How to resize a photo so I can fit it in a locket?
March 4, 2022 7:37 PM Subscribe
I'm having a hard time with what I think should be a pretty basic task. I have a digital print of my son's school photos and I want to resize it to get it printed off so it fits in a locket for my wife.
I feel like this should be easier than I'm making it out to be, but I've been struggling for way to too long that I'm ready to ask for help. I purchased a digital photo of my son's school photo. In case it's relevant (it probably is), the photo is 2400 pixels x 3000 pixels, 96 dpi and bit depth of 24. I want to get the photo printed for a locket that I bought for my wife. The locket I have is here:
https://imgur.com/a/AQvvscn
I don't know how to go about resizing the photo correctly so that I can get it printed off so that it fits in the locket. Can anyone help?
I feel like this should be easier than I'm making it out to be, but I've been struggling for way to too long that I'm ready to ask for help. I purchased a digital photo of my son's school photo. In case it's relevant (it probably is), the photo is 2400 pixels x 3000 pixels, 96 dpi and bit depth of 24. I want to get the photo printed for a locket that I bought for my wife. The locket I have is here:
https://imgur.com/a/AQvvscn
I don't know how to go about resizing the photo correctly so that I can get it printed off so that it fits in the locket. Can anyone help?
Best answer: Send me a me-mail if you want me to do it for you. I can resize it and place several of them into a 4x6 file you can get printed. I'll do a few size variations so you can pick what works best.
Unless the place you go has a self-service kiosk, they may refuse to print your picture because it's a professional photo.
posted by jonathanhughes at 8:02 PM on March 4, 2022 [4 favorites]
Unless the place you go has a self-service kiosk, they may refuse to print your picture because it's a professional photo.
posted by jonathanhughes at 8:02 PM on March 4, 2022 [4 favorites]
Etsy seem to have a bunch off sellers who do locket sized prints if you don’t mind spending a bit more. I assume you just send them the digital photo as is.
posted by piyushnz at 8:02 PM on March 4, 2022
posted by piyushnz at 8:02 PM on March 4, 2022
We are lucky enough to have an actual camera/photo store nearby that prints photos -- they are experts. Fedex Kinko's also can do this and has experts. Just call and talk to the actual person who will do the printing, explain what you want, and then also transmit what you want, with specifics/dimensions/a picture of the shape of the locket, to that person. They can easily resize the photo themselves.
posted by amtho at 8:37 PM on March 4, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by amtho at 8:37 PM on March 4, 2022 [1 favorite]
One problem you have is that the resolution is only 96dpi - which is pretty good for monitors but low resolution for printers which are typically around 300 ppi. Did they offer you a higher resolution digital image? The more resolution you have to start with, the better.
Before resizing, crop out anything below the top buttoned button so you are sure of fitting his whole head in the small space you have (about an inch vertically, according to the image).
That said - what program will you be using to resize it? Some programs let you pick the output resolution and the inches/cm you want it to be. In that case, pick something like 300 dpi for the resolution and 1 inch for the vertical dimension, choose 'retain aspect ratio' if there, and let the program handle the horizontal resolution.
If you have to specify pixels, then choose the number of pixels _vertically_ to be the output resolution: 96 pixels for 96 dpi, 300 for 300 dpi, etc. The calculate the horizontal resolution as follows:
Pc = the number of vertical pixels left after cropping it vertically.
Pv = the number of vertical pixels you want for output
Ph = the number of horizontal pixels (round up or down)
Ph = (2400 * Pv) / Pc
posted by TimHare at 8:59 PM on March 4, 2022
Before resizing, crop out anything below the top buttoned button so you are sure of fitting his whole head in the small space you have (about an inch vertically, according to the image).
That said - what program will you be using to resize it? Some programs let you pick the output resolution and the inches/cm you want it to be. In that case, pick something like 300 dpi for the resolution and 1 inch for the vertical dimension, choose 'retain aspect ratio' if there, and let the program handle the horizontal resolution.
