Why Cropping Matters

Cropping is essential when setting up digital files. Painting on a canvas or setting up a digital art board creates the space for setting up your composition, which is kind of like the original 'crop'.

The digital action of cropping can include editing your scan or photography of unwanted elements like backgrounds and blank paper, changing the composition (zooming in), or adjusting the file for specific aspect ratios that the original art file does not fit. 

Not all images have to be cropped, especially if you select the same aspect ratio for your prints. Otherwise, some of the image will need to be cropped off from the top and bottom or the sides.

Understanding Aspect Ratios

Match your crop to the ordered size. This size will be what's printed or shown in the frame. If you are unsure what size fits your art's aspect ratio, compare its original size to the chart below, or upload the file to our website and see what crop fits.

1:1

1:2

1:3

2:3

3:4

4:5

5:6

5:7

4x4
5x5
6x6
8x8
10x10
11x11
12x12
16x16
18x18
20x20
24x24
30x30  

10x20
12x24
18x36
20x40
24x48
30x60

8x24
10x30
12x36
16x48
20x60

4x6
6x9
8x12
10x15
12x18
16x24
20x30
24x36
36x54
40x60

6x8
9x12
12x16
15x20
18x24
30x40
36x48

4x5
8x10
16x20
24x30

10x12
20x24

5x7
10x14

Tools and Techniques

Use templates or aspect ratios to prevent distortion. Photoshop or similar file editing software lets you resize, crop, or add borders to your files.

Remember to save a new copy when making edits. 'Image size' and 'Canvas size' are great places to start in this software. Watch out for resampling; enlarging the image height and width with a resolution that is too low might pixelate the file during editing.

White Space and Borders

We do not recommend stretching your digital files to fit a specific crop, as this can distort or warp the image unnaturally.

Cropping to the next closest size might help, and adding white space as a custom border can also allow you to print the whole image at the desired size.

Try Our Crop Tool

Our cropping tool during the upload process shows the current selected size on the right compared to the uploaded file's size in real time. Select the size needed and move the box on top of your file to the desired area if cropping.

The darker areas in our cropping tool will be removed. Click the rotation tool at the bottom right of your image to rotate the crop orientation. This will make it a portrait or a landscape.

Below is a quick example of our current crop tool!

The file uploaded below has a 4:5 ratio. When 5 x 7 is selected, as seen by the red dot next to '5x7'' inches', the crop tool shows that the sides will be cropped off. 

Move the frame to include signatures and important subject matter if you are going to crop.

If the desired crop needs to include the whole image, select a size in the same aspect ratio. As shown below, 4 x 5 is selected, and no cropping is shown.
If a larger size is wanted, then an 8 x 10 and a 16 x 20 would fit here, too.

Still unsure if your specific file should be cropped? Feel free to contact us, and we can check your file for you.