Making High Quality Printables

Some tips to prevent your printables from being fuzzy:

Image quality
There are 2 main reasons why pictures turn out fuzzy: 1) printer and paper quality and 2) resolution. Resolution is the easiest (and least expensive!) of those things to change. This is done in your photo editing software (Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, GIMP, etc.).

If you want to figure out why the pictures you print from the web always turn out blurry, it probably has to do with resolution.
 
What is resolution?
Resolution is the number of pixels (dots of color) in your picture. Think of resolution like the thread count in sheets. A higher thread count means that the fibers are closer together, resulting in a smoother surface and better quality sheets. Resolution works in a similar manner: a higher pixel count means that the dots of color are closer together, resulting in a clearer image.

For making printables, you want a minimum resolution of 300 pixels per inch (118 pixels per centimeter). Fewer pixels will result in a blurry printout. More than 300 or 118 pixels will not be perceptible to the human eye due to the limitations of typical desktop printers.

Pictures on websites are typically 72 pixels per inch instead of the 300 pixels that you require for printing.

How to Change Resolution
This is done in a photo editing software such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Elements, GIMP, etc. This cannot be accomplished in Microsoft Word or other text editing software. If you don't have photo editing software, you may wish to download a free, 30 day trial. If you are using a Mac, you may download the trial here. GIMP is free without a trial.

Here are the directions to change resolution in Adobe Photoshop Elements (most photo editing software has a similar setup):
From the menu at the top of your screen, choose Image — Resize — Image Size. A window like this will appear:

Under "Document Size" You will change the "Resolution" to "300" pixels/inch or 118 pixels/cm.

The "Constrain Proportions" box should be checked by default.

For now, keep the "Resample Image" box unchecked.

You can see that when you type in a new number for the resolution, the width and height changes. If you type in a new width or height, the resolution will change.

Now, let's say that we have a picture that is 2 inches wide with a resolution of 300 pixels per inch. We want to make it 1 inch wide and keep the same resolution. Notice that if we try to change the resolution in the window, the width will change according to how many pixels are being spread out in those 2 inches (think about thread count in sheets). In order to make the change, we have to check the "Resample Image" box. Enter "1" in the "Width" box. Enter "300" pixels/inch or "118" pixels/cm in the "Resolution" box. Done!

IMPORTANT!!!! 

You can always make it smaller, but you can't make it bigger.
This is a frustrating fact about pixels and an area of confusion to many people. I'll try to break this down into a more creative way of thinking about the process:

Imagine that pixels are little dots of watercolor paint on paper. If you stretch out the watercolor paint by adding water, you'll see a blurry area of paint because the pigments are now diluted over a larger area. This is similar to what happens when you add more resolution to a picture than it originally had.

For example, if you find a picture of a book cover on a website that you want to print out for your miniature setting, make sure that when you open it in your photo editing software, it has 1 of 2 things:
1) A resolution of 300 pixels/inch or 118 pixels/cm or more and is at least the size that you want your final print to be.

2) A width and height large enough so that when the picture is made to your desired size, the resolution will not go below 300 pixels per inch (remember resolution is proportionate to width and height).

Working with Pictures From the Web
First—I can't stress this enough — make sure that if you are using the pictures you find on the web for commercial purposes, the pictures are in the public domain.

Second, open up the picture in your photo editing software and check the resolution and the size using the guidelines above. If the picture is too small (and in most cases it is) just remember that the final result will be a bit blurry. The amount of blur will depend upon how few pixels it has. Typically graphics on websites are 72 pixels per inch. This is due to the resolution of a typical computer monitor. More than 72 pixels per inch is unnecessary because most computer monitors cannot show more than that.

Most printable websites that I have visited do not offer their graphics in a high resolution format. The authors may have put a lot of work into their beautiful designs, but the printables are blurry when printed. Hopefully, we can spread the word to our fellow miniaturists out there — 300 pixels per inch, please!

Recap:

• Resolution: 300 pixels/inch or 118 pixels/cm
• You can always make it smaller, but you can never make it bigger
• Don't use Microsoft Word or other text editing programs to change your photo sizes. Instead, download free photo editing software.

Read previous posts about Photoshop with tutorials to get you started.

If you have any questions, feel free to email or leave a comment.

