Lightroom arbitrarily sizing/cropping images

[mike_ricca]

<p>I am completely stumped on this one. I cropped an image to 4x6 in the Develop module, went to the printmodule to print it at 8x12, and haven't gotten a SINGLE correct print so far.</p>

<p>I've so far made five prints. All of them have been cropped to varying degrees by the Print module and the print sizes have been way smaller than LR Preview tells me they should be.</p>

<p>Per this Develop Module screenshot [http://i.imgur.com/7NMDj1L.png] you can see that the image is cropped to 4x6, and the Print Module [http://i.imgur.com/qr2DRnX.png] shows a similar size. NOTE: Originally I printed at 8x12 and the photo came out as 8x11 for some ungodly reason so I increased the print size little.</p>

<p>As you can see from the results [http://i.imgur.com/P96XJxU.jpg] every image was cropped somehow and completely inconsistently. I tried centering the photo on the paper, putting it in the corner, nada. Still comes out cropped. The only one that came close was the very first one (trimmed, to the side) but it was 11" tall and too short for my 8x12" mat window.</p>

<p>I'm using an EPSON 3800 stocked with EPSON PREMIUM LUSTER 11.7x16.5 set up as a custom size in Lightroom. Scale is 100% and as far as I can tell from the print preview, everything looks great. Until I print and it comes out cropped.</p>

<p>I've so far wasted about $5 in paper and I don't wanna think how much in ink. I've never run into this problem printing to 8.5x11.</p>

<p>Does anyone know what gives and how to fix it?</p>

[mike_ricca]

<p>Took it into Photoshop, got the print right on the first try.<br>

.</p>

[digitaldog]

<blockquote>

<p>Print Module [http://i.imgur.com/qr2DRnX.png] shows a similar size.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>No it doesn't, it shows 8,133x12.2. And that's what you should get if you have a proper page setup for a paper that is large enough for that cell size. What is the exact size of the image area and does it not match 8,133x12.2?</p>

[mike_ricca]

<p>As I explained in the sentence <em>immediately following</em> the one you quoted, I increased the print size a little (which is why the screenshot shows 12.2" instead of 12") because the photo came out to 8x11 instead of 8x12. Also, I said "similar" and not "exact" (I specifically chose the word "similar" in case someone might nitpick that 12.2 != 12).</p>

<p>Custom paper size was properly set and all the LR settings were fine. In fact the paper/printer settings were identical to the ones I eventually used in Photoshop, which printed the photo out perfectly.</p>

<p>I'm sure it's something to do with the paper size, as I've never had an issue printing to 8.5x11 in LR. But I also know LR printing has always been a little temperamental so I'm just gonna not ever print to 11.7x16.5 in LR again; next time I need to do it I'll just take it into PS.</p>

[digitaldog]

<p>The <strong>cell size</strong> is what determines what size the image area prints. You've got a cell size of 8,133x12.<br>

Again, are you saying the Cell Size you set at 8.1X12 <strong>isn't</strong> what you're getting for the image size on the page? </p>

[mike_ricca]

<p>Yup. It was set to 8.1x12.2 and I was getting an 8x11 image.</p>

<p>But that was just the <em>first</em> problem. The bigger problem was, as you can see from the photos of the prints [http://i.imgur.com/P96XJxU.jpg], it was <strong>cropping</strong> the image as well, and cropping it completely arbitrarily. The screenshot of the Print module shows the full image, yet as you can see from the resultant prints, I wasn't getting that image at <em>all</em>. And it wasn't even consistent, to boot.</p>

<p>Like I said, it's moot now anyway. I'm not gonna burn more paper (@ $1.20 per) just to try and figure this out. I'll just stick to PS for my large prints and only use LR for my 8.5x11s, which I never have issues with.</p>

[tim_mcmahon]

<p>Mike<br>

I've never experienced the problem using a standard paper size. <br>

I find selecting A3 paper size in page setup (you're using A3, right?) setting margins to 0 and cell size to what I want works perfectly every time. (Mind you, we set all our measurements in mm)<br>

I wonder whether 11.7 X 16.5 is simply too poor and approximation for A3 and the driver gets confused? <br>

I'd try selecting A3 paper size and converting your 8 X 12 to mm (203 x 305).</p>

<p>Tim</p>

[tim_mcmahon]

<p>Mike<br>

PS: not "...too poor <em>and</em> approximation..." but "...too poor <em>an</em> approximation..." <br>

I've had the occasional botch up trying to deal with custom paper sizes.<br>

The cropping-during-printing issue makes me very suspicious that the paper-size/margin issue is at play.<br>

Tim</p>

[mike_ricca]

<p>Tim</p>

<p>I actually didn't use A3. I have no idea what European sizes measure out to and the box didn't mention A3 so I just went with custom size. And yeah, it could well be a paper size / margin issue, but at the same time I used identical print settings in Photoshop and got it right on the first try so I'm just gonna stick to that for now. At $1.20 a sheet, I don't really feel like experimenting in LR when PS works fine. I'll just use LR for my 8.5x11 printing. :)</p>

<p>- mike</p>