How to make printables?

I want to learn how to make printable projects. I have a scanner, a
digital camera, & Paint Shop Pro. I have no clue how to shrink images
down without losing detail, tried, with miserable results. I just want
to make things to play with myself, & share for free. I don't need to
make commercial quality stuff, altho that would be nice. Is there a
group I can join or tutorials somewhere?

Kathy wrote:

I want to learn how to make printable projects. I have a scanner, a
digital camera, & Paint Shop Pro. I have no clue how to shrink images
down without losing detail, tried, with miserable results. I just want
to make things to play with myself, & share for free. I don't need to
make commercial quality stuff, altho that would be nice. Is there a
group I can join or tutorials somewhere?

You need to start with very high resolution pictures or scans. Set your
camera and scanner to their best possible output. You will still see a
substantial degradation in quality if you resize any raster image.
Here's why:

Assume that each of the following characters is a pixel in your original
image, part of a sequential block.

a b c d e f g h i j k l x 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0

When you reduce that string of pixels by 1/12 (as you'd do with a
scanned image), which TWO pixels do you want to retain? The rest of the
detail will be lost.

In a less busy image, say one that looks like this:

a a a a a a a a a a a a a b b b b b b b b b b b b
you lose a lot less if you convert that to simply
a b

The techniques will vary widely depending on what you're working with -
Text, Backgrounds, Photographs of people, Diagrams, all require somewhat
different handling. Drawings are best done (or converted to) vectors
such as in Corel Draw, Autocad, Adobe Illustrator, Draw Plus, etc.

When taking a photo, try to take the photo so that the actual size will
be as close as possible to your end product and require minimal re-sizing.

Google for things like
Photoshop tutorials (PSP uses all the same techniques)
You can also try adding a keyword like
Photoshop Tutorial Resizing (I just did and got tons of hits - quality
undetermined)

- Herb

"Kathy" wrote in message
om...
I want to learn how to make printable projects. I have a scanner, a
digital camera, & Paint Shop Pro. I have no clue how to shrink images
down without losing detail, tried, with miserable results. I just want
to make things to play with myself, & share for free. I don't need to
make commercial quality stuff, altho that would be nice. Is there a
group I can join or tutorials somewhere?

There are some printable sites. The best known of them is Jim's
http://www.printmini.com/printables/

Carol
S P Miniatures
http://www.spminiatures.com

(Kathy) wrote in message . com...
I want to learn how to make printable projects. I have a scanner, a
digital camera, & Paint Shop Pro. I have no clue how to shrink images
down without losing detail, tried, with miserable results.

I have had some good results with shrinking images with Paint Shop Pro
http://lphrc.org/rmk/Mini/covers.html

Here's how I would usually do it:

You have to start out with a good, clear image, in the original
dimensions.

I would then usually use 'Enhance Photo' under 'Effects' (mainly to
increase color saturation) and 'Sharpen', to make the image more
intense so the image will show up better in miniature.

The image must be either in 24 bit color or Grayscale. If it's not,
you can change that in 'Colors'.

I would then calculate the size for it to be when it is scaled, by
multiplying the original dimensions by 1/12.

Then comes the 'Image - Resize' command, using 'Resize type: Smart
size' (which would be already selected by default).
Then using the 'Actual/print size' option, put in the exact height and
width in inches (or cm) that you want it to have when it is printed
(1/12 the original height and width).
For 'Resolution' put in the resolution of your printer so it will
print out in exactly the right size.

That's how I've been able to produce some good miniature images using
Paint Shop Pro 7. I hope it helps.

Rick Kephart
http://lphrc.org/rmk/Mini
Homepage: http://lphrc.org/rmk
E-mail: see web page (don't use the spam-bait e-mail address on this
message).