Cheap Photo Finishing, Professional Digital Photo Printing, Digital Photo Finishing

Home | Photo Tips | Pricing |

Live Help

6¢ Online Digital Prints, Digital Photo Prints and Online Photo Printing

The difference between "digital" and "conventional" sizes.

If you find the following explanation unclear, it is best to order digital size prints as that is what most people want, whether they realise it or not.

The vast majority of digital cameras capture images which are a slightly different shape to those captured on traditional 35mm film: digital camera photos are less wide so that they fit better onto computer monitors. This can result in a little confusion when prints are ordered as people are used to ordering 4"x6" photos from 35mm film and they try to choose the same when ordering digital camera photos.

The height to width ratio (generally referred to as the "aspect ratio") of traditional 35mm film is 2:3. Since 3 divided by 2 equals 1.5, the width of a "conventional" image is always 1.5 times longer than the height. Hence 4"x6" prints from 35mm film have the whole image without any cropping or white borders (as 6 divided by 4 equals 1.5).

The height to width ratio of digital cameras is 3:4. Since 4 divided by 3 equals 1.33, the width of a "digital" image is always 1.33 times longer than the height. So a 4 inch print needs to be 5.3 inches long to portray the whole image (as 5.3 divided by 4 equals 1.33).

We refer to the 4"x6" print as a "conventional" size print and the 4"x5.3" print as a "digital" size print.

What if I want my digital images printed in "conventional" sizes?

You may want to put your photos in an album or frame, or you may just prefer the feel of conventional size prints. You have two options with digital cameras for producing "conventional" size photos.

Firstly, you can crop the image using the crop tool in our free Pix software. You lose some of the top and bottom of the image (see "cropped image" below.) The Pix preview screen shows you how much of the image is left.
Secondly, you can avoid cropping, in which case we print the whole image with a white border down either side of the print (see "white bordered image" below.) Again, the Pix preview screen shows you how the image will look.

Digital size image	Cropped image	White bordered image

Digital Aspect Ratio 3:4	Conventional Aspect Ratio 2:3	Conventional Aspect Ratio 2:3


		Click here to start Printing 6 cent Digital Prints
PhotoDirect.com offers high quality digital prints at everyday low prices. Digital photo prints from only 6¢. Download our FREE digital photoprinting software, and use it any time to upload your favorite digital camera pictures for great online digital prints. Photodirect, your source for cheap digital prints online, delivered to your door.