There was a post similar to this not long ago. Where are you doing your page setup? The other person was using File>Page Setup. We figured out that he had better results by going through the Page Setup option on the Print Preview screen.
If this doesn’t help, please repost with more information about the printer, platform, and operating system you’re using. That often helps a lot in troubleshooting problems.
Doesn’t the ‘scale to fit media’ shrink the image ?? Seemes the very few times I have used this option the image shrunk away from the edges. That might be something to ‘uncheck’ before trying to print edge to edge. Then again, maybe I was just seeing things.
Hi, I am using doing all of this through the print preview screen. I am on a windows XP platform with a Canon i470D printer. My pictures from the camera are huge according to the image size menu. when I make the image closer to 4×6 (with the resample box unchecked) I cannot get it exactly to 4×6. Perhaps that is part of the problem? How can I get the picture to exactly that size? At any rate, I can get it to 4.5×6 which still should print border to border but I am still coming up with space on either side of the paper.
If you’re taking images directly from the camera, they will have a different aspect ratio that won’t go to a perfect 4 X 6. You do need to resize your image which you’ve apparently already learned to do – to the closest size. The next step is to crop to a perfect 4 X 6. There are a couple of ways to do that. Some people prefer the Crop tool, but I like the Rectangular Marquee better.
Have your image open on the desktop; choose the Rectangular Marquee tool; go to the Option Bar and select Fixed Size from the drop down menu (it probably now says "normal"); then go to the width and height boxes and set either 4 or 6 as the width and the second number as the height. After those settings are made, click anywhere on your image. You’ll get the ants marching in a perfect 4 X 6 selection. Click and hold anywhere within the selection and move the box until you’ve got the area you want. Then go to Image>Crop. Make sure you don’t get the ants marching too close to an edge, because it’s possible for them to slide outside the border of the picture, and if that happens you won’t really get your entire width or height. Now you’ve got a perfect 4 X 6, so you can try the borderless print again.
If you have more trouble, post again. Well, actually, if you get your perfect print report back anyway. We love to have feedback about our suggestions.
Beth, Beth, Beth…thank you! It worked. Just one more question: I was just guessing on resizing the image with the resample turned off. Do I need that step? My understanding is that if I have that unchecked, the computer is not going to start dumping pixels and the image will retain its quality. Is this so? And could I just use the process that you outlined without losing quality?
The method I outlined is just going to select a 4 X 6 portion of the image you have open, so you really should continue to resize via increasing the resolution before going for the exact-size crop.
I don’t know how big (in megapixels) your camera is, but it’s fairly easy to get a system of sorts going. I’ll use mine as an example.
My camera is 3mp, and when an image opens in Elements, the resolution is 180ppi and the physical size is roughly 8 X 10. I did some experimenting early on and determined that if I did a resize to 330ppi, I came out with an image that was just slightly over 4 X 6. So, I immediately resize to 330ppi and then head for the rectangular marquee tool to chop off the excess if I don’t want to make any other changes to the composition of the picture.
My method is another one of those "personal preference" things. I’m sure there are almost as many ways to accomplish this as there are people on the forum to explain it! I seriously doubt that it matters what kind of an exact workflow you decide on as long as you’ve figured out that it’s a) preferable to work on an image in either TIFF or PSD, and b) that resizing is best done with resampling off. Those are probably the two biggies. As you gain more experience, you’ll learn different ways to manage your images and your workflow that you’re comfortable with. You’ll also learn the tolerance of your printer (and your taste) for printing resolution and when resampling can be used appropriately. In the meantime, enjoy what you’re getting and learn at your own pace. And, of course, repost when you have more questions!
Thank you. I know that I will have a ton more questions in the future. I am so glad that there is a place to get them answered.
Hey Beth,
I wrote to you last December about some printer issues and you helped me a great deal. Thanks again. You did mention saving photos as tiffs or psd’s for working on them. Here is my question: when you acquire the photo either from the card or from the camera directly, they come into your computer as a jpg. Does saving them as a tiff or psd at that point cause some loss of quality? I could find no way to change the way that the camera saves them. I ask this because I know that when I scan something, I do have the option of having it scan in a multitude of formats. Nora
Help!Long time Darkroom worker trying to use layers with ELements 2. Lotsa info on parts of the system, not one word on step by step way to use these items. I think I have an ideal photo to use layers to improve. It is an interior of a one-room school house. There is a row of windows at the right with curtans in the lower half. Of course when I print for detail in the curtains, the room is too dark, if I print for the room there isn’t any detail in the curtains.
