Hello. I'm going to be printing some cards at A6 size using one of the most popular online printers. Their website allows me to preview my card on their designer. I'm about to buy an Epson Perfection scanner to scan my illustrations, these will be on the front of the cards. I will need to crop them down to exactly A6 size/ratio after scanning them because I want them to fit on the cards with a little border around them and for the border to be the same all the way around. But I'm not sure how to crop something at the A6 size/ratio, I have no experience with any of this. I can illustrate on paper but the rest is new! I have Photoscape and GIMP 2 at the moment, but I expect the Epson scanner will have software too. Please can someone tell me how I can accurately make the A6 rectangle shape/ratio whilst cropping my images? Thank you for any responses.
A6 size ratio
- Thread starter Shell
- Start date
Wardy
Well-Known Member
I think it's unusual to supply the printer with images actual size, because they will surely require some bleed to play with. I've always supplied mine at A4 (to be printed at A5) for the printer to reduce and fit to size, and you may need to
have a word with them to ensure they get the white border correct. Bear in mind you may lose a few mm around the edge of your pic, though. This is the safest thing to do if you're not familiar with sizing things and making borders with your own software.
have a word with them to ensure they get the white border correct. Bear in mind you may lose a few mm around the edge of your pic, though. This is the safest thing to do if you're not familiar with sizing things and making borders with your own software.
dedwardp
Member
That is the whole purpose of bleed - to design to A6, in this example, and simply add 3mm (or whatever is requested by the printer) all around the edge. Sending the wrong size and just letting them do it is pointless.
Vistaprint?
Thanks for the replies. I think I worded it wrong when I mentioned "size", all I actually need is to be able to crop my illustrations to the exact A paper shape/ratio, A6 (is what I'm using for my cards) but all the A paper sizes seem to use the same "Metric ISO, 1.414 to 1". When I played around on Photoscape the best fit shape-wise seemed to be "2:3" on the drop down menu, but I know it's not perfect A size. I would prefer to know a program that crops perfectly to A paper sizes if one exists because I'm pretty useless and would like a program to automatically give me the A paper ratio/shape and let me drag and crop easily. Hopefully this makes my problem a bit easier to understand! Or is cropping at 2:3 the best one can hope for and nothing exists to crop your images at A paper ratio shape?
For added info, I'm hoping to use overnightprints.co.uk if their A6 greeting card quality is good. They have very reasonable looking prices so it would be good if the finished products are good as well - I'm obviously hoping to print in large quantities to sell and make a profit. Is this a good site to use? When I add an image to their design page it obviously doesn't matter what size the actual image is, you choose how big it appears on the card, only the shape is a concern to me.
For added info, I'm hoping to use overnightprints.co.uk if their A6 greeting card quality is good. They have very reasonable looking prices so it would be good if the finished products are good as well - I'm obviously hoping to print in large quantities to sell and make a profit. Is this a good site to use? When I add an image to their design page it obviously doesn't matter what size the actual image is, you choose how big it appears on the card, only the shape is a concern to me.
Katedesign
Well-Known Member
I don't know Photoscape or GIMP2 but certainly in Photoshop you can put in the exact size you want and crop. Ideally for print purposes your images should be at the size you want to print and at 300dpi. You don't need anything bigger than that.
This print company you're thinking of using doesn't look as if the work is done here in the UK... why not try to use a UK printer? There are several good ones around. (in this forum even!)
This print company you're thinking of using doesn't look as if the work is done here in the UK... why not try to use a UK printer? There are several good ones around. (in this forum even!)