[rickn]

I have a Canon iP6700D printer which I've had for quite a while. The printer came with software (Canon Easy Photo) which works pretty well for doing anything that is sheet size or smaller.

I occasionally want to crop a print and know precisely the results that I will get. The above mentioned program is not good at handling this -- I can get bordered prints that are OK but borderless printing always results in a certain amount of cropping around the edges (from the picture I have rendered thru post processing).

I've tried printing from GIMP, Paint.net, Lightzone, and a very old version of PS Elements -- all were miserable results. Consequently, I just go back to Canon Easy Photo and make do. If I want a larger print I go to a commercial printer.

Any insight into the mysteries of printing would be appreciated.

[Marc Sabatella]

Borderless prints are made by blowing up the image slightly bigger so it extends off the page. So if you crop a picture in PP then the print it borderliess, you always lose a tiny bit more (that's called the "bleed" in printing-speak). So you'd want to deliberaltey crop a little less than you want in your borderline print. Takes some trial and error, but a good starting point is to assume you'll lose 1/8" on all sides. It has nothng to do with what program you use - it's just how borderless prints are made.

[rickn]

Marc,

Thanks for the info. I've done that and get pretty good results.

The user interface (for printing) in most post processing programs seems to be weak and I guess you just have to work with whatever you choose to tweak the results.

[Dickl]

I guess aspect ratio comes in to this. You never mentioned what camera you were working with, but if it is a point and shoot, many use an aspect ratio of 4:3, and that does not quite fit a 3:2 aspect ratio paper like 4"X6"...

For printing, Qimage does a great job. I've used it for many years, and it gives you all the flexibility you want... For example it will zoom and crop to fill the whole paper size if you want, or leave white borders to be cut later to fill the paper size if the aspect ratio does not fill the entire paper size.

If you are interested, look here: DDI Software Home

Dick

[little laker]

I've never worked with consumer photo printers, however while working in the lab we have 2 main choices while doing prints.

Fill In - will crop the image to fit the size. Although it's fine for most photographs if you have something right along the edge it'll crop it out.

Fit In - this won't crop anything. If your image isn't already the photo ratio you'll have a white strip across the top and bottom or sides.
This setting is the best used when you've already cropped to the right size.

Although I've never tried printing at home I have noticed that most photo editors offer similar choices. Before printing just look through the options, and you'll see a few listed.

[rickn]

Dickl,

Thanks for the info on Qimage. I'll give it a try as I see they have a 30 day trial.

Rick