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Cropping to a specific measurement


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Absolutely brand new here and am right off the bat stumped.

I work for magazines and need to size my files to the magazines dimensions. (Always at 300 dpi)

I cannot find a way to enter dimensions in Millimeters and then have the crop size constrained to those dimensions.

 

 

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Unfortunately, Affinity makes this very difficult.

 

Go to Document > Resize Document and set the DPI to 300.

resize.png.0701b690678103b60bf4fd0481db9318.png

Make sure Resample is NOT ticked. You are just telling Affinity to use 300 dpi as the base resolution.

 

Go to Crop and in Mode, select Absolute Dimensions

absolute.png.798526ed39e7c0c60e8973e257839439.png

 

Set the units to millimetres, then enter the dimensions

 

Affinity will not crop and resize at the same time! So unless you are very lucky, the crop area wont be anything like what you want.

 

As a solution, for a 100 mm x 100 mm crop at 300 dpi.

 

I found it best to do a freehand crop first, as close as you can get to the right area.

Go to resize document, set 300 dpi and set one side of the dimensions to 100 mm. Unless your initial crop was spot on, make sure the other size is a little bit bigger to allow for a small crop). That will get you halfway there.

Now, go to Crop, set the Units to Millimetres, set the Absolute Dimension to 100 x 100 

 

Click Apply and that will get you a 100 mm square image at 300dpi.

 

A very awkward way to do what should be an easy operation I know but it will do it. 

Windows PCs. Photo and Designer, latest non-beta versions.

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3 hours ago, toltec said:

Affinity will not crop and resize at the same time!

Why should it? It is two separate steps, one of which (the "resize" one) actually resamples the photo. Why assume that is what everybody wants to do, particularly if they have selected "Absolute dimensions"? At least to me, "absolute dimensions" means absolute pixel dimensions, independent of document units or dpi, not absolute image size dimensions.

 

I do not want this or any other app to assume anything about my intent, particularly about what I might consider lucky or unlucky! That should be left to me to decide, not to some programmer who knows nothing about me, what I want to do, or how much I understand about the effects of resampling an image.

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It should absolutely be an option. Like er, other software. Otherwise you get that ridiculous performance I described above.

Absolute dimensions is daft, because it is only absolute to a dimension. Not a crop area. The minute you set it, you can't adjust the crop. If you do set it in inches, it changes size depending on document dpi. You cant even set it, then scale up because Affinity does not constrain the box to a ratio. The minute you start to move it, it goes all screwy.

 

If you need an image at a precise size and dpi (a very common operation). Affinity just can't do it?

 

For litho printing it would not be uncommon to need 100 like that for a magazine or book. Web stuff can be the same, maybe worse

 

So how  do I get an image 100 x 100 mm at 300 dpi ?

 

Windows PCs. Photo and Designer, latest non-beta versions.

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10 minutes ago, toltec said:

Absolute dimensions is daft, because it is only absolute to a dimension.

I am not sure what you mean by that, but to me it is daft to consider anything besides pixel dimensions as absolute. Neither dpi nor linear dimension units are in any real way absolute -- depending on the print driver, the printing software, & even the type of printing device those parameters may be ignored completely or just used as a basis for scaling & interpolation. The "dot" in dpi doesn't even have a single, unambiguous meaning, either for on-screen displays or for hard copy, so how could it possibly be part of any absolute anything?

20 minutes ago, toltec said:

You cant even set it, then scale up because Affinity does not constrain the box to a ratio. The minute you start to move it, it goes all screwy.

Absolute dimensions are not ratios, so I do not understand why you would expect them to behave as if they were. I also don't understand the "all screwy" part -- as long as you move the box & not its control handles, the dimensions do not change. That is totally consistent with the behavior of the Move tool so to me it would be screwy if it behaved differently.

26 minutes ago, toltec said:

So how  do I get an image 100 x 100 mm at 300 dpi ?

Ideally, by starting with an image with enough pixels so you do not have to upsample anything, which as I am sure you know very well will degrade the quality of the image. If that isn't possible, do the crop based on the desired composition & then resample using whatever resampling method works best for that image, & perhaps using various retouching techniques before hand or afterwards if that is appropriate & you have the necessary skills to use them.

