How to Trim a Print Without Measuring

How to Trim a Print Without Measuring

Measure twice, cut once. This is excellent advice, but when I measure a print, my most careful measurements can still be off -- until I figured out how to print a photo that has precise trimming guidelines without my having to measure at all.

Note: The following procedure is for Photoshop Elements 3.0. I imagine that it will work on other versions of PSE and maybe for Photoshop. If not, or if you use another photo editor, you can probably adapt this process to your editing program.

Let's say that you want to make a 3" x 3" image with a quarter-inch white border, making the total print 3.5" x 3.5".

(1) In PSE 3.0, using a copy of your original image file, crop the photo to a square.

(2) Click Image > Resize > Image size, size the photo to 3" x 3", and then click OK.

(3) To add a white border, click Image > Resize > Canvas Size.

(4) In the Canvas Size dialog, make sure that the unit of measure is inches, and that the Relative checkbox is selected (checked).

(5) In both the Width and Height boxes, enter .25.

(6) In the Canvas extension color list, click White, and then click OK. A quarter-inch white border appears around the image.

(7) Now add a narrow black border around the white border by opening the Canvas size dialog again (click Image > Resize > Canvas Size).

(8) This time, in the Canvas extension color list, click Black, enter .05 in the Width and Height boxes, and then click OK. A narrow black border appears around the white border.

(9) Print the photo, and then trim it just inside the black lines. This will give you a white border that is exactly one-quarter inch wide.

To trim photos, I use an X-ACTO knife, a metal ruler, and a self-healing pad. You can buy these items in an art supply store.

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