In Elements it’s not quite as simple as pressing a button, but there is a way thatgives you more control – but as it involves automatic resizing needs to be used with some care.
Choose the crop tool, then in the toolbar at the top enter 8 and 10 inches for width and height as appropriate and the resolution that you want to use. It wll then give you a crop box in the correct ratio which you can position on your image as you wish and will also resize to the number of pixels that give you the resolution that you want. It’s the last bit that can be dangerous if you aren’t careful.
Susan S
Best not to put anything in rez dialogue box at all, IMNSHO.
This will give you 8×10 with ppi adjusting naturally, no up or down sampling, all orig pixels.
Gives you a chance to upsample afterwards if you must try it.
Mac
That’s probably right Mac (I didn’t realise that ws an option!) Of course if you are cropping heavily and then want to print you need to check the resize dialogue box to see exactly what pixel dimension you have ended up with and make sure it is printable at that size.
Susan S.
Dan,
Just another option…Image>Resize>Image Size, without Resample checked (for best quality) and constrain the aspect ratio… type in either the 8 or the 10, depending on the orientation of the image, (let the other dimension fill itself in). If the resolution shown in the box is high enough for printing (>about 180 ppi), use the rectangular marquee with the setting "fixed" (where it usually says "normal" near the top of the screen). You then manually enter the 8 and 10 (or visa versa for different orientation). Click inside image. The box which appears can be dragged around to place as desired. All content within the box will be included in your image, the remainder discarded. Go to Image>Crop. A perfect 8×10.
If the resolution is too low for printing, it might appear pixelated (crummy). Your choices in this case are; upsampling (perhaps a very modest amount would be OK, but not generally recommended) in the Resize box with ‘Resampling’ checked OR to print the image at a smaller size. You could add an attractive border (like maybe a digital matt and frame)around the image to make it a 8×10 if the image itself doesn’t have enough pixels for a quality 8×10. Using some of the Layer Styles would add dimension to the matt and frame (if you put each of them on their own layer).
Nancy
Nancy,
You covered all the bases beautifully, and added a few wrinkles I hadn’t thought of. Bravo! Bert
Bert,
I thank you for the nice compliment, truly.
Nancy
Bert, I agree – Nancy’s method goes in my Tips file! Chuck
But what is resampling, more or less?
Resampling is simply ending with fewer or more pixels than you started with.
Downsampling, fewer pixels: ok
Upsampling, adding more pixels via interpolation: limited usefulness at best.
Btw, Nancy, that *was*, methinks, probably the best all around way to achieve the end result, as it shows exactly what is possible with the original pixels all the way.
Mac
Dan, once you’ve resized through Image>Resize to your 8 X 11.9 and hit OK:
Choose the Rectangular marquee tool from the tool bar, then in the Option Bar (the one just below the main menu on your screen) you’ll see some additional adjustments.
Start with the box that defaults to the setting of "Normal." Click on the arrow at the right and you’ll get a drop down menu showing Normal, Fixed Size, and Fixed Aspect. Select Fixed Size.
Then, moving visually one notch to the right, you’ll see "width", but it defaults to a measurement in pixels. Highlight whatever is in there, and then type in an ‘8’ (assuming this 8X10 you want is WxH.) The unit of measurement will automatically switch to inches.
Enter the height (in your case, ’10’) in the next box.
You’ll see marching ants appear on your image outlining an area the same width as the picture but slightly shorter. Using the mouse, click and hold anywhere within the area outlined by the ants and move the selection either up or down until you’ve got the placement you want.
Next go to Image>Crop. You’ll get a perfect 8 X 10.
Another variation on Nancy’s approach, which involves a little mental arithmetic but doesn’t use the Image>Size>Resize dialog at the early stage:
1. For an 8 inch x 10 inch pictures that you want to have 200 ppi for printing, your image will be 1600 pixels by 2000 pixels. That’s it for the math!
2. Choose the Rectangular Marquee tool, Style Fixed Size, and enter 1600 px and 2000 px as the length and width (or width and length).
3. Up will pop a fixed-size box which you can move around until you’ve selected the area you want to keep.
4. Go to Image>Crop
5. Now go to Image>Resize>Image Size and enter any of the dimensions: 8 inches, 10 inches or 200 ppi.
6. Hit OK and you’re ready to print.
For most people, I think Nancy’s method will be easier….
😉
Chuck
Chuck, I think you’re thinking too hard!
Beth – I think it’s because I went back to work….
🙁
Chuck
Beth and Chuck,
Chuck’s method is exactly what I do! I think we must have similar brains. Sorry, Chuck, no offense meant…:o)
Bert
Bert, there’s not much hope for us, is there…?!
🙂
Chuck
Chuck and Bert: Two peas in an (engineering) pod. 🙂
Beth,
Do you think in Texas that would be "Pod Podners"?
Carl
Bert, there’s not much hope for us, is there…?!
Chuck,
Since you posted the above at 4:27AM, I would say there is definitely no hope for YOU! <grin> Bert
Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt – he’s in a different time zone and a workin’ stuff again! Now if he posts at 4:27a.m. again on Saturday, we’ll know he REALLY has problems! 🙂
Bert, I think that may have been 4:27 AM PDT, not CDT….