 

If you are not willing or able to do that, use some other software & hope for the best. Who knows? Maybe the built-in crop & resample algorithm will do exactly what you want, but I would not bet on it.

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8 minutes ago, R C-R said:

 

 

If you are not willing or able to do that, use some other software & hope for the best. Who knows? Maybe the built-in crop & resample algorithm will do exactly what you want, but I would not bet on it.

Well, (another program I used to use) managed to do exactly that for a good part of 30 years.

 

Set it to the destination size like 100mm x 100mm draw a crop box any size (now constrained to a ratio of 100 x 100) and . . .

No sorry, that is it. A 100mm x 100mm resized and cropped image, Fast and easy and it seemed to be a professional quality result.

Windows PCs. Photo and Designer, latest non-beta versions.

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  • Staff

Hi POP,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

As explained, currently it's not possible to crop and resample in a single step. The Crop Tool is being rewritten to deal with all these possible situations (including resampling while cropping so you can crop to a specific measurement in one step). It should become available in a future version/update. Bear with us while the dev team work on it.

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2 minutes ago, MEB said:

Hi POP,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

As explained, currently it's not possible to crop and resample in a single step. The Crop Tool is being rewritten to deal with all these possible situations (including resampling while cropping so you can crop to a specific measurement in one step). It should become available in a future version/update. Bear with us while the dev team work on it.

Would be OK as a quick fix if you could constrain the crop box. If you get the "shape" right, it easy enough to resample afterwards.

 

At the moment it needs a lot of fiddling around.

Windows PCs. Photo and Designer, latest non-beta versions.

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54 minutes ago, toltec said:

Well, (another program I used to use) managed to do exactly that for a good part of 30 years.

I don't doubt that it did for many images that included enough pixels to avoid upsampling, but no algorithm is going to produce professional quality results when there are so few pixels in the cropped area that a large amount of upsampling is required to reach the desired image dimensions.

50 minutes ago, toltec said:

Would be OK as a quick fix if you could constrain the crop box. If you get the "shape" right, it easy enough to resample afterwards.

If by "shape" you mean the height to width ratio, you can do that now by selecting the original or custom ratio cropping modes, or any of the ratio presets like 1:1, 5:7, or any custom ratio presets you have saved.

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1 hour ago, R C-R said:

I don't doubt that it did for many images that included enough pixels to avoid upsampling, but no algorithm is going to produce professional quality results when there are so few pixels in the cropped area that a large amount of upsampling is required to reach the desired image dimensions.

If by "shape" you mean the height to width ratio, you can do that now by selecting the original or custom ratio cropping modes, or any of the ratio presets like 1:1, 5:7, or any custom ratio presets you have saved.

First point. Obviously, I would never consider upsampling. I never mentioned it. I am talking about making a photograph fit a specific photograph sized hole at a specific resolution. 

 

I did a book once for a University, around 200 photos, each picture needed to be at a different size to match the customers layout. The customer had used low resolution placement images to indicate what picture went where.

 

I had to measure the size and then needed to scan the images (which shows how long ago this was) and size each one to fit. It was being printed litho using 175 line screen, so each image needed to be 350dpi. I scanned them all at 600 dpi (no other way, really). In PS, I just measured each image from the book, resized and cropped the images in one go. Easy. Although it took quite a while :(

 

If I had to do it your way (or in Affinity) I would probably still be working on it ;)

 

Obviously, with a frame based DTP program it would be less important as I could have used the frames to crop. But that was not possible. The image size had to be spot on to stop the text re-flowing.

 

Windows PCs. Photo and Designer, latest non-beta versions.

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Thank you for your replies, lucky for all of us that MEB reports that all our wishes will come true!

I am afraid I started something without giving enough background...

In my profession I have about 10-12 images to retouch (meticulously) and then deliver to the magazine to their specific size. Every magazine as you know has different dims and every deadline is ridiculously short.

