GETTING REAL |
15
If you didn’t crop your image as you scanned it, the next step is to do
that. Inmy version of the Photoshop Elements, the Crop tool [8] is on
the left side of the Tool Box on the third row down from the top.
Click on that tool and left click just outside the top left corner
of the image and drag down to outside the bottom right corner
and release the mouse button. Then drag the handles on the four
sides of the dotted outline to refine the cropping. When you are
satisfied with the results, click on the checkmark in the menu bar
or just press Enter.
The next step is to change the size of the image. Click on
Image/Resize/Image Size. The dialog box [9] shows the size of
the image (Width and Height) and the Resolution. As shown,
my scan is just under 7" wide. The Width and Height boxes
are joined by a “chain”. That means if the height is increased,
the width also increases, thus keeping the proportions of the
original image. This “chain” is a result of the check mark for
Constrain Proportions at the bottom of the dialog box.
Since I want my image to be 10” wide, I could do that by typing
10” for the width. But degrades the quality of the image, since the
pixels would be farther apart. But there is a simple workaround.
Click to remove the checkmark for the Resample Image option.
Now [10] there is a chain connecting all three variables—the
Width, Height, and Resolution. If the Width is increased, the
Resolution goes down. But that isn’t a problem since we scanned
the original photo at a much higher resolution than needed to
produce a very acceptable print. Backspace over the Width and
type in the desired Width [11] and click OK. You won’t see any-
thing appear to change but the width increased while the resolu-
tion decreased to 413.6 dpi.