Who Hates Photoshop?

I stumbled upon a blog that mentioned new photo editing software built for amateur photographers and bloggers in mind. It looks like it would be a great alternative to the overwhelming features in Photoshop. Aurora touts itself as a simple and inexpensive (50 USD) photo editing software that runs on a PC or Mac. It allows you to re-light, add visual punch, crop and straighten and then share with friends and family via email, Facebook, Flicker, Photobucket, Shutterfly and more. Download the free trial and give it a whirl.

Photo: http://www.lightcrafts.com/gallery/

Photoshop Tutorial: Aging Paper

This is a fun process, as it involves using paintbrushes in Photoshop and is a bit more "hands-on". Once you've learned how to do it, you may never want to deal with messy teas, inks, or lighters to age your paper again!

The inspiration for this tutorial came from Nikki's blog, Miniature Question and Answer. In her post on paper, Nikki mentioned that she would like to know how to age paper in Photoshop. I figured that there may be other miniaturists out there who would be interested in a tutorial as well.

I did this example quickly, but a much more realistic look can be created if you take your time. The process has been broken down into 2 steps: creating a sepia toned image and burning the edges. If you don't want to make your image sepia toned, you may wish to skip to step 2.

Open your image that you'd like to age in Adobe Photoshop Elements. For the example, I am using The New York Times newspaper from the Titanic sinking. You may download it here.

Note: If you'd like to use your own image, make sure that you have sized it to 300 dpi at the actual size you will be printing it out BEFORE you proceed with the next steps. For a tutorial on how to resize your image, see my previous post.

Step 1: Creating a Sepia Tone Image
Make your image grayscale. Go to the menu at the top and choose Image > Mode > Grayscale.

Click on the "New Layer" button located in the bottom left corner of the layers panel. It looks like a square with the corner peeled back. A new layer called "Layer 1" will be created.

Next to the "New Layer" button at the bottom of the Layers panel, there is a half black/white circle. Click on this and choose "Hue/Saturation" from the dropdown menu. A Hue and Saturation panel will open below the Layers panel.

In the Hue and Saturation panel, click on the "Colorize" box in the bottom right corner.
Play around with the Hue, Saturation and Lightness settings until you are satisfied with the results. For the example, the Hue has been changed to 40.

Merge the two layers into a new layer by going to the Layers panel, and clicking on the small icon on the top right corner of the panel (the icon looks like 4 horizontal bars with a little arrow next to it). Click and choose "Merge Visible" from the dropdown. All of your layers will be merged into a layer called "Background".

Optional:

• You may wish to make your image slightly soft and blurry. To do this, go to the menu at the top of your screen and choose Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Set the radius for the blur to whatever looks good to you.
• Add noise to the image by going to the "Filter" menu and clicking on "Add Noise." Tick the "Monochromatic" and "Gaussian" boxes. Change the amount value to your liking.

Step 2: Adding Burnt Edges
With the Lasso Tool (6th tool from the top of the toolbox on the left side of your screen) make an odd-shaped cut selection. Hold down the Shift key on your keyboard, and go around your image and draw odd-shaped selections wherever you want the edges torn, crumbled or burned away. You can see the marching ants on the example below:

Press delete on your keyboard.

From the menu at the top of your screen, choose Select > Inverse. The marching ants will now select the middle section of your image (the area that has not been torn off). Important: Make sure that the marching ants are visible during the next steps. If they disappear, go back in your History panel (Window > Undo History) and click on the different history states until the ants appear again. This will ensure that the colors that you brush on your image to create the aged appearance stay on your image and do not make a mess outside of the selected area.

Create a new layer in the Layers panel (using the same icon as before) and get the Brush Tool (7th tool from the bottom of your toolbox). On the bottom of the toolbox, you'll notice 2 colored squares. The top square (foreground color) is the color that will be in your brush. Click on the foreground color square. A new dialog box will appear. Choose a yellowish color. For the example, I used d99e37. This number can be typed into the box at the bottom. Click OK.

From the toolbox at the top, change the brush size to approximately 20 px and make sure that it has a soft edge. You may wish to change the opacity to 15%. "Paint" around the edges of your image. See the sample below.

Now we'll add a little black around the edges. Go to the Layers panel and make a new layer.  Using the brush tool, brush a few soft spots with black (000000) using the same method as you did with the yellowish color.

