new and needs help

[sboatright]

Hi! Shanda here. I am VERY new to the idea of digital scrapbooking, but have been a 'traditional' scrapbooker for about 2 1/2 years now. I swore this was something I would never do and when I became pregnant with my first child two years ago a friend of mind persuaded me to give it a try. Now I am hooked!!

I thought I would try out digital scrapbooking hoping it would be somewhat faster (despite the learning curve). I am using PSE which I know very little about.

My first question is about the size I am going to use. I was thinking about doing my LOs in a 12 x 12 size, but printing them as 8 x 8. Does anyone do this? I am afraid of loosing some of the quality by resizing when I print. I just thought I would ask before I got started.

Thanks. :)

[vanillalatte]

Well, I have scrapped in 12x12 and 8x8. I've decided I like 8x8 more, but I save at a very high resolution so that I can resize to pretty much any size without losing anything. I think it's more about your personal preference than anything.

I guess my best suggestion would be to try a couple, print them on regular paper instead of your photo stock and see what you think.

Welcome to DSP!! I hope you find it a warm, friendly, and helpful place. :)

[sboatright]

Thanks LaDonna. I will do that. We just went on our first family vacation and I really want to do an 8 x 8 album, but I was just curious about retaining quailty when resizing. When you say you save at a very high resolution - may I ask what res you are saving at?

[vanillalatte]

Depending on the the detail and the photos in my layout, I'll either save the PNG file at 300 or 600 ppi. If there's alot of detail, I'll save at a higher ppi.

[Kristen]

I know a lot of scrappers here scrap 12x12 at 200dpi, and then resize to 8x8 which works out to 300dpi. As far as I can tell, the only thing you want to pay attention to is that your journaling isn't so small at 12x12 that it's a strain to read at 8x8. Beyond that, the resizing shouldn't affect the quality - it's generally resizing up that you have to be careful with. I'd suggest making a layout and printing it out first to see what you're getting, before you do the entire album. But I think you'll be very happy with the results.

[sboatright]

Thanks Kristen. I am trying out a layout right now.