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. The default centered placement removes 250 pixels from each side. Crop alignment lets you choose which edge to retain. The tool does not decide whether an omitted area includes a face or lettering.

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

Keep a subject near the edge

With the same 3000 × 2000 source, Landscape, Fill & crop and zero bleed, look at the 8 × 10 print. Set Horizontal crop alignment to 0% to keep the left edge: the crop becomes 0 pixels from the left and 500 from the right. At 100%, it keeps the right edge and removes 500 from the left. Center crop restores 250 from each side.

The effective resolution stays 250 PPI and the total width removed stays 16.67%. Positioning changes which pixels survive; it cannot retain both edges when the aspect ratios differ. Open your own JPG or PNG to judge the subject. Then recreate the chosen crop in your image editor; this tool does not export a cropped image.

• The Vertical control works the same way when the image is too tall for a canvas. An axis with no overflow in any compared size is disabled.
• Alignment is shared across the standard and custom sizes. Inspect each preview because each format removes a different amount.
• Fit & border keeps the whole image centered and disables alignment. Returning to Fill & crop restores your chosen alignment; loading a new image or changing its pixel dimensions resets it to center.

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.