Positioning, scaling, and cropping the cover image

Our next step is the Positioning, Scaling, and the Cropping of the cover image and arranging it with the masthead. Here is our work in progress, and here is the finished version. So, returning to cover_inprogress1, first thing I'm going to do is come to my Layers panel. I'll come to the bottom layer, currently layer 1, and I'm going to rename this cover image I will then press the F Key to choose my Rectangular Frame tool and to draw a frame from the top left Bleed Guide all the way down to the bottom right Bleed Guide, because I want my image to bleed on four corners.

Then from the Object menu, I will set the Fitting options. I want the Alignment of the image in this frame to be from its center point. I want the Fitting to be Fit Content Proportionally. The Crop Amount will be 0, and Auto-Fitting will be turned off. So, now I'm going to switch to Bridge--or if you prefer, you could use Mini Bridge, but I'm just going to use Bridge-- Bridge is currently open in compact mode. For me if you get there, and you find it's in the full mode, you can switch between the two by pressing Command+Return or Ctrl+Return.

Here is the cover image that I've chosen. I'm now going to just drag this into that empty frame. I will dismiss Bridge. Because I chose Fit Content Proportionally, we are seeing the image full frame. Because the aspect ratio of the image and the aspect ratio of the frame differ, we have some empty space, top and bottom of the frame, so the image needs to be scaled, and it needs to be cropped within the frame.

I'll switch to my Selection tool, move over the image and then click on the Content Selector. To start with, I'll move the image down so that it extends all the way to the bottom Bleed Guide, and now I can scale the image up, and I can do this in a couple of different ways. If I zoom out so that I have a bit of growing room, I can hold down my Shift key and then just come and pull on one of the corners, and that's going to make sure that I scaled the image proportionally.

Alternatively, if I use my reference square, the bottom portion of the image is now in place, so I could lock that by clicking on the bottom center reference point and then increase the scale by using this shortcut, Command or Ctrl+More than, that's just going to increase the scale by 1% point every time I touch those keys, and that's about where I want it to go. I may also wish to adjust its position left and right.

I'm just now nudging it over using my right arrow, and I'm going to nudge it down a little bit so that when we get to overlap the top portion of the model's head with the masthead, the overlap isn't too much, just a small amount. So, I think that's the position that I want. This may change, but for now I'm going to leave it where it is. One thing to be aware of is that I've applied scaling to this image. I want to make sure that the image is still at least 300 pixels per inch so that it's of sufficient resolution to print.

So if I select the image, if I come to the Links panel--if you don't see the Link Info, you can click on the disclosure triangle at the bottom left of the Links panel to show that-- and this is the number that we are concerned with, the Effective PPI. We want to make sure that this is 300 or more. As it's 369, so we are in good shape.