Print shapes and cropping
The shape of a picture is its aspect ratio, width to height. A camera photo is usually three to two, which matches 4 × 6 inch prints; a phone or compact camera photo is four to three; an 8 × 10 print is five to four; a square is one to one; A-series paper is the square root of two to one, about 1.414.
To fit a photo to a shape the tool keeps the whole short side and cuts the long side, or keeps the long side and cuts the short one, whichever reaches the shape with the least loss, always from the center. The pixels left are the new width times the new height, and the share lost is one minus the area left over the area you began with.
The loss is a property of the two shapes, not of the pixel count: a three to two photo loses one sixth of its area on an 8 × 10 print however many megapixels it has. If the loss is too much, the alternatives are a different shape of paper, a mat that covers the difference, or leaving a margin of the picture empty on purpose.
Chart: share of the picture lost, by print shape and photo width (height three thousand pixels)
Each cell is the part of the photo that is cut off to reach the print shape in its row. The columns are photos three thousand pixels high: a width of three thousand is square, four thousand is four to three, forty-five hundred is three to two and about fifty-three hundred is wide screen.
| Photo width in pixels | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Print shape | 3,000 px | 4,000 px | 4,500 px | 5,334 px |
| 3:2 (4 × 6, 12 × 18, 24 × 36 in) | 33.3 % | 11.1 % | 0.0 % | 15.6 % |
| 4:3 (6 × 8, 12 × 16, 18 × 24 in) | 25.0 % | 0.0 % | 11.1 % | 25.0 % |
| 5:4 (8 × 10, 16 × 20 in) | 20.0 % | 6.3 % | 16.7 % | 29.7 % |
| 7:5 (5 × 7 in) | 28.6 % | 4.8 % | 6.7 % | 21.3 % |
| 14:11 (11 × 14 in) | 21.4 % | 4.5 % | 15.2 % | 28.4 % |
| ISO A series paper (A-sizes) | 29.3 % | 5.7 % | 5.7 % | 20.5 % |
| Square, one to one | 0.0 % | 25.0 % | 33.3 % | 43.8 % |
| Wide screen, sixteen to nine | 43.8 % | 25.0 % | 15.6 % | 0.0 % |
Used by
- Crop a photo to a print sizeHow much of a photo is cropped for a print shape.