Our photoclub frames are all 70 cm x 50 cm. What we currently do is that we place a mat around the photo in photoshop at that that exact size, center or place the photo within it how we like, and than print that photo with crop marks so we can cut the paper afterwards.

I tried fiddling aroung with the photo mats option in QImage, but I can't get it to have a perfect sized photo + mat of 70x50cm.

Can it be done?

Hey, Mike.  I have a similar question.  I am printing on 8.5”x11” paper.  Want to put print in 8”x10” frame.  Image has 5:8 aspect ratio. I want to print as big as possible but retain aspect ratio (all of image).  Want all area outside image filled with black (or any other selected color)

Add your 5:8 image at a size of 8x10 with auto crop off: you'll get a 6.25x10.  Then right click on the image and select Photo Mats, Add Photo Mat.  Enter zero on the top and bottom and .875 on the left and right since that's half of what is missing (8-6.25).  Set the color to black, click the "grow" option and you have your image, non cropped, as big as it'll go on an 8x10 area, with a black fill.

Mike

This is just not making sense to me.  Why set the width to 50 when you could set the width to 70 and get a larger 70 x 46.67 that fills the same frame?

Is it because you want a 10cm border on the left and right so you are subtracting 20cm ahead of time?  If so, that's what photo mats are for (uneven borders) and this would be the workflow:

• Select your thumbnail and click the "More" option at the bottom of the print sizes
• Select "Specify ONE dimension" and enter "50" as the size you know and choose "This is the LONG side"
• You now have your print at 50 x 33.33 and you want to "grow" that to 70 x 50 so...
• Right click on the print, choose "Photo Mats (uneven borders)", "Add Photo Mat"
• On the Photo Mats Properties dialog, enter your 10 on the left and right and your 8.33 on the top and bottom
• Make sure the "Grow" button on the bottom is selected, select the mat color (presumably white) and click OK

Now you have a 50 x 33.33 print that has a 10cm border left and right and 8.33cm border on the top and bottom.  When you activate cut marks, it marks the mat which is 70 x 50.

If this is still not what you are talking about, keep it simple.  For example, are you always cutting 70 x 50cm?  If so, what logic defines the print size that goes in that 70 x 50?  A 10cm minimum border?  Something else?

Mike

Yes we always cut to 70x50 since that's the size of our frames. The logic behind the size of the print depends on the picture itself. What's the aspect ratio, orientation an what size of matte the author desires himself. Some like more whitespace around their photos others less.

Thanks.  The videos are great.  What I think might be the easiest (and no calculations) would be to create a layout or several layouts depending on your needs.  You could add a template (last thumbnail in any folder) and then add a photo mat around that template and save that as a layout.  As an example, you could add a template at size 50 x 30 and then add a photo mat to that template and specify 10 for all 4 sides of the mat.  You'll end up with a 70 x 50 mat with a 50 x 30 template in the middle.  If you never want to crop images and want the aspect ratio to "conform", make sure the auto crop button on the Prints tab is OFF.  Then click the print placement button under the live view and select "Save current as custom layout" and give it a name.  Then when you pick (use) that layout, every time you add an image by clicking the + on a thumbnail or dragging a thumbnail and dropping it onto the empty template, that image will fill the 50 x 30 area of the template.  If the image is a different aspect ratio (like 3:2), it automatically fits and centers it within the template and your mat is still 70 x 50 as that is unaffected.  The 3:2 image would go into the template and be sized 45 x 30 because your template identifies the minimum borders on all sides.  If you want different minimum borders, just adjust the size of the template to get anything you like.

Maybe this will work?  You could define several of these layouts with different template sizes inside your 70 x 50 mat to get different amounts of border(s).  They don't even have to be equal.  Just remember that when you insert an image into the template that is a different aspect ratio (than the size of the template), it will just fit the image into that "window", centering within the template area.

Mike