Printing a section of an image

[Justin]

Hi,

  A pretty basic question but could someone tell me please how to do the following.

I would like to print an image to A2 size on my Epson 3880. I am using Photoshop CS6 and I've resampled the image to the correct size at 360ppi. I would like to tryout a few different sharpening options to see which I prefer. Rather than wasting a full sheet of paper to evaluate the sharpening, I would like to just print a small section of the image, about 13.5 cm x 13.5 cm to evaluate the results. How do I do this without altering the resolution.
Any help would be appreciated,thanks.

[schertz]

Hi,

  A pretty basic question but could someone tell me please how to do the following.

I would like to print an image to A2 size on my Epson 3880. I am using Photoshop CS6 and I've resampled the image to the correct size at 360ppi. I would like to tryout a few different sharpening options to see which I prefer. Rather than wasting a full sheet of paper to evaluate the sharpening, I would like to just print a small section of the image, about 13.5 cm x 13.5 cm to evaluate the results. How do I do this without altering the resolution.
Any help would be appreciated,thanks.

It sounds like you want to make a small crop of your image for testing purposes with a specific size in cm or pixel dimensions. The easiest way to do this in photoshop is to actually use the Rectangular Marquee Tool (Keyboard: M). If you select that tool and go to the option at the top called Style: and change it from "Normal" to "Fixed size". You can then enter the dimensions (and units) into the boxes to the right (for example 13.5 cm by 13.5 cm as you desired). When you click on the image a rectangular selection will be created of the exact size specified and can be dragged around the image to whatever area you like. When you are happy with the position go up to Image > Crop in the menu and the image will crop around the selection. This method allows for cropping to a specific size in inches/cm/pixels/whatever you like.
You will probably want to work on a copy or save a history snapshot so you can go back to your full image once you are done experimenting with sharpening and printing.

Mike

[henrikolsen]

Does anyone have a good workflow for such test strip/snippet printing while staying within Lightroom, in cases Photoshop hasn't been used for anything else?

[howardm]

In PS, I think the easiest way is .....

1. do your resize/resample up to 360.
2. CNTL-P to print
3. select the right printer and desired test paper size. do NOT select 'scale image'
4. in the printer dialog, now that the image is larger than the test paper, you can move the image around on the virtual paper so pick the desired fraction of the image

[PeterAit]

1) Get the original image the way you want it.
2) Rectangular marquee tool to select the test area
3) Ctrl+C
4) File > New Image > Clipboard > Create
5 Ctrl+V

[Justin]

Thanks very much indeed everyone for all your help. The marquee tool worked perfectly.


howardm,
  Thank you for your suggestion but I should have pointed out that I wanted to print the small cropped area on an A2 sheet. I sized the cropped area to 13.5 cm so I could get three images across the width of the paper. I shall remember your method for future use when using paper smaller than the image 





Whilst still on the same subject. Before asking for help on the forum, the method I initially tried was to resize the image to my final print size (584 mm x 410 mm) @ 360 ppi. I then chose the crop tool and cropped a 13.5 cm x 13.5 cm section of the image, I had Resample unchecked but I wasn't sure if this would alter the original 360 ppi resolution. I assumed not, as I wasn't resampling again, but I wasn't sure. Just to clear up my confusion. Would this method have also worked and produced the same result as the rectangular marquee method?