Welcome to the world of digital cameras and the non-compatible world of
digital printers. Although they are supposed to work well together, they
don't and your results are typical and expected. Your pictures a cropped
when you print.
The reason is that most consumer digital cameras produce an image with an
aspect ratio of 4 (length) x 3 (width). Divide 4 by 3 and you get 1.33. This
is the aspect
ratio. Look at the dimensions of your image in pixels and divide the larger
number by the smaller number and you will get 1.33. Unless you have a Sony
and you shoot with the option 3:2 or you have a Canon Digital Rebel, it
shoots at 3:2. The 3:2 aspect ratio is 1.5
You want your image printed 6 (length) x 4 (width). Divide 6 by 4 and you
get 1.5. Or select any other paper size, 7 x 5, 7/5 = 1.4, or 10 x 8, 10/8
= 1.25
You can't fit 1.33 (you camera file aspect ratio) into 1.5, the 6 x 4 aspect
ratio or any other common printer paper size. Impossible.
So what are the options.
You stretch 1.33 to 1.5. The proportions of the items in the photo are now
out of lines
and you get an ugly picture.
The next option is you let the software print the entire image with no
stretching, but now it will print a smaller and correct image within the
paper size you selected, but to fit it in correctly you will have to accept
white edges around the image. Or, if you print borderless, it prints the
image from borders to borders, but it crops the top and bottom edges in
order to fit the image on the paper size you selected.
There is another option, permitting you to "float the crop". You will still
have to crop but then you can select how much of the bottom or top of the
image you will remove to make it fit your selected size. You need some photo
editing software to do this.
A. Some options if you print at home
A very good one if you are into printing at home is Qimage, you can download
the
demo here and try it:
http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage/
and you can also download the manual and learn how to use it. It is probably
the best software for printing but a little "quirky" to use at first and I
don't recommend it for the casual user.
The other would be Microsoft Digital Image 10. Lots of fancy printing
options much easier to use than Qimage. You probably can get it for around
$60.00 after the usual rebates. You can try a demo:
http://www.microsoft.com/products/imaging/default.mspx
These software applications will provide the option to crop your image to a
specific size,
your specific size being 6 x 4, or anything else. So you will have to
remove a little bit from the top and a little bit from the bottom of your
image and then it will fit
6 x 4 perfectly. Both softwares will do this automatically and will also
give you the option of placing the crop (floating the crop) where you want
it, all at the top, all at the bottom or a little bit of both. Then, the
image will fit exactly on the paper size you selected, provided that you
have a printer capable of printing borderless and not all printers can do
this. You print your images directly from these software applications.
There is also free software that you can use if the only thing you want is
to crop, see below.
B. An option if you just want to crop and send the picture for printing
This free software will also allow you to "float" the crop after
automatically cropping the top and bottom to fit 6 x 4 or any other size. If
you don't like the automatic crop, move the crop up or down to suit your
needs. Very fast and it is free and probably what a beginner should use
instead of the fancier photo editor softwares.
http://ekot.dk/programmer/JPEGCrops/
The way to do it is to make a copy of your original files first. NEVER edit
an original file.
Open the folder containing your original files. Hold the Ctrl key down and
press the letter A. This selects (highlight in blue) all the files (or just
select the files you want). Then, hold the Ctrl key down and press the
letter C. This makes a copy (pastes) of the selected files to your
clipboard. Then hold the Ctrl key down and press the letter V. This makes a
new copy of the selected files in your folder. Same file names but with the
words "Copy of" in front of the file name.
Now you start JPEGCrops and you select the folder you want and all the files
"Copy of".
JPEGCrops will import them and will show them to you with the "automatic
crop" for all your pictures. The automatic crop is the gray area at the
bottom and top of each picture (if you selected 4 x 6). If you like it just
hit the crop button. If you don't like it, hit the center of the picture
with your mouse pointer and move the crop up or down as you wish. If you
want to crop more and still keep the 4 x 6 aspect ratio, click on a little
square at the edges of the picture and move the crop to what you like. Then
hit the crop button.
When you are looking at the 4 x 6 crop, hit your Up or Down arrows on your
keyboard to change the paper size. This will give you a very good idea of
what you can get out of a 4:3 image on all the different paper sizes
available and how the automatic crops are made. Also, change the aspect from
4 x 6 to 6 x 4 and see what you get. Best way to learn how pixels are
removed to fit a particular paper size and printing landscape (horizontal)
or portrait (vertical).
This software is absolutely the fastest way to crop photos for printing to
any size paper you want and is free! Once the crop is done, import the file
in a photo editing software and you can now work on modifying the picture
for color, contrast, etc.
Since you need to crop a little from the top and bottom of the photo in
order to fit a 4 x 6 print, don't frame your subject too close when you take
the picture with your digital camera and then, probably, the automatic crop
of the XP wizard (or the Wal-Mart etc. printer) will be acceptable. It is
not an XP problem, simply is due to the different aspect ratio of digital
cameras to common photo paper sizes aspect ratios. With a digital camera
shooting at an aspect ratio of 4:3, the best printing size is 5 x 7 paper
(divide 7 by 5 and you get 1.4 which is quite close to 1.33) . In this case,
the automatic crop will be quite narrow at the top and bottom. This is
another reason to NEVER edit an original picture file. You may want to print
again using a different paper size. So make your crop accordingly on a copy
of the original file.
Another option.
You can upload your pictures to this site and have them printed. They use
the same printer as Wal-Mart, but lower prices
www.winkflash.com
After you upload, you select the print size you want.
You will get a preview of the print image with three options:
Crop all at the top
Crop all at the bottom
Crop a little from the top and a little from the bottom.
Select the one you want and you will know exactly how the picture will be
printed on the size paper you select.
Cropped off said:
I take pictures off my digital cameras via the Windows XP scanner and camera
wizard. I've noticed that in filmstrip view the small thumbnails on the
bottom of the screen tend to crop off the top of the picture. When you look
at the picture in full frame, or open the picture with editing software, the
cropping is not present. When I send these to print at Walmart the thumbnail
view (with the crop) is what gets printed vs. the full frame.
Anyone else seeing this as well? Any suggestions to prevent this
behavior?
" <No longer cropped off