Brea Posted May 1, 2016 Share Posted May 1, 2016 Hello! I am trying to crop an image into the shape of a circle to print at 1.25 x 1.25 inches for a photo locket. I am having trouble with the image size dialogue and with print quality. I used the elliptical tool to crop it into a circle. Then I go into the Image Size dialog box. I'm trying to change the dimensions to 1.25 x 1.25 inches. It keeps changing the height when I change the width so I can't get the exact size. I tried unchecking resampling and it still does this. I don't know how to get past this step. I tried another method where I cropped with the elliptical tool and copied and pasted it into a new document that I had already sized to 1.25 x 1.25 inches and used the transform tool to get the circle touching the edges of the document. It seemed to me that that would work, but when I printed it looked grainy. I've attached the document where I used this method. I would love some suggestions on how to accomplish this so that the image quality looks great when printed. Thanks in advance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damien Symonds Posted May 1, 2016 Share Posted May 1, 2016 https://www.facebook.com/groups/195567190503489/permalink/620088411384696/ I do intend to convert that thread into a proper article ... I haven't got around to it yet, sorry. There are a few ways to accomplish this, so let me know if you need to discuss further. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brea Posted May 2, 2016 Author Share Posted May 2, 2016 Thanks, Damien. Now I'm getting stuck on how to make the actual circular crop. I've flattened my psd, double clicked to convert it to layer 0, added the vector mask. Then when I try to use the ellipse tool it covers my image with a colored circle so I can't see it. I can't figure out how to make the ellipse tool transparent. Then how do I crop it to the circle? Image - Crop? When I do that it crops it to a square shape. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damien Symonds Posted May 2, 2016 Share Posted May 2, 2016 When you choose the Ellipse tool, look at the Options Bar. Somewhere up there (probably close to the left-hand end, but it varies by version) there will be an option for "Shape/Path/Fill". You have to make sure yours is set to Path. Also, make sure, in the Layers panel, you have the layer mask selected, not the layer thumbnail. I mean, click on the white box thumbnail to make sure it has a little border around it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brea Posted May 5, 2016 Author Share Posted May 5, 2016 okay, back at this again. I've successfully cropped the circle and saved as a PSD. I created a new document and did file-place. Now the question is how to do I resize the image so that it is a 1.25 inch circle? Should I create a blank document that size and place it there? Or is there a way to read the size when I'm transforming the image on the new document? At the top it's showing a percentage that changes as I make it smaller, but I don't know how that translates into inches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damien Symonds Posted May 5, 2016 Share Posted May 5, 2016 40 minutes ago, Brea said: Should I create a blank document that size and place it there? Yes, this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brea Posted May 5, 2016 Author Share Posted May 5, 2016 ack. I've printed it now and I feel like I'm still losing quality. It looks like there are little dots all over the print. Am I expecting too much from a print this size? I'm printing it on cardstock, does that make a difference? I feel like I've done is all correctly. I must head to bed now... sorry, please ignore the second screen shot. I was trying to show the image size on the circular crop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damien Symonds Posted May 5, 2016 Share Posted May 5, 2016 Gosh yes, when you print a photo that tiny, it forces you to examine it much more closely than a larger photo. I'd say you're noticing the printing dots that have always been there, you've just never looked closely before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brea Posted June 19, 2016 Author Share Posted June 19, 2016 I've done this a few times now and discovered that I needed to print elsewhere (on a laser printer) because I could not get good quality on my inkjet. I also typed up the instructions for myself. Feel free to use if this helps anyone - there are lots of little steps I struggled to remember from one time to the next: Open PSD file and flatten Double click on the background layer and hit Enter - it will say Layer 0 Layer-Vector Mask-Reveal All. Add a Vector Mask to the layer. Click on the layer MASK Draw a circle with the Ellipse Tool (make sure that on the options bar it is set to “Path”) Hit Enter Command T to change the size/crop of the circle on the photo Save as a PSD in a separate location File-Place onto 1.25x1.25 (or whatever the diameter of the pendant) square - save as high quality jpeg File-place onto 8.5x11 document - duplicate as needed. Save as high quality JPEG 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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