No matter how good an image or finished collage sheet is… No matter how good it looks on your screen… Regardless of what the “resolution” is…

Nothing will affect the final quality of your printed collage sheet more than how it’s printed and what it’s printed on. If printed on 20 lb “copy paper”, using a typical 3-color economy Ink-Jet printer, it’s more than likely that you’re going to lose most of the color definition and clarity that I worked so hard to restore back into many of these images.   You spent good money on your Digital Collage Sheet so why not spend a little more to be sure your final product is as good as you can get!

So here’s the deal…
If you want your new collage sheet(s) to look as good as they did the first time you saw them,  here’s what we recommend:

Paper – Use a minimum 28 lb and preferably 32 lb paper with a whiteness rating of at least 98. Those of you who’ve purchased one of my hard copy collage sheets have surely felt and seen the difference a heavy weight, high quality paper can make.

Printer – Most ink-jet printers designed for home use, aren’t very well suited for printing high quality, color images. New color lasers printers work well, but who’s got two grand to drop on one of those.

But, don’t give up just yet… Inexpensive commercial color printing is probably closer than you think. Chances are, your local office superstore (Office Depot, Staples, Office Max, etc.) offers color printing at very reasonable prices. Same with most UPS Stores, Kinko’s and even local printers that have a retail store front. Expect to pay somewhere between $0.39 to $0.79 per page for good quality prints. Most will accept your digital files on a CD or better yet, invest $12 -$15 on a jump drive… My first jump drive had 32 MB of memory and cost $35. Today, you can get a 2 GB model for half that much. Buy one… it’s a great investment and it makes getting your files to the printer so much easier to do!

Here’s a tip… Don’t just hand your digital files to the clerk and expect them to know exactly what you want. See what kind of paper they use and if it’s not at least 28 lbs in weight, head over to the bulk paper aisle and grab a ream. Ask the clerk if you buy the paper there, will they use it for your copies. We’ve had mixed results, even from different clerks within the same stores. Some will, some won’t. We’ve found that the clerk’s with the most technical knowledge of their printers, are the ones most likely to allow you to use your own paper.

Finally...  To maintain the exact size of our images, be sure that the printer scaling setting is set to "None". In other words, don’t print to fit the page. Chances are this will minimize the finished product slightly.

Good Luck…

Tips and Hints for working with PDF Files

All of our Digital Collage Sheets are delivered to you in a Portable Document Format (PDF) Format.  Download Acrobat Reader.  PDF documents are designed for online reading and/or viewing using your web browser as a platform. You should have Acrobat Reader 6.0 or higher installed on your computer for optimum viewing of PDF documents.

In order to view a PDF document you must have Acrobat Reader loaded onto your computer. Once it's loaded, you can view PDF files. Your Internet browser will automatically start the reader and display the document.   Acrobat Reader for viewing PDF files can be downloaded free of charge from Adobe at http://www.adobe.com
 

How to Save a PDF file to your Computer
w	Place your cursor over the link to the PDF document; This could be an online link like the one to the right or a link in an email message from us.
w	Using your mouse, right click on the link;
w	Select SAVE TARGET AS from the menu displayed;
w	Select the directory/folder on your computer where you plan to save the document; and finally...
w	Locate and then open the document using the Acrobat Reader software.

Magnifying the page view
w	Select the plus or minus zoom tool on the document page to increase or decrease the current magnification.
w	Once the zoom or minus tool is selected, click the left mouse button on the page and the magnification will increase or decrease.

Printing PDF documents on your own printer (see printing tip above regarding paper)
w	Click on the printer icon on your screen or select File and Print from the menu bar.
w	Depending on your printer, you'll most likely see a screen similar to the one shown below.
We recommend the following settings:
w       w	Print Range Click: Current Page (Our digital collage sheets include a 2nd page with contact and copyright information that does not need to be printed).  Tip: Clicking "Current Page" insures that you only print the actual collage sheet.  Page Scaling: Select "None" for images that are exactly the same size as the original.  This is important when printing specific size images such as the 1-1/8" Craft Circles.
Adjusting the size of your printed images: