One of my most favorite about printables is how you can easily resize and change them to fit whatever your needs might be! Today I thought I’d share some tips on resizing printables for you.
There are three methods I use the most often – settings and software can vary depending on what kind of computer you have but for the most part the settings are the same to achieve the right size for your next project!
Resizing Printables by scaling an item:
Here is how to resize something to print in Windows:
- Open the image or document you want to print.
- Click on the “File” menu and select “Print”.
- Under “Paper Size”, select the size you want to print.
- Under “Scale”, select the percentage of the original size you want to print.
- Click “OK” to save your changes.
- Click “Print” to send the document or image to your printer.
It really is that easy! What’s great about this method is you can use it for both making an item smaller but also bigger! Sometimes just by adjusting the size to 150% you can make the item bigger when you go to print it.
Different computers/apps have different settings, but many also offer a setting to make one item print across multiple pages if you want to go REALLY big – For that I usually use Adobe Acrobat but many other apps also support the feature for enlarging items to print.
The only thing to consider when enlarging an item is that it may cause the image to be a bit more pixelated or blurry is areas. This is fine if you are using something like our printable shape templates as a pattern, but definitely is one of those things that matters if you are printing out something where the image quality matters, such as coloring pages or printable artwork and greeting cards.
Resizing Printables to print multiple copies on one page
Another setting you can experiment with is the “”Copies Per Page” setting. For example, if you want to print something smaller but also print multiple of them on one page for a group project or to make things in bulk, you can adjust how many fit on a page this way.
This probably sounds really confusing, but don’t worry! I’ve uploaded a screen shot here for you to see!
Resizing images in an image editing app
Another thing you can do is import your printable into an image editing app to change the size and scale of the item.
Many image editing apps have features that let you easily adjust and resize a printable for whatever your needs might be! Here are some of my favorite apps to use:
Apple Photos: They have a number of pre-selected sizes common for photos, such as 8×10, 4×8 – they even make it possible to print contact sheets!
Procreate: Procreate is an Apple IOS app that you can use on your iPad – It’s awesome when you combine it with an Apple Pencil and can easily change, copy, and duplicate any item you like!
Adobe Photoshop / Illustrator : If you import your printable into this software you have endless possibilities on ways to resize, duplicate and change the printable!
I hope these tips on resizing printables are helpful for you – it really opens up so many ideas for other ways to use our printables when you change their size or even the number of copies per page!
And of course, if you have any questions just ask in the comments below – i’m always happy to help anytime I can!