How Do I Know If My Image Needs Cropping for a Wall Mural?

You have found an image you would love to turn into a wall mural.

You know the size of your wall.

So surely you can just make the image the same size as the wall?

Sometimes you can. But sometimes the shape of the image and the shape of the wall don't quite match.

Even though both are rectangular, one may be proportionally wider or taller than the other.

When that happens, the image needs to be adjusted before it can properly fit the wall.

Why doesn't my image automatically fit my wall?

Imagine taking a photograph and trying to fit it perfectly into a picture frame that is a slightly different shape.

You have three basic choices.

You could leave empty space around part of the picture. You could stretch or squash the picture until it fills the frame. Or you could crop a small amount from the picture so that it fits correctly.

For a wall mural, stretching or squashing the image is usually something you want to avoid.

A person can suddenly look too wide or too thin. A circle can become an oval. Buildings and other objects can look distorted.

Cropping allows the image to keep its correct proportions.

The technical term for the relationship between the width and height of an image is its aspect ratio.

But you don't need to calculate aspect ratios yourself to use Mural Station.

How does Mural Station know if my image needs cropping?

When you upload your artwork and enter the dimensions of the wall, Mural Station compares the shape of your image with the shape of your wall.

If they already match, there may be no need to crop the image.

If they don't match, Mural Station warns you rather than simply stretching or squashing the artwork to make it fit.

You can then decide how you want the image cropped.

You stay in control of the crop

A computer can calculate how much of an image needs to be removed, but it doesn't necessarily know which part of the picture matters most to you.

Perhaps there is a person's face close to one side.

There might be some important text, an animal, a building, or another feature you don't want to lose.

That's why Mural Station lets you position the image yourself.

Select Crop, and your artwork opens inside the crop area required for your wall.

You can move the image up, down, left or right to choose which part of the original artwork you want to keep.

When you're happy with the position, select Use Crop and return to your mural with the crop applied.

You don't have to work out how many pixels to remove from each side.

You don't have to calculate the aspect ratio.

And you don't need to learn complicated image-editing software just to make the picture fit the wall.

Why did my DPI change after cropping?

This can initially seem strange.

You haven't deliberately reduced the quality of the photograph—you've only cropped it. So why might the DPI figure change?

The simple answer is that cropping removes part of the original image, and therefore removes some of its available pixels.

The mural still has to cover the physical size of your wall, but there may now be fewer original pixels available to cover that area.

That can change the calculated resolution at the final mural size.

It doesn't automatically mean that the mural cannot be printed. It simply means image resolution should be checked again after the crop has been applied.

Mural Station does this as part of the preparation process rather than expecting you to calculate it yourself.

What if I only need to crop a tiny amount?

Sometimes the difference between the proportions of the image and wall is very small.

The important thing isn't whether the crop is large or small. It's being able to see what will be removed before committing to it.

That way you can make the decision rather than discovering after printing that an important part of the image has disappeared.

What about sloping ceilings and unusual wall shapes?

Not every mural is going onto a simple rectangular wall.

Loft rooms, staircases, gable walls and other spaces can have slopes or unusual shapes that need a different approach.

Mural Station also includes tools for preparing artwork for these situations, but that's a separate subject which we'll cover in another Mural Tip.

For this tip, the important point is simple:

Do I need to understand all the technical calculations?

No.

Understanding why cropping happens can be useful, but you shouldn't need to sit with a calculator working out aspect ratios, pixels and percentages just to prepare a wall mural.

That's the job of the software.

You provide the image and the wall size. Mural Station checks whether they match and, when cropping is necessary, gives you control over the part of the picture you want to keep.

The technical work can happen in the background.

You concentrate on how you want the finished mural to look.