Exporting for Web - maintaining aspect ratio

I've been trying to export a 6 minute video as a Quicktime movie file which will be imported into Adobe Flash for use on the web. I've tried 3 or 4 codecs and all of them end up creating a 4:3 image where my source is 16:9. What codec would be best to use and maintain the original aspect ratio and still keep the video file a reasonable size to import into Flash.
Thanks for the help
Carl

Ok, I misspoke when I used the term "codec". I did mean I had tried a variety of settings, none of which preserved my original 16:9 aspect ratio (and this, despite setting "preserve aspect ratio" in the mpeg-4 settings). So, I have experimented with a variety of settings to no avail. I'm sure there is something there - I was hoping someone had the same experience and could clue me in on what settings to use.
thank you,
Carl

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How to maintain aspect ratio?

I want export a video in 2.35.1, but want to maintain aspect ratio(and get rid of the black bars).
How can I do that in Compressor?
I can only figure out how to compress it. But can’t find any options for maintaining aspect ratio.
I know this can be done with QuickTime 7, but I don't have it.
Currently using Compressor 4

As mishmumken said, custom frame sizes can be
Specified in Compressor Geometry.
But I'm concerned that you may not have preserved the aspect ratio
When you exported from your editor
Here is a great tutorial that describes how to do that from FCPX.
Http://library.creativecow.net/articles/payton_t/FCPX_Custom-Resolution-Timeline s/video-tutorial
Russ

Resize flash movie while maintaining aspect ratio?

Hey all,
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screen resolution of 1900 x 1400. I think that was the
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now we need to shrink the .swf down to a more reasonable size
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Hey all.... I am just now working on this project.
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Using Quicktime's "Export for Web" feature in iWeb?

Greetings,
Does anyone know if this is possible within iWeb, that is, to use movies created using Quicktime's "Export to Web" feature, which really seems to deliver superior movie quality?
Much appreciated,
DaveB

Thanks, good stuff, though I'm still having a small problem with this. I'm getting a gray line around the top and left of my movie and the right side of the player is getting cut off. When I try to make the width larger, it just moves the gray line further to the left.
Any ideas?
http://www.brianderr.com/brianderr/copythis3.html
*This is the script that I added to the html snippet in iWeb.* I changed the height to 505px because it was cutting off the bottom of the player at 496.
<iframe src="http://idisk.me.com/brianderr/Public/KANYE%20PT%201/kanye1.html"
style="width:720px; height:505px";
scrolling="no">
</iframe>
*This is the script from my read me file that I kept:*
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<title>QuickTime Pro - Export for Web - KANYE PT 1</title>
<script src="http://www.apple.com/library/quicktime/scripts/ac_quicktime.js" language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="http://www.apple.com/library/quicktime/scripts/qtp_library.js" language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"></script>
<link href="http://www.apple.com/library/quicktime/stylesheets/qtp_library.css" rel="StyleSheet" type="text/css" />
</head>
<body><script type="text/javascript">
</script>
<noscript></body>
</html>

Question about file size when using "Export for Web"

Hi!
I created a .mov file and worked to get a great balance between file size and quality so that I could deliver it via the web and make it easier for end users to see the video on a slower connection.
My question: When I use "Export for Web," my .mov file is converted into a very large .m4v file--more than double the size of the original file. I know that this export option is to optimize the file for a wide variety of users/internet speeds. Am I correct in guessing that the end size is not an issue? I would post the .mov file instead, but I really like the option of embedding into a html page along with the "click to play" option.
Bottom line--is it better to post the smaller .mov file that i originally started with or to go ahead and link to the bigger .m4v file that was created with the "Export for Web" option?

