the meaning of "portrait" and "landscape"

[John Eyles]

I thought I knew what it meant to select between "Portrait"
and "Landscape" modes (when printing from Photoshop 6 on a
Mac onto an Epson printer). I mean, it's obvious, right ?
Maybe not.

My confusion started when I wanted to print onto half of a
letter-sized sheet (but without cutting the sheet in half,
but rather just feeding it into the printer in reverse to
print the other shot). I made a custom paper size of
5.5 x 8.5", with the long side the horizontal one (so
that I'd feed the letter sheet into the printer the usual
way, that is, in a vertical orientation).

For a landscape image (one wider than tall), I found I needed
to select "Portrait" for it to come out oriented properly
on my virtual half-sheet of paper. Doesn't make sense to me.

I'm wondering if "Portrait" simply means that the printed image
is right-side up with respect to the printer itself, and is
independent of the aspect ratio of the selected paper. So that
if the paper is wider than it is tall, then the meanings of
Portrait and Landscape are actually reversed.

Can someone help me ?

Thanks, John

[Arthur Entlich]

As far as I'm concerned, Portrait means the image when viewed correctly
is narrower in the left to right (horizontal) direction than the up and
down (vertical) direction. Landscape is the opposite, where the
horizontal direction is wider than the vertical direction. So I think I
agree with your perception.

I've found some programs/drivers (Corel Draw is one) get weird about
this, especially if the width of the image (horizontal dimension) is
under 8.5"

It has caused me numerous false starts and wasted pages. I wish the
industry could get it together. I agree, its a mess.

Art

[John Eyles]

>As far as I'm concerned, Portrait means the image when viewed correctly
>is narrower in the left to right (horizontal) direction than the up and
>down (vertical) direction. Landscape is the opposite, where the
>horizontal direction is wider than the vertical direction. So I think I
>agree with your perception.

But what I'm saying is, when I insert a piece of paper whose size is wider
than it is tall, then the sense seems to be reversed. I have a landscape
type image, and wish to print it on a custom paper-size of 5.5x8.5", where
I'm feeding the paper in with the long edge going in first. To get it to
print correctly, I have to specify "Portrait", even thought the image
is really landscape (according to your and the usual definition).

John

[eric]

There is no reason for confusion with the terms landscape and portrait -
they are exactly what you have described and there is no other definition.

Where confusion may creep in is where one is wrongly interpreting whether
the term is being used to apply to the paper, or the image. Without calling
up the programs and checking on how they are using the terms, I would
suggest that you establish beyond doubt whether the terms are being used to
define the outside dimensions of the paper, or the image.

Eric

"John Eyles" <j...@cs.unc.edu> wrote in message
news:b2bdsg$735$1...@capefear.cs.unc.edu...

[Arthur Entlich]

Yes, I understand what you wrote, and I think the driver is wrong in its
usage of "Portrait" for that. What is stated in my previous message is
that for some reason some drivers seem to thing Landscape is only images
that are over 8.5" wide, so therefore since your image is under 8.5"
then it must be "portrait"

Art