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DPChallenge Forums >> Tips, Tricks, and Q&A >> PS and Wal-Mart prints
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Showing posts 1 - 16 of 16, (reverse)
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 02/20/2006 08:12:21 PM · #1
Alright guys I got a quick question....anybody listenin? How come when I have photos on PS, for example with a border! How come when I get the 4x6 prints back they are all screwed up, like the borders are out of whack, and cut off. Is there anyway to ensure that my borders and editing stay within frame. So anyway thanks in advance for any replies.\

alright on the left one, the side border was cut off, and on the one on the right the Lightning Crashes title part was cut in half.



Message edited by author 2006-02-20 20:14:02.
 02/20/2006 08:15:07 PM · #2
I had this happen a lot.. finally, I started outlining my white bordered images with a thin black border... that seemed to help, then they could see clearly where I intended the borders to be...
 02/20/2006 08:15:13 PM · #3
Go to a different Wal-Mart.
 02/20/2006 08:16:45 PM · #4
walmarts printers have an "auto crop" feature. I have printed 4x6 of almost all of my fav photos and placed them in a "portfolio" album and had them all done at walmart. I found that my 640x480 saved for web photos have less amount of auto crop done to them so i figure that the smaller the saved file the less the crop. I have the girls at my local walmart trying to find out what the best size is going to be so no auto cropping is done to my photos during printing.

hope this helps~~Cher~~
 02/20/2006 08:18:14 PM · #5
Owe thats helpful peters! Nice! Maybe I should just go to all 50 of them in a 50 mile radius, and see which one is best. LOL, thanks for the help.
 02/20/2006 08:22:53 PM · #6
You shouldn't have to switch stores. When you take them in digitally, there is almost no human interaction with the photos. So, if your dimensions are different than what you want printed, it will automatically be cropped to fit the correct dimension. Before I take my photos in, I resize them to the printed dimensions, even if I need multiple files for one image, such as one with an 8x10 dimension, and one with a 4x6 dimension. Then, you order an 8x10 print of the cropped 8x10 photo file, and a 4x6 print of the cropped 4x6 photo, and so on. By doing that, you eliminate any auto cropping that the computer may do to get the correct ratio.

I have been doing it this way for years, and it has always worked perfectly for me.
 02/20/2006 08:26:22 PM · #7
Thats awesome traquino ty very much. By doing that I wonder if I reduce the pixels at all, and in turn reduce the quality. I guess I am only a couple tries from figuring it out.
 02/20/2006 08:38:21 PM · #8
The mini labs automatically crop a bit from the image regardless. To prevent this, by rule of thumb, always add 2% to your photos canvas. For example, for a 4x6 photo which at 300dpi would be 1200x1800px. If you change the canvas size by adding either a white or black border on the image and changing the dimensions to 1224x1836px. This should eliminate any part of you actual photo being cropped away by the mini lab machine. Remember, the larger the photo, the more pixels 2% will represent. Always use the 2% rule regardless of photo size and you should be set.

Hope this helps!
Bill

Edit to add: The reason the mini lab automatically crops some of your image is to compensate for paper shift in the machine.

Message edited by author 2006-02-20 20:39:31.
 02/20/2006 08:43:43 PM · #9
Originally posted by sacredspirit:
Thats awesome traquino ty very much. By doing that I wonder if I reduce the pixels at all, and in turn reduce the quality. I guess I am only a couple tries from figuring it out.

Just set the resolution you want and then set the correct size. You shouldn't have a problem then.
 02/20/2006 08:55:58 PM · #10
Near the end of this Guide to using Printer Profiles is a table of exact pixel dimensions to use for optimum results with various machines.

I almost always include a border so that it won't matter, and so I can set the aspect ratio to the print size.

Costco (and many other places) use the printer profiles developed/distributed by these folks.

Message edited by author 2006-02-20 20:58:29.
 02/21/2006 12:44:12 AM · #11
may i suggest that it is rather cost effective to just print them yourself. you probably already have a printer capable of printing at the same quality that most discount stores would print at, yet are using people that: dont care about your photo, probably are still in high school, would rather get a cheeseburger than calibrate a machine, probably dont know what a pixel is anyway. lol.

i always print mine myself. as i said it is very cost effective especially at the rates most places charge for an 8x10. i figure it costs me around 70 cents to print an 8x10 maybe even less.

one thing walmart does have though; nice, cheap photo paper. lol

hope this helps
 02/21/2006 12:54:17 AM · #12
Another issue and maybe its me. When I post process on my laptop and send it to be printed the colors are way off, But if I print here at home with a cheap printer they come out just like whats on the screen. Whats up with that?

Message edited by author 2006-02-21 00:54:49.
 02/21/2006 11:42:29 AM · #13
Originally posted by ace flyman:
Another issue and maybe its me. When I post process on my laptop and send it to be printed the colors are way off, But if I print here at home with a cheap printer they come out just like whats on the screen. Whats up with that?


I would think that would be more of a monitor calibration issue. Your monitor may be set way off according to normal standards, but because your printer matches it, it has never affected you. But when you take it to a lab, where the printers and monitors are calibrated differently, that may be affecting it. Unfortunately, I am no calibration expert, so I wouldn't even know of any advice to give to correct the issue. When I edit my photos, I edit them in the Adobe 1998 color space, and then when I am saving them to take to another computer, I convert them to the sRGB color profile, and that seems to do the trick, at least for me.
 02/21/2006 11:46:03 AM · #14
Originally posted by sacredspirit:
Thats awesome traquino ty very much. By doing that I wonder if I reduce the pixels at all, and in turn reduce the quality. I guess I am only a couple tries from figuring it out.


There are three options to enter in cropping a photo. The width, the height, and the resolution. If you leave the resolution blank, the photo will not be resampled at all. That way you aren't reducing on increasing the amount of pixels, but simple clipping off excess canvas on the top/bottom or right/left to get the dimension you want.
 02/21/2006 11:52:03 AM · #15
There is a true digital size selection if you chose to use Snapfish. There is no cropping done then but the prints are just slightly smaller than 4x6. These can be picked up at Walgreens in about an hour and compare to the quality of Walmart. It also has a print preview feature so you can make sure nothing is being cropped off.
 02/21/2006 12:00:45 PM · #16
Not going to walmart definitely solves the problem.
MPIX shows you the cropping it will do and you can adjust it.
Try Target?
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