Rusty, you might be asking a little much of Elements! Although I think the printing issue might be related to the drivers for your printer. I, for example, use an HP 1215, and I cannot center an image on a page using the "Center" option on the Print Preview screen. I have to uncheck that box and make manual adjustments to the margins. I made a test sheet with a simple pattern that used little ink and kept running it through until I figured out the exact numbers that needed to be typed in for margins. HPs are notoriously bad at this, but problems have been reported with certain models out of almost every printer line.
In response to your question about the ability to type in placement/dimensions, I don’t believe that’s possible in Elements. Of course, often when I make a statement like that, somebody else comes back with the "how to". Maybe you’ll get lucky on this one!
It sounds like a different kind of software might be easier for you to use for your brochure project. I don’t think I’d try one on Elements, but that’s just me.
Beth,
Thanks….
I too noticed the "preview" alignment probs "clipping" but I’m not referring to borders outside the image, rather alignments that are within a saved image. The image looks fine on my screen but it’s printing with different alignments.
I believe I just upgraded my printer drivers but I’ll check again.
Can you suggest a software for projects like the brochure? I have Printshop which is very easy to use but it continues to let me down on almost every project. I had this brochure laid out in Printshop and even printed nicely but when I convert the layout to jpeg to give to a professional printer the look is just a mess and unacceptable.
Thanks again,
Rusty K
Rusty,
Will the printer accept .tiff? When you convert to jpg, are you maintaining the highest image quality possible by using the least compression in the conversion and keeping the resolution high?
In PSE, under View, you can toggle rulers and/or a grid to be visible. They will not print. In Edit>preferences you can change the units and characteristics for these two items. Also, if you pull the Info palette down out of the well, your cursors position is displayed, x and y dimensions to the very pixel.
Oh, also beware that the display of an image is controlled by you, it has no bearing on reality. You can display it from like 16% actual size to 1600%. At the oddball percentages, the program does its best to display accurately, but of course it is a best guess as the monitor cannot display all at once, all of the pixels in a large image with the correspondence of 1 pixel per 1 unit of the screen nor can it be absolutely exact diplaying a large image at say 3×4 on the screen. When you view at Actual Pixels setting you are getting the exact representation. I have never noticed alignment changing from screen to print however. This program’s forte is not text though. If a lot of text is involved, it might be better to do that part in Word.
Hi Nancy,
I haven’t checked the project at actual pixels…I will, but it’s hard to see the overall "look" of a large file/project. Thanks for the tips about the grid and cursor position that should help.
Am I crazy for trying to produce a brochure with PSE? I even reasoned that I could produce my webpages with PSE and just use "hotspots" to ad links etc.
Rusty K
Oh yes Nancy,
I originally used Printshop to layout the brochure and then exported the project as a jpeg. The program automatically saves it at a resolution of 72pdi and the text/graphics looked awful. I tried Tiff and that was much better. If my print company can use a Tiff file then I’m in business, I’ll just go back to Printshop to save my work but if not maybe another file format….bitmap or PNG..?
Thanks again,
Rusty K
Rusty,
That resolution (72)is very low for printing, it is bound to look soft and blocky. I’d see if it could be created at a higher resolution.
There must be software on the market to do the type of task that Rusty is inquiring about. I received a Holiday card on 10"x5" stock, folded in half so that each panel was 5"x5". It was oriented in portrait mode. On page 1, there was a photograph without margin (i.e.5"x5"). Page 2 was blank. Page 3 had text centered to perfection. Page 4 listed the name of the photographer’s establishment. I suppose one could devise a setup and target this for subsequent "scissor" cropping, thereby working around the feeder margin that our printers require, by and large.
The card was especially attractive in this size, and the envelope that it came in was also in this square size. Hence I have to believe that this is commercially availabe, for who wants to devote his/her time to pure mechanical,repetitive configuration issues.
Ken
Rusty, what platform and operating system do you run? My son uses a Win program for our triple fold brochures that works beautifully – even I can use it! I don’t happen to remember what it is, but it wouldn’t be hard to find out. (I mainly use Macs.)
Beth,
I have XP. I’d love to have the software name.
Thanks,
Rusty K
He uses an older version of Microsoft Publisher. I see that Publisher 2003 is about $150 at Amazon, but eBay has quite a few older versions available for quite a bit less. Do a Google search for it. I did and saw a couple of sites with tutorials. If you look through those, you’ll get a much better idea of whether it would work for what you need. I don’t use it (oh, guess I said that, didn’t I?), but it seems to be similar to Adobe’s PageMaker or InDesign. Except it’s quite a bit less money. I know either of the Adobe programs would be easier to use for a brochure than Elements.
