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Magically Magnetic Photo Frames & Paint by Lytle Products

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Photo Booth Measuring Guide

How to Accurately Measure Your Photos for Photo Booth Strip Picture Frames

Most of us learned to read rulers in grade school but who uses a ruler in everyday life? If you are not a carpenter, a machinist or a seamstress, you are probably a little rusty. Below is a little reminder I wrote up for all those measurement challenged people out there.

American rulers are read from left to right and marked off in inches at the longest division lines, the ones with the numbers next to them. Any measurement you make will start with the full inch number and end with the fractions of an inch to the right of the full inch mark. Every inch on a ruler is divided in half and then in quarters, then eighths and finally sixteenths with ever-smaller lines with each smaller division.

Ruler

Inches on a ruler are divided into two half-inch segments with a line in the center of each inch of the ruler. This line is the ½ inch marking and is the longest segment marking between the full inch markings. Like two half-dollars equal a whole dollar, two ½ inches segments equal a whole inch. A measurement of two inches plus a half-inch would be read as 2½ (two and a half) inches. You may remember that in a fraction, the number on the bottom shows the number of pieces the whole is divided into. The top number above the line is the number of these divisions being counted. ½ would mean that the whole was divided into 2 pieces (halves) and the fraction is 1 half of the whole.

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Each inch is then divided into four ¼ inch segments. Half of a ½ inch segment is a ¼ inch. The markings for these ¼ inch segments are slightly shorter than the ½ inch marks. There are four ¼ inch segments per inch of the ruler. Like four quarters equal a dollar, four ¼ inch segments equal one whole inch. A measurement of 2 inches plus one quarter of an inch would be read as 2¼ inches. When three ¼ inch segments are counted in a measurement to the right of a full inch marking, it is read as ¾ of an inch not ½ inch plus ¼ inch. We use the smallest division shown in the measurement, (quarters in this case) and count the total number of ¼ inch segments. Three ¼ inch segments is shown as ¾.

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Each inch is then divided into eight equal segments called eighths with a marking line just a little shorter than the ¼ inch markings. There are two 1/8 of an inch segments in each 1/4 inch segment, four 1/8 of an inch segments in each ½ inch and eight 1/8 segments in each whole inch. A measurement of 2 inches plus one 1/8 of an inch would be read as 2-1/8 inches. A measurement of 2 full inches plus 2/4 inches would be read as 2½ inches. Always read a measurement by the largest fraction shown.

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Finally, every inch on a ruler is divided into sixteen 1/16 of an inch segments. These are the shortest markings on the ruler and there are sixteen of these tiny segments per inch, eight per 1/2 inch, four per 1/4 inch and two per each 1/8 of an inch. Rulers can not be used to measure anything more accurately than could be measured with these 1/16 of an inch markings. A measurement 2 inches plus one sixteenth of an inch would be read as 2-1/16 inches.

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If a measurement were 2 full inches plus 1/4 of an inch and 1/16 of an inch, it would be read as 2 and 5/16 inches. You don't say 2 and a ¼ plus a 1/16 of an inch. The fractions of anything past the full inches are always shown as one fraction and reduced to the smallest common fraction possible, the 1/16's of an inch if sixteenths are used in the measurement, 1/8 on an inch if that is the smallest part of the measurement or ¼ of an inch if they are the smallest portions used. In this example, ¼ inch is 4/16 of an inch; adding the last 1/16 of an inch would make the total 5/16. That would be added to the 2 full inches to be read as 2 and 5/16 inches.

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If the smallest division of the measurement were in 1/8 inches, you would then reduce the measurement of anything past the full inches to 1/8 inch fractions. 2 full inches plus a ¼ inch and one 1/8 inch would be read as 2 3/8 inches. If the measurement were 1/16 of an inch longer, you would read it as 2 and 7/16 inches. The 3/8 inch would be the same as 6/16 and the additional 1/16 added to that would make this fraction 7/16 inches. You could simply count the 1/16 markings from the full inch mark at the left to the right end of the measurement. Always reduce the fraction to the smallest division possible if the number of those divisions is an odd number. Any time there are even number of the small divisions such as 6/16 of an inch, you would convert the 16ths to 8ths of an inch. 6/16 would become 3/8 of an inch. 4/16 would not be read as 2/8 because 2/8 is the same as ¼ inch and that is how it should be read. Two ¼ inch measurements would be read as ½ inch. The largest number of eights possible in a measurement is 7/8. The largest number of sixteenths possible would be 15/16. Anything larger would have to be a full inch. 8/8 of an inch is a full inch. 16/16 is a full inch. 4/4 is a full inch. 2/2 is a full inch. 8/8, 16/16, 4/4 and 2/2 are not fractions and are incorrectly written. 2/16 is correctly written as 1/8 and 4/16 is actually ¼ inch. 2/8 is correctly written as ¼. 2/4 is correctly written as ½.

Please measure your photos accurately. If you make a mistake on the measurements, that mistake will end up making your frames the wrong size and they may not fit your photos. Remember, measuring is always done from the left to the right. Count the full number of inches then add any smaller divisions to the right of the full inch marking and record it correctly. Happy measuring.

If in doubt, just send us a sample of your photos and we can make the frames to fit.