

Images have both size and shape properties. But it will not necessarily fit the paper "shape", which requires cropping attention done by you. This scaling will print at a new dpi which will fit the paper size. This can be borderless if so specified in the printer Properties. However, most photo editors will also provide an option to "Scale to fit media" or "Best fit to page", which will scale the image to fit the specified paper size (similar to the labs above). Hopefully, you have already properly scaled the image for your selected paper size. The dpi number that your digital camera initially stores in the image file is far from meaningful, it is just some arbitrary number, which will print SOME size, but not likely to be your own printing goal. For example, if an image dimension is 3000 pixels, then specifying that file number as 300 dpi printing resolution will print it to be 3000/300 = 10 inches print size (even if the paper is 4圆). But it typically will also allow changing that dpi, called scaling (to fit the paper size). If printing yourself at home, the Print menu in your photo editor normally does use the file's scaled image dpi number (pixels per inch) to size the images on paper (regardless if it matches the paper size at all).

But if the provided image shape does not match the paper shape, the excess image outside the paper edges simply disappears, results may not be what you expected. Or, if too small (insufficient pixels provided), the print quality will be lower, and the lab may refuse worst cases. That's not necessarily a problem, except a far too-large image will be slow to upload. If your image dimensions are too large, the photo shop will first resample it to this smaller requested size. Planning ahead to avoid surprises by first cropping the image to match that paper shape, and also to provide enough pixels so that the result will be 250 to 300 pixels per inch will be a very good plan. If you order 8x10 inches, you will get 8x10 print size. They will ignore your dpi number already in the image file, and will recompute their own necessary "pixels per inch" value, to scale your image to their paper size. The photo printing shops where we order prints will offer a paper size, and will fill that paper with your image.There are two situations when printing images, depending on if print shops or home printing. The dpi calculator is below, but first, some background concerns.
