Printing Tips

Check out my printing tips if you're having problems printing to the right size
If you'd like to support this site and all the free things I post- please check out my Don't Eat the Paste Mandala collection coloring book for 9.99 at Amazon.

Printing Tips

I'm working on an FAQ, but for right now here's some quick printing tips.

All my boxes are originally made at 300 ppi, when you click the images, it can bring up a different sized version. In my browser that's generally 200 ppi. Most browsers are set up to print at 72 ppi or 100 ppi which results in my boxes not printing properly from most browsers. They take more than one page and run off edges.

So why do I post them at the higher size? Because it's a better quality image, and because you deserve the best, which is not the quickest to load or the easiest to print, but they can be printed at the right size fairly easily. Why not PDF? 3 reasons, the first one is that the platform I used doesn't support PDF as an upload option, so I'd have to upload it to another server and link to it. The second reason is because PDFs are bigger, especially if I'm doing them in both A4 and US sizing which means it will take longer to download them and upload them and I'd have to convert each one. That makes more work for me and would result in me making less boxes by taking some of the fun out of it, the 3rd reason is because PDF versions just don't look as good to me as the original files if I use settings that keep them from being big files.

Most of my boxes and templates are set up at 8x10 inches with only a few from the early years set up differently.

Easiest printing option- Switch to Chrome Browser which you can download HERE. Chrome automatically sizes things with 8x10 sizing correctly, and let's you print from the clicked on image. I love Chrome.

For more advanced users who have a graphics program, right click to save the image after you've clicked on it, and print from you graphic program. Generally "Print to fit page" works great. It may save at 100 ppi when it's supposed to be 200 ppi, so fit to page works around that.

You can even print from whatever paint program comes pre-installed with your OS, again, pick fit to page and portrait settings.

For the mandalas- they are almost all sized at 8x8 inches, the bigger transparent PNGs are for people who like the higher quality images with no artifacts (stray colored pixels) to use in their own projects. The smaller JPG versions are more reliable for most browsers if higher quality is not an issue.

I hope that helps!
-Shala

5 comments:

  1. Thank you for making and offering these -- they are so beautiful!

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  2. I'm jumping on this bandwagon too! (LoL) I love your work!! I am just starting to pick up coloring again since my 15th birthday, back in 1967 (and I totally relate to your sentiments about your mother as I thought I was the oldest living hippie. haha).I found you the other night when I joined Pinterest & have been looking at your colorable pages ever since. I had bought the Colorama Coloring Book at Walmart Friday night and love their mandalas and paisleys and geometric images (I'm not terribly into the traditional types of drawings any more, like I was when I was a kid. Strangely, I seem to like what would probably be considered more modern or op art, than the lovely seascapes and farm lands I colored when I was so much younger). But, since I am using these as a creative exercise as opposed to a religious one, I like the mandalas that are not always continuous round circles, and that have "things" in them like flowers and ghosties and pumpkins and non-traditional things like that. The Colorama book gets me. You seem to get me too. Thank you so much for creating so many great things for us to color (and possibly inspire me should I ever get the nerve to try my hand at making some myself) and for being so prolific with them. And thank you so much for making them free as well, though I will be buying your coloring books on Amazon when I am able to. Take care and stay creative!

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  3. Hi there! I've poked around and cannot find my answer...

    Are these images "free" for commercial use? I design/create greeting cards. I'd love to use some of your images, but want to make sure it's okay to print, cut, and sell these as greeting cards.

    I look forward to reading your response!

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    Replies
    1. No they aren't, but my licensing fees are very reasonable.

      Delete

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