PSE11 move command result too big

[wyzboing]

I have just installed PRE & PSE11 on my new pc. This is my first forray into PSE11. and I have alreadsy hit a brick wall. I wanted to look at some panos side by side with a view to maybe stitching some of them together to make a 360. So just to have a play around with them and see which ones I may want to use I downsized them to 4000px each (from over 8000) making each one a canvas size of around 29cm wide.

I then created a new background canvas of 245 cm wide x 30 cm high and dragged the first image onto it thus creating a new layer.

So far so good.

I then wanted to move the image/layer to one side so that I could then drag the next image onto the canvas next to it. At this point I got an error message: "Could not complete the move command because the result would be too big."

PSE8 copy.jpg

So now I am perplexed. I tried the same image files in the same way on my old laptop in PSE8 and it works perfectly.

I have attached a screen shot of each. I think it may be something to do with the layers somehow being linked? or the the background pixels being partly locked? in PSE11. How do I rectify this.

Thanks

[Steve Grisetti]

According to the Photoshop Elements Help file, the maximize size for a photo in Photoshop Elements is 30,000 x 30,000 pixels.

Some of the measurements listed in your post are in pixels and some are in centimeters, so I can't tell. Are you exceeding that 30,000 pixel width in our project?

[Bob]

It sounds like you are near or at the limit for a Photoshop Elements image. 245 cm wide x 30 cm high doesn't tell us the actual pixel dimensions. However, if we assume your image resolution figure was the same as the 29 cm wide 4000 pixel image, that comes out to over 30000 pixels wide.

I don't know why you were able to do it in PSE8, the pixel dimension limit was the same. When you created the big document in PSE8 did you have the same resolution as you did when using PSE11? I do notice that in your screenshots, the PSE8 file has transparency which means there is no background layer. The PSE11 file has a white background layer. Having a background will increase the memory usage. Perhaps that's a factor. There is a file size limit that varies depending on the amount of RAM in your system. Try converting the white background layer into a regular layer by double clicking on it and then delete it. If the problem persists, it's not that. You'll probably need to make the images smaller.

Edit: I just had a thought. When you have transparency, the pixels are still there but the pixel opacity is set to zero. So, the layer you are trying to move actually has the same dimensions as the document internally. It's likely moving the layer would require an intermediate canvas size larger than the limit and the move would fail.

If you really need to work with documents with pixel dimensions near the 30,000 pixel limit, you should consider going to Photoshop CS6. The limit in Photoshop is 300,000 pixels in either direction.

[wyzboing]

Thanks for this. I went back to PSE8 and looked at the settings for the canvas size. I was surprised to see that the transparent background had a resolution - this was 28px/cm. In my PSE11 version it was ridiculously large. I started again with a new transparent canvas the same resolution as the PSE8 one and it now works fine.

Now the canavas is 6860 x 756 px @ 28px /cm = 14.8m px. But if the pixels are transparent does this count towards the final size?

Presumably I will be limited to the number of images of a any given size I can put onto the canvas. I tried it with 3 images each 4000x 906 px and that was ok but haven't tried any more than this yet.

I upgraded to a new pc with Windows 8, 8GB ram and currently almost 2Tb free disc space because I thought this would help me with these large panoramas - but presumably not if PSE files have a fixed pixel limit - not sure Bob whether you mean 30,000 or 300,000. In particular I wanted to bend some of these 360 panos around into a doughnut shape so they meet end to end but this used to freak out my old 4Gb laptop!!

Regards

[Steve Grisetti]

Glad we could point you toward solution, wyzboing!

[Bob]

In Photoshop Elements, the canvas can not be larger than 30,000 pixels in either width or height. It doesn't matter whether the canvas pixels are transparent or not.

Are you going to be printing these or just view them online or on your computer? If printing, how large will the print be?

You can import a large number of images in the file (one image per layer). The question is how many will you be able to place end to end. That will depend on how you size them. What do you need for your final image?