This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Resizing photos made easy
For many of us, resizing an image can be confusing. When we share to social networking sites or by email from our mobile devices, the work is done for us, behind the scenes—but when we need to scale a photo to meet specific requirements, the Image > Resize command presents us with an array of options for dimensions, file size, resolution, and resampling that can be difficult for a novice to understand.
In the Guided Edit mode, the Resize Your Photo panel makes the task easy, stepping you quickly through the process of scaling an image to meet specific size requirements, whether they’re given in pixels, inches, or bytes.
In the Organizer, use the Keywords list to find all the images tagged with the Lesson 04 keyword. Select the edited photo DSC06379_AutoSmart.jpg; then, click the Editor button (
) in the taskbar.If the Editor is not still in Guided mode, switch modes now, and then select the Basics category. Click the preview to launch the Resize Your Photo procedure.
In the panel at the right, choose the Web output option. Choose Long Edge from the size options menu. Our lesson file is 3000 pixels wide; to reduce it to an Instagram-friendly size that retains sharpness, type 1024 in the “W” box. When you set the length of one edge, the other is automatically adjusted to maintain the aspect ratio. The correct resolution for the web is set automatically.
Click Apply; the new file size is displayed below the resizing controls. It’s that easy! For now, click the Reset button to cancel the resize-for-web process without leaving the Resize Your Photo panel.
Under Select An Output Option, click the Print button. From the size options menu, choose Width & Height. Type 6.9 in both the W (Width) and H (Height) boxes; then click Preview. The photo is cropped to fit the square aspect ratio. Click the Cancel button (
) on the preview image; then, repeat the process with the Shrink To Fit option activated. Click Apply. The photo is scaled so that it fits the specified dimensions without cropping.
Our lesson image has a 4 x 6 aspect ratio, so all of the predefined size options, except 4 x 6 inch, will result in cropping unless the Shrink To Fit option is activated.
Click the Reset button and choose “8 x 10 in” from the size options menu; then, click Preview. Drag to the right in the preview window to adjust the crop, and then click the green Commit button (
). Click Next at the lower right and inspect the options available. For now, close the file without saving.