Printing cropped images

[Paul F]

I would like to print a cropped image to fit a 4x6 picture frame but after many attempts and lots of wasted photo paper and ink, I have yet to figure out how to achive this.
I've tried cropping the image using the 4x6 settings but, I can't get the parts of the image I want within the marching ants border. When I try to adjust the border to include what I want, it throws either the height or width of the border out of whack in relation to the picture.
What is the point of this feature if you can't get the parts of the image you want within the defined measurments?
So, I used the no restriction crop option to get the parts of the image I wanted. After making the changes to the image, I saved it as a jpeg.
Then I printed the saved jpeg using the full fax page option of the Windows fax/picture viewer program. While the entire image appeared on the photo paper, the image did not cover the entire area of the paper. It did not take up the full width and height of the paper. There is about an inch of unused space all around the image to the end of the paper. Almost like a white border around the image.
Then I printed the picture using the full photo page option and the printed picture covered the entire paper area but some of the top and bottom of the picture were cut off.
Then I came across the "resize image" option.
I adjusted the amount of pixels to fit the 4x6 ratio and printed off the picture. While everthing that I cropped appeared in the printed picture and it covered the entire area of the photo paper, the people in the picture appeared bloated. I guess that has to do with the pixel adjustments I made. I tried adjusting the height and width numbers in the resize image option but if I put in the picture height I wanted, it changed the width amount and vice versa. I was unable to put in the actual 4x6 size numbers.
If it wasn't for the bloated people aspect of my last attempt, the picture was pretty much what I wanted.
So, if it's any help based on what I've described here, can someone please tell me what I'm doing wrong.
I'm using Elements 6 and just starting to learn how to use this kind of program.

Thanks
Paul

[Juergen D]

Paul,
You original photo has a different aspect ratio from the desired output format. You will have to crop to the correct aspect ratio.

Here is some more detailed information:
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/glossary/g/aspectratio.htm

Juergen

[RobertSchuldenfrei]

Hi Paul,


There are a number of ways to crop. In teaching beginners, I only teach cropping by Rectangular Marquee so as to cut down the number of concepts I need to get across. Since I am going to go forward and use Rectangular Marquee for other things, I skip the Crop tool and concentrate on this one tool. In my explanation below I am going to assume that your crop is not so drastic that it will cause pixelation to degrade the final print. Here is how to get a 4" by 6" print step-by-step:

1/ Bring up your original image in PSE. I am not going to get into the issues of resolution in this post. My original is 1712 px by 2288 px so a modest crop will still produce a reasonable final print.

2/ Use the Rectangular Marquee tool with a Fixed Aspect Ration of Width: 4 and Height: 6. This will produce a borderless 4 by 6 when we are done.


http://www.elementsvillage.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1359&d=1187612133

3/ Edit > Cut. This removes the selection from the original and places it on the Clipboard.

4/ File > New > Image from Clipboard.

5/ Image > Resize > Image Resize. If it is checked, uncheck the Resample Image checkbox. (Note: resampling is a long running discussion in our forum that I will not revisit in this post.) Set the Height: 6 and the Width will automatically change to 4.

6/ File > Page Setup. Select 4 by 6 paper.

7/ File > Print. Your printer parameters will be unique to your brand and model printer. This procedure will produce a 4 by 6 final print.

Cheers,

Bob

[Paul F]

Thank you Juergen and Bob for your replies.
I'm going to use Bob's method and see what happens.
Thanks a lot for the instructions.
I'll post back in a couple of days if I'm successful with what I wanted to do.

Paul