Cutting Color 8x10 into 5x7

ericdan · Nov 22, 2015

Sorry for the ignorant question, but I want to enlarge 5x7 onto 8x10 paper.
The only paper I can buy pre-cut in stores here is Fuji Pro 8x10.

My easel has presets for 8x10 and 5x7 paper. So if the paper has the right size it nicely snaps into the easel.
Last time I cut 8x10 in half, stuck it into the 8x10 slot of the easel and used a mask with tape to print 5x7s.
Is there an easier way to do this maybe?

Cutting 8x10 in half in the dark is easy, but I'm not sure how I could further cut accurately into 5x7.

Thanks in advance.

Dr Croubie · Nov 22, 2015

depends how much you mind wasting (or turning into test strips).
Get a good guillotine with an adjustable arm for size measured at 7", cut a stack into 7x10" and a bunch of 1x10" test strips, stick it all back in the bag. Turn the lights on, adjust the arm for 5", lights off and cut the lot in half to 5x7".

ericdan · Nov 22, 2015

Test strips are a nice byproduct

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ic-racer · Nov 22, 2015

Print the size image you want. Cut the paper after processing and drying.

ericdan · Nov 22, 2015

Using a mask?

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bdial · Nov 22, 2015

If you can live without the test strips and your easel will accept a 5x8 sheet, it's a lot easier to just cut the 8x10 in half in the dark then trim the extra from the finished print.

This was our standard way of working in an industrial lab I once worked in where a large portion of our output was 5x7.

Another method is to not cut at all in the dark, and flip the paper to get two prints on one 8x10 sheet. You mask the half you aren't exposing with a card or similar. But this works better when you're printing multiples of the same negative.

Just be careful when you are trimming a few hundred 5x8's to 5x7 with a guillotine trimmer.
DAMHIK

ic-racer · Nov 22, 2015

ericdan said:
Using a mask?

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Do you have a printing easel with adjustable blades? Mask off a 5x7 area with the blades.

ericdan · Nov 22, 2015

The easel I use looks pretty much like this:

I can adjust to 5x7 with an 8x10 in place, but the problem is the area outside that will get exposed.
I assume if I don't care about wasting paper, I can just cut off the outside parts later.

Cutting Color 8x10 into 5x7

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