8 × 10: crop or white borders?

One photo, two shapes

A 3000 × 2000 pixel photograph has a 3:2 ratio. A landscape 10 × 8 inch print has a 5:4 ratio. Keeping the photograph’s proportions leaves two choices: crop the sides to cover the paper, or keep the whole frame with borders above and below. Stretching one dimension changes the shape of people and objects.

To reproduce this comparison, enter width 3000 and height 2000, choose Landscape and leave bleed at zero. Changing print orientation rotates the paper sizes only. Use Swap source width & height only when the source dimensions themselves need swapping.

Fill crops the sides

For fill, the 2000-pixel height is placed across 8 inches: 2000 px ÷ 8 in = 250 PPI. At that scale the whole source would be 12 inches wide, but the print is 10 inches wide. It keeps 10 × 250 = 2500 source pixels, leaving 500 outside the canvas.

That crop is 500 ÷ 3000 × 100 = 16.67% of the width. A centered placement removes 250 pixels from each side. The tool centers a placement; it cannot tell whether the omitted area includes a face or lettering.

Fill: 3000 × 2000 px → 2500 × 2000 px retained for a 10 × 8 in canvas at 250 PPI.

Fit keeps the frame

For fit, the 3000-pixel width is placed across 10 inches: 3000 px ÷ 10 in = 300 PPI. The image height becomes 2000 ÷ 300 = 6.667 inches. The unused height is 8 − 6.667 = 1.333 inches, or 0.667 inches at the top and bottom when centered.

Fit reports a higher effective PPI here because the source is printed smaller. It has not gained detail. Neither placement resamples or exports the source. The comparison tells you which layout to create in an editor.

• Use fit when the whole frame matters and the printer will preserve borders.
• Prepare the crop deliberately when edge-to-edge coverage matters.
• For borderless work, enter the printer’s bleed requirement and recalculate because the canvas is larger than the finished trim.