Persnickety Prints Guest Post | Adding the 4x6 Overlay To A Photo For Printing

Cheri from Persnickety Prints sent me an email the other day and asked if she could put together a post about how to add the December Daily™ 4x6 overlays to your photos before uploading for printing.

I thought that was a fabulous idea!

Here's their suggestions for working with the overlays (you can view this same post on their blog):

1) Open the image in your software program (such as Photoshop Elements).

2) Resize the image first to 4x6 at 300 dpi (1800x1200 pixels).

3) Ali has created her December Daily™ 4x6 overlays to perfectly drop on top of your pre-sized 4x6 photo. No adjustments needed! TO MOVE THE OVERLAY ONTO THE PHOTO use the black arrow move tool in Photoshop Elements/Photoshop to move the PNG file onto the 4x6 photo. I have a tutorial for adding elements to photos here.

4) Flatten. Save as full resolution .jpeg. Upload and order.

Your borders will be cut off if they are placed too close to the edge of the image.

This bleed explanation pertains to all photographic printing.


Designer Digitals Quarterly Sale continues this week with all products 30% off. Here's two more new products from me that became available last Saturday:

First up is a set of 4x6 layered templates for easily adding and printing more than one photo on a 4x6 canvas.

And a set of Happy Christmas 12x12 text overlays. These come as black PNG files, can be easily recolored and are great for printing on transparencies.

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42 thoughts

  1. Tere says…
    11/12/2012

    Thanks PP and Ali for the tutorial. I can always use a reminder on how to use my digital products. Looking forward to my new AE designs in my December daily.

    Ali, I'm also loving your new Happy Christmas text overlays. Do you have a tutorial on Vimeo for using these? Thanks!!

    Reply 0 Replies
  2. Jennifer L. says…
    11/12/2012

    Thanks for the tutorial! I always have trouble with bleed (although I didn't know what to call it); getting the print to come out correctly is always a difficulty for me. Even after doing what is suggested, however, I still have some bleed and therefore I usually have to make the overlay a bit smaller to compensate. Any other suggestions? Is there an adjustment in the printer settings I should use?

    Reply 5 Replies
    1. Jennifer L. says…
      12/04/2012

      Cindy, I'm still shrinking my overlays. I generally need to resize it anywhere from 1/8 to 1/4 smaller and it's hit and miss. Sigh.

    2. Ali says…
      11/12/2012

      Who do you use for printing?

    3. Jennifer L. says…
      11/12/2012

      I print my own photos with my Epson Artison 1430.

    4. Cindy R. says…
      12/04/2012

      Jennifer - I am having the same trouble with bleed on my new Epson Picturemate Charm. Did you ever figure out how to solve it? Or are you just shrinking the overlay every time?

    5. Cindy R. says…
      01/12/2013

      Hi Jennifer, I figured out how to solve the 'bleed' problem on my Epson Picturemate Charm. I have to print the photos directly from my computer. I open my photo in Windows Live Photo Gallery. Select Print. At the bottom right is a "Options" button. In Options I select "Printer Properties." Under "Main" in the Layout section there are 2 options: Borderless and Borders. Select "Borderless" and adjust the 'Expansion' to Min (all the way to the left). Click "OK" and print. Doing this I had no more trouble with 'bleed'. I know you have a different printer, so not sure if this will work for you. Hope it helps though!

  3. Susan says…
    11/12/2012

    any 12x12 december daily digital templates for 2012 comin' our way?

    Reply 1 Reply
    1. Ali says…
      11/12/2012

      I hope so - trying to work on them!

  4. donna c says…
    11/12/2012

    can i use the 12x12 overlays if i don't have a 12x12 printer? (sorry, prob a dumb question ! )
    thanks!

    Reply 3 Replies
    1. Ali says…
      11/12/2012

      Sure - I use them on 8.5x11 (or smaller).

    2. donna c says…
      11/12/2012

      Thanks!