"Export for Web" is a feature of QuickTime Pro and it makes 4 files and the html page code for easy copy/paste Web page editing.
The very first file is called a "reference movie" and it links to the other 3 files (56kbps, 900kbps and 1.5Mbps). It, and the page code, "read" the connection speed of the viewing hardware and "serve up" the correct file based on that connection speed.
In nearly all cases the "Desktop" version would still be smaller in file size than the original source. The times the file would "increase" in file size would be when an already compressed was used as the source file. You can find out more about your source file by opening it in QuickTime Player and viewing the Movie Inspector window information.
There are dozens of other html "tricks" that could be used if your source file is already compressed but you want a different display size:
Page code to show "aspect" or scale="tofit". This code allows values "outside" of those found in the actual QuickTime file be used for the Web page display. A 320X240 QuickTime .mov file looks pretty good at double size (640X480) but the file size would still be that of the source file.
"Poster Movie" is another html trick that loads the Web based file directly in the QuickTime Player application (bypassing Web page layout restrictions). These files are also known as "Presentation Movies".
Another method is the QuickTime Media Link file (.qtl). These are simple text based files that are used as a "direct link". These use simple XML (Extensible Markup Language) and are easily created in any text editing application. The simple syntax has amazing control over a simple QuickTime .mov file. You can launch (and quit) the QuickTime Player, display at other dimensions and even embed "links" inside the display.
Some of my files as examples:
http://homepage.mac.com/kkirkster/Lemon_Trees/ a "Poster Movie" style.
http://homepage.mac.com/kkirkster/.Public/RedneckTexasChristmas.qtl
A QuickTime Media Link file. A tiny file should download to the viewing machine, launch QuickTime Player, present the movie and it even includes a "link" to my Web page.
Edit: It appears you must now double click the .qtl download to launch QuickTime.

Maintaining aspect ratio when transforming

Since I have upgraded to CS6 I've noticed that when transforming an object it does not maintain the aspect ratio even when I am holding shift while transforming. I have to each time check the link button (maintain aspect ratio)

It'll be because 'Snap Vector Tools and Transforms to Pixel Grid' is enabled in 'Preferences > General', an option that didn't exist before CS6. It's actually being more truthful that way because the transformed layer has to become an integer number of pixels wide and tall, anyway, and that's not going to be a perfectly proportional scale in most cases.
See what I mean by trying to scale an 11 x 10 pixels layer by 50%. It's impossible for that to be scaled by exactly 50% in width because the result has to be either 5 or 6 pixels wide (it will be 6). When the 'Snap...' preference is disabled (i.e. the pre-CS6 behaviour) you can scale the bounding box by precisely 50% in width but the pixels don't cover precisely 50% of the original width. When the preference is enabled, you won't be misled by being able to scale the bounding box to precisely 50% when the pixels cannot cover precisely 50%.

How do i transform a layer with maintain aspect ratio through scripting in Photoshop?

Hi,
How do i transform a layer with maintain aspect ratio through scripting in Photoshop? I am expecting your reply.
thanks,
Rajiv.s

I don't think your talking apples to apples. First I do not know of any Maintain Aspect Ratio icon in Photoshop. The only icon I think associated with transform is the anchor point icon in the option bar for transform. I think you may referring to the constrain check box in the image size dialog which you can check when resample is checked. Image size effect all layers in the document and the documents canvas size. The document canvas size will be changed to the values in the images size dialog and all layers will be transformed by percentage the canvas was changes while maintaining the layers position over the canvas and the layers I think may be cropped so only pixels over the canvas remain.
I do not know if you know that layers can be any size and have aspect ratios different then the documents canvas.
In your case it sounds like your describing a template that has a canvas size that is 2000px wide be 3000px high a 2:3 portrait aspect ratio. Your image file has a landscape aspect. If you place that image into your template place would by default transform the image so the image would fit within the 2000px by 3000px canvas size there would be a white border top and bottom. You could transform that smart object layer to it actual pixels size activeDocument.activeLayer.resize(100,100, AnchorPosition.MIDDLECENTER); then calculate the size you want to transform its height to. By retrieving the canvas size and the layers boundaries. Divide the canvas height pixel size by the layers pixel height size should give you the percentage you need to use. Make sure you set the ruler units to pixels so your working with pixel values for the canvas and layer size values. The resulting layer will be larger then canvas size keeping the anchor point centered will result in the canvas size masking off both sides. In effect cropping you landscape to a portrait. Note cropping a image from one orientation to the other changes the composition drastically.
If your trying to make a composit like collage you may want to look at my Photoshop Collage Toolkit it will fit images to fill a 2000px by 3000px area http://www.mouseprints.net/old/dpr/PhotoCollageToolkit.html
You could also do centered 2:3 crop that is resized to a 3000px

