Hi guys,
I am using PSP 7
After successfully learning (thanks to you) to bring certain areas of colour back into a picture after converting the image to b/w using an ajustment layer.  I have now decided to make a couple of christmas cards for the family.

I have to admit, I am rather confused about resizing an image and I don't seem to be able to find something I understand through a search of this site. I am therefore hopeing, if you don't mind throwing some light on this subject, bearing in mind that I am a complete novice.

The photographs I have are very large:
4272 X 2848 pixels
59.333 X 39.556 inches
72 ppi

I have taken a copy of the original and then cropped it to keep the part of the picture I wish to use for the cards.
The photograph dimentions are now:
1883 X 2842 pixels
25.153 X 39.472 inches
72 ppi

I want to make the image small enough to fit on to an A5 card without loss of quality or picture information(if thats possible). In other words resized, I think.

How would you do this?

I then want to write a caption underneath the image, so do I then use canvas size to add space under the image and then add a vector layer for the text?  Then merge together and save as a jpeg for the finshed artical or am I way of the mark?

Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your time in reading this and I apologize if it is not too clear.

Kind Regards
bettersnaps

I make greeting cards but I'm not familiar with an A5 card size. The most common sizes are A2 (invitation), A6 and A7. What are the dimensions of the envelope that you'll use for your cards? You may not need to resize your picture at all. If you change the PPI to 300 in PSP your size in inches isn't really all that much too big for your card. It would be 6.27" x 9.47". Maybe I'm not understanding what you're asking. Why do you need to resize it when you've already cropped it to the size that you want?

You need to get your image to be the same size as the paper that you're printing on. Firstly, you need to have an image that has the correct proportions. This is called the "Aspect Ratio", and you find that by dividing the size of the long side of the image by the size of the short side. For your image that would be 2842/1883 = 1.51. (Aspect ratio is often expressed in the form 1.51:1 or perhaps something like 4:3).
All of the metric, or ISO, A series of papers have an aspect ratio of 1.414:1 - A5 paper is 210 x 148 mm. The 1.414 is actually the square root of 2 and is chosen because paper of those proportions has the same aspect ratio when it cut in two.
Because your aspect ratio is a little larger than 1.414:1, it means that your image is a little too long. To find the size you need, multiply the short side by 1.414. This gives 1883 X 1.414 = 2663.
Use the Crop tool to change this. After selecting the tool, open the Tool Options palette and click the "Crop Settings" button. Leave the Left and Top settings at zero, and set Right = 2663 and Bottom = 1883. (This is assuming that your image is wider than it is high. If its height is greater than its width, reverse the values of Right and Bottom). Click OK, and you'll see the crop area on the image, and you can drag it to the position that suits. Before completing the crop, click the "Crop Settings" button again. Because of a bug in PSP 7, you will probably see that the "Current Size" (in the middle of the dialogue box) is now a couple of pixels smaller. Click the little up arrows in the Right and Bottom boxes a couple of times until it reads 2663 x 1883 and click OK. Now complete the crop.
To resize the image, go to Image > Resize and select the "Actual / print size" section. Make sure that resize type is set to "Smart size", and that the two options for "Resize all layers" and "Maintain aspect ratio" are checked. First set the resolution. 300 pixels per inch is more than enough for a good quality print. Now change the units to "cm" and set the Width to 21 cm. (If your image is higher than it is wide, set the Height to 21 cm instead). Click OK.

Just an additional comment. This is actually something that is much, much easier to do in later versions of PSP, if you happen to have one.
Start with your original 4272 X 2848 pixel image. Choose the Crop tool. In the Tool Options palette, change the unit to "Centimeters" and the width and height to 21 and 14.8, and check the "Specify print size" option. You can now drag the crop outline until you've selected the area you want and it will retain the correct aspect ratio and print size.
After you apply the crop, the image will be the right size and shape. The resolution will be an odd number, but that doesn't matter in the slightest. As long as it's over 200 ppi (or about 80 pixels per centimetre), you'll get a good quality print.

Another way to get the aspect ratio right in earlier versions of PSP is to select the crop tool and adjust it so that the outline of the image is approximately what you want.  Now, look at the status bar (lower left) as you change one side; there will be numbers like
(76, 202) > (385, 433) = (309 x 229) [1.349]  "[1.349]" is the aspect ratio.
Just move the sides of the crop rectangle until "[1.349]" becomes "[1.414]."

Next,  "do I then use canvas size to add space under the image and then add a vector layer for the text?  Then merge together and save as a jpeg?"  Mostly, yes.  But I would not save it as a JPG because of the JPG compression problem.  Are you going to have this image printed by a printing service or printing machine, or are you going to print it yourself?  If the service, ask them what file format they prefer (probably PSD, which is fine; you can save the final version as a PSD).  If a machine, it probably needs a JPG; okay, save it as (not merely "save") whatever name you want and look under the "okay" button for "options"; click that and choose maximum quality, minimal compression, or a compression value of 1.  If you're going to use your own printer, save it as a PSPIMAGE.