If you have to specify pixels, then choose the number of pixels _vertically_ to be the output resolution: 96 pixels for 96 dpi, 300 for 300 dpi, etc. The calculate the horizontal resolution as follows:
Pc = the number of vertical pixels left after cropping it vertically.
Pv = the number of vertical pixels you want for output
Ph = the number of horizontal pixels (round up or down)
Ph = (2400 * Pv) / Pc
posted by TimHare at 8:59 PM on March 4, 2022
I don't know how to go about resizing the photo correctly so that I can get it printed off so that it fits in the locket.
You shouldn't need to do anything at all to the digital photo file you already have. Specifying the physical image size right at the point of printing should be all that needs to happen.
One problem you have is that the resolution is only 96dpi
2400x3000 pixels at 96 dpi works out to 25x31.25 inches. That's poster size, and at poster size, 96 dpi will look just fine.
Obviously most prints that would ever be made of a photo file like this will be much smaller than poster size. The dpi number stored inside a photo file is almost always ignored for print making purposes; it's far more common for the printing application to ask the user what size print to make. 2400x3000 is plenty of resolution unless you're proposing to print this image as a mural that will regularly be looked at from inches away as well as from a distance.
Seriously, the less you do to this photo before making the actual locket print, the better.
posted by flabdablet at 9:34 PM on March 4, 2022 [5 favorites]
You shouldn't need to do anything at all to the digital photo file you already have. Specifying the physical image size right at the point of printing should be all that needs to happen.
One problem you have is that the resolution is only 96dpi
2400x3000 pixels at 96 dpi works out to 25x31.25 inches. That's poster size, and at poster size, 96 dpi will look just fine.
Obviously most prints that would ever be made of a photo file like this will be much smaller than poster size. The dpi number stored inside a photo file is almost always ignored for print making purposes; it's far more common for the printing application to ask the user what size print to make. 2400x3000 is plenty of resolution unless you're proposing to print this image as a mural that will regularly be looked at from inches away as well as from a distance.
Seriously, the less you do to this photo before making the actual locket print, the better.
posted by flabdablet at 9:34 PM on March 4, 2022 [5 favorites]
>>One problem you have is that the resolution is only 96dpi
>2400x3000 pixels at 96 dpi works out to 25x31.25 inches. That's poster size, and at poster size, 96 dpi will look just fine.
This is a red herring -- 96 dpi on screen counts as nothing if the output printer does 1200dpi and you can squeeze the image into 2"x2.5".
It's linear maths, but you can import them image into Powerpoint or Word and tell it to scale your photo to the size you've measured will fit inside the locket.
posted by k3ninho at 1:30 AM on March 5, 2022
>2400x3000 pixels at 96 dpi works out to 25x31.25 inches. That's poster size, and at poster size, 96 dpi will look just fine.
This is a red herring -- 96 dpi on screen counts as nothing if the output printer does 1200dpi and you can squeeze the image into 2"x2.5".
It's linear maths, but you can import them image into Powerpoint or Word and tell it to scale your photo to the size you've measured will fit inside the locket.
posted by k3ninho at 1:30 AM on March 5, 2022
This is a red herring -- 96 dpi on screen counts as nothing if the output printer does 1200dpi and you can squeeze the image into 2"x2.5".
The printers they use at photo printing places like Walgreens scale the image to the size selected (and crops to the selected ratio). Doesn't matter if it starts out at 640x480 or 3000x2000 or anything else their website will accept.
posted by wierdo at 2:55 AM on March 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
The printers they use at photo printing places like Walgreens scale the image to the size selected (and crops to the selected ratio). Doesn't matter if it starts out at 640x480 or 3000x2000 or anything else their website will accept.
posted by wierdo at 2:55 AM on March 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
This is a red herring -- 96 dpi on screen counts as nothing if the output printer does 1200dpi and you can squeeze the image into 2"x2.5"
Entirely my point: the dpi figure attached to a digital image is almost always ignored. It's wholly unlikely that whoever created this file actually expected it to be printed at poster size, and if printed at anything smaller it would certainly come out with much finer resolution than 96dpi.