😉
Chuck
Bert, I think that may have been 4:27 AM PDT, not CDT….
Yup, you’re right…but your message header says "Pacific"…like mine, so I assumed….
I usually use the crop tool. I simply type 10 inches in the width and 8 inches in the height box with 300 ppi in the resolution box. Then I draw a crop rectangle and move it around until it’s where I want it. Then click the check mark to commit the crop.
Voila.
Perfect 8×10 every time.
Steve
Steven, I believe Mac’s point is that by specifying 8 inches by 10 inches by 300 ppi, you’re probably upsampling your image – unless the pictures coming out of your camera or scanner are at least 2400 pixels by 3000 pixels (Beth, there’s that math again). Upsampling has been recommended against many times on this forum, although lately we’ve had some guidance that upsampling 10% at a pass yields good results. In any event, just a word of caution about forcing large prints to 300 ppi if you don’t have the pixels in your image at the outset.
chuck
Hi Chuck,
It does indeed resample. So, it’s best to first change the resolution using the "Image Size" window.
Select image|resize|image size (or right click at the top just above the picture and select "image size").
When the Image Size window opens uncheck "resample image."
Then, change the resolution to 150, since the default is set to 72. A resolution of 150 is quite sufficient for printing photos, assuming that’s what you’re doing. Here’s an example of the effect:
Original photo taken at 5.25MPs. Resolution default of 72. Dimensions 35.556 x 26.667. After changing the resolution image resized to 150, the new dimensions are 17.067 x 12.8.
Now, if you use the crop tool using 8×10 (or 10×8) with a resolution setting of 150 no further (noticeable) resampling will be performed.
This is definitely one of the major advantages of using Photoshop 7, since you can set up custom tools for this purpose.
Regards,
Hal Lowe
www.halowe-graphics.com/photo.html
(digital photography resources)
"Chuck Snyder" wrote in message
Steven, I believe Mac’s point is that by specifying 8 inches by 10 inches
by
300 ppi, you’re probably upsampling your image – unless the pictures
coming
out of your camera or scanner are at least 2400 pixels by 3000 pixels
(Beth,
there’s that math again). Upsampling has been recommended against many times on this forum, although lately we’ve had some guidance that
upsampling
10% at a pass yields good results. In any event, just a word of caution about forcing large prints to 300 ppi if you don’t have the pixels in your image at the outset.
chuck
Today I changed the images in my shopwindow. One of the images is a 50×50 cm (20×20") print, printed at 254 ppi, so 5000×5000, made with a Fuji S2 Pro camera. This camera upsamples from a 6 megapixel file to 12 megapixel. I cropped the image to about 2800×2800 and upsampled about 10% each pass to 5000×5000.
It looks flawless.
Afterwards I tried to upsample this image up to 200×200 cm on my screen (at 254ppi again)in 10% steps. Just a matter of curiosity how far one can go.
This file was 20.000×20.000 pixels and on my monitor I could hardly see any degradation of the image at a 100 % setting. This bicubic upsampling is amazing!
I’m glad I didnot save this image with 7 layers….
Leen
+If you were not so good in math at school, 200 cm is about 80 inches. ;-))
Nancy S
I’ve been groping my way thru this forum for months and have gotten a wealth of info I know I couldn’t get anywhere else.Your answer to Dan’s question is the one I’ve been waiting for.It also is really a short course on sizing photos for printing.I followed the steps and came up with an excellent 5×7 on the first try,and a dandy 8×10 on the second.And it’s soooooo easy!
I think that if one begins with a file with a whole bunch of pixels,printing 8×10’s(or larger) should be a snap.
Thanks for unsnarling my brain.
Louis,
How kind of you to mention that after reading my post…came the dawn for you! I’m delighted I posted something useful to a few people. The thing is, the ‘giving’ is just reciting steps for one of my practices…the really exciting part is realizing those words on a screen allowed someone to put into place the last pieces required for comprehension. Sharing is a very nice thing, we all have something to contribute.
🙂
Nancy
Steve, I haven’t been able to get a perfect match between my conventional monitor and printer, in spite of efforts to calibrate the monitor. I finally resorted to making some adjustments to the brightness and contrast parameters in the printer – that seemed to be a good compromise.
Chuck
Depends on how much you crop.
You could have an image at 20ppi.
Or if you put in figure in resolution box, it upsamples.
Mac
Nancy S.
I’d never been able to print a really decent 8×10 until your post– did some OK ones,but the cropping was always the bugaboo,(I must not have been paying close enough attention to some of the other posts on the subject).I printed an 8×10 of my georgeous flowering yucca for a pro photographer friend who has been needling me about digital cameras ect.for too long a time.He was impressed,and tho he is retiring soon,has said that it might now be the time to "look into it" ’cause he’s tired of the smelly lab.He is trying to convince himself that the things I’m doing are being done with a $30 PE-2.I’ve invited him to look into this forum(particularly the Challenges)if he needs further confirmation.This was so much fun.
