Piece By Number - Having Problems Printing Your Patterns?

Problems with Printing Your Patterns?

We're sorry you've reached this page, because it probably means you're having problems printing Piece By Number's patterns. Regrettably, we cannot provide individualized technical support for printing problems of the free patterns offered on this web site. Below are a few general suggestions that may help in your situation.

If you can see the pattern on your monitor, you should be able to print it. If you're having troubles getting the pattern to print at all, however, try this trick. Right click on the image, and select "View Image". This will take you to another screen with just the pattern graphic image shown in the upper left corner. Then try again to print.

Piece By Number's patterns print true to size for most PC users. If you have a PC and have troubles printing to the correct size, you can try saving the pattern as a file on your computer and then printing the pattern from another program. Right click on the pattern image, select "Save Image As....", and put it in a folder with a name you'll remember. Later, use a graphics or image processing program, such as CorelDraw, Illustrator, Micrografx Draw, PrintShop, PaintShopPro or many others (the one that came with your scanner, perhaps?) to open the image, resize it, and print.

If you have a Macintosh, the patterns may be printing out too large. Try setting your Mac-compatible printer to print at 75 percent image size. On Macs, the printout scaling (reducing or enlarging) is generally controlled by "Page Setup" in the FILE menu, although some programs let you adjust it in the "Print" dialog itself. The default setting is 100 percent, but some printer drivers may have presets at 80, 66, and 50% or whatever, and may allow you to key in other values. You may have to experiment a bit to see what percentage works for you. Or try the first suggestion above.

If you have a good printed copy of the block pattern, but despite your best efforts, you cannot get it to print the correct size, resize it on a photocopier at your local copyshop.

Try printing from another computer and printer -- maybe a friend can help you.

If you're able to successfully print a PDF file, but the size is not as stated, try this: when the printer dialog comes up, make sure "Fit to Page" is UNchecked. If that doesn't work, tell her to put a check beside Print as Image -- this won't cure the problem, it makes the page print as a bitmap image and will usually work if nothing else does.

If you're getting blanks in your PDF printout, you probably have an outdated version of Acrobat Reader. Piece By Number's PDF patterns all require Reader 3.0 or higher.

If all else fails, you may obtain printed copies of Piece By Number's free patterns for US $3 (handling and shipping to US quilters) for the first block, and $1.25 for each additional block. Contact me with your request. Quilters outside the US, please email for alternative arrangements.

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Page last updated September 26, 2003

Copyright 1999 Beth Maddocks (Piece By Number)
All Rights Reserved
Permission is given to individuals to use patterns and designs for personal use only.
For other uses, please contact the author.