The only thing that matters, for quality of detail purposes, are the horizontal and vertical pixel counts.
The image area of the locket in question is about an inch wide, and the photo file is 2400x3000 pixels, so the maximum attainable resolution at the desired print size is 2400dpi. That's way more than enough. You'd need a strong jeweller's loupe to spot the difference between a full colour image rendered at 300dpi and one rendered at anything finer.
All you ever need for printing is an image file with at least enough pixels to specify a clear and detailed image at the desired viewing distance. You have that, so no further re-sizing work is required. If your source image has too much detail for the printer to reproduce even at its finest available resolution, the printer driver will scale it as required. You never, never need to do this by hand.
The only processing that might be worth doing on the original photo is laying the locket's heart shape over it and experimenting with cropping, so that when it is finally printed at locket size it fits nicely into that framing. But again, anybody who offers locket prints is going to be perfectly capable of doing that on their own because it's something that needs doing for every locket print.
you can import them image into Powerpoint or Word and tell it to scale your photo to the size you've measured will fit inside the locket
All you will achieve by doing this is creating extra work for the photo printing service, which will need to get the image back out of Powerpoint or Word format before sending it to the printer. Best case result from this is that PP or Word just embeds the entire image as-is and doesn't modify its actual pixels; worst case is that applies digital scaling to generate an image that would be an inch wide when displayed on a standard 96dpi display screen, reducing the splendid 2400x3000 original down to a crude and miserable 96x120 thumbnail that would look terrible on paper.
Don't fiddle with the file. Just tell the printer what size you want it printed.
If you're not using a print service that specifically offers lockets, but intend instead to use your own scissors to trim a rectangular print to fit, get several made in a range of sizes from an inch wide to maybe an inch and a half so you can see which one will look the best after being cut to shape.
posted by flabdablet at 3:55 AM on March 5, 2022 [4 favorites]
Entirely my point: the dpi figure attached to a digital image is almost always ignored. It's wholly unlikely that whoever created this file actually expected it to be printed at poster size, and if printed at anything smaller it would certainly come out with much finer resolution than 96dpi.
The only thing that matters, for quality of detail purposes, are the horizontal and vertical pixel counts.
The image area of the locket in question is about an inch wide, and the photo file is 2400x3000 pixels, so the maximum attainable resolution at the desired print size is 2400dpi. That's way more than enough. You'd need a strong jeweller's loupe to spot the difference between a full colour image rendered at 300dpi and one rendered at anything finer.
All you ever need for printing is an image file with at least enough pixels to specify a clear and detailed image at the desired viewing distance. You have that, so no further re-sizing work is required. If your source image has too much detail for the printer to reproduce even at its finest available resolution, the printer driver will scale it as required. You never, never need to do this by hand.
The only processing that might be worth doing on the original photo is laying the locket's heart shape over it and experimenting with cropping, so that when it is finally printed at locket size it fits nicely into that framing. But again, anybody who offers locket prints is going to be perfectly capable of doing that on their own because it's something that needs doing for every locket print.
you can import them image into Powerpoint or Word and tell it to scale your photo to the size you've measured will fit inside the locket
All you will achieve by doing this is creating extra work for the photo printing service, which will need to get the image back out of Powerpoint or Word format before sending it to the printer. Best case result from this is that PP or Word just embeds the entire image as-is and doesn't modify its actual pixels; worst case is that applies digital scaling to generate an image that would be an inch wide when displayed on a standard 96dpi display screen, reducing the splendid 2400x3000 original down to a crude and miserable 96x120 thumbnail that would look terrible on paper.
Don't fiddle with the file. Just tell the printer what size you want it printed.
If you're not using a print service that specifically offers lockets, but intend instead to use your own scissors to trim a rectangular print to fit, get several made in a range of sizes from an inch wide to maybe an inch and a half so you can see which one will look the best after being cut to shape.
posted by flabdablet at 3:55 AM on March 5, 2022 [4 favorites]
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