Reducing a Pattern for Download

[mygenaddy]

I need some help! I'm a Photoshop amateur and can't figure something out. I've got a sewing pattern that was drawn by hand. It's larger than a standard sheet of printer paper (maybe 14"x20" or so). I scanned it in two pieces and matched those up, then used the pen tool to trace around the original pattern and stroked the path. (So it's not a shape, just a black line drawn on a white background.) Now I need to reduce the whole thing in such a way that if someone else were to download the file and enlarge it by the same amount (or trace around it with X amount of added space all around) it would match my original pattern. (Gee, does that make sense? I hope I explained it right.) I have tried changing the image size, saving it as a new file, and then opening that new file and enlarging the image size by the same amount I reduced it, but when I print it (just allowing the lines to go off the edges of the paper since it's too big), it doesn't match my original. What am I doing wrong? Thanks!

[igjoe]

When you enlarge that image, you are enlarging a raster image. That means it won't scale well because all the pixels are static. Vector images will scale because the shape is mathematically made.

2 options

1. Your best bet is to keep it the original size and tell people they will have to print it and piece it together.

2. Save it as a vector image that will scale well, but this means you will be saving it as a photoshop file or illustrator file and only the people with those programs can access it.


Hope this information helps.

[mygenaddy]

Ah, finally! You are the first person who's been able to give me an answer that makes sense. So there's no way to create a resizable vector image that's not one of those specific file extensions? Hmm. Bummer.

Yet another option is to provide the smaller image but have people trace around the pattern leaving an extra amount all the way around (often done with patterns anyway). I wasn't able to do that either because I couldn't accurately reduce the image myself, but if I can make it a vector image I can at least get the proportions right for the smaller version. Then I could offer both the original size for piecing or a smaller size for tracing and each individual person can decide which works best for them.

Now, I'm only familiar with vector images in the sense that I understand vaguely what they are. How do I go about taking my original and reducing it to, say 75%, but keeping all the proportions correct? Do I have to do something to convert to a vector image or just resize or ...?

Thanks so much!