Commercial printing of digital photos - question.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Frank Martin
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Frank Martin

I want postcard-size prints from a CD of my photo collection.

I want ALL the photo included on the print, especially the strip at the bottom with the description I have typed in.

I don't care if there are white blank strips at the top or side of the postcard-size print.

How can I tell the person behind the counter at the print shop about this? What are the keywords" I should use?

Please help.
 
Frank said:
I want postcard-size prints from a CD of my photo collection.

I want ALL the photo included on the print, especially the strip at the
bottom with the description I have typed in.

I don't care if there are white blank strips at the top or side of the
postcard-size print.

How can I tell the person behind the counter at the print shop about
this? What are the keywords" I should use?
Click to expand...

I hate to say it, but "good luck". ;-(

Virtually all photo finishing services--except expensive custom
processing--will fill the paper from edge to edge, discarding
anything pushed off by aspect ratio differences. Many services
actually throw away the outer 10% or so of the images anyway,
since most people (and their viewfinders) don't crop enough.

When I have had situations like this in the past, I've reformatted
the photo(s) to the print aspect ratio, adding white space (or
neutral gray) to fill in, and also adding an extra 10% fill around
the whole thing to allow for "overscan".

One could write a script to do this as "batch processing" in some
image processing applications, which would be the only way to make
it bearable for a large number of photos.

It seems like a lot of work to get around something that could be
simply a checkbox on a processing order.

-michael

Parallel computing for 8-bit Apple II's!
Home page: http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it is seriously underused."
 
Frank said:
I want postcard-size prints from a CD of my photo
collection.

I want ALL the photo included on the print, especially
the strip at the bottom with the description I have typed
in.

I don't care if there are white blank strips at the top
or side of the postcard-size print.

How can I tell the person behind the counter at the print
shop about this? What are the keywords" I should use?

Please help.
Click to expand...
===============================
Is the text something you added with
an image editing program or are you
referring to the file name you see below
the thumbnails?

If you used an editing program to add a
textbox to the image file as a footer...it
would be part of the image and should be
printed but I doubt that you will find a
Retail Photo Printer that will include simple
filenames on full sized prints.

FWIW...in Windows XP you can print
Contact sheets that include the file
names.

Open the folder that contains the
pictures and go to...Edit / Select All...

Right click the selected gtroup and
from the menu...choose...Print /
Next / Next / Next...Choose...
Contact Sheet: 35 Prints Per Page.

Some online printers...Dot Photo...for
example...allow information to be printed
on the Back of the prints.

DotPhoto
https://www.dotphoto.com/join.asp

The free software FastStone Image Viewer
can be used to add Text to the face of your
image files one at a time or in a batch:

FastStone Image Viewer
http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm


--

John Inzer
MS Picture It! MVP

Digital Image
Highlights and FAQs
http://tinyurl.com/aczzp

Making Good Newsgroup Posts
http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
 
message
I hate to say it, but "good luck". ;-(

Virtually all photo finishing
services--except expensive custom
processing--will fill the paper from edge
to edge, discarding
anything pushed off by aspect ratio
differences. Many services
actually throw away the outer 10% or so of
the images anyway,
since most people (and their viewfinders)
don't crop enough.

When I have had situations like this in the
past, I've reformatted
the photo(s) to the print aspect ratio,
adding white space (or
neutral gray) to fill in, and also adding
an extra 10% fill around
the whole thing to allow for "overscan".

One could write a script to do this as
"batch processing" in some
image processing applications, which would
be the only way to make
it bearable for a large number of photos.

It seems like a lot of work to get around
something that could be
simply a checkbox on a processing order.

-michael

Parallel computing for 8-bit Apple II's!
Home page: http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important
design
tool--and it is seriously underused."
Click to expand...

Thanks. I am investigating how to put a
suitable border around each of my photos
before they go to the lab (in Photoshop 5.5).

I take it that the "aspect ratio" is the same
as that used for TV, and that the lab
technicians will understand what this is.

Regards.
 
Frank said:
I take it that the "aspect ratio" is the same
as that used for TV, and that the lab
technicians will understand what this is.
Click to expand...
==================================
The following article should give you a basic
understanding of aspect ratio and how it affects
your prints.

Aspect Ratio and unexpected cropping
http://tinyurl.com/ebwi

--

John Inzer
MS Picture It! MVP

Digital Image
Highlights and FAQs
http://tinyurl.com/aczzp

Making Good Newsgroup Posts
http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
 
Frank said:
message



Thanks. I am investigating how to put a
suitable border around each of my photos
before they go to the lab (in Photoshop 5.5).
Click to expand...

Photoshop should doa fine job of this.
I take it that the "aspect ratio" is the same
as that used for TV, and that the lab
technicians will understand what this is.
Click to expand...

The aspect ratio of a photo is the ratio of its width
to its height, often expressed in integers, as in 4:3
(for TV and many digital cameras).

The aspect ratio for a 4"x6" print is 3:2, so it is
a bit wider than a 4:3 image for the same height.

-michael

Parallel computing for 8-bit Apple II's!
Home page: http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it is seriously underused."
 
message
I want postcard-size prints from a CD of my
photo collection.

I want ALL the photo included on the print,
especially the strip at the bottom with the
description I have typed in.

I don't care if there are white blank strips
at the top or side of the postcard-size
print.

How can I tell the person behind the counter
at the print shop about this? What are the
keywords" I should use?

Please help.





Thank you for all replies.
I checked out the "Constrained Aspect Ratio"
in Photoshop and this will do the job, though
it is rather tedious, and I sometimes lose
some of the image or typeing for the old
film-based photos.

Now I will check out the virtual placing of
the photos on a blank canvas so as to add the
relevant borders and so lose nothing, but I
have so many photos that this will HAVE to be
automated somehow. Photoshop5.5 does not
seem to have formulae to automatically select
size of borders.

Thus my plan is as follows:
1/ Ring up the lab and check out the "aspect
ratio" of their machine.
2/ Make a blank canvas in Photoshop5.5 of
the relevant ratio, eg 4:3.
3/ Dump my photos-for-printing on this.

Regards
 
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