Expert: LizaL - 3/12/2005

Question
Hi,
 Would you show me how to get the safe margins in photo shop? I want to import photoshop file from Adobe Premiere Pro. But, every time I do so, (my pictures)my layer happens to be larger than the safe area(margins area)of Adobe Premiere Pro and portion of the photosho player cannot be seen.
Please, help me.
   samba  

Answer
Hi Samba,

There's no such thing as safe margins in Photoshop, but from a little reading that I did, I realize they *are* part of the Premiere Pro setup, and I see what role they play in those files. So I think you might be posting your question in the wrong forum, since this forum deals with Photoshop and Photoshop files.  

I know nothing about Adobe Premiere Pro, so I can't give you any solid advice on it. I have no idea how Photoshop files integrate into Premiere Pro -- I can only surmise that you would need to measure your "safe area" within the safe margins in Premiere Pro, then make your Photoshop file smaller than that.

So let's say your safe area in Premiere is 6 inches wide by 4 inches tall. I would think that if you created a Photoshop file smaller than that -- say, 5 inches by 3 inches -- it would fit within those safe margins when imported into Premiere.

To create a document of those measurements in Photoshop, click on the File pulldown menu, select New, and specify inches in the measurements pop-up menu. Then just type in 5 inches wide, and 3 inches for the height. Like this:

http://little-works.com/all_experts/new_file.png



To change the physical size of an *existing* document in Photoshop, you can go to the Image pulldown menu and select Canvas Size. In the resulting dialog box, you specify the new size of the file -- that is, the boundaries of the file.

Bear in mind that any content in the image will be clipped if you make an existing document smaller, and you'll get a dialog box warning you about this.

Another thing you'll see is a grid of squares below the area where you specify the new size of the file. The dark square represents the content of your file. You can click on any square in the grid and move the contents of your file to that location -- for instance, the upper right, upper left, etc. Then when you change the canvas size, that's where your content will be.

Here's an example of making an existing image smaller:

http://little-works.com/all_experts/canvas_size.mov

(You might have to wait a minute for the movie to load...)



But that's about all I can help you with, since I don't know Premiere Pro. However, I can try and refer you to some people and forums that might be able to help.

1. Here's a tutorial from PC World for creating a basic video clip:
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php?id=952424452

2. DMN Forums:
http://www.dmnforums.com/cgi-bin/displaywwugindex.fcgi?forum=adobe_premiere&star...

3. From Nick Hodge, who works at Adobe:
http://www.nickhodge.com/mne.php?msid=18

4. From the Digital Video Editing site:
http://www.digitalvideoediting.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=29248

5. Adobe -- You need to register to get into this forum, but it might have a lot of solid information on Premiere Pro:
http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?14@@.1de9c1bf



Well, I hope some of this helps you -- but I'm sure you'll get the information you need if you visit a Premiere Pro forum.

Please post back if I can be of any further assistance, or if you need for me to clarify anything!

Lisa