Cropping in PS while Maintaining Aspect Ratio and DPI

I shoot the Nikon D3, RAW (.NEF) and convert through ACR. Through ACR, the DPI is set to 300 DPI; the DPI caries over to Photoshop.
I crop in Photoshop using the crop tool (not marquee). To maintain 2:3 or 3:2 aspect ratios, the crop tool requires the width and height in inches or pixels. If specifying resolution, the document size will crop to that DPI, if not; the DPI is derived from pixel dimensions.
In my case, I’ve been cropping at 2in by 3in (or reverse for orientation). The resulting “real” image pixel dimensions are still very high (correct to crop size) but the document size reported in PS is 2in by 3in with a wildly high DPI. By changing the resolution back to 300 DPI through Photoshop, the document size returns to normal. Therefore the picture has not lost anything; it appears to only be a function of the Meta data. The pixel dimensions remain constant while the document size and DPI change.
It apears that you canot specify an aspect ratio via the crop tool without defining it in inches or cm. You can do it with the marquee tool but the marquee tool sucks for cropping. You can however crop in ACR with the crop tool by merely specifying the aspect ratio (not in inches or cm). In summary, the PS crop tool is based in inches or cm while the ACR crop tool is simply aspect ratio.
What I can do to crop in PS while maintaining aspect ratio and defined DPI. Is there a work-around, magic trick, or something else I can do to fool the PS crop tool into an aspect ratio not based in inches or cm?

Just to summarize:
Setting a dimensioned ratio (e.g., 2 in by 3 in for Width and Height) in the Crop tool without filling in a Resolution value yields a crop with the desired aspect ratio, and without any resampling.
There is no way to specify a ratio with the crop tool, specifically, as the OP has requested, though in a future version perhaps specifying simple numbers there without any units might be a way Adobe could facilitate this. It would be a nice addition and with little downside.
I guess what I don't understand, though, is why the OP cares about the "high" resulting dpi value? It's just a number.
Expanding on this, the Resolution is nothing but a metadata value that can be changed at will (e.g., through Image - Image Size... - uncheck Resample) at any time in the future. There is ALWAYS a Resolution value associated with the image, both before and after the crop (though the crop tool may end up changing it; so what?). In short, the Resolution is just an arbitrary figure until such time as the user wants to use the image for a purpose (e.g. printing).
Always think in terms of pixel dimensions (number of pixels horizontally and vertically) while editing, then think about dpi right before publishing. It's hard to go wrong this way.
-Noel

What Sequence Setting for 4:3 Aspect Ratio?

Just moved up from FCE to FCS2. Do commercials for small market cable and broadcast in SD 4:3 in FCE. Now in FCP I see a sequence setting for Frame Size Aspect Ratio NTSC DV that shows 3:2 aspect. Not really clear on what this is and after pouring through the manuals and searching this forum, still don't get it.
In the end, I want normal SD 4:3 TV commercials. In FCE, it was a simple NTSC setting. Does my sequence in FCP need to be 4:3 or 3:2? Need a little education on this and can't find any explanation anywhere.
Thanks for the help.

