Q&A: Cropping and Printing in Photoshop Elements

A few weeks ago, you wrote about a technique in Paint Shop Pro 8 that allows you to crop images and then print them at exactly the right size. Is there a way to do that in Photoshop Elements?

--Jim Hoffman, Lyons, Illinois

Yep, Jim, there sure is. In a recent newsletter, I explained how to remove all the guesswork from printing by choosing a specific crop size (like 4 by 6 or 8 by 10) using Paint Shop Pro.

You can do the same thing in Adobe Photoshop Elements, and here's how: Click the Crop tool. In the toolbar, you should see boxes appear for width, height, and resolution. Fill in the dimensions you want for your image, like 8 and 10, then type 200 in the resolution box. Click in the image with the Crop tool, and you'll get a crop box that keeps the proper proportion for your print, no matter how large or small you make it. Photoshop has the same tool, by the way, but it lets you save your favorite crop dimensions as a preset, making it even easier to edit your images.