Aperture - print sizing

[spylaw4]

I am currently trying out Aperture 2.1, and finding the crop tool frustrating.

In preparation for printing I prefer to have a copy-image sized/cropped to A4/A3/whatever, and in Lightroom I have a preset added to the crop selection tool to allow this.

Can't seem to be able to do this in Aperture. It appears to want me to select a Custom option, type in size figures which then disppear so I have to repeat the laborious process. A right royal PITA. And no, Apple, I don't want to be constrained to imperial print sizing!

Any suggestions for a way round this? Can't find anything in the Apple Discussion Forum on this. Thought I would ask here first before asking there.

Thanks in advance for any helpful suggestions.

[joewehry]

The only workaround I know is creating one crop of the dimensions you want in a master photograph, then using the lift and stamp tools to paste the same crop dimensions to other photos.

When you first stamp the new image to be cropped, Aperture will auto-select the crop area, but when you then go into that photo you've stamped with the crop, and select the crop tool, it will let you move the cropping box around or resize while keeping the custom dimension.

I believe the older version of Aperture had the A4 dimensions (? does anyone know?) so I'm not sure why that was changed.

[spylaw4]

Thanks for that Joe. That is fine when doing a batch at once, but still a pain for singles.

Sounds as though we need an SDK plug-in for more metric/conventional crop size options - I don't have the skill to write same - anyone care to have a go?

[joewehry]

Yes, I suppose the other option is to use the crop tool set as close to the "A" size (ex A4 kinda of equals 8.5 x 11 size give or take) and when you go to print, select the Din A paper size from the printer set up.

It will probably crop a fraction of an inch here or there from the version, or add borders depending on your preference. Not the most precise, but still usable?

[inaxio]

I also find this new way of dealing with crop in Aperture quite frustrating. I actually think Aperture had gone very effective with the eldest version and it seems it has changed for the worst.