Working with digital images

[Carol Jones]

I am new to digital photography but have taken some good images.  I just bought the HP Photosmart 7760 printer and am very impressed with the results except for one problem area.  It seems that no matter what I do the printed photo (4x6 borderless on pre-cut 4x6 paper with .50" tabl) will have a missing area either across the top or bottom on landscape printing and on the side when the image is portrait printed.  

We just got back from Peru and Bolivia and I have some great looking images of Machu Picchu, etc., but when printed the top of the mountains were cut off! Quite disappointing to say the least.

The images are great on the computer monitor but when printed tops of mountains, heads, etc., are cut off.  I was told that is a common problem but no advice was given how to cure it.  Therefore, I am posting to this site with the hope that someone  will be able to explain why this happens and how to solve the problem.

Thank you for your help.

[admin]

I am new to digital photography but have taken some good images.  I just bought the HP Photosmart 7760 printer and am very impressed with the results except for one problem area.  It seems that no matter what I do the printed photo (4x6 borderless on pre-cut 4x6 paper with .50" tabl) will have a missing area either across the top or bottom on landscape printing and on the side when the image is portrait printed.  

We just got back from Peru and Bolivia and I have some great looking images of Machu Picchu, etc., but when printed the top of the mountains were cut off! Quite disappointing to say the least.

The images are great on the computer monitor but when printed tops of mountains, heads, etc., are cut off.  I was told that is a common problem but no advice was given how to cure it.  

Hello and welcome!

It sounds like you had a fabulous trip, and I can certainly understand why you are disappointed that portions of your photos are being cut off when you print. You were advised correctly when you were told that this is a "common problem" and here is the reason ...and a recommended solution:

Most digital cameras today produce images with an aspect ratio of 4:3. A 4x6" print has an aspect ratio of 3:2. So when you print an image, part of it is automatically cropped by the software. You have little say in the matter unless you crop.

We have related information about this here:

http://www.digicamhelp.com/learn/image-editing/image-cropping.htm

I'm assuming your digital camera came with software that lets you crop in a particular asect ratio. If not, there is a great, free software program available, Adobe Photo Album Starter addtion, which lets you crop to the format of standard photo sizes. There is more information about it via the link posted above. The advantage of cropping yourself prior to printing is that you gain control of the output.

Hee is a thread which relates to your question:

http://www.digicamhelp.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=q-b;action=display;num=1089177429;start=0#1

One final thing. Some digital cameras can be set to a 3:2 aspect ratio. If yours does, give it a try.

If you need any additional information, please let us know.

[Deb]

Hi Carol, your trip sounds fantastic! I bet you have some marvelous images!

Printing "borderless" is a neat feature but with some printers using that option results in cropped images because the printer's software automatically resizes the image to fit the paper size. You'll find the cropping is most noticable on images that are tightly framed.

In the case of your specific printer, HP suggests using that printer's "Album Printing" option to print borderless images and provides steps on how to accomplish this. You can also manually move the image around the active print area thereby overriding the printer software's automatic feature. You can find that printer specific article at http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?product=305375&dlc=&lc=en&cc=us&docname=c00028950 .

But what do you do if you don't want the image cropped? You like it framed just the way it is. In that case, print WITH borders. I find this is a good option for printing enlargements that will be mounted and overmatted. No part of the image is hidden by the mat that way.  

Good luck!

[Carol]

Thank you so much for the informative answers with solutions to my situation!  I will try them as soon as I get some spare time to 'play.'

Again, thank you, I am so glad that I found this board and the knowleledgeable people who post here!

Carol