Getting perfect 4×6 prints with a 4:3 aspect ratio and Canon Printer

I
Posted By
ijltc
Dec 6, 2003
Views
383
Replies
13
Status
Closed
With the help of Beth and others on this forum I can get close to a complete picture in a 4×6 print using PSE2 and a Canon i960 printer.Has anyone using the above combination(or similar)found a method to get perfect(ALL of the image)on a 4×6 print,either with or without borders? If so I sure would appreciate it you would step me through the process.Thanks a lot.

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LK
Leen_Koper
Dec 6, 2003
ijltc, it is impossible to make this fit without any loss of image or a border on one side. 4×6 relates to 3×4 like 12/18 and 12/16 or 8/12 and 9/12. If you need all of the image, you always will have borders.

The only way to print it full size is to change the rules of math. And this will take a real top genius, because AFAIK until recently even Einstein wouldnot have been able to make it fit. 😉

Leen
CS
Chuck_Snyder
Dec 6, 2003
ijltc, Leen is right – you will either need to crop or leave some blank space to turn an image from one aspect ratio to another. In desperate circumstances, where you need the whole image in the short (4 inch) direction but don’t want the blank strip in the long (6 inch) direction, it may be possible to extend the image in the long direction by cloning or copying and pasting a strip of additional content on the end. It requires some work to make it look convincing, but it can be done if the edge isn’t complex.

Chuck
JH
Jim_Hess
Dec 6, 2003
That is why we all use Photoshop Elements. It gives us the capability to crop our photographs and size them precisely. I don’t know if you have ever really paid attention to a good professional set of wedding proofs. Some of the good sets I have seen consist of square photographs. One of the reasons the wedding photographers I know like the square format is that it gives them some latitude on how the final print will be cropped. I think you have to look at your digital originals in the same way. If your goal is to have photographs that are exactly 4×6 or 5×7 or 8×10, or whatever, you are going to have to be able to crop your photo accordingly. But there is no way that you can get a full frame 4×6 photograph of your entire digital image. The aspect ratios are different and something has to be deleted.
CS
Chuck_Snyder
Dec 6, 2003
Jim, well said. I went through a period where I was trying to fill the frame with ‘keeper’ content, left-to-right and top-to-bottom – then found I had outsmarted myself when it came to making stock sizes because I had to crop away important image details. I changed two things after that: I zoomed out just a little to ensure some cropping room, and I avoided printing in stock sizes unless the particular situation demanded it (a frame with precut mat, for instance).

Chuck
JF
Jodi_Frye
Dec 6, 2003
Another thing to keep in mind…the darn frames you buy can cut alot of the image. They say the frames are for a 5 X 7 or 8 X 10 photo but in actuality they can sometimes take up to a 1/2 inch off all the way around but usually a 1/4 of an inch depending on the frame border. Now when I buy a frame I take a ruler and see exactly how much is going to show then I re-size my image to custom fit the frame.

Chuck, welcome back ! How was California ?? Missed seeing your name in here 😉 We are currently being blasted with snow up here in the North East.
BH
Beth_Haney
Dec 6, 2003
OK, here I am butting in again, because ijltc didn’t word this quite the way I had in mind when I suggested he start this new thread. The 4:3 aspect ratio part is pulling this down a path I think was already covered in a previous thread on resizing. He can resize to a perfect 4 X 6, but it still doesn’t print properly. The problem seems to be somewhere in that murky area of Elements Print Preview’s interaction with the printer software.

The other thread was kind of long, but I think this link will go to the post (#32?) where he describes what’s happening. As I reread it this morning, it looks as though he can’t get the Canon to do either a full bleed 4 X 6 or a smaller image with equal borders when printing from Elements, however, he can get a full bleed 4 X 6 when using the Canon-supplied software.

Beth Haney "Resizing Problem" 12/5/03 3:17pm </cgi-bin/webx?13/31>

So the real challenge is not resizing at this point but rather to get it to print the way it’s supposed to on a Canon i960. Any other Canon i960 users out there who have mastered this?!
CS
Chuck_Snyder
Dec 6, 2003
Beth, thanks for the mid-course correction! When I returned from CA late Thursday night, I checked on the forum to see how many messages I had missed since Sunday night: about 625! Needless to say, keeping track of the threads was even more challenging than usual!

🙂

Chuck

p.s I like the suggestion made my Jim Hess (I believe) re doing some trial prints on plain paper to figure out what margins will give you the exact result desired. I’d add to that suggestion that I’d do those dry runs in grayscale and draft print mode to keep ink consumption to a minimum.
BH
Beth_Haney
Dec 6, 2003
So that’s where you were! I’d noticed your absence but was going to give you another couple of days before writing to see what happened. Welcome home!
CS
Chuck_Snyder
Dec 6, 2003
Thanks, Beth. It was a nice little trip, although I had no free time during the day….all work….
JD
Juergen_D
Dec 6, 2003
draft print mode to keep ink consumption to a minimum.

Chuck et al,

I’ve found it practical to just create a new, blank image, size it to exactly 4×6 (or whatever size you want to test), stroke with 2 to 4 pixels and print that on plain paper.

Juergen
DS
Dick_Smith
Dec 6, 2003
Juergen,

What a great idea.

Chuck,

Welcome back.

Dick
JD
Juergen_D
Dec 6, 2003
😉
CS
Chuck_Snyder
Dec 6, 2003
Thanks, Dick!

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Easy-to-use drag-n-drop Photoshop scene creator with more than 2800 items.

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