We have a cool new toy on campus – kind of a web-based information kiosk that displays messages on plasma screens, and I’ve been appointed content manager.
One of the screwy things about the software is that it expects all graphics to be in a 4:3 aspect ratio, but we have resized one of the display windows so it’s not 4:3. If I upload 4:3 images, they are distorted when they display.
I discovered that if I crop the images to the exact pixel dimensions of the display window, the images will display without being distorted.
Is there a way in PhotoShop to see the pixel measurement of the area defined by the cropping tool? Right now, I’m guestimating the dimensions, cropping, going into “Image Size” to see how close I am, rinse and repeat until I’ve got it right. It works, but it’s tedious.
What I would do is create a new image (file/new) of the exact size you want. Then, paste your image into that canvas. Resize the new layer to fit (edit/free transform) while holding shown shift to maintain the aspect ratio. It will need to be cropped along at least one edge, but this will be easy using this technique.
If I understood your quesiton, this should work quite well for you.
Instead of using the crop tool, I’d suggest using Image Size or Canvas Size under the Image menu at the top (The former will resize the image, the latter will crop it). Both have an option to set the new dimensions in pixels, though for Image Size you’ll have to tick off ‘constrain proportions’ first or it’ll keep the aspect ratio.
You can limit the rectangular selection tool to select either a fixed size (in pixels) or a fixed aspect ratio. In my version of Photoshop, the choice appears in the ‘tool options’ window.
