Hi John,

I've not had time to try this out, but I think if you make a white image, the size of the frame, and put on the crop edges, and save it, then if you recall it as required as a sort of template, you can overlay the image you want, crop it to the size you need to print (to fit in the matte cut-out). This can actually be positioned exactly where you want on top of the white image, and then the whole thing can be printed.

hth,

Best wishes,

Ray

The effect I am looking for is the same as what you do with a matte. You elegantly adapt a different aspect ratio picture to a store size frame. Of course this is on a smaller scale using printed borders since an 8x10 is not a lot of real estate to work with.

So maybe a 2:3 which would be about a 5.88 x 8.82 (this part figured out by the auto scaling). This is surrounded by about a 0.17 border1. Then a selected bigger border which doesn't get tripped up by the auto-scaling and the actual page size which is very hard to do. I was using background color for this other "border2" since it was independent of the process. BUT using background color uses too much ink since I intend to cut this to an 8x10.

So yes, I am trying to white mask outside the 8x10 boundaries. Since another 0.2 also tucks under the 8x10 frame and doesn't contribute to the visuals it gets rather complicated.

I tried Ray's suggestion.

I created a 8x10x300ppi white blank in Photoshop. I put the white image in the queue and added a black 0.2 internal border to account for any picture frame inconsistencies. It has guide lines for cutting which is great. Then I added an image at the 8x10 size thinking to shrink it visually in the full page editor after adding an internal border. Unfortunately you can see only one image in the editor. Then I realized I don't know how to keep these from printing on their own pages instead of both on the same page.

Here is a 2:3 that I was going to print up and into an 8x10 frame for a week ... we have 4 easy-to-swap-pic 8x10's throughout our house that I keep my wife appraised as to my current favorites of the week. So I replace them quite often to keep my family happy. http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnprichard/4407444097/  Thus a need for an easy way. The good ones are big, printed in a lab, and matted if they are going on a wall.

My flickr site has many 2:3 examples http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnprichard

John

This looks like it is going to work for me. Thanks Terry and Ray.

Terry, When in the editor I put in one dimension and apply it to selected and it scales the image keeping the aspect ratio the same if I say no crop. This wonderful software knows that adding a border internally will not be a perfect linear reduction on both axis of the picture ... it's close but not exact. Thus without doing the math you can get tripped up by the details. By tripped up, I mean unexpected behavior not incorrect behavior.

Thanks,
John

Thanks John. There's nothing to beat hands on learning and trying things for yourself - with just a little help from your friends  Not only that, you saved me doing a really detailed explanation 

Your next step is to make a template for each of the image size/aspect ratios you want to use so next time it's just a question of loading the picture image and all done in a few seconds 
Terry.

Well done Brian  I think what you say would work for John.
There's often an easier way, which the rest of us missed this time. The same thing works on  my R800 too. You have to watch and allow for the actual printable area and the margins which is about 0.125" (3mm) on each side with an Epson. Easy enough when defining the custom page size.
Terry.