Resize Mug Shots for Uniformity

Create consistency with careful cropping and sizing

Haphazardly cropped and resized photos create discord in your publication. While a variety of shapes and sizes can add movement and interest to a page, you should do it carefully and with a purpose. Unless or until you become comfortable mixing sizes, shapes, and other images stick with these simple guidelines.

Whether grouped on a page or spread throughout the publication, create unity among your diverse mug shots with uniform sizes. Crop your photos so that the head or head and shoulders in each photo occupies about the same space. Size each photo to about the same dimensions. If you can crop closely, you'll also avoid the distraction of inconsistent backgrounds in your photographs.

Even though each of the photos in the illustration (sidebar, top) are the same size the boy in the upper left photo in the Cub Scout uniform appears larger, closer, and also shorter than the boy wearing the red cap in the second photo. In the second set of photos below the first, the eyes are aligned and each photo shows approximately the same amount of body. Whether or not the photos appear side by side in the publication, this consistency of size helps provide a consistent look.