Keep adding black, brown or other colors until you are happy with the results. If you put each color on a new layer, you can change the opacity of the layers to create more subtle effects. The dropdown box that reads "Normal" can be changed to "Multiply", "Overlay", etc. for even more effects. See below:

Printing
Browns are a difficult color for printers to match. You may have to tinker with your print settings and colors a bit to get your desired results.

That's it! If you have any questions or suggestions, please leave a comment.

If you use this tutorial in your project, please post it. I would love to see what you come up with!

Using Photoshop for Mini Making: Part 4 Creating a "Rubber Stamp" Look

Create a "rubber stamp" look from clip art using Photoshop Elements. This customizable design is perfect for signs, pillows/upholstery, bags, etc. (Thank you to Norma at Make Mine Mini for suggesting this idea). 

Let's Begin
Download the clipart and save it to your desktop. Open the file in Photoshop Elements.

The artwork that has been provided is meant for you to customize. The examples above show a couple of ways to embellish the artwork. If you would like to add a monogram, text or another graphic to the middle of the circle, now is the time to do so. If you are not familiar with combining two images into one, please see Part 3 of the Photoshop Tutorial. Note: You will want to work with an image that has only one layer, so if you have placed another graphic or text into your document, you will need to flatten the layers into a single layer.

Using the magic wand tool (the 7th tool from the top of your toolbox on the left side of your screen), you will select all of the black areas in the design. To do this, click on the magic wand tool. At the top of your screen, change "Tolerance" to "10". Make sure that the "Contiguous" box is unchecked. Now, click once in the black area of the design. Marching ants will appear around all of the black areas of the design to show you that they are selected.

You will apply a filter to “eat away” the insides of the design. Go to Filter - Other - High Pass. Play a bit with the slider. For the example I set the Radius to 10 pixels and applied it twice.

To achieve a “grainy” texture, go to Filter - Noise - Add Noise. Click on "Gaussian" and "Monochromatic" and set the slider to an amount of 15. Click OK.

Your design will look like this:

From the menu at the top of the screen, choose Select - Deselect.

Now we'll make it even more pixelated by increasing the resolution. From the menu at the top of your screen, choose Image - Resize - Image Size.  Click on the "Resample Image" box at the bottom. Change the resolution from 72 to 144.

To mask the remaining bitmapped areas, we'll Diffuse the image. From the menu at the top of your screen, choose Filter - Stylize - Diffuse.

Increase the resolution again. From the menu at the top of your screen, choose Image - Image size Resample image. Change the resolution from 144 to 288.

To remove the tiny pixels created by the Diffuse filter, we'll apply a Gaussian blur of 1 pixel. From the menu at the top of your screen, choose  Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur. The Radius slider should be set to 1.0.

Increase the Brightness and Contrast until you reach the desired amount of “inking”. (Enhance -  Adjustment Lighting - Brightness/Contrast. Contrast brings out the texture. I set both sliders to +50.

Your design will look like this:

The High Pass filter we applied at the very beginning primarily affects areas with substantial volume (the middle of the large circle). Therefore you may wish to do a partial selection of the border of our design and apply a higher amount of contrast to bring out more noise. From the toolbox on the left side of your screen, choose the lasso tool (the 6th tool from the top). Click and drag around the edges of the design. To add to the area that you are selecting, hold down the shift key and click and drag again. If you look closely at the example below, you'll notice that everything except the middle of the large circle is selected.

From the menu at the top of the screen, once again choose Enhance -  Adjustment Lighting - Brightness/Contrast. Set the contrast slider to +75.

From the menu at the top of the screen, choose Select - Deselect.

Prepare the image for conversion to a bitmap image Filter - Adjustments - Treshold. You may wish to play a bit with the slider until you reach the desired amount of “inking”. I set the slider to 96.

