Unexpected behaviour of cut-and-paste with transparent images

A while ago I devised procedure for printing business cards. I set up an A4
master sheet, with guidelines dividing it into 10 business cards, and trim marks. Then I made up a template for each individual business card. I saved
each as .psd files so that I can edit them them later if required. To make a
working copy for a given card, I open the template, flatten it, then cut and
paste it into the compartments on the A4 master sheet. I flatten this, save it
as as a.jpg, and print it again when I needed more cards.
Originally I had been using a deckle finish grey card, but when this ran out I
found it was no longer available. I still had some matching grey paper, so I
scanned this, and pasted it onto the A4 master. I took the template for one of
the cards, and deleted the background layer, so that it became transparent.
Then I cut and pasted it onto the master as before. When I printed this on
white card with my colour printer it gave nice effect, but after I had printed a
couple of sheets I noticed that the cards were misplaced in relation to the trim
lines.

Apparently when you cut and paste a transparent image the size is determined by
the black components in the image, rather than its original size, and these are
centred in the working area. To overcome the problem I put very small marks in
the corners, so that the cut operation picks up the whole image and places it
correctly. These marks can also serve for trim marks.

James McNangle

A while ago I devised procedure for printing business cards. I set up an A4 master sheet, with guidelines dividing it into 10 business cards, and trim marks. Then I made up a template for each individual business card. I saved each as .psd files so that I can edit them them later if required. To make a working copy for a given card, I open the template, flatten it, then cut and paste it into the compartments on the A4 master sheet. I flatten this, save it as as a.jpg, and print it again when I needed more cards.

Originally I had been using a deckle finish grey card, but when this ran out I found it was no longer available. I still had some matching grey paper, so I scanned this, and pasted it onto the A4 master. I took the template for one of
the cards, and deleted the background layer, so that it became transparent. Then I cut and pasted it onto the master as before. When I printed this on white card with my colour printer it gave nice effect, but after I had printed a
couple of sheets I noticed that the cards were misplaced in relation to the trim
lines.

Apparently when you cut and paste a transparent image the size is determined by
the black components in the image, rather than its original size, and these are
centred in the working area.

To overcome the problem I put very small marks
in the corners, so that the cut operation picks up the whole image and places it correctly. These marks can also serve for trim marks.

In article ,
James McNangle wrote:

A while ago I devised procedure for printing business cards. I set up an A4 master sheet, with guidelines dividing it into 10 business cards, and trim marks. Then I made up a template for each individual business card. I saved each as .psd files so that I can edit them them later if required. To make a working copy for a given card, I open the template, flatten it, then cut and paste it into the compartments on the A4 master sheet. I flatten this, save it as as a.jpg, and print it again when I needed more cards.

Ouch. I’m sorry. You’re going through a lot of convolutions to produce inferior results, because you’re using the wrong tool for the job. Photoshop isn’t a page-layout program; by flattening the image you are rasterizing your text; and by saving as JPEG you are degrading the quality of the image.

Originally I had been using a deckle finish grey card, but when this ran out I found it was no longer available. I still had some matching grey paper, so I scanned this, and pasted it onto the A4 master. I took the template for one of
the cards, and deleted the background layer, so that it became transparent. Then I cut and pasted it onto the master as before. When I printed this on white card with my colour printer it gave nice effect, but after I had printed a
couple of sheets I noticed that the cards were misplaced in relation to the trim
lines.

Apparently when you cut and paste a transparent image the size is determined by
the black components in the image, rather than its original size, and these are
centred in the working area.

Correct, yes. Copying something with a transparent background copies only the bounding box of the image, not the entire selected area.

To overcome the problem I put very small marks
in the corners, so that the cut operation picks up the whole image and places it correctly. These marks can also serve for trim marks.

A better way might be to use a page layout program to do the cards.
—
Photography, kink, polyamory, shareware, and more: all athttp://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html

"James McNangle" wrote in message

A while ago I devised procedure for printing business cards. I set up an A4
master sheet, with guidelines dividing it into 10 business cards, and trim marks. Then I made up a template for each individual business card. I saved
each as .psd files so that I can edit them them later if required. To make a
working copy for a given card, I open the template, flatten it, then cut and
paste it into the compartments on the A4 master sheet. I flatten this, save it
as as a.jpg, and print it again when I needed more cards.

