Square canvas, rectangular photo - maintain aspect ratio?

[BeeDreams]

Hi,

I would like to have the dimensions of the final jpg be 1920 by 1920. My photos are not square, so I would like to maintain their aspect ratio and fit them into the square canvas (so some of the canvas will show on the top and bottom of a horizontal photo, and on the left and right of a vertical photo).

How do I go about doing this? I have tried setting the canvas size first, then opening the photo and visa versa... Do I need to resize the photo to an appropriate size before I even open it into the canvas? I'm pretty sure once I get the resizing right, I would need to anchor the image in the middle of the canvas, correct?

Any tips, any help??? The deadline for what I'm working on is TOMORROW, I'm normally not a last minute person but I just found out about this yesterday.

Thank you!

-Megan

PS - I'm brand new to this forum and to PaintNet - I can't believe I JUST found out about PaintNet - I love it!

[flip]

will you need all of your photo in the square?

if not, make a new project that's square. Then copy+paste the photo into the square document.

[BeeDreams]

Yes, I would need the whole photo in there, which is why I was having difficulty.

But after posting my inquiry, I ate some chocolate covered esspresso beans and gave it another try and I'm pretty sure that:

1. I'm an idiot, and

2. I found the answer!

I opened the photo, in this case a horizontal photo, and resized it so that the width was 1920, and maintained aspect ratio. THEN, I resized the canvas by absolute size to 1920x1920. Perfect.

DUH, DUH, DUH AND DUH. So simple!

Sorry to waste the forum space for this, but maybe someday some other person will have difficulty with this and here the answer will be!