Available as hot SHSs, made at the mill as one piece, or cold rolled SHSs are made of a flat sheet rolled at right angles and welded. I recommend (without any commission or prejudice) One Vision Imaging Limited for all my fine art prints. The print quality and production are always first class and they have excellent customer service so will be more than happy to help you through the process if my guide is beyond what you can process easily.

We generally always want to print photos at 300 dpi as best choice. And in our 4x6 to 5x7 example, if matching the short sides, the two before and after sizes compare as 4 to 5, which is 5/4 = 1.25, which is 1.25x or 125% enlargement in the copy. Note that matching the long sides is 7/6 which is 1.17x, a different enlargement number (because the shapes are different). Scanning 10×8 inches at 300 dpi will produce (10 inches×300 dpi)×(8 inches×300 dpi) = 3000×2400 pixels. Your scanner program surely shows you the same information. The maths involved to come up with that size print is to first divide the number of pixels in the width of the file by the 200 DPI. (2,000/200=10). If you live in North America or one of the other few countries that still use the Imperial system, talking about square footage might be natural. Nevertheless, it is important to remember that most of the countries in the world use the metric system, which measures area in square meters. Having a basic, approximate idea of what the conversion from square meters to square feet is, can be valuable in the communications across different countries. A good "ballpark" value that's easy to remember is that 10 sq ft ~ sqm - to convert from sq m to sq ft, we just need to add a zero at the end of the number. Printing: It also calculates the required image size (pixels) to print this image size (inches or mm) on paper at the dpi resolution.All images have been cropped to standard aspect ratios, OR you have calculated the dimensions for each image size and mount size with cut-out/window. Aspect ratio is simply the ratio of the two dimensions of the same image (divide longest / shortest, 6x4 dimensions or 6000x4000 pixels are both 6/4 = 1.5:1 aspect ratio), which describes its shape (longer, or wider). In the printing situation, the existing image is usually a different shape than the paper we want to print it on. The shapes necessarily need to be made to match. Find the product of multiplicand and 2nd least significant digit of 3-digit multiplier, and write down the product under the earlier product but the One’s place value of product should start from the Ten’s place value of multiplicand. In Blue text at bottom: The best plan is to FIRST crop the image to the shape to match paper shape (same aspect ratio). In good crop tools, there will be an option to specify your desired aspect ratio, and then any crop box you can mark will be the proper shape. Simply choose the best crop size and position of that crop box for best image presentation and appearance, to show what you want the image to show (think about it a second, and choose the crop to omit the distracting or empty uninteresting areas, and keep the best view). That box will be the correct paper aspect ratio. Then resample to the 300 dpi size, which is the proper way to do it, and the two pixel dimensions will come out correct. Or 250 dpi will normally print great too (many one hour photo shops do not print higher than 250 dpi). Some crop tools will offer a dpi resolution field to also resample in the same crop operation (do verify your result pixel dimension numbers). The calculator shows the final result crop dimensions that will fit the paper, AFTER it is cropped to shape, and then again AFTER it is resampled to 300 dpi. This proper match is the obvious best choice (No surprises if you choose the cropping you prefer). If the Result text might not be meaningful yet, then start at this: Cropping, Resampling, Scaling. It's the basics of something we all need to know about printing images. The idea is not to simply compute some numbers, but to try to explain how you can already know this yourself. It's actually pretty simple.

Or scan small film at 2700 dpi, print at 300 dpi, for 2700/300 = 9X size. If from full frame 35 mm film (roughly 0.92 x 1.41 inches), then 9X is about 8x12 inches (near A4 size). Film is typically small, requiring more scan resolution for more pixels for more print enlargement. The reason to scan at high resolution is for "enlargement", specifically to create enough pixels to print a larger print at about 300 pixels per inch. Scanning larger than any reasonable future use is likely pointless. Find the product of multiplicand and most significant digit (MSD) of 3-digit multiplier, and write down the product under the earlier product but the One’s place value of product should start from the Hundred’s place value of multiplicand. My digital photography interpretation of Ansel's quote is “the digital file is the score, and the print is the performance.”When a scanner scans at 300 dpi, it creates 300 pixels per inch of dimension scanned. Scanning 8x10 inches at 300 dpi creates a 2400x3000 pixel image. Either way, depending on image content, you can control where part of the image is to be cut off (like at top or bottom, or you can center or just adjust the crop location so both edges are cut a bit, but less each). This will depend on your image content in the frame, you simply adjust the crop box location for best appearance.

Having spent countless hours capturing images, editing images and probably re-editing and selecting images your now at the stage of getting a set of prints ready. Scanning to print a copy at the same size is a very common goal. It's important to realize that an area scanned at 300 dpi will create the pixels necessary to also print the same size at 300 dpi. The concept either way is pixels per inch. And 300 dpi is likely what you want for a photo copy job. The one-hour print shops accept larger images, but many machines are set to use 250 dpi. The negative is comparable to the composer's score and the print to its performance. Each performance differs in subtle ways.” Ansel Adams

Given that I have many clients, on various courses, and other events wishing to create prints, I felt a guide to the considerations and technicalities would be helpful.