Help with custom crops in photoshop elements 3.0

[way2l84sanity]

I have photoshop elements 3.0. When I do a custom crop, save the file with no background and import it into another program I see the custom crop but it seems like the image size stays the same or that it somehow creates a white background to keep the rectangular shape on it's own. So if the photo was originally 4x6 and I do a custom shape crop to 3x5 when imported to another program it seems to hang on to that original photo size. So how do I save the edited image to the outline of my custom shape?

 

[iMeowbot]

How are you doing this, with the PSE cookie cutter tool? One easy way to get the canvas nicely cropped is to stay on the layer you just chopped, select all, then pick file->New->Image From Clipboard.

If you would prefer not to make a new image, make sure that View->Snap To Grid is checked (edit: elements doesn't seem to care what the snap setting is, it snaps anyway, odd...), and use Image->Crop. You'll find that the marching ants border will want to stick to the edges of your cookie cutter shape when you get near them, and that will give you a neat crop too.

In any event, the canvas will always be a rectangle.

It's up to the other program to support transparency. If importing leaves you with an opaque border, you might instead try copy and paste from Elements to see if it works better.