How to print custom size pictures?

[texasmccoy]

Hi there,
I've owned my new MacBook for over a year now, and the way mac deals with pictures and what you can do to manipulate them still baffles me

Could someone please explain to me how to make my pictures print out in custom sizes I can choose myself? I'm just using normal paper, nothing fancy, these don't have to be super quality or anything. I know how to use iphoto to resize pictures by using the "export" function, but still when I go to print the new resized files out, the print comes out huge, taking up the full 8X11 sheet of paper, looking huge and pixelated and stupid

Trying to customize the picture size when going through the "print" function of iphoto only crops the picture to the size I indicate, not resize the whole thing like I want.

This is really such a simple task, I don't know why it seems so difficult for me to learn using my mac. This is really frustrating, I am tired of wasting ink and paper trying to figure this out. I'm pulling my hair out and about ready to warm up the old Windows dinosaur computer to do my photos.

Is there an application other than iphoto (which I really dislike) that I could use to do this sort of thing? Something that is more intuitive to use?

 

[Makosuke]

It would help to know what version of iPhoto you're using, but I'm going to assume '09.

In which case, it should be quite simple: When you select "Print..." for a photo, the simplified Print dialogue you get should show a preview of the page, and have four popup options down below. The fourth is "Print Size"; the popup list should show everything from 2x2 to 5x7, plus "Standard". If you have "Standard" selected, it will fill the page of whatever paper size you have selected in the drop-down above. Select one of the other sizes to print smaller; the preview panel should change to demonstrate how it'll look when actually printed. The attached picture shows an example of a photo printing at 3x5 size on 8.5"x11" paper.

Alternately, you can use the Preview application (the default OS image viewer for saved images). Its default setting is to fill the page, but there is a section in its print dialogue that has a "scale" option; select that option and type in a percent that you want it, and you'll get an image that size centered on the page. The preview box should, again, show you what it'll look like.

 

[texasmccoy]

YAY!! That works. Thank you, you're a life saver!

I tried both your suggestions and it cleared up the mystery for me. I now realize the trouble I was having with the Preview application was that after choosing Print from the File menu, the dialog box that shows up was in it's smaller/minimal setting, and I wasn't noticing the itty bitty blue arrow next to the name of the printer, which expanded it to show all the other options you described... now that I know that stuff is there I feel like such a bozo for not finding it sooner Silly me. Once again, trying to think like "Windoze" on my Mac

You were correct, BTW, iPhoto 09.

Thanks for the instructions

 

[Knoodles]

Glad to hear you got it sorted in iPhoto. Might I recommend a great free app that easily lets you print in just about any size or use any of hundreds of free templates.

Portraits and Prints

 

[texasmccoy]

Portraits & Prints

Thanks so much for the recommendation! Portraits & Prints is a nice simple app, I've been wanting something like this for a long time now, as iPhoto just drives me batty for some reason, I can't get used to it. But P&P is very nice Great that it's free too!