Making your own scrapbook background printouts is a great way to get coordinating background papers that you can't find in a store. Use this orignal touch to make your scrapbooks a true reflection of you!
About Printing Scrapbook Supplies
If your scrapbook is 12X12 inches, you will need to either combine papers and borders on a single page, purchase a 12X12 scrapbook paper printer, or have your backgrounds professionally printed. If you did not design the paper yourself, many commercial printing services will refuse to print them. Smaller companies that specialize in printing scrapbook pages are likely to be more cooperative if you are only printing for personal use. If your scrapbook is 8X8 or smaller, you should have no trouble printing your own backgrounds. Just be sure to print on acid-free paper and remember that regular printer ink may fade over time.
Tips for Quality Scrapbook Background Printouts
Keep the following tips in mind when working with printable backgrounds.
- Before you spend money printing any scrapbook background paper, make sure the digital image you plan to print was created at 200dpi (dots per inch) or greater. Save it to your computer and then open it with your computer's image editing software.
- Check your printer settings to ensure that the highest quality settings are selected and experiment with various settings. Your printer manufacturer may have support resources at its website if you have questions about or problems with your settings.
- Some designer groups only offer backgrounds designed with guaranteed resolutions of 300dpi or greater. All of their scrapbook background printouts and other elements are hand-checked by experienced quality control editors before being published. Look for phrases like "no strays or jaggies," (meaning no extra pixels or jagged edges) when searching for quality backgrounds to download. Digital designs can look beautiful at far lower resolutions on your monitor, but printing at these low resolutions can result in disappointment and wasted ink and paper.
- Run a quick test print on inexpensive paper before printing your final scrapbook background printouts. After an inch or so of your test print has run, hit "cancel." Check the print to see if it meets your expectations. The colors you see on your monitor may vary greatly from the way your printer interprets the same colors. In fact, if you compare colors on any two monitors that are not custom-calibrated with expensive technical equipment, the colors are almost guaranteed not to match exactly. Adjust your printer settings if needed and run another test print.
- Consider buying a 12X12 scrapbook printer if you want to create your own printouts. These specialty printers are expensive, but like most electronic goods, prices tend to fall over time as manufacturing technology improves.
Where to Find Scrapbook Backgrounds to Print
There are countless websites where you can download free scrapbook backgrounds to print or buy exactly the background image you need for just a few dollars. You can also buy inexpensive CDs filled with digital scrapbooking backgrounds to print on eBay.
These websites also offer a wide range of printable scrapbook backgrounds:
- Mangels Designs is a digital scrapbooking site with a small one-time fee for a lifetime membership and unlimited downloads of backgrounds and other elements.
- Scrapbook.com allows you to shop their "superstore" by color and other specifications.
- Designer Digitals lets you shop the digital scrapbook paper section by designer name or keyword.
If you are looking for a specific background online and can't find it, try searching Google Images or a photo sharing site like Flickr as a last resort. Use keywords that describe your theme and color, and be sure the image is a large, high-resolution file before printing.
Fun and Unique
Printing your own backgrounds is a great way to unleash your creativity. You'll have fun and your scrapbook is sure to be one-of-a-kind with these tips and tricks.
