on the top or sides of the print (kind of like the black top and bottom of your tv when watching a widescreen DVD).

I'm not sure about the oversharpening. Could be that for a large 3-4 megapixel image, a little oversharpening is less noticeable when getting a 4x6 print than it might be when getting an 8x10. I really don't know the answer to that though.

Hope that helps.