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Tim

Active member
This might be a basic printing 101 lesson question but I felt worth asking here.

I have been scanning 35mm film and selected some for prints. My issue is that if I just crop for best content this rarely fits with the various printing paper ratios. The paper ratios of course vary with size so it seems to me that the final crop ratio has to be made with the expected size that I am outputting. My experience is if I don't select this, the printer will crop for me, and the final output not what I had in mind.

So should I be cropping to suit the print size AND that prints size's ratio?

What about metric vs imperial measurements of paper? Is there much concern there?
 

Shashin

Well-known member
I think the image is more important than the paper--print the image you want, trim the paper if needed. Basically, fit the image as best you can on the paper. I like a bit of a margin--I don't print borderless for a variety of reasons. If you have a printer that can take roll paper, that is the best solution as it is cheaper and more flexible.

US paper sizes are different from metric. The metric standard is a bit different in Europe vs. Japan. I believe it is the B sizes that are different--if not, then the A sizes.
 

GrahamWelland

Subscriber & Workshop Member
+1 to Will and Don. The image determines the ratio. The challenge of course is that you'll need to accept the fact that you'll need custom cut mats.

(Std paper/mat sizes annoy me too)

It's MUCH easier if you do your own prints too.
 
If you crop your images, it's a quick-and-easy chore to make a table of equivalent sizes. If you print 2:3 image as 9x13.5" on 11x17 paper, that's equivalent in image-area to an 11x11" square - which would go on 13x19 paper.

(It's 'normal' to leave 1" borders on fine-art prints.)
 

Tim

Active member
A big thank you for your replies everyone.

As obvious it is to you, you have me correcting my thinking by realizing the image is the king and the paper has to fit, not the other way round.

As is often the case it seems best to do it yourself than ask someone else who will do it wrong.
 

GrahamWelland

Subscriber & Workshop Member
:thumbs:

Btw, resizing an image to fit a paper size vs crop can work well sometimes - you'd be surprised how little others will notice a stretched image - compressed versions can be a little harder to get away with.

However, always best to stick with your vision of ratios.
 
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