Please help me resize my patterns ???

[Veen]

I have been scanning images from books. Most are small and then I use Irfanview to crop them. Problem I have is Irfan leaves a huge black area around the croped section and resizes all that too. Is there a way to get rid of that black area and just resize the section I want resized?? I have been taking the cropped section and putting it into Word but I have to believe there is a way to do it right in Irfanview?? Thanks

[Eddy-Smiles]

Veen...

I'm not sure where you're at so I'll just tell you how I would develop a pattern.

1. Scan the design

2. Import into Microsoft Office Picture

3. Crop all parts not wanted or required and save as new file

4. Open new file up in IrFanView

5. Click on Effects/Image/Edge Detection

6. Click on Image/Negative

7. Click on Image/Grey Scale

8. Save as New File

9. Import into Microsoft Office Picture

10. Re-crop to exact size of pattern

11. Click on Auto Correct to darken outlines

12. Save file

13. Open up Microsoft Publisher

10. Insert New File in exact size as wood and print as pattern

I don't know if this helps you but it works great for me.

[Veen]

Thanks Eddy
Looks like you were typing as I edited my post lol.
I can get a decent printing but am now trying to shorten the process. Your process has alot of steps also. To clean up the scan I use the Irfanview option Image-decrease color depth-2 color black and white and it makes it pretty clear that way too. I have to believe we can crop these in Irfan without monkeying around with word and ms picture though.

[Eddy-Smiles]

Veen...

I'm retired so I've got nothing but time on my hands so a few steps one way or the other doesn't make much difference to me. If I wasn't monkeying around on the computer I'd be doing "Honeydo's!" The other way I look at it is if it ain't broke don't fix it but if you figure out a better way to row this canoe and want to share it I'd be happy to listen!

[Claude]

Well, one way is to open iPhoto, double-click on the photo you want to resize, then go to the File menu, select Export, then in the pop-up, click the button by "Scale image to no larger than" and enter 780 by 580 and click Export. Give it a different name, if you want, and click OK - the resized photo appears on the desktop where you can easily find it to upload to the forum.

Claude

[Veen]

I want to know how anybody did all this before we had computers lol...

[RUssL.]

Pantograph...before computers.

RussL.

[Claude]

The way I used to do it was to draw a grid on my photo, and a larger grid on another piece of paper...or if it was a photo my wife didn't want me to destroy, I'd draw the grid on a piece of onionskin paper and lay that on top of the photo. For example, I had a photo that was 3 in. by 3 in. and I wanted to make it into a pattern 9 in. by 9 in. I'd draw grid lines every half inch on the photo, then draw grid lines 3 times as big on the other piece of paper (1.5 inch squares). The, square by square, I'd sketch in the matching square, only larger. When I was done, I 'd have an enlarged pattern...

Claude

[Eddy-Smiles]

Ditto...by hand!

[Flint]

Hi Veen
I'm not sure if this is what you are after
but try this.
In Irfanview after you have cropped and resized to desired size go to:
F12. That should bring up the paint box.
Use the eraser tool to erase the background you don't want.
I hope this helps.

flint