Resizing Layouts for Printing

Before I start this post, I just wanted to answer Jeni's question. She asked about letting my kids look at the books. I don't know how most children are, but my children seem to wrinkle page protectors like their nothing. They turn the pages too hard or fast, or bend them or want to get the page out. And all of these things leave the page protector with creases. Now, if that's not a problem, you're lucky. :) As far as the books go--the solution for me is to have a book specifically for them. I was lucky (if that's the right word) because Shutterfly made mistakes in 2 of my books. They happily reprinted and shipped a new one out right away, but that left me with an extra (imperfect) book. Those became books for the girls. And actually Kathryn, who is 3, is wonderful with looking at books and hasn't caused any damage. Hannah has creased a page here and there but is actually better than I thought she'd be too because she LOVES to see the pictures. Okay, so I said I was lucky there but I don't expect that to happen every time. They will be happy enough with the books they have for now, but at some point, I will just order a 20 pager for them to have. I do plan to print a big book for us and then individually books for them, but I don't want those ruined either. We don't leave the books where they can reach them, except for their own, so we haven't had a problem. Does that help at all? I can trust Kathryn with them, but not Hannah. Plus, if they have their own books, it makes them feel important and they really seem to like it!

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This post goes in conjunction with the last one, so I thought I'd go ahead and post it.

First of all, the 2 times I printed my pages individually, I didn't resize or change them in any way. I don't know if anything got cut off. I don't think anything did, but if it did, it was minimal. I didn't notice!

Now books are a little different. Let's talk about Shutterfly first because that's what I've done. To find the digital scrapbooking section, go here. You can find all of the specs for photobooks here. If you follow those specs and read the step-by-step instructions, you can't go wrong. Just so you know, Shutterfly does provide a template but it doesn't work with PSE (at least, not PSE 4).

As you can see, the pages for an 8x8 book are actually 7.75x7.75 with the bleed being 7.95x7.95. Basically, that just allows for the imperfect cuts that are bound to happen. So, the area between 7.75 and 7.95 should get trimmed, but it could be a little less or a little more. For Viovio, the book is 8.5x8.5 (many other options, but that's what I'm going to do) and the bleed is 8.75x8.75. There are a couple of things you can do.

First, this is how I do it:

• Resize the layout to 7.75x7.75 (or 8.5x8.5 for Viovio) (In PSE, Image>Resize>Image size--and I usually change bicubic to bicubic sharper)
  
• Resize the canvas to 7.95x7.95 (or 8.75x8.75 for Viovio) (In PSE, Image>Resize>Canvas size
• Extend the background paper and any other elements that need it to the edge of the new canvas. This area will (should) be cut off.
• Save as a jpeg and it's ready!

Okay, so that's my method, but there are some easier ones and I'm not sure why I haven't tried it. I am now in the habit of doing this after I finish a LO so I don't have to go back to it. However, if you aren't sure what company or what size you are going to do, you probably don't want to do that!

Now, if you don't do anything on the edges, you could just resize your layouts to 7.95x7.95 (or 8.75x8.75 for Viovio) without extending the background or anything. And actually, Viovio has a little guide you can download that will cover the area that will be cut off for sure and the area that may get cut off so you can see. I like my way just to be safe, or maybe it's the perfectionist side of me. :)

So, here's some possibly helpful tips:

• If you have ACDSee Photo Manager, you can convert all your files to jpgs and then do a batch resize. Awesome isn't it? Why don't I do it that way? I'm not sure! I guess partly because I do extend the background, but this would be SO much easier! Check it out here!
• Jessica Sprague just posted about batch resizing in PSE! I haven't tried this either, but you can check it out here! I don't know if it has to be jpg files.
  

There you go. Let me know if you have any questions.

Wow I talk a lot. :) I hope this isn't too long for you!