OK.... went to a local place today to make a couple of 8x10's on the do it yourself printer. I wanted "borderless" of the exact shot I had on file. Well to get the whole shot I had a white border on top and bottom. To get it borderless it cropped my shot in the width direction. This pic was 3000w x 2000h x 300dpi. The enlargements looked great just not what I wanted. I have never really printed many of my shots, I just look at them on the computer. What do I need to do to print what I see on the screen? Thanks in advance for any help!
The problem is that the ratio of your original file doesn't match the 8 x 10 ratio. To print an 8 x 10 with no borders, if your "long" side is 3000, then your "short" side needs to be 2400. The ratio for a 2000 x 3000 file is 6.6 x 10, so the "distance" from 6.6 to 8 is what is giving you the white border. Does that make sense?
To print at an exactly 8 x 10 size with your file, you'd have to crop the longer size down to 2500. In other words, instead of 3000w x 2000h, it would have to be 2500w x 2000h.
To get a standard print size from a digital image you will need to have the borders because the ratio of height to width is different. Even with film the pictures were always cropped a bit depending on the print size. Snapfish does do some prints in the same ratio as a standard digital camera, but I haven't gotten any of those. Paint Shop Pro has a crop feature that will give you standard print sizes, so I either do the crop myself or go with the border and then get a custom mat or trim off the border.
@davidchrtrans This is the size file that Lightroom saved when I set it for an 8x10 dimension (2000x3000). After some research I agree with the 2400x3000 (300dpi x 8=2400) & 300dpi x 10=3000). I guess I need to adjust the dimensions some in Lightroom a little to achieve this. So if I save my file with 2400x3000 I will get a borderless print with no crop? Thanks for the help!
In Lightroom... press R, select 8x10 from the drop-down on the right, and slide the photo to where you want the crop. You're confusing two different aspects of Lightroom - the image ratio, and the resolution. Selecting "8x10" on export isn't going to do it for you - it will only give you a pixel count in one direction. Resize to "width and height" keeps any photos you are exporting to within that width and height - it does not resize it to both width and height (that would distort your images, unless the ratio was already a match).
@jinximages Thanks I went back and changed the settings like you said and my images are saving now @ 3000x2400. I will try tomorrow to print again and see how they look. Sure helps when you know what your doing. I never thought making a print would be so difficult.
@hollandcrew A lot of it is just getting your head around the terminology. That said, I've spent two weeks, full-time, doing nothing but learning about printing and colour-management. And I still feel like I don't know half of it.
I think you'll find your next print (tomorrow) will be all good. :) And once you see the results it will get easier in future.
At a lot of shops you can get frame kits where each package has two sides and two corner pieces. You buy two packages of frame sizes for whatever picture size you want. You can may a 4" x 24" frame if you wanted to.
A lot of the time I'll print stuff at home on 8.5" x 11" photo paper. Standard size in the US and an easy frame to get here. I suspect in most of the world A4 photo paper and frames are as easy to get.
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8x10 prints are, well, 4:5 ratio.
If you don't want it to crop, print it at 8x12.
To print at an exactly 8 x 10 size with your file, you'd have to crop the longer size down to 2500. In other words, instead of 3000w x 2000h, it would have to be 2500w x 2000h.
I think you'll find your next print (tomorrow) will be all good. :) And once you see the results it will get easier in future.
A lot of the time I'll print stuff at home on 8.5" x 11" photo paper. Standard size in the US and an easy frame to get here. I suspect in most of the world A4 photo paper and frames are as easy to get.