And last, if you have resized the image at all, it probably needs to be sharpened,  See this reply in this thread for an easiest-first list of ways to sharpen.  Important:  go immediately to "D"; ignore the resizing-for-the-web A, B, & C.
-------------------------------------
And: sorry, but this is not so straightforward as it seems, if you want a really nice finished product.  When you sharpen before printing, you can't judge by the sharpness of the image on your monitor.  You need either to make the image huge on your monitor and then back away from it till it appears how an A5 piece of paper would look and judge from that, or to crop out a little, important part of the image (to save ink and paper) and print it on your printer at 240-320 DPI to see if it is satisfactorily sharp when printed.  It's mostly a matter of trial and error.  See this article.  And/or this other article.,   (Sorry, I can't find the one that's really good.)

Hi LindaSue,  thank you for your reply. A5 is appoximatley 6" wide by 8.30" high.  The picture at present is 72 ppi are you saying and please correct me if I'm wrong, that by increasing the ppi from 72 to 300ppi this in its self is reduceing the size of the image?  So where as the picture is larger as there are only 72 pixels per inch you are making the pixels smaller and therefore more of them fit into an inch (300) so the information remains the same only the visual size of the image is smaller.   Or have I totally misunderstood!

So am I better  off making a copy of the original (incase I wanted a really large picture, not that I think I will) and then increasing the ppi to 300 on the copy before I do the crop or the other way round.?

In response to your other question, yes I had cropped the image to retain what I actually wanted, but the overall dimensions were still large.  As image information showed:
1883 X 2842 pixels
25.153 X 39.472 inches
72 ppi

So I took it that, if I printed the image, that the size would be 25" X 39" and obviously, to large for a greetings card.  As a complete novice I am not understanding to well       But I will get there!

Thanks for your time
Regards bettersnaps

Hi Tim, thanks for getting back to me!  The maths side of things I will play, and get to grips with. When you mention about the image size being the same size as the card I am printing on.  Is this, if you are covering the whole front of the card with the image?  If I wanted a cm border of blank card around the edge (the image 1cm all round smaller) than the A5, how woud you size then?

I hope this is not too stupid a question?  

Thanks again Tim, I appreciate your advice.
Regards bettersnaps

Hi D_Spider, thank you for your reply too!  
I was going to print the cards myself, as I guess they will be quite expensive to have done professionally, as I only need a few.  
You mentioned, If you're going to use your own printer, save it as a PSPIMAGE.   Should the layers be merged down, to print?  
Also, can you tell me, is it good practice to always keep:-
1.   The original photograph.
2.   The resized version.
3.   The PSP file with the layers
4.   The flaterned version of the PSP file.
Or is this way over the top?

Thank you for the links for the other information they will be most useful.   you said, Sorry, I can't find the one that's really good.  
If however it does show up, would you mind posting it, thank you.

Thanks again for you help and time.
Kind Regards
bettersnaps

bettersnaps, it sounds like what you mean by A5 is the paper size before you fold it into a card. Is that correct? Card sizes are usually based on the size of the envelope that they'll go in. Will your printed and folded greeting card actually be as large as 6" wide by 8.30"? That doesn't seem likely because that would be larger than both A6 and A7. What software program will you be using to lay out and print the cards from? I use PSP to create the graphics that I use on my cards but I'd never use PSP to do the actual layout for printing them. It could probably be done using PSP but with a lot of trouble and frustration. I think it's better to use a desktop publishing program for making cards. I use Microsoft Publisher.

Quoted from bettersnaps

If I wanted a cm border of blank card around the edge (the image 1cm all round smaller) than the A5, how would you size then?

In that case you need an image that is 190 mm x 128 mm (19 x 12.8 cm). To get it to be the correct aspect ratio you would crop the image to 2795 x 1883 pixels. Then resize to an actual print size of 19 x 12.8 cm at 300 pixels per inch.
Before you print, go to File > Page Setup and set the paper size, orientation, left and top margins to 1 cm or 10 mm and scale to 100.

Hi LindaSue,
A5 is the finished size after folding an A4 sheet in half giving the dimension of 148mm X 210mm
approx 5.75" X 8.25". So I would need an envelope nearing 6" X 8.30" I guess.  I am not familiar with A2, A6 and A7 size paper.  I do hope I'm not confusing the issue by giving measurements in both inches and millimetres!  
It's interesting what you say about printing and using the image in Microsoft Publisher.  When using Microsoft Office suite when you insert a picture from file, you get the border around the edge of any image, which if you click on the corner you can drag to increase or decrease the size of the image on the page. So here's my question.
If the image is bigger than the actual size you require, can you just not make it smaller to fit on the size of card you are producing by dragging the corner inwards.  Or does this degrade from the quality of the print?  
I do hope I am making sense, and my terminology is sort of correct. Beginners heh....

Thanks again LindaSue for you time and help.
Regards
bettersnaps

Thanks Tim, I'll try those measurements out.

Regards
bettersnaps

Quoted from bettersnaps

If the image is bigger than the actual size you require, can you just not make it smaller to fit on the size of card you are producing by dragging the corner inwards.  Or does this degrade from the quality of the print?  
I do hope I am making sense, and my terminology is sort of correct.

