Crop Sizes and Printing

digismile

Hopefully someone has asked this or figured this problem out. I have been cropping my digital files to the exact proportions that I wanted to print before sending them to the photofinisher, ie. 5x7 ratio, 8x10, etc. As far as I new, things had been working just fine. At least to my eyes I hadn't noticed any additional cropping.

This last week, I took some photos at a company event and decided to put a border, drop shadow on the main photo and the name of the event on the border. The file sizes were eaxtly 2:3 ratio (1400 x 2100 pixels). When I got them back, 3 of 4 sides where slightly cropped (about 1/16") and the fourth side was a bit more than 1/8" cropped. I should say that the landscape photos printed slightly better than the portrait, even though they were exactly the same size (1400x2100, 2100x1400).

So my logical self assumed that 4x6 wasn't really 4 x 6. I measured the prints and the 6" was actually a bit shorter than 6". So I calculated what the actual W:H ratio was and simply expanded the canvas size to give me the same ratio. In this case, 1420x2100. I reprinted these files and the landscape shot was perfect, but the portrait was still a bit off (but at least you could read the caption). It was close enough.

I resized all my photos, reprinted, but I still have a lot of photos that have been cropped (but not every one). Of course I asked at the photo finisher why this was happening, but they have no clue. I wanted to know if there was an optimal PPI or size to ensure acurate sizing. The only suggestion I got was to let them put the borders on. Yeah, right.

I even tried 2 other photo outlets and get somewhat similar results. Has anyone else had this problem?

Thanks,
Brad

Baldy

It's the bleed/trim issue.

2/3s of the way down this help section you'll find a description of the problem. Read it and weep:

http://www.smugmug.com/help/print-quality

All the best,
Baldy

Frank

Baldy wrote:

It's the bleed/trim issue.

2/3s of the way down this help section you'll find a description of the problem. Read it and weep:

http://www.smugmug.com/help/print-quality

All the best,
Baldy

Boo-Hoo! :cry

Thanks Brad (for asking this question) and Thanks Baldy (for the pointer to the help note). I've been fighting this for a few months, but kept searching the help pages thinking I had a "cropping" problem.

I'm now getting very creative with edge trimmer and custom matting, trying to salvage all of my uneven prints.

I may also take the time to print out all the help pages, to make sure I don't miss any more useful tips.

Thanks Again,

- Frank

digismile

Thanks Baldy! This is what I expected, but just didn't know what it was called. I almost figured the photos were hand cut because of the slight inconsistencies. Oh well, all I can do is try to make them the best I can. I'll try a 38 pixel addition and see what happens!

Thanks again
Brad

Baldy wrote:

It's the bleed/trim issue.

2/3s of the way down this help section you'll find a description of the problem. Read it and weep:

http://www.smugmug.com/help/print-quality

All the best,
Baldy

Bodley

digismile wrote:

I'll try a 38 pixel addition and see what happens!

Brad

Think that would be the equivalent of 38 pixels at a printer resolution of 302dpi.

How much? If the mechanical trimmer were perfectly accurate and consistent (it isn't) adding 38 pixels to the total width of your image would work. EZprints recommends you allow .25 inches (75 pixels) on an 8x10 print to fully allow for worst cases.

Baldy

Note that 38 pixels is for the Fuji Frontiers that EZ Prints uses for prints up to 10" on a side. Costco uses the Noritsu (nice printer) and the bleed trim area is slightly different. I don't remember what it is but it's buried in www.drycreekphoto.com somewhere.

Thanks,
Baldy