That's it! Your image will have a "stamped" look like this:

Changing the Color
Your graphic is set to print in black and white. If you 'd like to change it to another color, follow these simple directions: 

• From the menu at the top of the screen, choose Image - Mode - RGB Color.
• On the right side of your screen, you'll see the Layers palette. At the bottom of the Layers palette, there is a row of icons. Note the circular icon that is half black and half white. Click on this icon to create a new adjustment layer. When you click, a drop down menu will appear. Click on Hue/Saturation.
• Below the Layers palette, you'll notice that the Adjustments palette now shows rainbow sliders. Below the sliders, click on the box that says "Colorize."
• Move the "Lightness" slider to the right. You'll notice that the color of your design will change from black to brown.  The more you move the Lightness slider, the lighter the brown will become.
• Play around with the sliders until you are satisfied with the color.

Printing
Your final graphic is 3.2 inches wide x 6.5 inches tall. You may wish to make this smaller for printing. From the toolbox on the left side of your screen, choose the crop tool (the 10th tool from the top). On the menu above your design, type in the Width or Height to your desired size (choose only one). Type "300" into the box that says "Resolution". Click and drag the crop tool over your design. When you are satisfied with the crop, click on the green X that appears at the lower right corner of the selection.

Making it your own
You may wish to add a monogram, text or another graphic in the middle of the circle like the examples at the beginning of this post. If so, just make sure that you add your text or graphic before you begin the rubber stamp tutorial so that everything has the same stamped appearance.

The graphic used in this tutorial has been designed by me and is copyright free. You may use it however you wish.

Feel free to post questions about this tutorial or suggestions for future Photoshop tutorials.

If you would like to learn more about using Photoshop, please see my earlier Photoshop posts or visit lynda.com for video tutorials. 

Using Photoshop for Mini Making: Part 3

This is the third part of the Photoshop tutorial. Previously, I wrote about several different types of photo editing solutions and opening, resizing and saving your images. This post will focus on how to combine two images to create a composite image.

If you'd like to follow along with this tutorial, you may wish to download and install the free, 30-day trial version of Adobe Photoshop Elements 8. If you are using a Mac, you will need to download the software here.

Let's start: we'll take an antique photo mat and put a photo in the middle. This will give us the skills to proceed with a more complicated project, like the Paris stencil on Norma's blog, Make Mine Mini (I'll cover a very similar looking project in a future post).

The photo that we'll be using is a picture of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her daughter, Harriot, which is in the public domain. Feel free to substitute it with a photo from your family album or collection.

Step 1
 Let's begin by downloading the mat and the photo. Save them to your desktop. Open Photoshop Elements (or your preferred image editing software). Once the software is open, go to the top of your screen and choose File — Open. Locate the file "mat.jpg". Click the "Open" button. You'll see the photo of the antique mat on your screen.

On the right side of your screen, you will see several boxes, or "palettes". We're going to use the "Layers" palette. If you don't see the Layers palette, go to the top of your screen and choose Window — Show Layers.

Layers are one of the things that allow us to do so much in Photoshop. Think of layers as being like a sandwich - different graphics stacked on top of each other to make a yummy result. We will have 2 layers: the mat and the photo. Just like you are matting a full size picture, the photo goes under the mat, or in Photoshop, it is on the layer below the mat. Because they are on separate layers, we can edit them and move them around without affecting the things on the other layer. We will want to move our photo around a bit and perhaps make it larger or smaller inside of the mat without making changes to the mat.

In the "Layers" palette on the right side of the screen, you'll see the "Background" layer is highlighted in blue. Double click on that layer. When the dialog box appears, you'll enter a new name where it says "Layer 0". Let's rename it "mat" and click OK.

Step 2
Now we'll remove the cream color background inside of the mat so that our picture will show. On the tools palette on the left side of your screen, choose the magic wand tool (the 7th tool from the top). At the top of your screen, you'll enter "40" into the "tolerance" box.

Click on the cream background inside of the mat. "Marching ants" will appear around the edge of the cream background to show you the selected area. If the ants go into the edge of your mat, make the tolerance smaller (try 32). If the ants don't go all the way to the edge of the cream area, make the tolerance larger (try 50).

Now that the cream background is selected, we're going to remove it. Choose Select — Feather from the menu at the top of your screen. In the "feather radius" box, type "1" and click OK.

By "feathering" the edge of your selection, you are softening the edges of the area that you are removing. When you combine the two images together, they will not show a hard, defined edge where the 2 images meet.

Now hit the "delete" key on your keyboard. You'll see that the inside of your frame is gray and white checks. The checks mean that the area is empty. It's ready for your photograph to be placed.

