# Elongated prints with LR3



## Robert35 (Aug 11, 2011)

I am running Lightroom 3 with Windows 7 and using an HP Photosmart 8250 printer. The prints produced by the HP printer are slightly elongated compared to the screen images in LR3. I have tried several printing templates with same result. Any help would be appreciated.


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## Victoria Bampton (Aug 12, 2011)

Hi Robert, welcome to the forum!

That's a weird problem!  So, does the ratio just look different to the screen, or are the measurements different?  For example, if you use a scrap bit of a A4 or Letter size paper, and the (1) 4x6 template, it should print a 4" x 6" print in the middle of it.  If you now get a ruler out and measure the resulting print, how big is it in reality?


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## RikkFlohr (Aug 12, 2011)

Are you running your monitor in non-native resolution? I have seen this before where the print is actually correct and the monitor is wrong.

As Victoria suggests, a measurement of print output would tell you which is correct.


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## Robert35 (Aug 12, 2011)

Thanks for the reply and pardon the delay. I made a 4x6 print and it measures out exactly. The problem is the elongation of the image within the print. For example, a perfect circle on the Lightroom screen would print out as a slight oval, stretched vertically. The monitor is operating in native resolution (1920x1080). When I first connected the monitor, the monitor image itself was elongated and I finally figured out how to customize the aspect ratio by tweaking the profile on the video card. So now the monitor registers images correctly but the fix apparently did not carry over to the printer (an HP Photosmart 8250). As far as I can tell, there's no equivalent profile available on the printer software that would allow me to adjust the aspect ratio on the printer. So I have hit a dead end.  I realize that this is not really a Lightroom problem but I was hoping that someone had encountered a similar situation and figured out a solution. Any further thoughts would be most appreciated. 










Victoria Bampton said:


> Hi Robert, welcome to the forum!
> 
> That's a weird problem!  So, does the ratio just look different to the screen, or are the measurements different?  For example, if you use a scrap bit of a A4 or Letter size paper, and the (1) 4x6 template, it should print a 4" x 6" print in the middle of it.  If you now get a ruler out and measure the resulting print, how big is it in reality?


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## Victoria Bampton (Aug 12, 2011)

Something like this does ring a bell Robert.  I seem to remember a long time ago creating an image of a true square... yep, found it.  Have a read of this thread, and try the squares image in it and see whether it seems to fit.


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## Brad Snyder (Aug 12, 2011)

Vic, no link included ?


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## Victoria Bampton (Aug 12, 2011)

Oh dear, I am having a good day!  :crazy:  Try this one: http://www.lightroomqueen.com/commu...ting-proofs-to-labs-are-coming-back-distorted


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## Robert35 (Aug 13, 2011)

Many thanks. I will review the thread and see where it leads me.


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## Robert35 (Aug 14, 2011)

Still wandering around the forest here, but I have a question: can anyone tell me how to change the pixel aspect ratio in LR3? I am beginning to suspect that somehow the pixels are not square and that is the root of the problem. Many thanks in advance.


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## Kiwigeoff (Aug 14, 2011)

You select or create aspect ratios for a crop here:


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## Robert35 (Aug 14, 2011)

Thanks but what I'm looking for is the feature that allows me to select aspect ratios for pixels, not aspect ratios for images. I am a beginner at this and so may be misguided but I have seen references to the ability to change pixel aspect ratios from square to rectangular, etc.  Is it possible to do this and, if so, how can it be done? It just may solve my problem of stretched images.


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## Kiwigeoff (Aug 14, 2011)

Sorry Robert for misinterpreting your request.:hm:
I have no idea how to do what you want if indeed it is possible. I doubt that the solution would be down that track as the problem you have I haven't seen reported by anyone else. Hence my assumption would be that it is something to do with your set up. So further digging in that area might prove productive.
But as I have no real experience with PC's or Hp printers I'll bow out for now!


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## Victoria Bampton (Aug 14, 2011)

Did you download and look at the squares image I posted in that thread? If you get a ruler and measured it on your screen (in any/all programs), did it display as square? 

Without seeing your video card drives settings that you changed, I'm inclined to say it's a setting in your video card driver that needs changing to make them square again.


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## Robert35 (Aug 15, 2011)

Okay, Victoria, I downloaded squares and they turned out as perfect squares in LR and everywhere else. Over the weekend I was wandering around in LR and made two discoveries. First, when I UN-TWEAKED my graphics card, the images in the troublesome collection--the one that set me off on this inquiry--appeared elongated in LR,  but the other collections did not. Then I printed images from some of the other collections, and they printed perfectly, no elongation. Soooooooo, my conclusion now is that only this single collection somehow got its pixels screwed up. Initially I was assuming that all images in LR were getting elongated but that was because I hadn't checked the other collections. To put a fine point on it, I have a much smaller problem than I thought. I dont know how the one collection got screwed up (I did transfer that collection from an earlier Windows XP desktop to my present Windows 7 desktop and maybe it happened then) but the problem definitely is not systemic. 

