resizing a image HELP!

hellooo

im using adobe photoshop 7 and i took a picture of a fingernail with my nikon d100 and 60 mm micro lens as a tiff... so i open'd the picture and i magnetic lassoed the nail out from its white background... draged the picture (just the nail part) to a new 8.5 by 11 ... now i resized the image under image size...from 8.5 by 11 to 1 inch and somthing... the point is im trying to take the picture of the fingernail and resize it close to the actual physical nail size (after i measure the nail of course) and put it aside and later put it in pagemaker so i can send it out to print as i am doing a catalog...but i dont know if i did the resizing correct im lost...please help!!!

anybody ? ... i did it again and when i go to image and resize it resizes the document not the object...how do you resize an object ?

Here's one way:

1. Ctrl + T on the desired layer
2. Hold shift while you resize it so that it resizes proportionately.

but i have another question now...when i resize it like that does it lose any quality and sharpness ?
and also is there anyway after i resize it to find out how big the object will be when i send it for print ??

THANKS!

You know what's funny, I just had a dream about this. I'm serious. I was like, hey, you'll lose quality if you make it bigger, I better tell her. Wow. That was weird. So yeah, if you make it smaller you're fine, just not larger (unless it's line art (vector).

Since you want this to be a set size, I wouldn't use the ctrl + t method. Instead, I would drag the desired image into a new document, then go to Image > Image Size and adjust it in inches.

There's more advice to be given here regarding the resolution (yours is probably set to 72, and you want it set to around 300 (at least) for print), but I don't know much about print. So, I would ask some other people about this too.

Good luck.

thanks for responding....well the ctrl + t method seems to work fine in reducing the object (nail itself) the only thing is it doesnt tell you how big the nail is afterwards ... i mean is there anyway i can tell ??? ... and i know how to drag it in a new document and go to image size...BUT it reduces the WHOLE document not the object itself ... ? right ? *remember i magnetic lassoed the nail out from its whitebackground* thanks ahead...
PS: im trying to do a bunch of these nails (one by one so i get the full nail) bring them to real life size and grid each of them on a publisher page to print the catalog page...

If you drag this layer into a new document and resize it, yes the whole document will be affected, however, since the nail is on its own layer, you can drag this layer back into the original document. So, you can see the size of it and you won't be affecting the other layers in your original psd file.

Good luck.

thanks again jhouse...
i tried it and it works ... i can see the size but only if i put it in a new document ... i just hope that the printed object size will be what it shows.

I always use "show rulers", so I know how big the object is. There's also "View Print size"