Printing Photographs

[Puzzled001]

Hi, I have a problem with reproduction of photo's. I have 2 printers, one Lexmark and the other HP. When I print photo's they seem to stretch verticly so that the 'round' faces come out 'oval' and bodies are elongated. This happens no matter which printer I use. Any ideas/help appreciated.

[Buenchico]

It sounds as if you've got an incorrect 'stretch to fit' option selected. It's hard to offer a great deal of help without knowing which program you're using to print your pictures, so please post again to tell us what it is.

In the meantime, try printing by going to 'File>Print' (rather than just hitting the 'Print' button). Then look carefully at what you see there, to see whether you can spot something like 'stretch to fit page width' as an option which has been inadvertently selected.

Chris

[Puzzled001]

Hi, Chris I'm using the Photo Printing Wizard in XP I've tried printing Hagaki 100mmx148mm and Postcard 4"x6". Fax print states centred and rotated to fit, Photo print says cropped and rotated to print. I Have tried printing both in landscape and portrait ,the preview looks ok in landscape but elongated in portrait. Apart from size they both come out elongated.Same with both printers, Gary

[Buenchico]

Hi Gary

Microsoft's attempts to build specific applications (such as photo viewing and printing) into its operating systems are usually doomed to failure (or, at best, to be nowhere as good as using dedicated applications from other sources).

The program which deserves a place on everyone's PC is Irfanview. At its simplest it's a great picture viewing and printing program but, if you explore the various options, it can do a great deal more. (e.g. you can edit your images, reduce their file sizes for email or website, or convert to other file formats). It's totally free for personal use and it can be downloaded from here:
http://www.irfanview.com/

When you install Irfanview, allow it to become your default viewer for all image formats. Then, when you double-click on a file, it will open in Irfanview rather than with Windows Picture & Fax Viewer. You'll then have a program which should be able to correctly communicate with your printer, producing your desired results.

Chris

[Puzzled001]

Hi , Chris, Have downloaded ,irfanview, although I have a desktop shortcut I cannot find it in 'all programs'. How do I set it to become my default image viewer? I'm us'firefox' browser, nothing to technical please, thanks Gary

[Puzzled001]

Hi,again, have managed to 'open' and use 'irfanview' but prints still coming out vertically stretched , PC is Medion Q6600 ,( converted to XP ) this also happened when using my old Dell 4400, (i,ve only just noticed this looking back in printed albums).

[Puzzled001]

Chris, could you have another look at my previous post, thanks, Gary

[Buenchico]

You're not the only one who is 'puzzled' now!

Try opening a picture in Irfanview, then going to File>Print. Click on 'Printer Setup', 'Properties' and 'Page Setup'. I'd normally expect to see that A4 paper is selected, but simply check that the setting matches whatever type of paper you're using. I'd also expect to see that 'Normal size printing' is selected. (If it isn't, select it. You can change the actual print instructions at the next stage if necessary). Click 'OK' twice.

Now look at the 'Print Size' settings. You definitely do NOT want 'Stretch to page (no aspect ratio)'. I'd expect to see 'Original size' selected as the default. If that's not giving the desired results, experiment with 'Best fit to page' or 'Custom' (ensuring that 'Aspect ratio' is ticked).

Hopefully something there should do the trick. If not, I can only suggest that you experiment with the 'Scale' settings to pull your misshapen images back to the correct aspect ratio.

Chris

[Puzzled001]

Thanks for coming back,Chris,Have looked at what you say and experimented. Believe it or not if I actually select 'stretch to fit, (no aspect ratio)' I get an almost perfect print !! This also equates to using ' Custom 'set at Width 100 and Height 75 with aspect ratio ticked. Baffling or what ??? I'll keep experimenting with 'scale' and custom. At least I can now print a picture of our new grandaughter without her looking like an 'egghead'. Many Thanks for your time and assistance, Gary