Step 3
We're going to combine the antique mat with the photo of Elizabeth and Harriot. Just like you did before, you'll go to File — Open, and this time choose "stanton.jpg" from your desktop.

When the photo appears, you'll choose Select — All from the menu at the top of your screen. The marching ants will appear around your entire picture. We'll do a simple copy and paste to get the picture of Elizabeth and Harriot into the mat. Go to Edit — Copy. Now, move or minimize the window with Elizabeth and Harriot so that you see the mat.

Click on the mat. From the menu at the top of your screen, choose Edit — Paste. When the photo of the ladies appear on top of the mat, you'll also notice that your Layers palette has another layer added to it. The layer will be named "Layer 1". Double click on the layer and rename it "photo" and click OK. Click and drag on the "photo" layer and drag it below the "mat" layer. Your layers palette will look like this:

Your work area will now look like this:

You may wish to leave the photo as it appears, or you may choose to move it around in the mat; make it smaller or larger. To move the photo around inside of the mat, you want to make sure that the "photo" layer is selected in the layers palette (like the example above). Choose the Move Tool, which is the 1st tool in the toolbox on the left side of your screen. You can click and drag on the photo to move it. If you would like to make the photo larger or smaller, click on one corner of the box that appears when the Move Tool is selected. When you are satisfied with the size, you can click on the green check mark as the picture below shows.

Step 4
Now you are ready to resize your picture and mat for printing at whatever size you choose. An easy way to do this is to choose the Crop Tool from the toolbox on the left of your screen (the 10th tool down from the top of the toolbox). In the boxes above your work area, you will enter a width of your choice (don't forget to specify "in" or "cm") and a resolution of "300" pixels/inch.

Click on the top left corner of the mat and drag your box to the bottom right corner. When you are satisfied with your crop, click "enter". Your image will now be the size you specified.

If you wish to preserve the mat and photo as separate layers so that you may make changes to it at a later date, choose the "Photoshop" format instead of a jpg. Make sure that the "Layers" box is checked at the bottom of the "Save As" dialog box. If you are satisfied with your picture, and will not make changes to it later, you may wish to save it as a jpg. Make sure that you choose the maximum quality setting (usually "12") in the "Save As" dialog box.

The next part of the tutorial will cover creating a composite image using multiple layers to achieve interesting "Photoshop" effects.

Your comments are always welcome! If you have any questions or suggestions on this tutorial, please let me know.

Using Photoshop for Mini Making: Part 2

This is a follow-up to the previous post, which covered several types of photo editing software. This part of the tutorial will focus on how to open an image, scale it to the correct size for printing, and save the file.

If you don't already have photo editing software, a 30-day trial version of Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 is free to download. A Mac version of the software is also available.

We will be working with a poster from the Chicago World's Fair that is in the public domain. If you'd like to follow along with this tutorial, you may wish to download the poster image and save it to your desktop.

Step 1
Open Adobe Photoshop Elements. A dialog box will appear. Choose "Start from scratch". When the next dialog box appears, click "Cancel". From the menu at the top of the screen, choose File — Open and locate "poster.jpg" on your desktop. Your screen will look something like this:

Step 2
We will resize the poster. From the menu at the top of your screen, choose Image — Resize — Image Size (Note: this window is the place to find out the sizes of the images you are working with.) You will see the current size of 2.673 inches wide with a resolution of 400 pixels per inch. We want to make it smaller: 1.75 inches wide with a resolution of 300 pixels per inch. It's possible to resize images here, but I'll show you an easier way in a moment.

At this point, understanding a little bit about resolution will come in handy. Here is a basic introduction:

Resolution = the number of pixels (tiny squares of color) per inch/cm in your image. The higher the resolution, the more pixels your image contains, and the better the quality of your picture. If you've seen fuzzy images that look like the edges of the colors are "pixelated", it is probably because the image has a low resolution. So, what is the ideal resolution to keep your images from being fuzzy? For printing purposes, 300 pixels per inch is ideal. Higher than 300 pixels is unnecessary because the difference is almost imperceptible to the human eye. For images on websites, 72 pixels per inch are ideal because most computer screens are unable to show more than 72 pixels per inch.

When thinking about the size of an image, keep in mind the resolution that you have to work with. The resolution will dictate how big the final image can be.