One last question: I suspect I could cure the elongation problem in this one collection if I could tweak the pixel aspect ratio in LR.  Do you, or does anyone else, know how this might be done? Thanks much.


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## Victoria Bampton (Aug 15, 2011)

That's really bizarre Robert - I've never heard of that, and I'm not entirely sure it could happen.  Any chance of a screenshot?


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## Robert35 (Aug 16, 2011)

You mean a screenshot of an elongated image in LR? You are pushing the limits of my tech skills here but probably I could. Will give it a try. Just FYI, I have come across an LR teaching video that refers to an occasional problem with a wrong pixel aspect ratio but I could not follow the corrective steps. Is this whole business of correcting pixel aspect ratios an unknown territory? The video refers to the standard pixel aspect ratio as "square" but says some sources, like video cameras, actually provide rectangular pixels, thus causing a problem with elongation. I'll see if I can get a link to that video.


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## Robert35 (Aug 16, 2011)

OK, here's the link to the Adobe video on pixel aspect ratio. Stay with it until it gets to the "squished" image, which is exactly what I am experiencing. Only difference is, I am dealing with still photographs, and the tutorial is dealing with a video clip.

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/digital-video-cs5/gs02-understanding-pixel-aspect-ratio/


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## Victoria Bampton (Aug 16, 2011)

Ok, that's a good question then - where have these problem images come from?  What kind of camera?  Pixel aspect ratio isn't an issue with normal digital images.


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## Robert35 (Aug 16, 2011)

The camera is a Nikon D5000. I also suspected the camera but, problem is, many of the other collections in my LR catalog also came from same camera and they are not elongated. Seems to me the problem must have come from some transfer of that collection to the present LR in Windows 7. I don't want to take up more of your time because I suspect we have hit a dead end, but I am still intrigued by the notion of changing the pixel aspect ratio in LR a la the Adobe teaching video that I posted the link to. That might "fix" the problem in this one collection, only I couldn't follow the procedure. Did you have a chance to look at the video and could you follow it?


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## RikkFlohr (Aug 16, 2011)

FWIW I still believe this to be a video scaling issue in your video driver.  It matches all the symptoms.


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## Victoria Bampton (Aug 17, 2011)

Ok, yes, I've just watched the video, but I'm all the more sure that it's not the issue, as that's definitely referring to video.  Ok, let me qualify that - Lightroom doesn't have any tools that could have caused that.  It may be technically possible for you to have edited the photos in other software and messed up the pixel aspect ratio, or perhaps if they were freeze frames from video.  I think we still need to see screenshots.


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## Robert35 (Aug 19, 2011)

Victoria: OK, I'm working on the screenshots. You gotta make allowances for us beginners.


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## Victoria Bampton (Aug 19, 2011)

No rush at all Robert, just keen to make sure we get this sorted out for you.


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## DaveFinton (Sep 1, 2011)

Hello - I just noticed this thread after posting another to ask how to adjust an image size before printing.  I had a slight scaling error where the height as printed was about 2% longer than it should have been.

In my case, my Epson R1800 prints about 2% higher, as mentioned, which makes faces appear slightly elongated.  However, when printing with a Canon i900D the scaling/dimensions are correct.  I determined this by printing a circular pattern for a CD with both printers, and measuring the difference.  My conclusion is that the Epson driver is the culprit, but since I don't print many portraits I was willing to make the adjustment by editing in Photoshop (Image Size routine) and returning to Lightroom to do the printing.  My original posting was to ask if the editing could be done in Lightroom without Photoshop, but if another solution is obvious I would certainly be interested.

Thanks!


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 3, 2011)

Interesting, thanks for posting that Dave.  Are you using the drive from Epson's own site, or the one that Apple installs?


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## Robert35 (Aug 11, 2011)

I am running Lightroom 3 with Windows 7 and using an HP Photosmart 8250 printer. The prints produced by the HP printer are slightly elongated compared to the screen images in LR3. I have tried several printing templates with same result. Any help would be appreciated.


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## DaveFinton (Sep 3, 2011)

I tried both -  the one which is labeled as "EPSON SP R1800", (EPSON_Stylus_Photo_R1800 Version 8.61) produces very dark results, and I gave up on it.  I downloaded it from the Epson site a couple of days ago. 

I am using the other one, which is labeled as Epson Stylus Photo R1800 - Gutenprint v5.2.3, and I am assuming it is the Apple-installed driver.  It works well, although setting up some of the printer features gave several weird results - very dim, unpredictable borders, etc.  I also am using a color profile that I set up 2 years ago with my ColorMunki.  

As I mentioned above, the same setup with my Canon printer gave correct scaling of the printout.  My Epson printer seems to yield a little higher-quality output, in comparison to the Canon, so the Epson is my printer of choice for photos even though I had a dickens of a time getting it set up.

Not an easy problem to troubleshoot!


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