What format is your source? I would never export out of FCP in that manner to achieve a frame rate conversion.
There are a couple of ways to change your footage from 23.98 to 29.97. The easiest I feel, is to select all the clips in your 23.98 sequence using CMD+A. Then copy (CMD+C),create a new 29.97 sequence and paste (CMD+V) those clips into your new sequence. Render and export a Quicktime Movie, Self-Contained.
However, I'm curious if you're shooting in HD based on your 23.98 frame rate. If you are, then you should be using a better SD sequence than DV which is 4:1:1 color sub-sampling. You may be throwing away half of your color information by working in that format.
Andy
Andy:
Using your method of copy/paste to a new 29.98 sequence solved the problem. Thanks.
What I had done to try out the new features in FCP vs. FCE was to create a 23.98 timeline (since I am shooting in SD 24pa with a DVX100A), add a Motion Master Template, add a few jpg's to the drop zones, add 3 NTSC-formatted jpg's to the end for the logos, add a Soundtrack music bed.
For future commercials, will likely be shooting 24pa footage, so wanted to figure out working in a 23.98 sequence. Just had not understood how to get it back to 29.98 for the cable company and broadcast stations. Your advice (copy to new sequence) makes it simple. Hopefully based on this info, I am still on the right track to accomplish my goal. I want to get the 24p look for some clients, but deliver the finished spots via upload to the stations' servers in a QT MOV.
If you have any other advice that would improve things, ready, willing and able to listen. Been Mac-ing since Mac Plus days, but new to FCP. Made the switch from Express with the access to 24p shooting. Thanks.
Message was edited by: Neil Whittey

Export for web doesn't work (X and 7).

I use the export for web feature a lot. I find that I have to bounce back and forth between Quicktime 7 and X because sometime this feature will work and sometimes it doesn't. There's no consistent reason I can figure out why the applications will or will not work properly. On some occasions I get some small 8Kb file. On other occasions, I only get the audio.
Any ideas?

Uhh, the system requirements for Photoshop CC state you need 2 GB RAM, 8 GB recommended. This is likely your problem.
Benjamin

Pasting from Illustrator to Photoshop doesn't maintain aspect ratio

I have vector artwork that is not aligned to a pixel grid in Illustrator. In CS5, I would be able to paste the vector object as a smart object into Photoshop file that was larger than the illustrator image and resize larger while holding shift to keep the ratio the same.
However with Creative Cloud, if I have a square in Illustrator that happens to be 17.3px by 17.3, then paste to Photoshop in a file that has a larger canvas than the paste, I get uneven horizontal and vertical ratios (width = 18; height = 17). It seems to overestimate the width and make it appear fatter horizontally (which is the wrong aspect ratio). This is very noticeable when vector objects (like perfect circles and small icons) get scaled up in Photoshop.
I have tried unchecking and checking "Snap Vector Tools and transforms to Pixel Grid" but this doesn't seem to fix it.
The only way I've been able to get this ratio to be kept is to create a new document with the size automatically changed to clipboard dimensions (which are the desired 17x17). When you paste as smart object, it now uses the correct aspect ratio.

When you paste an object into Photoshop take a look at your options bar to see if the Maintain Aspect Ratio button is checked. I'm guessing that it isn't which is why Illustrator objects are being pasted at different heights and widths. As you can see in the image below, a perfect circle from Illustrator is being placed in Photoshop at 100.05% and 99.44%. By checking the link button between the two percentages the numbers get locked to the same percentage so that the object is pasted in at the correct dimensions.

Strokes on appearance is getting cut off when exporting for web & Devices

I'm a screen print artist using Adobe Illustrator CS5 in windows 7(blah!) to export images of our customers' artwork into a huge folder of images on a server. The images are then loaded into a program so that they can be viewed company-wide and by the customer.
Occasionally, when there is an appearance applied to text it seems to cut off the tops and/or bottoms of the outermost stroke.This seems to be only happening to text, and happens randomly and is very annoying. See the image attached.
it does this with both JPEG and PNG images, and whats more, changes when you adjust the image size. it either gets better or worse. I have to change the image size on every export so that they are all within our size requirements.
I have found that if you put the art into an envelope with all the settings at 0 and then export for web it prevents this from happening. However, that isn't very efficient as i need to be moving a ton of artwork a day, and I am not the only person who may be working on the Illustrator file.
Is there any setting either in illustrator or windows that may be causing this anomaly?

Try adding:
Effect >> Path >> Outline Object
So your type will still be editable
If that does not work you may want to:
Type: Create Outline
I only had this problem once before, on some snickerdoodle cookies package, and that was a script font. Might be related to the font you use.

