Newbie help on cropping digital images for lab printing

[tapunan]

Hi,

This is gonna be the first time that I will send my pics to a digital lab for printing in 4R size. Anyway, I'm a little bit confused about cropping the images. From my research here in CS - this is the recommended size that I saw for 4R printing : 6" x 4" or 1800x1200 pixels at 300 dpi.

My camera takes pictures at 2272x1804 at 180 dpi and I'm using Paint Shop Pro. If I adjust the dpi to 300 - the print size shows 7.573 x 5.680 so if I try to crop it at 6x4 setting - the crop size is too small. However if I resize the width down to 1800 then I can crop using the 6x4 setting.

My question is do I need to ALWAYS resize it down to 1800x1200 or could a similar 3:2 multiple like say 2272 X 1515 at 300 dpi be ok ?

Also what if I'm okay to print at the 4RDSC (super 4R) size - can I just submit all my pics (2272x1804 at 180 dpi) to the lab or do I need to resize everything ?

 

[Ah Pao]

Don't fret, just send the whole lot to the lab and let them handle all the resizing...no hassle!

The only time you want to resize them yourselves is when you want to control the cropping yourself.

 

[bent]

i thought if u leave it up to the labs to crop, the imagaes may turn out a bit distorted? It is auto cropping right?

Anyway, for 4R i think 1024 x 768 is enough already...

 

[bwilly]

image turns up distorted when u resize.
Cropping does not distort the pic.
Crop - means you cut away the edge to get the proper size, 4R = 6 x 4.
Only do it when you need to have some essential detail that the lab may crop away for you.

For digital cam, they will auto crop away some area on the perimeter of the pic. eg. Taking close up of group pic, some ppl on the edge may be crop away. Hence give more allowance when taking group pic, then crop off yourself to be more precise.

 

[ortega]

Hi,

This is gonna be the first time that I will send my pics to a digital lab for printing in 4R size. Anyway, I'm a little bit confused about cropping the images. From my research here in CS - this is the recommended size that I saw for 4R printing : 6" x 4" or 1800x1200 pixels at 300 dpi.

My camera takes pictures at 2272x1804 at 180 dpi and I'm using Paint Shop Pro. If I adjust the dpi to 300 - the print size shows 7.573 x 5.680 so if I try to crop it at 6x4 setting - the crop size is too small. However if I resize the width down to 1800 then I can crop using the 6x4 setting.

My question is do I need to ALWAYS resize it down to 1800x1200 or could a similar 3:2 multiple like say 2272 X 1515 at 300 dpi be ok ?

Also what if I'm okay to print at the 4RDSC (super 4R) size - can I just submit all my pics (2272x1804 at 180 dpi) to the lab or do I need to resize everything ?

if you are ok with 4RDSC, then you don't have to do anything, it is already the correct size.

 

[tapunan]

Thanks for the info.