Today’s Question: Why doesn’t Lightroom Classic have a function where it tells you what size an image has been cropped to? I have to use the crop tool in the Develop module and test the dimensions till it comes close. At least in Photoshop, you can see Image Size. When I go to print my photos, I don’t know what size they are. This seems like a major oversight. Unless there’s a way and I don’t know it. Thoughts?
Tim’s Quick Answer: Lightroom Classic will display the cropped dimensions in pixels, though that isn’t the most convenient approach when your intent is to print an image. You can crop to a specific aspect ratio in the Develop module, however, and you can also configure the specific print size in the Print module, cropping the image as part of that process if necessary.
More Detail: When you have cropped an image in Lightroom Classic you can then review the Cropped field to review the cropped dimensions. This Cropped field is displayed in when you have selected Default from the popup to the left of the Metadata heading on the right panel in the Library module. You can also include the Cropped Dimensions option in one of the information overlay templates for the loupe view display, which you can configure by choosing View > View Options from the menu, going to the Loupe View tab, and setting one of the info popups to “Cropped Dimensions”.
Of course, the cropped dimensions reflect the overall pixel dimensions of the image based on how it was cropped. That doesn’t directly translate to a specific print size, but there are ways to ensure you’re getting the right size when printing a cropped image.
To begin with, when cropping a photo in the Develop module you can select a specific aspect ratio for the crop. You can select the “4×5 / 8×10″ option, for example, if you want to crop the image to produce an 8″x10” print.
Perhaps even easier, you can simply use the Print module to prepare your photo for printing, with a print template that includes a cell sized for how large you want the photo to appear on the page. The image will be automatically resized (and further cropped if necessary) based on the position within the cell in order to produce the selected print size.
If you want to more generally translate the pixel dimensions for the cropped image to a print output size, you could also do a little math. A common standard resolution for printing is 300 pixels per inch (ppi), so you could divide each number in the cropped dimensions by 300 to see what the size would be for a standard print scenario. I generally use 360 ppi as the print resolution when printing with a photo inkjet printer.
However, the specific pixel dimensions aren’t critical in terms of matching a specific print size, because you can always have the image scaled to fit the intended size for the printed photo. Obviously you want to be sure that the image has enough pixels to print with good quality at the intended print size, but the pixel dimensions of the image don’t need to exactly match whatever that output size will be.