Using Color profiles and exporting for web browsers

I've been trying to figure out the answer to this question. As I'm sure you're aware Safari supports color profiles while other web browsers like Firefox do not. I would like to setup Aperture so that it displays and exports images for the widest audience possible. Unfortunately it embeds a color profile and my images on the web only display correctly in Safari. I've tried changing the proofing profiles and export settings to no avail. I didn't seem to have this problem in iPhoto, a picture there looked the same on screen as it did in Safari and Firefox but I can't achieve the same with Aperture...

Thanks for that information, unfortunately I'm not really any closer to solving the issue since I've already tried that. 1) by default, doesn't Aperture automatically embed the sRGB color profile? 2) if I set view>proofing mode to sRGB shouldn't what I see on screen match what a "dumb" application such as Firefox does when it ignores the embedded profile and display sRGB? I've tried going into the preferences>export settings and changed everything to sRGB IEC61966-2.1 but I see no difference in the final image between that and the default setting.
I guess my question is more specific to Aperture since I don't have this problem with other applications. For example, in photoshop if I do Export for Web it strips out any embedded profile and when I open that image in Firefox and Safari side-by-side they are exactly the same. But not so when I export an image from Aperture, when opened in Firefox it is desaturated and flat and of course in Safari it honors the embedded profile and looks fine.

Exporting for Web Usage

Hi. I have no doubt this has been discussed, but am hoping I can get a more concrete answer. I would like to export some shorts to put on my web site. I know there is a balance to be struck between quality and file size, but the choices that can be made with settings leaves me confused.
I am using the latest version of Final Cut Studio Pro. What are best settings based on people's experience to export for web usage? This would ideally be a quicktime file in the end.
Thanks.

I usually use Sorenson 3, quarter screen size and they usually come out pretty manageable. I would use the H.264 codec but I want to be sure all who come to my site and view the Quicktimes and some people don't have QT v.7 yet.
Allow me a shameless plug as well: http://www.scottsimmons.tv/
If you look at any clips on my site and save them as a quicktime movie, then open them an playback in Quicktime player, you can hit command + i and see the movie info where you can see exact specs on each clip. That can give you an idea of quality and file size. It's really an imperfect science.
G5 dual 2.7 Mac OS X (10.4.2)

Quicktime Export For Web files inaccessible

I accidentally posted this in the QT for Windows section, but I'm a Mac guy.
This is totally bizarre. As of this afternoon, all of the QT files (generated with Export for Web from QT7.6) that I've posted over recent days and weeks, on multiple servers, played back by different computers at different locations, running QT 7.6.4 and 7.6.6, OSX 10.5.8 to 10.6.3, WILL NOT PLAY. How is this possible?
If I connect directly to the original .mov file (as opposed to the "alias" .mov file generated by Export for Web), then it will play. If I connect to the .m4v file, my browser wants to download it, and then play it.
What's going on here? Apparently I'm not the only one to have this problem. Is this due to some sort of DRM update put in place on account of the iPad introduction? iTunes and QT have been updated on at least one of the computers I've tried this with, and it didn't make a difference.
Hello??? Is anybody out there?

Here are several examples:
Posted on March 12: http://vista.adventureadv.com/jackall/Aragon-proof1/index.html
Posted yesterday on my server:http://vista.adventureadv.com/jackall/cherry-proof1/index.html
Posted yesterday on my remote server (hosted by 1&1): http://www.adventureadv.com/cherry-proof1/index.html
In case you think I screwed up the original exported HTML file: http://vista.adventureadv.com/jackall/cherry-proof1/readme-cherry.html
http://www.adventureadv.com/cherry-proof1/readme-cherry.html
Direct link to the QT file: http://vista.adventureadv.com/jackall/cherry-proof1/cherry-720.mov
Also, the server named vista is a Mac server running OSX Server 10.4-something - despite its name, it is not a Windows Vista machine.

Exporting for Web - maintaining aspect ratio

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