A tip about resolution: Images can always be made smaller, but never made larger. In other words, resolution can not be added. if you find a picture on the web that is 2 inches wide with a resolution of 72 pixels per inch, it can not be enlarged to 2 inches wide with a resolution of 300 pixels per inch without the picture becoming fuzzy. To make up the difference in pixels and resolution, image editing software adds extra pixels into the picture. This is what causes the fuzzy appearance.

Keeping resolution in mind, we want our World's Fair poster to be 1.75 inches wide with a resolution of 300 pixels per inch.

From the tool bar to the left of your image, choose the crop tool (the 10th tool from the top). Look at the gray bar above the poster that says, "Aspect Ratio", "Width", "Height", etc. The Aspect Ratio should be set to "Custom". Enter "1.75 in" into the Width box. Keep the Height box empty. Enter "300" into the Resolution box.

Click and drag a box over your image. Everything outside of the "marching ants" will be cropped. When you're satisfied with your crop, let go of the corner and double-click on the image or press "Enter". Your poster will now be 1.75 inches wide with a resolution of 300 pixels per inch.

Step 3
To save your image, go to File — Save As. Name your poster and specify the location for it to be saved. If you choose to save your poster as a jpeg and you want to print it, make sure that you choose the "Maximum" or "12" quality in the dialog box. That's it!

The next part of this tutorial will cover using layers to create a composite image.

If you have questions about this post or suggestions for future topics, please leave a comment.

Using Photoshop for Mini Making: Part 1

This is going to be a multi-part tutorial. The first part will discuss the options available in image editing software. Later posts will contain information about using Photoshop and editing images.

Adobe Photoshop can be a bit daunting to learn. But it truly gives you the most control and options for editing images – photos, printies, etc. I use Photoshop on a daily basis for my work. Although I feel very comfortable with the software, I know that I'll never master it completely. It is a tool with unendless possibilities; many of which are unnecessary for most users and tend to make learning the software an arduous task. Luckily, Adobe and other software developers have realized that not everyone is a hard core Photoshop aficionado and have developed alternatives for the home user.

Let's first discuss the different types of Adobe Photoshop software available. The solutions below are listed from the most expensive to the least expensive:

Photoshop CS 
The soon-to-be released version is CS5 (Creative Suite 5). This is the must-have software for photographers, graphic designers, and web designers. If you are a serious amateur or thinking about going professional in those fields, Photoshop is the solution for you. Just be willing to dish out approximately $699 USD. An education discount is available if you are a student or teacher. You can download a free, 30-day trial version of Adobe Photoshop.

Photoshop Elements 8
For hobbyists who don't need such a robust application, Adobe Photoshop Elements is a smart solution. It does not have the advanced features of its big brother, Photoshop CS5, but may not be so daunting to use. The $100 USD price tag is a bonus. A downloadable, 30-day free trial is available.

Photoshop.com
If you are a hobbyist who doesn't have the time to learn Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, and would rather drop the cash on minis, this may be a great solution for you. Photoshop.com allows users to manage, edit, store, and share photos and videos online, with tutorials, inspiration, and more. With Photoshop.com, you can organize, tweak, create, e-mail, display, and store your photos and videos. You are limited to the things you can do with the image editing features, but many hobbyists may find it sufficient. Did I mention that a Basic membership is free? Photoshop.com uses your web browser. Therefore it's available on any web-enabled computer, compatible mobile phones, and directly from within Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 or Adobe Premiere Elements 7 software. If you want more storage space, the Plus membership is available for a fee, but you must have Photoshop Elements software. Also, Photoshop.com is only available in English. Here is an FAQ on Photoshop.com.

GIMP
If you are looking for more robust features than Photoshop.com and wish to save your cash for mini purchases (in other words, you want the best of both worlds), check out GIMP. This software is not an Adobe product, but has advanced photo editing features like Adobe Photoshop. GIMP is a free, open source, downloadable image editing program that has a large user-base, multi-lingual documentation and a good support network. It is PC and Mac compatible. I have not used GIMP, but here is an informational site with a tutorial video that may be of help.

I will write about editing images using Adobe Photoshop in a future post.

If you enjoy using other image editing solutions or have questions or comments about the ones I mentioned, please feel free to leave a comment.