Printing/PSP? - SBB Digital Scrapbooking Forums | Scrapbook-Bytes

meg56003 · #1 (**permalink**) 10-06-2005

Hi!

I use PSP 8. I usually do all my layouts in 12x12. But I decided it would be easiest to resize them to 8x8 and print on 8x10 paper. I've gotten pictures through Wal-Mart before and usually like their online convenience, so I decided to try it out with them. I did a test run of resizing a layout to 8x8, uploading it to Walmart, and then ordering an 8x10 print. It worked perfectly. Encouraged, I resized more than 30 more layouts to 8x8, uploaded them to Wal-Mart, and ordered them as 8x10s. I wanted to have them all in an album for my baby's first birthday to be able to share with the family members when they come for his party. So anyway, I picked them up tonight, and none of them printed right! They printed too large, so huge chunks of my LOs are cropped off! I called the customer service, and they'll give a refund if I bring them back to the store. I asked why it didn't work, and all the lady could tell me was that if you edit photos in another program and then upload them, the Wal-Mart photo editing site doesn't always make it the same size. Does that make any sense? It doesn't to me. Why would an 8x8 LO not print at 8x8?????

Can anybody explain it to me or let me know what I need to do to avoid having this happen again?

I'm so frustrated, because now I won't have the layouts to show off to my family at the party on Saturday.

kschierer · #2 (**permalink**) 10-06-2005

I've had similar problems before when I've uploaded 8x8's and told it to print them 8x10. I've found it works best to make an 8x10 document, and put my 8x8 LO on it, leaving 2 inches of white space at the side (or 1 inch on each side). So I'm actually uploading an 8x10. That way their software doesn't have to try and figure out how to make the 8x8 fit their 8x10 page, which is where all the weird cropping comes in.

HTH

PS..happy birthday to Kyle!

PixChick · #3 (**permalink**) 10-07-2005

Not really sure what happened to your layouts--esp since you did a test run. But I would recommend going with a better printing service in the future. Like Mpix or Smugmug. There are others that are high quality as well. I use Smugmug (which actually uses EZprints to do there printing--smugmug is the photohost site) and when you order prints, it shows you what you are going to get. You can choose cropped or uncropped. For cropped prints, there is a box around the portion of the pic that will show up if it is not the correct ratio of length and width (and you can adjust what part of the pic has the box around it). If you choose uncropped, then the pic will be fit onto the size sheet you desire with white around the remaining part of the sheet.

I think that Mpix supposedly gives slightly better quality prints but I really like the user interface and layout on Smugmug. I haven't ordered any prints from Mpix.

So sorry that your layouts got messed up. That is very frustrating

NellieRose · #4 (**permalink**) 10-07-2005

Kristin is right on......

Through the excellent advice of a friend that uses Sam's and Wal-Mart for printing photos regularly, she told me I should make a template and crop my photos or layouts to fit the template otherwise these photo processing places crop for you....not good!

I even did a test run at Wal-Mart and she was right...I rarely print professionally so this is the best advice I can offer.....

Tracey R (Haley64) · #5 (**permalink**) 10-07-2005

Wow..somehow I lucked out when I printed my Daughters Open house announcements at Walmart.
I just sized them in PSP9 to 4x6 and I am glad that somehow walmart's equipment understood which size they were suppose to be!!

PixChick · #6 (**permalink**) 10-07-2005

Doesn't Wal-mart have 1 hr pickup for their online store? If you did that, you could still have the layouts in time (unless by now it is already too late). Just use the method suggested about placing your LO on an 8x10 bkgrnd before you upload. Hope you get things working right.

meg56003 · #7 (**permalink**) 10-07-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by PixChick

Doesn't Wal-mart have 1 hr pickup for their online store? If you did that, you could still have the layouts in time (unless by now it is already too late). Just use the method suggested about placing your LO on an 8x10 bkgrnd before you upload. Hope you get things working right.

Yeah, I thought of that, but it comes to $30 extra dollars. At least, that's what my original order would have been if I had gotten it in one hour. There were some 4x6 pics in that order too, so I suppose it would be a little less. Maybe I'll look into trying that.

How would you go about changing the sizes to 8x10? Opening up the file and changing the canvas size to 8x10? Would that work?

Thanks everybody!