Improve pictures with cropping

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Improve nearly all your pictures by cropping them right in your HP printer.

Cropping is probably the easiest way to improve all of your photos. And you can do it right in your HP printer. Learn these simple cropping tips for a lifetime of better photos.

This demo will show you how to bring a photo to life with a simple cropping technique you can use right in your printer—no PC required!

Before you start

Cropping a photo is an easy way to improve nearly every photograph you take. The goal of cropping is to fill the frame with your subject and eliminate background distractions to produce a much stronger picture. It can be done in your camera, with photo-editing software—or right in your HP Photosmart printer.

There is no fixed and fast rule for cropping, as every picture has its own unique story to tell. How you crop an image tells the viewer what to focus on. Only you can decide what that story is and the best way to draw that subject out.

Cropping tips

An artful crop can make your subject the clear center of attention. Simply decide what the focal point of your picture is, and crop in as close as you can with just a few simple touches using the touchscreen on your HP Photosmart printer or All-in-One.

While you're cropping, aim to eliminate any distracting visual elements that can detract from your main subject. Typical distractions include background clutter—for example, people who are not your subject or objects that appear to be sprouting from people's heads such as light poles or branches.

You also don't want to crop in so close that the viewer doesn't know what they are looking at! Be careful of cropping off a subject's chin or ear. An image needs a bit of space around the subject to allow for some eye movement. You can also crop a photo to bring out the natural frames in your image, making for a dramatic visual story.

You can only crop so much. Because your photo was taken with a certain amount of pixels, at a certain resolution, if you zoom in too closely it can make your cropped image look fuzzy and pixelated. How closely you can crop depends on the size of your original image file.

Cropping a photo with your HP All-in-One

Most HP Photosmart printers and All-in-Ones (such as the HP Photosmart C8180 All-in-One seen here) have a touchscreen that features easy-to-use cropping functionality. You can zoom in or out on a specific area of a photo. When you print the photo, it will be cropped so only the area shown on the display prints.

Load your photos onto your printer by inserting a memory card into the appropriate slot on the HP All-in-One, connecting a storage device to the front USB port, or inserting a CD/DVD (label side up) into the drive. The Photosmart Express menu appears, with the most recent photo shown on the display.

Touch View. The View Photos screen appears. Touch or scroll through the thumbnails of your photos. When the thumbnail of the photo you want to edit appears, touch it. When the selected photo appears by itself on the display, touch the image or touch Options. Select the Shuffle button to move photos among the template positions on the page.

Touch Edit. Touch Crop. Touch the zoom in or zoom out magnifying glass icons on the screen to zoom closer to or farther away from the subject of the photo. An outline appears on the photo to show you an approximate view of the area that will print. Use the arrow buttons to pan around the photo and select a specific area to print. Touch Crop to apply your changes

To preview your cropped photo, touch the Back icon until you return to the Options menu, then touch Print Preview. To print, touch the Back icon until you return to the View Photos screen. Then, touch Print.

Following these easy-to-understand tips will make your photos come to life. Experiment with cropping to your heart's content, and see for yourself how powerful your photos can be!