I need to limit/disable cropping for very good reasons... please help.

Shutterscript

I understand that Smugmug's position is that cropping is best left in the customer's hands, but with what I am selling I cannot leave the option to crop. Check out this photo and you will understand why:

http://gallery.shutterscript.com/gallery/3831283#221543033-A-LB

I overlay text and borders on my photographs to sell them as gifts. Cropping would ruin the borders and/or text. What is the best way for me to create these images so that a customer is not unpleasantly surprised when he learns that he needs to crop?

Would I have to make a different copy of the photo for every aspect raito that Smugmug sells? This seems like a lot of work, but at the moment I don't see any other way around it. I wish Smugmug could alter the proportions of the image to fit the desired photo size at checkout... feature request?

DavidTO

Why not use Proof delay? Then you can check the crop and adjust as needed?

Allen

Shutterscript wrote:

I understand that Smugmug's position is that cropping is best left in the customer's hands, but with what I am selling I cannot leave the option to crop. Check out this photo and you will understand why:

http://gallery.shutterscript.com/gallery/3831283#221543033-A-LB

I overlay text and borders on my photographs to sell them as gifts. Cropping would ruin the borders and/or text. What is the best way for me to create these images so that a customer is not unpleasantly surprised when he learns that he needs to crop?

Would I have to make a different copy of the photo for every aspect raito that Smugmug sells? This seems like a lot of work, but at the moment I don't see any other way around it. I wish Smugmug could alter the proportions of the image to fit the desired photo size at checkout... feature request?

That photo is 600x412, you can't shave 12pixels off the sides or add 18 pixels to the height and only allow
4x6 ratio prints? Then none of them will need or show any need for crop.

Andy

David's answer

We very highly recommend our Pros make use of our Proof Delay feature.
Proof Delay allows you to review the order before it's sent to print,
make corrections and changes to the cropping as well as auto versus true
color. Best of all, you have the opportunity to totally replace any
image that is ordered, with your choice of a replacement, still allowing
you to adjust the crop and color setting after replacing it. For more
info on this, please see the links below which would eliminate any
problems in the future:

http://www.smugmug.com/help/proof-retouch-replace
http://smugmug.jot.com/WikiHome/ProofDelayForHappyCustomers
http://smugmug.jot.com/WikiHome/ProofDelaySolveCroppingWoes

Andy

Hi, this type of image needs modification, please

http://gallery.shutterscript.com/gallery/3831283#221543033-A-LB

you must allow room for bleed/trim. Your text is too close to the edge. Please allow some breathing room, okay?

http://www.smugmug.com/help/bleed-trim

Shutterscript

Thanks for the replies guys... I read that page about image bleed/trim, good thing I did.

So I added a lot more border around the image and scaled it to 4x6. I fully intend to use the proof delay feature, but I want to make things as easy as possible for my customers. Scaling the image to 4x6 allows the following sizes to be printed without cropping:

4x6
8x12
12x18
16x24
20x30
24x36

Which is a good number of options. Do think I am limiting my customers too much by not providing other sizes?

Andy

Shutterscript wrote:

Which is a good number of options. Do think I am limiting my customers too much by not providing other sizes?

Nope, not at all.