As I understand layers, this should be a simple way to get the detail where I want it, but so far I can’t do it. Any help?
Thanks, so far you have always come up with an answer.
Hugh
Nora,
Since Beth hasn’t showed up yet, I’ll answer. Changing the format to tif or psd will PRESERVE the quality. These are lossless formats. Jpg files are smaller because they compress files and irretrievably throw away pixels. The degradation becomes increasingly apparent with each save of a jpg.
You can store your originals as jpgs and perhaps burn to CD. These are the equivalent of film negatives, never altered or edited. Always create a copy and convert it to psd before editing. Save as a psd, all the layers will be intact and saved with the file. When you have a need for a jpg (they are great for email and screen viewing) just open your edited psd file and use "Save For Web". Your psd file won’t be overwritten even if you don’t rename it (if you answer ‘don’t save changes’ after SFW is completed) because your email version will have a different file extension.
Nancy
Nora – unless you want to get into shooting in RAW format, JPEG is the most common format in which cameras save image files. A conversion right away will still give you the maximum amount of quality that you can expect. It’ll be fine if you keep doing what you have been, which is – I assume – doing a JPEG to PSD or TIFF conversion before doing significant work on your image. JPEG is really a fine format; we here on the forum just try to make sure people understand it’s not a good choice if people want to edit and resave many time. A couple of resaves in JPEG won’t cause much noticeable harm, though.
Hugh – if you want to edit different parts to correct for different problems, layers are the answer. However, I’m not one of the world’s greatest people to be telling you how to get the most out of your effort! I strongly suggest you start a new thread with your question. I know we have a number of people who are not only very adept at making these corrections, they are good at giving directions, too. Starting a new thread will make it easier for others to search the archives for the responses you get to your question.
Hugh,
I will copy/paste here something I wrote for a poster on the forum. It might be helpful to you. After that, two links will lead you to two posts I made to Nora just recently. Though her goal was not exactly the same as yours, I hope it will shed some light on the subject.
"Layers
With layers, it’s as if you are looking down on them. Like sheets of cellophane with painting on them stacked up, some created with the paint not covering the entire area (if you had selected out part of an image and pasted it on its own layer, therefore transparent edges), some contain an entirely different image or some can be adjustment layers (to change some properties of the image without actually changing the original pixels). They can be discarded if desired or readjusted. A layer can have varied opacity, if not at 100% opacity, it is possible to see the layer below in some degree. If parts of a layer are transparent, the layer underneath will show through. Layers keep things separate, which allows for a lot of flexibility in making different edits to different elements of an image which don’t destroy the image you began with which resides on the bottom of the stack. Keep your Layers Palette open on the side of the workarea.
A common, incorrect assumption is that an image inherently possess layers. It does not. When you open an image it is one layered, the Background layer. The naming does not imply that it contains only the "background" info (for example; only the blue backdrop if you photographed a person against it). The background is whatever file you opened, in its entirety.
In the example above, if I wanted to change the tone of either the blue backdrop or the person, or change the tones of each but differently, I would need to separate the person from the blue using one of the selection tools. This would allow my correction to be applied to only the person or only the backdrop. I could select the person and copy/paste to a new blank layer above the background. I could change the tone of that layers contents, the person, without affecting the blue. If I wanted to add something to that person (a hat, brighter lips, blue eyecolor etc) I would create a new blank layer above the others and paint my additions on it. New blank layers are transparent, so everything looks the same onscreen until you add something. The advantage of painting on a new layer is that you have not disturbed the original pixels, so if you don’t like the changes, you can just throw the layer away and create a new one to try again. If I had painted right on the background layer, I would be stuck with my changes and altered the original. If I wanted to add text to my image, I would do so on a new blank layer. This would allow me to reposition the text if desired. In fact, I would use a new layer for every line of text. The layer would be transparent except for the text, allowing my image on the bottom to show through."
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Nancy
Hugh,
Nancy’s write-up is a good primer on beginning to understand layers.
Here is one, simple way of adjusting your image with layers.
