Printing 101

Hi all,

whilst I'm sure I'm getting dpi, ppi muddled up along the way, I still seem to regularly print out photos at a slightly different size to what I expected.
Obviously the print wizards that insist on walking you through the process can affect the output size but even if I ask it not resize an image, it will often stretch it or only give me a certain number of size options, which aren't always what is needed.
What am I missing? Should I set a canvas size of A4 dimensions and take it from there....?

TIA

What setup are you using to print? (software, OS, printer,...)

I think (and I'm not trying to sound condescending) you may not be aware that your camera and your paper may be in different ratios.. You know they need to be the same, right? Your 40D produces images that are 3:2. Therefore you cannot print to any A sized paper without cropping, as A size papers are in the ratio of SQRT(2):1 (1.41421356)

For example, the largest sized image out of your 40D will be 3888 x 2592 (3:2) or (1.5).

Cropping your image to 3700x2615 (or anything with a ratio of 1.414..:1) should allow you to print without much stretching.

Brandon, cheers for that, but I'm aware of those issues and can cope with that side of it.
My issue is probably simpler than that - I just didn't explain very well.
If I had an image in CS3 that I had set to 15cmx9cm for example, and I try and print it on to A4 at that size (ie to fit a frame of 15cmx9cm) the final image will rarely be that size. It's as though it wants to default to one of a load of preset standard sizes - Resolution is not an issue. That's why I mention canvas size or to perhaps put a large white border around the image and print to A4 size, it just seems like an unecessary waste of paper...
(OS is Vista/XP, printers are HP)

Bear with me, because I have never used CS3, only PS7.

When I've finished the image processing and go to print with preview, all I see is the image set on the paper at a default setting of 100%. This may or may not be suitable and I have some decisions to make at this stage. If you are not getting something similar, then I'd suggest that you have your preferences set wrongly.

Are you perhaps trying to crop and using the crop presets by mistake? If so, by deleting (or changing) the figures in the boxes on the menu bar, you can crop to whatever ratios you like.

I personally don't like being tied to certain crop ratios, preferring to print the image at whatever suits it as a composition. If that does not completely fill my A4, A3 or whatever paper, so what? This means I never crop for printing.

Hedley wrote in post #6894950
Brandon, cheers for that, but I'm aware of those issues and can cope with that side of it.
My issue is probably simpler than that - I just didn't explain very well.
If I had an image in CS3 that I had set to 15cmx9cm for example, and I try and print it on to A4 at that size (ie to fit a frame of 15cmx9cm) the final image will rarely be that size. It's as though it wants to default to one of a load of preset standard sizes - Resolution is not an issue. That's why I mention canvas size or to perhaps put a large white border around the image and print to A4 size, it just seems like an unecessary waste of paper...
(OS is Vista/XP, printers are HP)

It is a photo printer right? I've never had an issue with that.. If my image is the right ratio in resolution, a good ppi/dpi, and I choose print preview, I can select my paper size from CS4 or the print driver (whichever one, I'm not sure) and I click borderless, fill to paper (100%) and it comes out fine.

While I don't recognise your problem, I am aware that somewhere, between Adobe and Epson, the idea of accurate size seems to have been mislaid.

I always get a very slightly smaller image than I expect. The difference is minimal, measured in millimetres, but its always there. If this is the issue, it's easy to solve. Just do a few experiments on plain paper and economy ink settings and play with the percentage figure in the print preview dialogue, maybe 101 or 102%.

BrandonSi wrote in post #6895186
It is a photo printer right?

..... and I click borderless, fill to paper (100%) and it comes out fine.

Yes - it's a photo printer, however, the 'fill to paper' option is exactly what I'm trying to avoid. I've been asked to fill some frames around town and I'm trying to make the printed images come out at exactly that size.
Lowner's idea seems the logical answer - just wanted to avoid a load of test prints...