Printing non-standard size photos

I have recently started scrapbooking. Up until now, I've only printed 4 x 6 size photos (through Walgreen's) and have cropped them down if I've needed to. But I'm finding this too limiting. Sometimes I just want to print the pictures smaller overall - for example, as wallet size (2.5 x 3.5).

I cannot believe how much trouble I'm having trying to find a way to do this. Every site I can find to order photos on either doesn't have a wallet size, or has them, but they only come in sets of 3 - 4. If I want to print 10 wallet sized photos, for example, and only need one print of each image, I really don't want to have to order 40 prints (4 copies of each of the 10 images). I thought maybe I could just take 4 images and cut and paste them into a new file as a 5 x 7 and then print that and cut them into 4 separate images, but I can't find a way to create a new file in the program I'm using (Picasa). I am on a limited income and simply cannot invest in a big fancy program like photoshop. I might be willing/able to save up for a more basic program, though, but this might be overkill for me. I also know there are some websites out there for digital scrapbooking, but I don't want to do full digital pages - just be able to print images in different size and maybe do some journaling that I can print and add to my page. I'm very hands on and prefer to have pages with physical features (e.g. embeliishments that I actually glue on and add depth to the page), rather than digital. Any suggestions??

Try going to someplace like big huge labs, and creating a mosaic with the pics you want to print. You can then print through Big Huge Labs, or save that mosaic to your computer, and upload it to your preferred printer.

• Kyiera Said:

I use Picassa to create pictures in different sizes. Try using the collage feature in Picassa - you can insert multiple images and size them accordingly before saving it as a collage file. You can then send the collage file to print. So for example, if I want wallet sizes, I will insert 4 different images into one collage and then print that collage as a 5x7. Or one of my favorite combination is printing 2 pictures on a 4x6, so I get two 3x4 pictures. You can even eyeball the size of each image and group them as a single collage and print that collage on a 5x7 or 8x10. Hope that helps.

I downloaded Picasso once. I have several thousand pictures in my computer and Picasso started putting all of them in their files.

I tried to play with one photo in Picasso and found I destroyed some of my pictures in the original file.

I quickly uninstalled Picasso before I destroyed all of my photos.

Is there a way to install Picasso so it doesn't just start downloading all the pictures on my computer? I want to be able to put a picture in Picasso if I want to and be able to make changes to the photo without it affecting the copy I've stored in another place in my computer.

When I used Picasso before I didn't know I was changing the picture in my other file while I was playing.

Is there a way to designate which pictures I want to go into Picasso and then work on them without affecting the copy in the other file?

Does that make sense?

Henri Jean, hmmm interesting thing you point out about Picasa making a copy of your pictures. I've noticed that too, but not sure where it really goes as I still have all the originals on my hard drive. When editing in Picasa I always do a "save as" if I'm not sure about the outcome. That way I always have the original. Not sure how to install Picasa without having it copy your pictures

Are you able to print pictures on your printer? I have a pretty cheap HP printer and it prints amazing pictures for a very low cost!

Thank you everyone for the suggestions! I have to price some things out to see what is the most economical. I do have a printer, but it's older and I'm not sure of the picture quality. Might be worth giving it a try, though. I was able to get 4 wallet photos on a collage in Picasa, so that was helpful - now I will actually have something to print on my printer if I give that a try!

I like the new Memory Labs at Archiver's. Its so nice when I'm there cropping, I can just resize a pic and have it print right there for me!

I used to live in Atlanta (Woodstock) and we had an Archivers in Kennesaw. I miss them so much!

Are you near a Walmart? Because I get my wallet size pics at the Walmart itself. I can't seem to do it online. I do it at those yellow photo machines at the store. I just take my zip drive with me.

I use Microsoft WORD to insert images. I can resize and crop the image from there. Several images of varying sizes can be fitted on a single page.

There are a lot of online photo places that can print a bunch of different sizes now too. You'll just have to look around, I personally don't use them, so I'm not sure. I always print mine at Archivers.

• Solitaire Said:

Don't do this, unless you're printing yourself at home.
If the image does not match the printed photo size, you end up with skewed images.



Henri Jean, you did it wrong.
I love Picasa.



To the original question, you can also create collage prints through Walgreens photo printing (although they are slightly more expensive than a 4x6 print).
I like using the Picasa collage feature better (there are more options).

• Solitaire Said:

I would not recommend doing this either, but for a different reason. I discovered that MSWord reduces the quality of images drastically when you paste or insert them into a document. If you're only printing little photos, that doesn't matter, but bigger than 6"x4" and they can print out all grainy.

Linda, if you create an 8.5x11" document, tell MSWord that you're printing to 8.5x11" paper, and put 8.5x11" paper into the printer, as long as you haven't skewed the photos that you've inserted, it doesn't skew. But you're right, it does happen if you create a document in 8.5x11" default size, then try to print that to 6x4 paper, for example.

I would love to try Picassa again but need to get it right. Don't know what I'm doing wrong Linda - everyone seems to love Picassa but whatever I did really caused me to loose some photos so I really messed up good!

Walgreens has a 3 x 3 size on the machine in the stores - I use it all the time and you don't have to buy a whole sheet of them - just one picture is fine.

Persnickety Prints is my only photo printing source. They are a photo lab that is geared towards scrapbookers, so they offer many different size prints. You may have to hunt around to get to the right place where you can choose, but you will be amazed at all of the different sizes.

I print all mine at the Archiver's Memory Lab.

• RedSquirrel Said:

Of course, you're right.

I was referring more to creating in Word and sending to a photo processor. That's difficult, and rarely yields a good result.

Ohhh, I see. I was wondering whether you had come across some WYSIWYG issues that I hadn't. Word is certainly not as WYSIWYG as it used to be.

I gave wrong info - Walgreen's has a 4 x 4 - not 3 x 3 on their machines.