    3. Vanessa Babin says…
      11/14/2012

      Donna, thanks for asking that question, b/c I was wondering the same thing! Thanks Ali, I love the idea of making my own transparencies

  5. Misty K in Ohio says…
    11/12/2012

    This doesn't explain HOW to add the overlay to the photo.

    Reply 1 Reply
    1. Ali says…
      11/12/2012

      Misty - use the black arrow move tool in Photoshop Elements/Photoshop to move the PNG file onto the 4x6 photo. I have a tutorial for adding elements to photos here: http://aliedwards.com/2010/01/scrapbooking-with-your-computer-opening-recoloring-adding-to-a-photo-loading-brushes.html

  6. Evalyn says…
    11/12/2012

    Is there a difference between cropping to 4x6 and resizing the image to 4x6?

    Reply 2 Replies
    1. Chari w/ Persnickety Prints says…
      11/24/2012

      Evalyn- just make sure when you are resizing the image to 4x6, you are also changing the dpi to 300. (photoshop default is 72)
      Images straight out of camera are not a true 4x6, so there will always be some cropping.

    2. Ali says…
      11/12/2012

      You can set your cropping tool to create a 4x6 at 300 dpi - the result would be the same.

  7. Christine says…
    11/12/2012

    Thank you so much for the tutorial. This is my first year with the December Daily and this really helped. I'm even more excited now and I didn't think that was possible! Thank you!

    Reply 0 Replies
  8. Barbara says…
    11/12/2012

    Love the Designer Digital sale - I bought way too much - I hope I can remember to use it all. Thanks for all the great things!

    Reply 0 Replies
  9. Jeanal says…
    11/12/2012

    I ordered the 12x12 overlays I'am planning to resize to 6x6 since I was unable to find a 4x6 album that I thought would work. I would also like to change the color of the text can you tell me how to do this? also when you print your journaling cards are you able to more than 1 on a page? I'am new to photoshop.

    Reply 2 Replies
    1. Ali says…
      11/12/2012

      A tutorial for recoloring can be found here: http://aliedwards.com/2010/01/scrapbooking-with-your-computer-opening-recoloring-adding-to-a-photo-loading-brushes.html. For the journaling cards you can either print the PDF (some of the sets include a printable PDF file that has 4 on a page) or you can create a new canvas in Photoshop (say 8.5x11 at 300 dpi resolution) and drag and drop the cards onto the new canvas for printing.

    2. Jeanal says…
      11/13/2012

      Thank You! I watch the vidoe and learned several things. Hoping to premake some pages this weekend. I did this project a couple years ago love it! Hoping these templates will make it easier to keep up with.

  10. Pam C says…
    11/13/2012

    I have taken class after class on using PSE. If I don't use it on a daily basis (and I rarely use it), I forget everything. Thanks for the tutorial and the links. I do love your digital products. When I become "Empress of PSE", I will have a "flatten button" and an "overlay button"!

    Reply 0 Replies
  11. Candy Clay says…
    11/13/2012

    Ali--I bought some of the sentiment boxes on Designer Digitals--the ones that say you can use with the Silhouette but there are no Silhouette files in there--how do I get those?

    Reply 1 Reply
    1. Ali says…
      11/13/2012

      Hi Candy - here's a tutorial for working with my PNG files and Silhouette Studio (essentially you open and trace): http://aliedwards.com/2011/12/december-daily-2011-day-three.html

  12. mmj says…
    11/18/2012

    I'm new to digital scrapbooking. Do you have to use Photoshop to use the PNG files? I'm using the studio calico december daily kit. I don't have photoshop, but I was thinking of purchasing Aperture instead. Would this work?

    Reply 1 Reply
    1. Chari w/ Persnickety Prints says…
      11/24/2012

      I'm not as familiar with Aperture, however .png format is quite versatile. (.png keeps the background transparent)

      Most photo imaging programs are compatible with .png. Check with Aperture to see if it reads .png
      It's the .psd that's photoshop only.

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