Originally I had been using a deckle finish grey card, but when this ran out I
found it was no longer available. I still had some matching grey paper, so I
scanned this, and pasted it onto the A4 master. I took the template for one of
the cards, and deleted the background layer, so that it became transparent.
Then I cut and pasted it onto the master as before. When I printed this on
white card with my colour printer it gave nice effect, but after I had printed a
couple of sheets I noticed that the cards were misplaced in relation to the trim
lines.

Apparently when you cut and paste a transparent image the size is determined by
the black components in the image, rather than its original size, and these are
centred in the working area. To overcome the problem I put very small marks in
the corners, so that the cut operation picks up the whole image and places it
correctly. These marks can also serve for trim marks.

James McNangle

whew

PS is not the best layout program
I make the design, save as psd in case of future edits
save as tiff or hi res jpg
open MS Publisher, import image onto the
business card template
it places the multiples and prints the page within register of the die cut paper

Avery has this for free too
it comes with the card stock

not sure about the transparency taking away the "edges" of the image? are both the same resolution?

Is Illustrator a page layout program? If the cards had been created using AI should that be used to print them or should they be transferred to something like MS Pub?

In article ,

"" wrote:

Is Illustrator a page layout program? If the cards had been created using AI should that be used to print them or should they be transferred to something like MS Pub?

Illustrator is a drawing program, not a page layout program. However, for simple jobs like business cards, it works well; no need to go to a page layout program. For anything more sophisticated, you wouldn’t want to use Illustrator; creating a full-page magazine ad, for example, is an exercise in tedium in Illustrator (though it’s still better than using Photoshop for that kind of task).

—
Photography, kink, polyamory, shareware, and more: all athttp://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html

PS is not the best layout program

Avery has this for free too
it comes with the card stock

not sure about the transparency taking away the "edges" of the image? are both the same resolution?

Photoshop isn’t a page-layout program; by flattening the image you are rasterizing your text; and by saving as JPEG you are degrading the quality of the image.

On Mar 9, 3:14 pm, "KatWoman"
wrote:

"James McNangle" wrote in message

A while ago I devised procedure for printing business cards. I set up an
A4
master sheet, with guidelines dividing it into 10 business cards, and trim
marks. Then I made up a template for each individual business card. I saved
each as .psd files so that I can edit them them later if required. To make a
working copy for a given card, I open the template, flatten it, then cut
and
paste it into the compartments on the A4 master sheet. I flatten this, save it
as as a.jpg, and print it again when I needed more cards.

Originally I had been using a deckle finish grey card, but when this ran
out I
found it was no longer available. I still had some matching grey paper,
so I
scanned this, and pasted it onto the A4 master. I took the template for
one of
the cards, and deleted the background layer, so that it became transparent.
Then I cut and pasted it onto the master as before. When I printed this
on
white card with my colour printer it gave nice effect, but after I had printed a
couple of sheets I noticed that the cards were misplaced in relation to the trim
lines.

Apparently when you cut and paste a transparent image the size is determined by
the black components in the image, rather than its original size, and these are
centred in the working area. To overcome the problem I put very small marks in
the corners, so that the cut operation picks up the whole image and places
it
correctly. These marks can also serve for trim marks.

James McNangle

whew

PS is not the best layout program
I make the design, save as psd in case of future edits
save as tiff or hi res jpg
open MS Publisher, import image onto the
business card template
it places the multiples and prints the page within register of the die cut
paper

Avery has this for free too
it comes with the card stock

not sure about the transparency taking away the "edges" of the image? are both the same resolution?

I am guessing you have both MS Pub and In Design (which I think is Adobe’s competing product) why do you choose MS Pub?
Thanks,
Ron

Ouch. I’m sorry. ………
by flattening the image you are
rasterizing your text; and by saving as JPEG you are degrading the quality of the image.

You can see a demonstration of the results of these tests at:
http://www.corybas.com/Technical/Test_jpg.php