Printing Small Images from Large Images

MP
Posted By
Marshall_Ponzi
Dec 15, 2003
Views
249
Replies
9
Status
Closed
What is the best way(s) to create 1" x 1" photos cropped from large images? I want to print some family photo "thumbnails" as part of Xmas package labels.

I’m trying to create 1:1 crops of several images, reduce them to 1"x1" and print on a master sheet without losing too much quality.

I’ve tried cropping, then changing the image size to 1×1, while setting the resolution to 300 ppi, with bicubic resampling. I lose a lot of image quality.

I’ve also tried simply re-sizing without resampling the resolution. I end up with 1" pictures at 2,000+ ppi (way overkill). When I assembled some these on the master sheet, PSE wouldn’t even let me save the file, because it said the file size was larger than 2Gbytes (ever heard of this?)

Is there a better way?

The original images are 3072×2048.

The crops are 1:1 aspect ratio.

The crop areas are differents sizes, depending on how much of the original image I want to use. A selection area for a given crop might be as big as
2000 x 2000.

After saving each thumbnail as an individual file, I want to paste them into a master sheet so I can print multiple thumbnails on one 8 1/2 x 11 sheet. Given this, do all the thumbnails need to be saved at the same resolution?

Thank you for your help.

Marsh
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JH
Jim_Hess
Dec 15, 2003
I will tell you how I have done this in the past, and it worked fairly well for me. First of all, create your blank document. Mine was 8.5x 11 and the resolution was 300 ppi. Now, open in each of your pictures and activate the crop tool. After you have activated that tool, near the top of your screen you will see boxes where you can enter dimensions. In each of those boxes type 1 in, and then put 300 in the resolution box. When you crop your photograph you will be constrained to a square area because of the dimensions that you entered. After you have your area cropped the way you want it, accept it, and then elements will resize it to what you have specified.

After you have cropped the image, activate the Move tool and simply drag this new small image to your document where you want to place all of the pictures. Each picture will be placed on its own layer so you can choose a layer and use the Move tool to position the pictures to your satisfaction.

Unless you want to keep this small image for something else, just close it and don’t save the changes. If you want to keep the small images, make sure you save them using a different name so that you don’t destroy your originals.
MP
Marshall_Ponzi
Dec 15, 2003
Jim:

Thanks for the fast response. I’d been cropping via the marquee tool and "crop" command, so I hadn’t seen the ability to set the size and resolution of the crop.

I’ll try it. Thanks.
JH
Jim_Hess
Dec 15, 2003
There is a gotcha to this technique. After you are finished using this sizing setup, the next time you decide to use the clone tool you may become frustrated when the tool will not allow you to crop differently. If that ever happens just click on the Clear button or set your dimensions differently.
BH
Beth_Haney
Dec 15, 2003
Jim, this is a great example of when the Crop tool is much more useful than cropping with the Rectangular Marquee. As I’d been thinking this over earlier today (with not enough time to post), I’d concluded "your" method was the right one for the job.

That’s what I love about this software – something for every occasion, just like Hallmark. 🙂
JH
Jim_Hess
Dec 15, 2003
Ain’t it Great!
JF
Jodi_Frye
Dec 16, 2003
Beth,,,,Hallmark…lmao !
MP
Marshall_Ponzi
Dec 16, 2003
Jim & Beth:

Thank you for your help with this. The crop tool worked great for what I needed to do (but I guess you already knew it would :-).

Why do you think it is that the final image looks so much better when it’s reduced in size and resolution with the Crop tool vs. with IMAGE>RESIZE, using the bicubic resampling? Is the Crop tool using a different method of interpolation?

Thanks again,

Marsh
BB
Bert_Bigelow
Dec 16, 2003
Marsh,
It seems like either method should work, although the Crop tool does both steps…cropping and resampling…in one shot. You were correct to use bicubic resampling for best quality. I can’t think of a reason why it shouldn’t work either way, though.
Bert
LC
Louis_Calogero
Dec 16, 2003
Marshall:
This from a real newbie —When I’m doing labels I crop ,if necessary,without re-sizing and save the image(s) in a folder.I then use an app like "Home Publishing" or some such and open a label project.I then import the image(s) I want to the label work space and do the re-sizing and placement on that canvas.Greatly simplifies the process.

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