Printing photos

[Godslamb]

Hello,
I am using PAINTSHOP PRO X5 on a PC. When I upload photos from my camera or others from Facebook, emails, etc. they come in all different sizes. Some are 1200X1000 pixels, some are 875X620 pixels, etc. I cannot figure out how to make them fit 4X6 photo paper to print them out. I usually try to resize them, but I have no idea what I am doing, so they usually come out different sizes no matter what I try to do in PSP X5. I have tried to make them 4X6 in resizing, but that doesn't seem to work. They come out blurry, or pixelized. Once in a great while one will come out right, but not usually. Even using the print preview doesn't help, because I am unsure what I am looking at. Is there a simple way of doing this? Am I missing something? Is there a tutorial on how to print a photo of different sizes? Ie: 4X6, 5X7, 8X10, etc. I have seen the tutorial about resizing a photo, but not how to resize it to print it to specific sizes.. Thank you.
I also posted this to support, but I know they are busy, so...
Carol

[hartpaul]

First of all blurry images- this occurs because the image you have chosen is not good enough in quality for printing as a photo. Photo quality is probably best at 300 pixels per inch.
So if you want to see if an image will work you need to check your size

6 x 4 inches works out at (6x 300 = 1800) by (4 x 300=1200) pixels - so for a photo quality 6 x 4 inch print you will need at least 1800 x 1200 pixels in Landscape mode and 1200 x 1800 in Portrait mode
Similarly 5 x 7 needs at least 1500 x 2100 pixels and 8 x 10 inch needs at least 2400 x 3000 pixels.

You can achieve these sizes partially by resizing up but it is better if you have them the right size or have to resize down.

[Godslamb]

Thank you. I will try this when I get my photos onto PSP.

[hartpaul]

Now the tutorial
I have loaded a large image into the workspace. Its size is 4368 x 2912 pixels which would be good enough for a printed image of about 14 x 9 inches so it could be printed as 10 x 8 , 7 x5 or 6 x 4 inches quite successfully.

Prepare and save a Crop preset

1. Choose the crop tool. Type in the pixel dimensions 1800 and 1200 . Make sure the Maintain Aspect ratio is ticked.

2. Click the little down arrow beside the presets and then the disk / Save button. The dimensions are shown but you could also add or change that to 6 x 4 inches. Click OK to save that preset.

3. Next time you click the Presets you will find your preset there ready to be used for any other images you want to print as 6 x4 or 4 x 6 inch prints

Preparing your image - defining the crop area , resizing and changing the print pixel resolution (Pixels/inch)

4. Drag the crop rectangle outwards to get it to include what will fit in a 6 x 4 inch print. (Do not make it smaller or the result will be smaller than 6 x 4 and have to be enlarged.) Click the apply and your image will now be the right dimensions to fit into a 6 x 4 inch print but probably larger than 1800 x 1200 pixels, so we need to resize down.

5. Image > Resize will show the resize dialog. Make sure you are working in pixels not percent.
Type in the New dimension of 1800 and the other value should change to 1200 (sometimes you get 1201 or 1199but ignore that). Click Ok and the image will be resized to 1800 x 1200 pixels.

6. Now to change the print resolution. Image > Resize and in the dialog box Tick the Advanced Settings . Untick Resample Using. Now in the Print Size area make sure you are using Pixels / Inch not Pixels / Centimetre.
Change the Resolution value to 300. Click OK . You will see a bit of a flash and nothing else seems to happen, but the image is still 1800 x 1200 pixels but the printer instruction has been changed to tell the printer to print 300 pixels of image along every inch of line.

You can now save your image as a jpg with good quality (10 or less) and print it using whatever program you use for printing - store it on a USB stick and take it along to a printer kiosk to print out as a photo or even print it out using PSP.

[bruce1951]

Wouldn't it be easier to let your printer make the choice for you? Simply select the paper size, 6x4, in the printer options and then select Fit to Page. Then you can print any sized images on a 6x4.

bruce

[Jean-Luc]

I cannot figure out how to make them fit 4X6 photo paper to print them out.

