Help with Resizing

[Meryl]

Is there anyone who could help Whisper Angel (http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/forum/showthread.php?p=51236#post51236) - not knowing Paint Shp Pro I'm a bit stuck!

[LadyPhoto]

Dear Whisper Angel,

There is also a kit of the same graphics as separate pieces in the freebie section of Downloads. Because the plopper is square, and your printer is going to print a rectangle, you may be better off resizing and trimming the individual pieces. Another approach is to resize the layout and print it at an 8.5" or 8" square, but that will be small for the little square pictures. You can't just resize a square into a rectangle because the design features wil be distorted.

If you need to use the plopper, and don't want an 8" square layout, try resizing the 12" square image to 11", and then trim the top and bottom borders till you have an 8.5"x11" image. "Not sure how that goes in PSP, but you could even use the rectangle selection tool and delete in increments, checking the image size as you go.

If you want to have Costco or Wallmart print for you, check out forums on printing, then contact the printers.

'Hope this helps.

LadyPhoto

[DMurray407]

I always do my layouts at 12x12, then when I am all finished, I resize to whatever dimensions work for me. You just use Image (on the top bar), then gor to resize. Choose your resolution (I use 200-300 for printing, or 72 for just web use) Make sure you are on pixels/inch. You could resize to virtually any square measurements-but the others are correct, you can't really go from a square to a rectangle in most cases. When you are ready to resize for the web, I usually go back to Image>resize. I change my resolution to 72, then in the top set of boxes, I input 600 pixels as my largest number (in the case of a rectangular page, it could be w=400 and l=600, if a square layout, I use w=600 and l=600). Then click OK and it will resize for you. One last step before it's ready for the web/emailing is the jpg optimizer. You will find this again, on the top bar under "file", then export, then jpg optimizer. You can set your "compression value" to a number using the little arrows until the "compressed" value (middle right-below the preview box) is 100,000-125,000. this should be good gor emailing and most web photo sites, though some sites do have a limit of 100,000.

You can do your original at 12x12@300 resolution, save it, then make a copy (shift key, D will duplicate it for you) and resize the copy to the size you want to print, then make a 3rd copy and resize for the web. I normally just save the original and the web version, but you couild file away all if you want.

There are many more knowlegable folks around here than me, but that is how I do it.

Good luck, and feel ree to ask more questions if problems arise of if you don't understand my instructions!
Deb

[DMurray407]

One other thought. If you want to use a plopper, say an 8.5x11 as a 12x12 layout, you can create a new page as the size you want-12x12, put the plopper on as a new layer (keeping it's original size-you will have some uncovered areas on your background) and color the bare background to match in a complemantary color or pattern. You could do the same thing using a 12x12 plopper on an 8.5x11 page-resize the plopper to fit on the page (say 8x8) then apply it a blank 8.5x11 page.

I recently took Emma's beginning PSE elements class and she devoted an entire lesson to using and adapting ploppers. I'm sure her PSP class is very similar. Her classes here at DSU are very worthwhile-even if you consider yourself to be an experienced user, I'm sure you will learn some useful things!

Good luck!

[Emma]

If you want to resize something not using the orginal proportions, you're going to get distortion. On the grid, the lines will be different widths.

If it's a 12x12, and you want 8.5x11, then you need to resize it with the Deform Tool (RIGHT click on a corner handle and resize) and fill in the extra background areas with something else.

The Kit is the way to go for this application because you can put the pieces on and resize individually as needed. In the store, Ploppers are both square and rectangular, but with freebies I take more lazy license because, well...it's free :o

So try resizing kit pieces as layers instead, or doing your own Plopper alterations. One user here had her Plopper grid hanging off the side, which looked great, another used her own papers behind it with the kit.

The DSU 130 class has Lesson 4 using premade graphics and altering/customizing Ploppers as mentioned. So there are a lot of ways to use these. Program knowledge is the key, and to get that asking questions, taking classes, and reading tutorials is the way to go. Take what you learn in one area and generalize it to apply to another area, and you'll really take off adapting available resources to what you personally need.

hth
keep asking! The more you ask, the more you learn!