Hi I got all my Xmas Cards printed at Walmart & pick up at the local store.
They are made in Photoshop Elements 4 x 6 & I send the order thro on line pick up at the store.
All of them have come back a little less than 6" but the 4" side is correct .
Consequently where I have put a frame usually 20 or 25px it is cut off on both the 6 in sides but is there on the 4 in sides.
I will be phoning Walmart later this evening when that dept is not so busy for an explanation but meantime I am wondering if any one else has run across this problem. ?
I live in Canada & we are metric here so am wondering if this has anything to do with it.
Elements works in inches & there is no mention of metric on their site just good ole 4 x 6inches.
Storm

Storm i got this information from Ric Cisson at the Village awhile back. For 4 x6 make the size 1228 px x 1818 300 dpi. Save as srgb.

Thank you Judy. Was this for just for Walmart or any of the other printers ?
Mine were 1600 x 1200 300dpi & srgb.
Storm

Storm i asked the question specifically for walmart. Ric said Walmart uses Frontier system. So i can not say if would apply elsewhere.

Your pixel "dimension" has nothing to do with the size of your print ... that is only concerned with the resolution of your print (quality of detail). Consider this: A 4x6 print at a resolution of 300 ppi has a "pixel dimension" of 1200 x 1800 pixels on the two sides.
@ 200 ppi it would be 800 x 1200 pixels
@ 100 ppi it would be 400 x 600 pixels
and @ 72 ppi it is 288 x 432 pixels on the two sides.
All four of those examples produce a print sized at exactly 4" x 6". I repeat, the number of pixels do not change the size of the print. They only affect the quality of the print.

This is the same whether you are working in metric sizes at Wal*Mart in Canada or in inches at Wal*Mart here. How does your Wal*Mart describe the sizes of prints they offer to sell? If it is in metric units, the closest thing to a 4x6 would be 10cm x 15cm and, @ 300 ppi, that would have a pixel size of 1181 x 1772 pixels on the two sizes.

If you want to work in metric look at Edit > Preferences and you see that one of the choices is "Units & Rulers"; you can change settings in there. I am hesitant to start changing things on my copy for fear I'll get it so screwed up I can't figure out where I am.

Maybe somebody here on the forum is routinely working in metric units and will come into this thread to add something.

Rusty

Rusty I know that DPI has nothing to do with inches or metric but only the quality.
I phoned my local Walmart & had a fun chat with the young gentleman in the Lab.
He said it was " some little thing that Photoshop does ". His words not mine.
I asked him what printer they were using & he said Noritsu 3705f.
I have solved the problem .
I do not put an inside stroke frame on the photos though some of them I thought looked better due to the fact that they are being glued on to light creamy colored card stock.
I am taking them all back in on a Flash Drive & he will do them over for me.
Most people would not think this was solving the problem but I can live with it.
Thanks for help.
Storm

Well, glad you solved your problem. But, I'm still wondering why you were OK on the 4" side but cut off on the 6" side.

If Wal*Mart is "working in metric", 4x6 (inches) = 10.16 x 15.24 (cm) and if they are producing a print that is 10 x 15 (cm), then I don't think you should lose anything. Unless... they are not producing a 10cm x 15cm size print.

Let's suppose you were making a PrestoPhoto book and you sized all your work 12 x 12 inches. Then, you decided you wanted a 10 x 10 inch book. You are NOT going to lose 2 inches off of each size. A 12x12 image will print perfectly on a 10x10 page and, for that matter, on a 8x8 or any other size page that is square.

The printer doesn't really know what size your image is, all it knows is the aspect ratio. A 12x12 image (or any square image) has an aspect ratio of 1. A 4x6 image has an aspect ratio of 1.50 ( 6 divided by 4 = 1.50). If Wal*Mart is printing 10 x 15 (cm) that is also an aspect ratio of 1.50 (15 divided by 10 = 1.50).

So, if you are not losing anything off of the "4 side" but are losing something off the "6 side", this tells me that the print is not 10 x 15cm. It must be 10 x something else and that something else must be something slightly less that 15 cm.

I don't see how having or not having an inside stroke makes any difference. That doesn't change the size (aspect ratio) of your image.

Hmmmmmmm. Beats me.

Rusty

I'm in Canada and I use Walmart for the few prints I make because the location is the most convenient for me, I like the online option, turn-around is fast, and the price is the lowest. I've been happy with the print quality. However, like you I have had borders cut off. And of course it isn't always uniform. One side will sometimes have more border left than the opposite side. Depending on how thick my border is, sometimes it is completely gone from one or two sides. It's a pain but I've never bothered to talk to them about it since I print so seldom and it's never been a big batch as you're doing. I think they are "techs" not professionals in a Walmart lab. Just my hunch, I'm not trying to insult Walmart photo lab employees.

When I use a border, I try to make it thick enough that some of it will still be there if it is cropped off in the printing process. And I cross my fingers that the cropping is the same on opposing sides.

I don't think the photo labs in Canada are working in metric. 4" x 6" is a standard size photo paper, at least in North America. If any imperial to metric conversion is being done by the printers, I'm sure it is being done to whatever decimal place is needed to get it exactly 4" x 6". I have nothing to base this opinion on, but that doesn't stop me from having it!

Courtney

As far as I know, 10x15cm is only an approximation of 4"x5".

I just checked the dimensions mentionned by European web printers:

10x15 is really 10.2x15.0 cm (Mypix)

And HP printer paper says 10.2x15.2 cm whether you choose 4"x5" or 10x15 cm. (Measured: 10.1x15.2)

By the way, this cropping problem is a good reason to have books printed instead of pasting photos in albums... Especially if you create your own layouts.

Thank you Judy. Was this for just for Walmart or any of the other printers ?
Mine were 1600 x 1200 300dpi & srgb.
Storm

Your original photos are not the same aspect ratio as a 4" x 6". The numbers you show give a photo that is 4" x 5.34".

All of them have come back a little less than 6" but the 4" side is correct. Consequently where I have put a frame usually 20 or 25px it is cut off on both the 6 in sides but is there on the 4 in sides.

If this photo is expanded to fill a 4 x 6 card (or possible slightly less if the print is not borderless), the 5.34" would be expanded to 6.00" (about 12.5%) and the 4" would expand also by 12.5% to 4.5". But since the card is only 4" high, part of the image would be cropped off, exactly as you described. The same would be true of metric sizes, except that the numbers would be slightly different.
It is important when sending images out to be printed that the aspect ratio is the same as the paper size or the same size as what you expect the final printed image to be.