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romebot3000
romebot3000
Known Participant
June 18, 2019
Question

Print Module - How to calculate even borders?

  • June 18, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 3848 views

Hello, I'm getting a bit confused. Let's say I want to print on A4 ( will want to print the same pic on various sizes)

The dimensions ratio is different than what I shoot which is 3:2.

What I want is to make a 2cm border top, right and left, and a 3cm border on bottom.

How do I calculate the actual borders so that it comes out that way?

I think the left and right bleed to the edge, but the top and bottom have a bit of a border due to the different in ratios of the print and paper.

So I guess I would add 2cm to left and right, but how do I calculate the top and bottom?

(on a separate note, when I go to page setup, there is an A4 paper size, but it is a hair off the standard size. I can't seem to duplicate it an edit it, so I tried to create my own, but here too I wasn't sure if I was doing it right, or why i should have to create one. must be I'm not understanding something. feel I should be using the default size.)

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2 replies

JP Hess
JP Hess
Inspiring
June 18, 2019

I use a Canon Pixma Pro 100. I have found that it has been necessary to create templates for larger print sizes that have offset borders in order to have "even" borders on the actual print. It was easier to do that than to fight the system. The templates seem to work every time.

romebot3000
romebot3000Author
Known Participant
June 19, 2019

Thanks! Can you explain how you did this?

R
Community Expert
richardplondonCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 18, 2019

You have two types of control in LR, for layout in the Print module: page based, and image cell based.

There are three choices for page layout method: the Single image / contact sheet option is best for this purpose.

Page based margins are measured from the edge of the paper. There may be a printer-imposed unprintable edge (assuming you are not set to "borderless" printing - it is simpler to NOT use borderless if you can). That unprintable edge is included within the page margin that LR sets. So you can directly set whatever you want at left, right, top, bottom.

LR also reports an image cell size. This can be smaller than the space within the page margins, or the same, but not bigger. (The same is true for each cell of a layout grid, when you subdivide that space into rows and columns.)

So if you enlarge the image cell size as much as LR will let you, by dragging those sliders, it will occupy all of the space inside the page margins.

Now your image sits inside the image cell, centred, as large as it can be accommodated. You choose whether LR is allowed to rotate it when that would make it bigger, or whether LR should respect its orientation. Obviously a portrait image fitted into a landscape space will have to leave big white spaces either side.

The shape proportion of the image (as currently cropped) and the shape of the image cell, will very often differ when you carry out your page layout in this way.

In that case an image will touch two sides of the cell and sit clear of the other two, leaving gaps, when it's "Zoomed to Fit" within this cell.

If you instead select "Zoom to Fill", LR auto-trims the image on the fly so that it shows the same shape as the containing cell. This permits LR to show it bigger, completely filling the cell leaving no gaps. This happens without needing to alter the Crop of the image concerned, in Develop: it is purely applied to the output and has no other impact. If the way this has been done is compositionally unsuitable you can "slide" the image within its cell in that 'loose-fit' direction only (since it is 'tight-fit' in the other direction, that won't slide).

hth - RP

    romebot3000
    romebot3000Author
    Known Participant
    June 19, 2019

    Thanks for the answer! But I don't want to zoom to fit. I want the full image, that when stretched out like you say, leaves a white space above and below. What I want to do is make a 2cm border all around.. Left and right seem easy enough, but how do I calculate the the top and bottom border is, so that, including the white that's already there, will be 2cm.. the answer will be 2cm minus X. How do I solve for X?

    (and I'm still not clear why when I choose A4 and print to a file, and then open it in Photoshop, it's slightly off, and more importantly how I can solve that by either creating a new page size (but not sure the values to put in w/ margins, etc), or editing the default (though I don't see how to do that), or creating borderless page (where is that set?), etc.)

    Thanks!

    R
    Community Expert
    richardplondonCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 19, 2019

    hello. do you mean defining in photoshop? I'm looking at cm and in. in the image size dialogue box--is this what you mean?  I want to the image to fit exactly in an A4 frame and using borders to deal w/ the difference between 3:2 and the A4 ratio. (also I like the image with a border around it)... I'm sending the images to an online printer and want them to print exactly A4. They will print exactly the dimensions I give them, but I need to send it to them exactly at size. Just trying to find the best workflow to do this.

    attaching an example of what I'm talking about (I made the paper border yellow so it'll show up against the white of the page)... actually i want a bit larger border on the bottom like this, but I want to be exact all around.. the top and bottom border is more difficult to calculate because there is already a bit of border due to the difference in ratios. trying to find a quick way to calculate it for all print output sizes.

    best,

    R


    Confused: do you want your image to remain 3:2, OR do you want it to match particular margins within A4?

    3 x 2 shape works out to 1:1.5 aspect -

    21cm minus 2cm and 3cm = 16cm x 29.7cm minus 2cm and 2cm = 25.7 cm …

    works out to 1:1.606 aspect.

    If you retain 3:2 you are going to see about 3.7 cm at the bottom and about 2.7 cm at the top, measured from paper edge to the printed photo. Lightroom always centres inside a cell, there is no way to make a loose-fitting image 'stick onto' any particular edge of its containing cell (and it always touches those edges to which it is a tight fit).

    You can set image cell width/height distinct from controlling that using the page margins. The page margins offer an opportunity to leave a little more space at the bottom than at the top: or otherwise to shift the image's centring on the page. When an image cell is sized smaller than the available space within the page margins, it gets automatically centred between those and then the image sits centred inside that cell.

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