That's correct for most desktop publishing programs. You can just drag the corners to resize the pictures to fit. You can usually do any necessary cropping in there as well. I've never noticed any loss of quality by manually resizing that way. You won't be resizing it enough to make a difference in any case. Do you have a copy of Publisher? I don't use Word so I don't know if it has card templates included like Publisher has.

Hi LindaSue, thanks once again for your reply.  Yes, I do have Microsoft Publisher 2003, but I must admit I haven't used it.  So it will be interesting learning that alongside PSP7!

Kind Regards
bettersnaps

Quoted from bettersnaps

Hi D_Spider, thank you for your reply too!  
I was going to print the cards myself, as I guess they will be quite expensive to have done professionally, as I only need a few.  
You mentioned, If you're going to use your own printer, save it as a PSPIMAGE.   Should the layers be merged down, to print?
Yes.

Quoted from bettersnaps

Also, can you tell me, is it good practice to always keep:-
1.   The original photograph.  
2.   The resized version.
3.   The PSP file with the layers
4.   The flaterned version of the PSP file.No, because you can always flatten and save as.
Or is this way over the top?

Until you've finished the project, keep 1, 2, & 3  (and 4 if you're not pressed for hard-drive space).
And even after you finish, as long as you have the space, keep 1, 2, & 3.
And even if you're short on hard-drive space, keep 1 & 3.
Later (months, years), you may want to keep only the flattened file that you printed from.  But "they say"  hard drives are cheap now, and therefore so is storage.  (I agree, but high res photos take up space, and how many hard drives fit inside a computer-case? --no, don't even think "external hard drives," because those are for storing the backups of what's inside the computer.)

Hi D_Spider, thank you for your reply and welcome advice.

When you mentioned  quote:
(I agree, but high res photos take up space, and how many hard drives fit inside a computer-case? --no, don't even think "external hard drives," because those are for storing the backups of what's inside the computer.)

.... and I'm going to show my complete lack of understanding here and probably not for the first time  .  Why can't you store your images on an external hard drive?  Is it because PSP would not be loaded onto an external drive?  Sorry if this is rather a daft question!

Going back to a couple of questions I asked earlier. Am I right then, in thinking that by increasing the ppi from 72 to 300ppi, this in its self is reducing the size of the image?  Because a picture is larger, as there are only 72 pixels per inch, you are making the pixels smaller and therefore more of them fit into an inch (300) so the information remains the same only the visual size of the image is smaller.   Or have I totally misunderstood!

Am I better off making a copy of the original (incase I wanted a really large picture, not that I think I will) and then increasing the ppi to 300 on the copy before I do the crop or the other way round.?

Thanks again for your help and time
Kind Regards
bettersnaps

Quoted from bettersnaps

When you mentioned ... don't even think "external hard drives," because those are for storing the backups of what's inside the computer.) ... Why can't you store your images on an external hard drive?  Is it because PSP would not be loaded onto an external drive?

Oh, you can use an external drive, but it makes more sense to me to use the external drives for the backup copies of everything you have on the internal drives.  If you used an external drive for your regular files, you'd have to have another external drive to put your backups on, and the external drives would soon use up all the space you saved by switching from a big heavy CRT monitor to an LCD flatscreen.

Quoted from bettersnaps

Going back to a couple of questions I asked earlier. Am I right then, in thinking that by increasing the ppi from 72 to 300ppi, this in its self is reducing the size of the image?  Because a picture is larger, as there are only 72 pixels per inch, you are making the pixels smaller and therefore more of them fit into an inch (300) so the information remains the same only the visual size of the image is smaller.   Or have I totally misunderstood!

You have understood perfectly.

Quoted from bettersnaps

Am I better off making a copy of the original (incase I wanted a really large picture, not that I think I will) and then increasing the ppi to 300 on the copy before I do the crop or the other way round.?

It doesn't matter, because the pixels-per-inch actually applies only to monitors; PSP and other graphics programs always use the same resolution no matter what you have listed in that resize and/or image information box, and that resolution is determined by how you have your monitor set (1024 x 768, 1152 x 864, etc).  Pixels-per-inch becomes meaningful only when it is really dots-per-inch (DPI), and that is information only for the printer to use.  

The only time you need to have anything listed as ppi is when PSP is about to send the information to your printer.

You don't need to save a copy of the original if you are happy with how you edited it, but it is prudent to save the full-resolution version of the edit--the unresized PSPIMAGE--so that you have the maximum amount of data from which to re-create the image if you ever want to.  Anything you remove, cropping included, cannot be put back.  

(Most people who have raw files save them (~12 MB) in the hope that they'll be better at processing the raw files in the future than they are at present. Most also save the edited version that has not been sharpened yet (~20 MB or more for a PSPIMAGE, depending on how many layers) so they can resize and print at whatever size they want. Most also keep copies of the web-size JPGs (~100 KB to more than 1 MB) they've made of these . . .   Then, each of these versions needs to be backed up, so I wasn't being entirely facetious about external hard drives occupying more and more space.)

Thank you D_Spider, for the information.  I'm getting there, albeit slowly!

Kind Regards
bettersnaps