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Ted- If you are on Windows it is really simple and straightforward. Right click on your image, select print. Windows will bring up a box with different size page formats for your image. Windows will scale the image properly for you.
I will also open up my graphic's program and create a new image, background transparent, DPI 300 and then I will flood fill my background. This method has a few more steps and is more advanced range.
If you have a Cricut or Cameo you can upload your background. Create a new image in the size you need and them "flood fill" the background. Then Print & Cut like usual.
A tip about Cricut do not choose your native printer for Print & Cut. Choose save as PDF. Open your PDF and print. Cricut does not print in true 300 DPI. Silhouette does Print in true 300 DPI. Their default resolution is 600 DPI. Saving as PDF in Cricut keeps your DPI intact.
Another note on Cricut saving to PDF. This is perfectly legal. Cricut gave us this option so those who need to do professional printing can take their files to a printing service, have them print them and then the Cricut user can come home and finish his/her print & cut. Just make sure you save your original Cricut Print & Cut to their server. You will need the registration marks in the exact place if you are going to cut your file.
I know this is a lot of info. I hope not to confusing. I tried to give the Clif Notes version. Don't be afraid to ask any questions. I have been working with digitals and creating them for over twenty years.
You can always crop the design to the size that you need in a photo editor. Otherwise, I'd try popping the design into a document in whatever your Mac's equivalent of Word is (sorry, I'm i-device ignorant) and it should just adjust itself to the width of your document. In Word you can change margins and also change the image's layout options to be able to drag it around beyond the margins or crop it to a specific size on your document.
When I’ve purchased digital paper files that were 12 x 12 it was recommended to print at 8x8 or 6x6 to keep the design from distorting. If you are printing solids it doesn’t matter but when I’ve tried to print polka dots for instance they came out as ovals instead of dots.
I find a lot of the 12x12 digis have larger prints. I like to pull them into Photoshop and shrink them down before cropping them to print. Many times I'll crop half sheets from the paper and print two different patterns on one sheet. If you have a Silhouette you can use their designer software to probably do the same thing. I love using digi papers because of the flexibility and never running out.
It depends on your printer and how you use it. I never print digital paper with the expectation of using it as the only paper on my card. I use it for accent pieces. It take a lot of ink to print out a standard sheet of paper but a 2 x 5 1/2 inch strip not so much. Also the quality is never the same as store bought paper but if I’m making something and don’t have the pattern or color I need and I can’t drive an hour to the craft store, I make it work.
I have an HP Envy and I am enrolled in the Insta Ink program which is a subscription where I pay 2.99 a month to print 50 pages. They keep count of what I use and then they send me ink cartridges when mine run out. They have different levels of subscription prices but the smallest one works for what I need.
I also sub to Insta Ink program. I have HP Envy. I have one of the upper tier printing levels. I print out a lot on high quality.
I love to print out pattern paper. I can print it out on the kind of paper I want- vellum, acetate, vinyl, texture, watercolor, etc.... It is so wonderful to buy a collection from Carta Bella and being able to print it out the way you want it for your project.
I love it that I can manipulate, colorize, edit, etc... my papers. I have created my own digital papers over the years to.
I have even gold foil digi paper. You need a laser printer and foiling/laminator to do that. I have all three.
I also love digital papers because I can be picky when picking out my physical paper.
Can it be a black hole? Yes, I think it could be a huge black hole for a lot of crafter's. For crafters like me it is actually money saving. I spent a lot of money on wrong paper over the years.
Printing Digital Papers Question(s)
I don't have a Windows, I have a Mac, but I believe I can use Preview to do something similar.