I shoot the image as close to how I would like it to be in the final, process to a tiff about 4000 x 6000 pixels (338 mm x 508mm) at 300 dpi, retouch and then crop down to the magazines dims, (generally around 226 mm x  290 mm give or take. So to be able to constrain a crop box to the magazines dims is essential.

I admire the people at Affinity and they are doing an incredible job. I'm sure that the program works for a lot of different people, but for what I do, at this point it is impossible. I also think the Blemish removal tool is too slow for fast work. I think the idea behind it is genius because it is possible to absolutely control how you blend the blemish away, but those few seconds moving the cursor around looking for the perfect fit... I feel it just takes too long, but maybe it's just a matter of getting used to it.

MEB, any idea when I should check back in about the update to the Crop tool?

 

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3 hours ago, toltec said:

First point. Obviously, I would never consider upsampling. I never mentioned it. I am talking about making a photograph fit a specific photograph sized hole at a specific resolution. 

Say for example you have a digital photograph that after cropping is 1500 px by 1200 px. At 300 dpi, the maximum "photograph sized hole" it can be placed in without upsampling is 5 by 4 inches, right? So if you need to place this in a "photograph sized hole" any larger than that & still maintain 300 dpi, how could you possibly avoid upsampling?

 

Not everybody has the luxury of always starting with a well framed, high pixel resolution photo from a high end DSLR. As the saying goes, the best camera is the one you have with you, which for many one of a kind shots may well be one in a phone lacking optical zoom. Even if the photographer is lugging around a big DSLR with a wide range zoom lens, there may not be time to zoom in & compose the image so the subject of interest fills most of the frame. Even if there is enough time, as I am sure you know there are limits on how far you can zoom in a long lens on a distant subject with a hand-held camera & expect to get a usable shot.

 

Shooting conditions like this occur constantly -- not every shot is done in a studio or when the photographer can control the subject or even where the subject is in relation to the camera. If that is the only kind of photograph you ever work with, you are lucky, but many are not. Never mentioning that does not mean it does not happen or is worth considering.

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In the job I mentioned (from memory) 100 of the 200 images were 6 x 4 photos, 98 were slides. The images had to be used at sizes from 2 x 1 inches to 5 x 4 (ish). Those 198 were very quick and easy to do in PS. It would be a nightmare in AP. 

 

I am not talking about radical resizing, just normal cropping and sizing to fit, mostly downsizing. The sort of thing some people need to do for hundreds of photos every week. AP can't handle that sort of work flow. PS can.

 

If I had something that needed upsizing, I would treat it individually, different resampling methods, retouching, removing moire etc. In fact one of the "other" pictures was a slide that was drum scanned to fit on the cover, the other was actually a cloth puppet. 

 

I am not saying it must resize and resample, just that it must be an option. Work flow matters ! I don't do that sort of thing now so it doesn't matter but I would absolutely have to use PS if I did. Simply couldn't afford the loss of time. No professional can.

Windows PCs. Photo and Designer, latest non-beta versions.

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There you have it RC-R, it's all about how one works and what they would use the program for. Someone who works with an iPhone is probably not doing professional work with it. I won't get into an argument about that I hope. And every kind of professional photographer I know of from wedding, to fashion, to reportage, actually DO drag around some kind of camera that will give them a good quality file. Again, the people at Affinity are doing an incredible job and the program is wonderful, but I don't think you can call it professional in it's current form; I just proved that point and I believe that they understand this and will fix this particular problem. The are just too cool/good not to.

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  • 2 years later...

Someone pointed at this thread to say it was difficult to crop to an exact pixel size, I replied and suggested not using the crop tool to crop and instead simply create a rectangle with the exact dimensions in the transform studio, adjusting the layers Opacity to ease positioning and then simply clip image to the rectangle. Then rasterise and trim, unclip and clip canvas to finish off. Perhaps I’m be too simplistic?

 

My dad always told me, a bad workman always blames their tools….

Just waiting for Ronny Pickering…..

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  • 3 years later...
4 minutes ago, Phatman said:

Is it now possible to resize in mm using a defined dpi in version 2?

Are you talking about resizing or cropping?

-- Walt
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