Hello,
Open your images.
Go to :
-> Print Layout
-> File
-> Open Template
-> Standard size
-> Select 4x6 size
Drag image from left column and drop it in the 4x6 area. You may rotate it if needed with the rotate icon (top of screen)
Image will be sized automatically.

[Jean-Luc]

Oops !
I missed you have 4x6 photo paper and not A4 (my previous message was for A4).
You need to make a new template for your 4x6 paper size.
In Print Layout, select your printer and the 4x6 paper size
-> File -> New template
Drag the image on your page (it is now sized at 4x6) and fill the page with your image
-> File -> Save template (uncheck Save with image)
Now you will have an empty 4x6 template you may load and use to print your images (you only need to drag them in the empty template)

[JoeB]

Wouldn't it be easier to let your printer make the choice for you? Simply select the paper size, 6x4, in the printer options and then select Fit to Page. Then you can print any sized images on a 6x4.

bruce

There are a couple of problems with that suggestion.

1) The first issue is that "any sized" image could mean an image that hasn't already been cropped to the correct pixel ratio of 4 x 6. The result could then be a distorted image.

2) If the image did have the correct pixel ratio but the pixel dimensions were substantially less than 1200 x 1800 pixels then the printer would have to upsize the image to fit the 4 x 6 template, causing degradation.

3) If the image also did have the correct pixel ratio and much larger pixel dimensions than 1200 x 1800 pixels and an embedded 300ppi resolution, it would be the printer doing the resizing to make the image fit the 4 x 6 template. And there is no guarantee that any particular printer would be using resize algorithms that could do a resize job as well as PSP can do so. And it wouldn't necessarily have the ability to add some sharpening type of filter which is often necessary after downsizing a large image and which PSP has the tools to achieve.

Just a thought....

[bruce1951]

And what about the image ratio?

My suggestion was meant to be a 'quick fix' for quick results.
If it was my problem I would invest in a program such as QImage and set up a custom job and have full control over the entire print job.

bruce

[JoeB]

And what about the image ratio?

Covered in my first point.

My suggestion was meant to be a 'quick fix' for quick results.
If it was my problem I would invest in a program such as QImage and set up a custom job and have full control over the entire print job.

bruce

Understood.

[hartpaul]

What Joe said!!
As well the OP gave some sources of the images
- camera 1200 x 1000 875 x 620 definitely not 6 x 4 so somethings gotta go. + cropping to suit the print format
-facebook
-emails
so images possibly 800 pixels maximum size as on this forum.
Just tried an image 200 pixels on the longest side and Using Print Layout as suggested by Jean-Luc the result was terribly blurred.

So it is critical that for photo quality images 6 x 4 you must have sufficient pixels approx 1800 x 1200 .

If the image is not to a 6 x 4 format you will finish with bars either horizontally or vertically. So you need to crop and choose what parts of the image you want to include and what to leave out.
BTW my method described above looks complex as I have explained each step in detail. When you are familiar with cropping and resizing you get an image that you can save , print out on your photo printer or even take to a kiosk to print exact 6 x 4 format images.
Note also that if you want to print the same image in 6 x 4, 7 x 5 and 10 x 8 format they will each look different as they include or leave out part of the image . For camera images the format is already chosen by your camera's sensor. For images received by email , facebook the image may be square suiting none of the standard formats.

[bruce1951]

The problem is limited by 2 'controls'. 1st is that the OP wants 6x4's. The 2nd is the images that are being used. So given that the OP wants to stick with 6x4 then unless 'better' images are available then the 6x4 results will be dependent upon the initial images. Unless that changes then I can't offer much more to the conversation.

bruce

[jayson1945]

Whatever, for me - I found the tutorial useful as a refresher so thanks for that.

[Godslamb]

Thank you for all the suggestions and thoughts. I appreciate it so much, especially the visual tutorial. I am very much a visual learner.

[Godslamb]

I have been doing as suggested in the wonderful tutorials and comments. But now I have a bit different problem. Some of the photos I have are smaller than 1800X1200 pixels. They are about 750X500. How would I get that to a 4X6? Or is that even possible? I tried printing them out just the way they were, but they also get pixelated. Thank you all again!