Sizing 12x12 to 8 1/2x11

[Homemaker5]

So I've done all my layouts in 12x12. If I wanted to print an 8 1/2x11, would it look right or do I have to modify it first? I wasn't sure if it would scrunch the pictures or not. I thought I read somewhere that it was recommended to do layouts in 12x12 and then just scale down, but I'm really not sure.

[Rusty]

Hi, and welcome to the forum,

Sure, you can print, depending on how your printer works, it's either going to cut something off or put a white border on the side(s)

Think about it, you want to print a square image on a rectangle.

My daughter emailed a picture to me, sized at 4x6 because she knows that's how I usually print. I wanted it on a full sheet so I told the printer, "print this image on "letter size" paper. I didn't resize anything in PSE, just went right to print.

My resulting image is 10-3/8 x 6-15/16 with white borders filling up the rest of the 8-1/2 x 11 sheet of paper. Unless you crop or add canvas to your square image, I'll bet you are going to get something like this when you print.

Rusty

[Wags374]

You easily scale a 12x12 down to any other square size. But changing it to letter size would require reworking the layout if you don't want everything distorted.

If you want it in a size you can print at home try changing it to 8x8. There are albums available in that size in most stores, including Walmart.

[Rusty]

Wow, Jane,
what an obvious answer - print it 8x8 on letter-size paper.
I got so wrapped up in aspect ratios, I totally missed the common sense solution :)

Rusty

[TexasRose]

Absolutely! Print it at 8x8. It makes a nice sized page for scrapbooking, without taking up so much room. And you can find that size album at so many places......either online or elsewhere.....Target and Wally World for example.

[Wendy]

Hi ...

.. and welcome to the forum :)

Was there a special reason that you wanted this one to be 8 1/2 x 11 ??

Wendy

[cats4jan]

I have been printing my 12x12' layouts at home in the 8x8 size using my 8.5 x 11 paper.

I don't have a printer that will do 12 wide - which is the primary reason I switched to 8x8 for printing. I now prefer 8x8.

Target will print your 8x8 on 8x10 paper - you just have to hit a button to fit it onto their paper - and then your print will come with 2 inches of white space.

However, Walgreen's machines cannot do this. They merely fill the whole 8x10 piece of paper and crop off the edges of your page. DON'T USE THEM.

Just remember - you cannot make a square into a rectangle without changing proportions which will result in skewing your page - or by cropping off edges.

However, you can fit a 12x12 onto an 8.5 x 11 by downsizing your 12x12 to an 8x8.

[Wags374]

I think it was Linda Sattgast over at www.scrappersguide.com that once said something about digital scrappers tend to go large when scrapping 12x12 pages - especially with text. And I have found that to be true in my experience. The layouts I desgined at 12x12 look just fine at 8x8 and the journaling is still very readable.

[cats4jan]

Jane - I was concerned that I was making my photos too small to easily see when printed at 8x8, but I haven't found any disappointment using this size. I think we do tend to "scrap large." Visualizing the page on screen vs how it will look on paper is a toughy for some of us.

I think your "happiness" with an 8x8 printed page depends upon how clearly your page prints. And whether you started out as a 12x12 paper scrapper.

Had a good day yesterday. Finally got brave and reset the color profiles on my printer - now I'm getting real beauty when I print my 8x8's.

I use semi-gloss - which I think I now prefer over glossy. However, guess I should get an album and put the semi and the glossy into it and see which I prefer then. I'm sure it will make a difference when placed behind plastic.

[Homemaker5]

My MIL has a book I started for her when my first was born and I think it is 8 1/2 x 11 or pretty close. I thought maybe I could use some of the same pages. But then again, it's fun creating new ones!

Lots of good ideas in here though. Thanks bunches! I love going thru the forum here because I learn so much!

[Wags374]

I started out scrapping in 8x10 and then switched to 12x12. Had to redo about 70 pages of my daughters baby book. You can drag and drop a lot of it onto a larger page. Sometimes it worked without much tweaking and sometimes I just had to start over from scratch.

[cats4jan]

My first "scrapbook" - and I use that term loosely - was an 8.5 x 11 album of collages. They were photos with titles on blank background. I was pretty proud of that effort - but now I look back and really wish I had known how to at least add colored paper in the background.

I flattened them all - so if I wanted to create real scrapbook pages with those photos, I would have to start from scratch - cropping each photo again, etc. Don't think I'll do it.

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1o9kaJbF86BDOv1A22MmRjXVdtpyvt_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1o9kaJbF86BDOv1A22MmRjXVdtpyvt)