# Cropping to Support Multiple Print Sizes



## HeyWheresPerry (Feb 24, 2013)

greetings all, 

after searching this forum with regard to the subject i wanted to ask: is there a 'good way' to crop an image so that it may fit a variety of standard print sizes?  specifically, i want to give the client hi-res images that can be easily scaled from a large (16x20") to small (4x6") for printing.    

scenario: i have a hundred or so images of a wedding ceremony that i want to share with the bride/groom and i have cropped most to remove unwanted background clutter, etc.  i cropped images with no attention to print sizes or aspect ratio.  i noticed when i uploaded some images to a print service, many images dont fit standard print sizes.  i assumed most print services will place, or at least offer as an option, white or black bars on the image to ensure that it fits a particular print size but that doesn't seem common (at least not with mpix.com).  

when editing images should i be cropping with a particular print size/aspect ratio in mind?  if so, should i be using a particular print size (16x9) so that the client can have options to order small or large prints?   

thanking you for your time and help!


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## clee01l (Feb 24, 2013)

Print sizes are based upon aspect ratio the two examples that you give (16X20 & 4X6)  are different aspect ratios. you can only crop to one aspect ratio at a time. The aspect ratio for 16"X20" is 4:5. The aspect ratio for 4"X6" is 2:3.  See the difference?  If you choose these respective aspect ratios from the crop dropdown list you will see how the crop rectangle overlay changes on the image.  Your original uncropped image recorded on the camera sensor is ~2:3 but not precisely 2:3.  It is important the you understand this concept. It is more important that you convey this concept to your client.  The only way that I can think of to present different aspect ratios (crops) to a client is to use virtual copies and apply the specific crop to each individually.


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## Brad Snyder (Feb 24, 2013)

...what I've done with unsophisticated clients (almost all of them) is leave/crop the images at 2:3 and make sure to leave dead space on each end of the long axis. This works because 2:3 is the most 'eccentric' (in the mathematical sense) of the common photo aspect ratios. Anything else will have a shorter 'long-axis'. Doing this, a centered default crop at any of the other ratios should be 'crop-safe'.

Obviously the time to be thinking of this is when you're composing the shot, and not in post-processing, because some ill-conceived shots will be impossible to crop without losing something important. The canonical example is the group shot with a group of folks standing in a landscape format. If you close in, and shoot them tight (with a 2:3 sensor), any cropping will chop off the folks to the right and/or left. As much as one likes to maximize the 'zoom', if you personally are not going to be in full control of the cropping workflow, then you've got to leave some leeway.

Different issues pertain to different sensor ratios, a la the 4/3 folks.


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## eckenheimer (Feb 25, 2013)

Brad, I like your idea, which I plan to start using for some images. Here in the USA, aspect ratio can be a real pain, as there are (excluding square and panorama images) at least five commonly used aspect ratios to consider: 

dimensions				ratio	in percent	
4x6, 8x12, 10x15, 12x18	2:3		.66667
5x7, 10x14				5:7		.71429
12x16					3:4		.75
11x14					11:14	.78571
8x10, 16x20				4:5		.80
Most of the other 96% of the people in the world have it far easier than we do. All ISO 216, ISO 217 and ISO 269 paper sizes (except DL) have the same aspect ratio, 




(about .70701). This ratio has the unique property that when cut or folded in half widthwise, the halves also have the same aspect ratio. Each ISO paper size is one half of the area of the next size up. (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_216). Of course, ISO 216 paper sixes don't match the frames, mats, folders, etc. available here.


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