Preparing your pictues for online printing service - SBB Digital Scrapbooking Forums | Scrapbook-Bytes

srobbins · #1 (**permalink**) 07-10-2005

I am confused regarding cropping with a preset or resizing to prepare my pictures at an online service. I currently do the following:

taking pictures using a cannon eos 20D
Open the picture in PSP
Select the "crop" tool
Open the crop presets and choose 4 x 6
Pull the box corners to select the part of the picture I want cropped then double click.
Perform any photo enhancements
Save the file as a JPG.
upload these to Snapfish.

I noticed that the PPI on these pictures is at 72. Does this make a difference when printed?
Is it better to crop and "RESIZE" a photo where you can specify the resolution to say 300 or is that determined by the printer service?

How do you all crop or resize your pictures for printing online? If you do not resize them exactly to the specified print size, the service will crop them and possibly cut off heads etc...I find that the way I am doing it, I always get the print to cover just what I want but don't know if I am getting a lesser quality photo by using crop presets versus re-sizing.

danib · #2 (**permalink**) 07-10-2005

Great question, I started cropping my own photos since so many heads were being chopped off at the local photo center.
I do almost the same thing in PS as you do in PSP
I set the crop size to whatever I want the print size to be @ 300ppi
then save jpeg at 10 quality
The prints turn out great and have not noticed loss in quality doing it this way and no more chopped off heads

srobbins · #3 (**permalink**) 07-10-2005

Thanks for the reply! I guess what I need to know is what the difference is between using the "crop with presets" versus the "resize". With the preset crop option, you do not have a way to select a DPI or PPI and when I look at the image information after performing a crop with preset function, the picture shows it as 72 ppi. Does this make a difference in the image resolution for a printed picture?

Maybe someone who uses PSP can tell me how they prepare their pictures before uploading to a printing service. I do agree that you have to crop them to the right dimensions before sending them off or they will at times cut off your heads!

ksbalint · #4 (**permalink**) 07-11-2005

I'm a PSP user, but I don't crop my photos first. Instead, I crop them using the tool provided by the online photo finisher (in my case, usually Snapfish or Shutterfly). I find that it's easier to use their crop tool. That way I know exactly what the photo is going to look like. So if your online photofinisher has a crop tool available for use after you upload the photos, I'd try that.

Kathryn

srobbins · #5 (**permalink**) 07-11-2005

Let me see if I can give an example that may help get the answer I am looking for

I open an image from my camera to PSP and prepared it for print at Snapfish. I could resize it two different ways. My question is, would one of the two finished prints be a better quality photo?

#1

Open the image in PSP
"crop" to preset 6 X 4
save it as a JPEG

This is the image information I get:
2055 x 1370 pixels
28.542 x 19.028 inches
72.000 PPI
993K

#2

Open the image in PSP
"crop" to preset 6 x4
"resize" to 6 x 4 print size @300 ppi
Save as a JPEG

This is the image information I get:
1800 x 1200 pixels
6 x 4"
300 ppi
737K

Which one would produce a better print or would they be the same as a finished print?
Thanks for taking the time to understand my question.

ksbalint · #6 (**permalink**) 07-11-2005

Technically, I think the 72 ppi photo (approx 28 inches by 19 inches) would be the better quality photo. However, I'm not sure that when the photo is processed the eye would be able to tell the difference.

Kathryn

srobbins · #7 (**permalink**) 07-12-2005

That is what I needed. I didn't know if the PPI made a difference in the final printed photo. If anyone else would like to tell me how they prepare their pictures for print using PSP, I would love to hear from you.

shawnyrvr · #8 (**permalink**) 07-12-2005

It does make a difference but in your case of examples - in your ex #1 your image actually has more ppi overall... It could technically speaking be printed as a 6.850 inch x 4.567 inch at 300 ppi - your ex #2 is exactly a 6x4 inch at 300ppi size. This is why Kathryn said technically speaking the first ex would be a little bit better quality but you wouldn't notice a difference with such small amounts as that. Using a professional quality printer you wouldn't even really notice a difference if you wanted to even print it up to a 5x7... you could possibly start to notice a slight difference between your 2 ex's at a 8x10" and if you wanted to make it an 11x14, you would notice the difference...

The thing you have to realize with this confusing subject is that your 72 ppi is 28.542 inches x 19.028 inches... 2055 x 1370 pixels... If you take those pixel dimensions and divide by 300 pixels per inch(ppi) instead of the 72ppi you have it set at, you'll end up with that 6.850 inch x 4.567 inch photo that I mentioned above... Hope this helps at least some in understanding it...