In your example, with the windows are brighter than the rest of the room, you could start by selecting the windows and curtains. You probably will have success with one of the variations of the lasso tool. Also, you will most likely want to have the selection feathered a bit. The amount of feathering you like will be a personal preference. I’d suggest starting with a 5-15 pixel feather, depending on the size of your image. If you don’t like the end result, change the feather when you re-do it.
With your selection marquee visible, create a new Levels adjustment layer. Either Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels on the menu, or in the Layers palette, click the black/white circle at the bottom, and then choose Levels. When the Levels dialog comes up, just click OK. This creates an adjustment layer named Levels 1. In the Layers palette, you’ll see that the new layer has two icons. The left one is the Levels adjustment (which you have not changed), and the right one is the layer’s mask – your selection – to which it will apply.
With the CTRL key pressed, click on the right icon on the Levels 1 layer. This will re-load the selection marquee in the same shape from the mask.
In the Layers palette, select your original image layer.
Now invert your selection. Select > Inverse or CTRL-SHIFT-I on the keyboard. Now, create another new Levels adjustment layer, and just click OK at the end of it, as well. You have now created Levels 2 layer, with the opposite slection as in Levels 1.
You can now adjust each Levels layer separately to darken the windows, or brighten the room, independently. Double click on the left icon for the layer to bring up the Levels controls. After you’ve made your adjustments, click OK and move on to the other layer.
After you’ve seen how it works, go back and do it all over, again, now that you know what to expect… you’ll be able to be wiser about your selection and feather settings.
Again, this is just a simple method which will get you a basic solution.
HTH,
Byron
Thanks so much for the information. Between a new camera (Canon A70) and a new printer (Epson Photo RX500) I am befuddled and overwhelmed a little. Nice birthday presents, huh! I will be utilizing this forum a lot. When I originally wrote Beth, I was helping a friend far away who was just starting with digital cameras and with computers. She got me all excited so I started making noises about getting my own stuff. I have worked with websites and cleaning up digital images for work but this is a new and exciting hobby. Thank you all for your generousity and time.
Nora,
Don’t worry about feeling overwhelmed … we have all felt like that!! It wears off pretty quickly and as you say its a great hobby.
Ask questions whenever you get stuc, its the best way to learn 🙂
Wendy
Beth;
You are right, but I simply don’t know how to post a new thread!
Thanks Byron, I’ll try it today.
Hugh
Hugh!!! Well, I’ll be doggoned! The space where it usually says New Topic isn’t there right now! This has happened before, briefly, but I didn’t notice it was gone again until I went back to tell you where to look for it. I posted one yesterday in the late afternoon, so something is apparently happening to make it come and go. That’s weird. Normally, just above the list of thread titles there’s a place that says "Post Topic". Click there and you get a space where you can post your subject line and then a larger area where you can post a longer message about what you need help on.
If that’s been happening much, I can see why you’d be confused about how to start a new thread. Sorry. 🙂
(Of course, after I post this, I’ll look again and find it right where it should be.)
Edit: Ha! Still gone, and it should be appearing in the same line with "Bookmark" and "Subscribe" just above the line where you can search FAQ.
Thanks Nancy, with Byrons help and yours I just may beat the layers mystery. Hugh
Beth;
I can make mistakes all by myself, I don’t need gremlins in the system. I will post a new thread as soon as I mess up my efforts to use layers, Thanks.
Hugh
You have to go to "back to topic list" then "add topic." Ken
Yes, Ken, you’re right about where to access it. But, trust me!, it wasn’t there for a little while when I was posting! Honest! A few minutes later it was right back where it belonged, in bold type, between the other two items. Really!!! I know I’m spacey sometimes, but that wasn’t one of them! 🙂
Beth,
The gremlins put it back!
Ken
Layered PDFs have created some RIP issues with me at times, but still I prefer getting a layered file over a non-layered file.
Sometimes there may be color issues that need to be addressed with a particular part of the file, and if it’s layered it makes it a heck of a lot easier to address just that particular part.
If you are going to give the printer an editable/layered file, I dont see it as a bad idea to convert the text to vector shape layers to avoid giving the printer the hassle of loading fonts and avoids the possibility of text shifting.
"You definitely DON’T want it to be rasterized, that defeats the whole purpose of preserving vector data!"
I’m not talking about vector material. How do you handle text in Photoshop when printing?
When you print they are red? Clean your printer heads and then recallibrate.
How do you handle text in Photoshop when printing?
You leave it as text and save as PDF.
Bob
