In our weekly installment of Clients from Hell, a hilarious collection of anonymously contributed client horror stories from designers, we present “When they expect the impossible.” For previous posts, click here .
At my old job, I used to have to help people print their photos. One customer had a 4x6 photo that she wanted to expand to an 8x10 print.
Client: I can’t have this be cropped.
Me: I understand that, but this 4x6 doesn’t have the same dimensions as 8x10. There has to be some slight trimming because 4x6 is equivalent to 8x12, not 8x10.
Client: I don’t want them trimmed, I want the whole image. Can’t you just make the photo fill the whole 8x10 space?
Me: Are you asking me to stretch it? Because if I stretch the two remaining sides to meet the edges, the photo is going to be distorted.
Client: No, I don’t want the image to be warped.
The only other possible option was to include a white background so that the edges of the photo would have a white border. I went with that.
Client: No, this won’t do. I don’t want it to have two white strips. I don’t want it to be stretched. I don’t want it to be cropped at all. I just want this 4x6 to be printed exactly as it is in 8x10. Why can’t you just do that for me?
