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I would like to make this image to have 4:3 ratio, so it then later can be scaled up so it completely fits a 400mm x 300mm paper when printed.

enter image description here

It can not be cropped any more, so the size is 780x500, which is not 4:3.

Question

As it needs to be scaled up when printed

  • should I scale it down horizontally so I get 667*500 (remove pixels)

or

  • should I scale it up vertically so I get 585*500 (add pixels)

?

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2 Answers

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There is no way you will be able to scale a 780 x 500 to 400mm x 300mm... I would recommend scaling it up though to preserve pixels as when you scale down you are losing pixels. But I just want to tell you that 400mm x 300mm is 4724 x 3543 pixels, so no matter what you do, enlarging it that much will make it look low quality.

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Sandra didn't say it has to be 400x300 mm. Just 4:3 ratio. – poepje Jun 16 '12 at 22:07
Yes she did " so it then later can be scaled up so it completely fits a 400mm x 300mm paper when printed" – Zach Sugano Jun 16 '12 at 22:27
Printed on 400x300mm paper which is not the same. That's not 4724 x 3543 pixels. – poepje Jun 16 '12 at 22:30
She said she wants it to completely fit the paper. At 300 DPI that is indeed 4724 x 3543 – Zach Sugano Jun 16 '12 at 22:39
DPI has no effect on the printing size, just how sharp an image looks. DPI does after all stand for 'dots per inch'. – poepje Jun 16 '12 at 22:41
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Decide for yourself: 667x500 (horizontally scaled down) 667x500

780x629 (vertically scaled up) 780x629

Make sure you watch the images at 100%, so just right-click 'view image' or download them.

BTW the '585x500' pixels you mentioned is a bit of a wrong calculation ;)

Sidenote: this is a good image for scaling in one dimension, but most images will look very ugly and distorted when you perform this action. Beware :)

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