I have “yes more signs” on my desktop and could print them on my inkjet printer. However, tyhey are too large for me. I have photoshop elements 11 but have not figured it out yet. How do I resize these great signs?
The photo edit programs like Adobe and Gimp have a stiff learning curve. The manuals are vague, possibly cause the manual author never understood the program himself. I’d try plain old Microsoft Paint. I think you can zoom in and out til it’s the right size and then hit print and it comes out the printer the same size as it shows on the screen.
Also, don’t overlook the easy to learn freely available IrfanView + Plug-Ins for its combination of greater flexibility (graphics viewer, converter, cropping, etc.) and simplicity.
Note you can always reduce (using resize) the graphic without any loss of pixel clarity. You will need IrfanView’s cropping tool to remove the desired graphic from the many Signs in your source graphic. Use save as to keep your cropped graphic original intact, and; save as again (and again) until you get your desired reduce/resized graphic.
IrfanView shortcut keys for save as are Ctrl-S – By using this keys-combination – You will be able to save the new (save as) graphic, in the same windows folder (directory) as your original Signs source graphic.
Another “graphics resizing trick” is to use a flexible plastic six-inch ruler right against the computer screen with IrfanView to get the desired graphic pixel size since the graphic displayed is close to the actual size unless you have resized graphic on the screen display before saving the graphic. My six-inch rulers have pictures of Ronald McDonald on them from a McD promotion, and are indestructible in my laptop bag, unlike “harder” plastic rulers.
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Click on Image (on the Menu Bar)
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and look for something to the likeness of “Resize”
It should give you some options, measurements in Pixels or in inches, and the dots per inch.
Since you are going to print this on a printer, you want to set your dots per inch to 300. (95 is correct for display on your monitor or on a website). Save that change, and then make the change for the size photo that you want to print.
That is how it is done. I do not use photoshop, I use either PhotoPlus X6 or Ifranview, but the idea SHOULD be the same, although I have found that it does not always work as I expect. It will look giant on your monitor (because of the 300 dpi) but if you have a scale you should see that it is correct according to the number of inches you have set.
LION uses PagePlus X6 for his publishing program. I can just drop a picture on that program and then drag with the mouse to resize it however I want it to be. You can do this too in Microsoft Word and or Publisher.This works for a printed page, but will not resize your file. Changes made in Photoshop will, and so you will want to save that under a different name so that your original is not damaged.
ROAR
As usual, LION have good insight.
Serif applications like PagePlus X6 for graphics/publishing, and WebPlus X6 for WYSIWYG websites are a really good “bang for the buck” – Been using PagePlus since the mid-1990s.
Note you can download a free version of Serif X5 - PagePlus (etc.) including many templates – A few advanced features are greyed-out, but features we model railroaders need are still intact.
Microsoft Word allows you to import images and then adjust their size.
LION just built this building in PagePlus X6
Photoshop Elements (which Bruce has) is pretty easy to learn. It’s intended as a scaled-down version of PhotoShop.
No. Zooming has nothing to do with the actual size of the image.
Steve S
This is why my note above says you can always reduce the size of the graphic without loss of clarity – Reduce is the operative word. Increasing graphic size will produce lesser clarity/quality.
I guess I’m not as computer literate as I thought. Nothing works like I want it to. I tried “paint” and Photoshop elements. I did a resize to 50% and saved the result. The images on the screen were halved but both printed full size. I have a nice Banta grocery store I would like to have these signs for.
I might sound like a wise acre here…but…
What if you printed onto a sheet of the plastic that the old …wait for it…wait for it…“Shrinky Dinks” were made from…then if they`re to big you can just put them in the oven and shrink them down to size?
How many pixels wide was the original image? And did it fill the page when you printed? If so, here’s what might have happened. The original image might have been more than twice the size of your page. When you printed, the Shrink To Fit Page option may have been selected so it was printed so the pic would fill the page.
When you reduced it to 50%, the pic was still larger than the page and the Shrink To Fit Page option again shrunk it to fit the page.
Steve S
Steve,
The size is 184 X 240 pixels and I didn’t select fit to page.The printed area came out 7.5" wide and 6.25" high.