Kodak kiosk comes up short for snapshooters

Kodak kiosks are popular in drugstores and Walmart.

The machine forces the camera image, regardless of its native
aspect ratio, onto standard print sizes,4x6, 5x7 or 8x10. The
result is image stretching or compression and an unflattering
distorted messSterpiece. Also, the image is cropped along the
edges of the borderless prints. A clerk told me customers
complain and it kills repeat business. Its a shame because these
kiosks could be real profit makers with improved firmware:

The machine should automatically sense the native aspect ratio
of the image to be printed and place it in its entirety on the
print media, leaving a white border as needed to fill in the
excess area. The customer can then trim the print.

Until updated, it is possible to work around this major
shortcoming:

Example for 4x6 print, 4x3 image. Size "3" side to 3.75";
preserve aspect ratio. The "4" side will adjust to 5" then
create a canvas of 4x6 with the image in the center block. The
resultant print will be uncropped, undistorted. The penalty, of
course, is a smaller image, the time involved in calculating and
having to trim the white borders.

Some images are not critical for small cropping along the edges.
That simplifies the calculation. For the above example, size the
"3" side to 4", the "4" side will size to 5.33 and make the
canvas 4x6, with the image in the upper block. Just trim away
one edge of the print for a perfect edge to edge print.

Pete Smith, L.A. DJ, (KDAY)



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