12/18/2015 by

How To Print a Collage Sheet in PDF Format

Challenge – You have downloaded an A4 sized collage sheet in PDF format with some great images you want to use in some craft projects BUT how do you print out a good quality print?

Solution – First make a decision “Will I print this out at home? or have a service print it?”.

If you said “yes to print this out at home” – you will need an inkjet printer with photo quality ink or a specialised crafter style printer and your choice of paper or card stock to print on. Your specific printer’s manual will provide detailed instruction on the type of paper it can handle, how to setup for use and  suitable inks for different types of printing.

If you said “yes to have a service print it” – you will need a copy of your collage sheet (or combine with a selection to get a number printed for you at same time) and choose a suitable print service that fits your requirements. Today you can find both local and online print services offering a wide range of print services.

In the video below I demonstrate how to use Adobe Reader DC to print your collage sheet at home:

 

  1. First open your chosen collage sheet in Adobe Reader DC (any other version will work as well)
  2. Have your printer switched on, hooked up to your computer and your chosen A4 sized paper or card stock in the input tray ready for printing.
  3. Then open the “Print” settings either from the print icon or from menu “File > Print”
  4. If printing in colour make sure the check box “Print in grayscale” is unchecked
  5. Under “Paper Sizing” select “Actual Size” and on the right hand size check the “Document preview” of the collage sheet and the document measurements (here an A4 size is shown in inches) match your size of paper you want to print.
  6. Check “Orientation” and select either “Portrait or Landscape” to match the layout of your collage sheet.
  7. Under “Pages to Print” choose either “All” or “Current page”
  8. At top left under “Printer” make sure your printer name is selected and under “Copies” select 1 for just one print or choose more if you want to print several copies of the same sheet
  9. Open “Properties” to check your current printer settings and under “Printer Shortcuts” (or similar depending on your printer software and operating system) – select a suitable printing option to match your desired finish and type of printer paper or card. here I selected “Photo Printing – Plain Paper”. Use the drop down menus to make any other adjustments like the “paper type” and “print quality”. When ready press “OK”
  10. Double check your settings on the main screen (sometimes they can change after altering the “Properties” settings) and once ready – press the “Print” button to print it out. After printing leave it in the tray for a minute or so to allow the ink to dry before handling.

If you like the collage sheet used in the video you can find it here

Please leave any questions and feedback in the comments below.

Filed Under: Image Editing Tagged With: , , ,
12/16/2015 by

How To Select and Resize a Collage Image for a Craft Project

The challenge – you have just discovered the ideal digital image to complete your craft project BUT its on a collage sheet and is to small for the final print size required. How do you select, create a new document and resize the image to fit your craft project?

Solution – is to load the collage sheet into a graphics program, use the “Marquee selection tool” to select the desired image, then copy it and paste into a new document of the desired print size. Next use the “Move tool” to select and then hold “Shift” key while selecting and dragging the diagonal corner arrows (to keep the image proportions) to resize the image to the new desired size and then align it on the document where wanted.

Be aware with JPG images increasing to a much larger size will reduce image quality and cause pixilation (squared edges) so a best practise is to find an image as close to your finished print size as possible with some margin for up-sizing. Its often easier to down-size a larger JPG image to a smaller size as it keeps better image quality.

In the following video I demonstrate how to do this using Photoshop CS2:

 

  1. Open your chosen collage sheet in Photoshop
  2. Use the “Marquee selection tool” (rectangular one here) to select the desired image, then copy it by pressing  “Control+C” (command+c on Mac).
  3. Create a new document with the desired size (here I chose 5×7 inch) and then “Control+V” (command+V on Mac) to paste image onto the new document.
  4. Next use the Move tool to select and then hold “Shift” key while selecting and dragging the diagonal corner arrows to resize the image to the new desired size
  5. Then align it on the document where wanted and save as a JPG with desired file name.

If you like the collage sheet used in the video you can find it here

Please leave any questions and feedback in the comments below.

Filed Under: Image Editing Tagged With: , , ,
12/16/2015 by

How To Resize a Single Image for a Craft Project

The challenge – you have just discovered the ideal digital image to complete your craft project BUT its just to big to fit the final print size required. How do you resize the single image to fit your craft project?

Solution – is to load the image into a graphics program and resize the image’s document width and height measurements to the desired final print size required but keeping the same print resolution (usually 300 dpi).

In the following video I demonstrate how to do this using Photoshop CS2:

  1. Open your chosen image in Photoshop
  2. To open the “Image Size” properties goto  – Image >Image Size
  3. Under “Document Size” use the drop down menu to change to your preferred type of measurement
  4. To keep the 300 dpi print resolution but alter the size make sure all 3 boxes in bottom left are checked
  5. Under “Document Size” now alter the “Width” or “Height” measurement to the desired size – with “Constrain Proportions” checked it alters the other measurement for you to keep the same proportions as the original but with the new size
  6. Press “OK” to finish resizing

In the following video I demonstrate how to do this using Gimp 2.8 a free graphics program you can download from http://www.gimp.org/downloads/ :

  1. Open your chosen image in Gimp 2.8
  2. To open the “Image Size” properties goto  – Image > Scale Image
  3. Under “Image Size” use the drop down menu to change to your preferred type of measurement
  4. Under “Image Size” now alter the “Width” or “Height” measurement to the desired size – the other measurement is altered automatically to keep the same proportions as the original but with the new size
  5. Press “Scale” to finish resizing

Please leave any questions and feedback in the comments below.

Filed Under: Image Editing Tagged With: , ,