proportion to ...

Hi,

I had a customer bring in an image, wanted the image printed a big size but she doesnt want it be chopped off. ( I am talking about a photo printing).

She said, she want the length of the image a certain size (e.g. the same as A3).

I told her because of different ratio, and if she doesn't want any chopping off, the image needs some white border around it.

Then she said, she wants the length that size, and the height to be propotion to her original image.

Here, what's the meaning of 'proportion to'? and would anyone please explain with an example?

Thanks in advance.

Hi,

Consider an image that has a length of 6 inches and a height of 4 inches.

If you increased the length to 12 inches and the height to 8 inches, they would still be in the same proportion.

But if you increased the length to 12 inches and the height to 7 inches or to 9 inches, they would not be in the same proportion.

We normally talk of length and width, or of height and width. But not of length and height, which sound lijke the same thing.

Best wishes, Clive

‘Proportion’ means equal ratio is applied to all dimensions.

I have read the question a few times. I am still trying to figure out what VC is looking for in an answer. It seems to me from the first instruction, the client’s order was to have a proportional image, not the outer dimensions, for VC mentioned about 'chopping off' (cropping). Here are his words:

“I told her because of different ratio, and if she doesn’t want any chopping off, the image needs some white border around it.”

In other words, it is about the image not the frame. For example, the client has a 4x5 portrait picture, in which the image is measured 3x4. She now wants a 40x40 picture. The question now is: what does ‘proportion’ mean? If we use 1:8 ratio (i.e., 5:40), a white border will certainly show up on both sides of the final print.

If we enlarge the picture to, say, 40x50, there should be no problem – everything will be proportional using 1:10 ratio. Since the request was to transform the picture from a rectangular to a square, how does one satisfy the client’s order?

VC then noted, “Then she said, she wants the length that size, and the height to be proportion to her original image.”

That statement tells me that she wanted a fixed width, but the height must be proportional to the original (i.e. using 1:10 ratio). She could just want to stretch either the height or the width to alter the image. In other words, I think we need the exact order from VC to be able to share our calculation.

Hi Hoa, here I am again,

I reread VC's post, as you did, to try to understand your objection.  There's some confusion about what the customer wants vs what VC wants.

The whole thing about the bloody white border was VC's response to the customer's concerns about not chopping the image and keeping it's proportions.  ( I don't think enlargement can change the proportions of an image without a special computer program.)  The customer never said anything about a white border  -  at least nothing that was reported.

It sounded like VC was saying, as you increase the size of the enlargement, the dimensions of the paper on which the image is printed are not necessarily proportional at each stage.  She was not sure what the customer meant about the proportionality of the image, and wanted an example of proportionality.

Whether or not VC or the customer had in mind to crop the final product so the "overall" dimensions (including any border) would have the same proportion as those of the original, is moot. (I believe the customer made it clear she did not want the image cropped.)

It seems likely that the original did not have a white border, and that the specified "length" dimension which the customer requested for the enlargement would apply to the image, sans border. More likely, the customer was not yet on board with the border issue.

Respectfully,  - A.

Hi Hoa,

I really don't think there are any fine points to be missed.  The problem is perhaps the opposite.  We have somewhat ungrammatical speech and reported speech, plus a certain amount of misunderstanding between the two speakers.  You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.  That is, no amount of looking at the individual words will give us a guaranteed picture of what took place or what was in the speakers' minds.  We need to temper analysis with common sense.  For example, what's the big deal about length vs width?  If both speakers used the terms length and height, where's the big mystery?  The questioner admits he/she doesn't understand the concept of proportionality as applied to this project.  That was the question.  What's the sense of imposing our understanding of proportionality on their words if that's not what they had in mind?

P.S.  Where did 40 X 40 come from?

By "needs some white border around it" I assume she means since the enlargement paper might not have the same width to height ratio as the original image, and no chopping was wanted, whatever dimension exceeded the ratio would be given to white border, preferably some on both dimensions.

See you around the Fora.  - A.