There are a lot of fantanstic new features in PhotoPaint X4, but one that I was hoping to see didn't show up. Or, maybe I'm just not getting it.
What I'd like to do is crop part of a photo to a predetermined size. For example, set width and depth to 3.09in by 2.78in, set the resolution to 300, draw the crop border around the area I want cropped at that size, and double click to do it. Then, when I import that photo into CorelDraw it is exactly 3.09in wide by 2.78in deep.
Right now, I'm going out to my long-in-the-tooth PhotoShop 5.0 LE to do that simple crop task, but I prefer doing everything from within PhotoPaint because I really love the cut-out feature (greatly enhanced in X4 by the way), which I use a lot.
Am I just not getting it, or is it not possible?
Thanks for any help anybody can give me.
Dave
Hi Foster,
Thanks for getting back so quickly.
Unfortunately, that's not what I'm looking to do. What I want is a finished crop exactly the size I need to fill a certain-size hole in CorelDraw. When I draw the crop box first, then set the size, two things happen that don't work for me. First, I don't know how much of the photo I can crop to based on the hole size I have to fill in CorelDraw. Second, when I set the size of the cropped area, the crop box shrinks or expands. If I drag the handles to resize it, the finished crop is anything but the original size I needed.
In PhotoShop, I set the exact size I need to fill the hole in CorelDraw, grab the crop tool, drag it around the area I want cropped, double-click, and that's that. When I import it into CorelDraw it fits perfectly.
Maybe there's something I'm still not getting.
I think I've got it. It just involves an extra step.
Set the exact dimensions for the crop, drag the crop box around the area I want cropped, double click. Then resample the newly-cropped image back to the exact dimensions I wanted. It'll be proportional, so it will be a perfect fit for what I want.
Sound about right?
Theoretically, you should be right. But, when I do it without the resampling it imports into CorelDraw a different size than the dimensions I input into the crop tool.
If I load into PhotoPaint a 7in by 5in photo originally at 72dpi and crop it to a 3in by 2in size, for example, at 300dpi, and import it into my CorelDraw page when CorelDraw is set at 300 dpi, the photo is about half the 3in by 2in size. You'd think it would import into CD the same. But it doesn't.
Here is what I am doing, step by step:
Open a 7in by 5in, 72 dpi, photo in PhotoPaint.
Click on the crop tool. Set crop size to 3in by 2in. Set dpi to 300. A small crop box with handles appears in the photo sized to 3in by 2in.
Drag the box corner handles out to encompass the area I want cropped. The numbers in the crop size rise accordingly, until it ends at 5.3in by 3.5in.
Double click. Photo is cropped.
Save as a .cpt file.
Import into a CorelDraw page that is set to work at 300 dpi. After import, the photo is exactly 1.243in by .83in.
I seems like it should be a dpi issue except for two things: It isn't an issue if I do the same exact thing with PhotoShop, and both the crop and my CorelDraw page are set at the same dpi.
Also, in PhotoShop it has never mattered what dpi I set in the crop tool. It always sizes to the exact dimensions I put in.
Is this a mystery, or what?