The easiest way to resize a pricking pattern is to use the percentage print setting provided by the Foxit PDF reader. This is available as a free download from www.foxitsoftware.com .
If you are unable to use the Foxit PDF reader to scale your printout you could take a snapshot of your computer screen with the “PrtScrn” (print screen) key and then paste the result into an image editing program. This procedure will enable you to change the size of a pricking pattern. This demonstration uses Microsoft Windows XP together with the Microsoft Paint image editing program.
Step 1. Open your image editing program. If you have Microsoft Windows you will find Microsoft Paint in the “Accessories” folder.
Step 2. Open the pattern file in Adobe Reader. Go to the pricking pattern page and use the size plus and minus buttons to fill the screen with the pricking pattern.
Step 3. Press the “Print Screen” key. This is usually found on the top-right of your keyboard.
Step 4. Go to Microsoft Paint and select “Edit – Paste” from the drop down menus. This will paste the snapshot of your computer screen into the image editing area.
Step 5. You want to remove the extraneous matter surrounding the pricking pattern so click on the “Select” tool.
Step 6. Place your mouse pointer at the top-left of the pricking pattern. Hold down the left mouse button and drag the pointer to the bottom-right of the pattern. This will create a dotted selection box around the pricking pattern.
Step 7. Select “Edit – Copy” from the drop down menus. This will copy the area you have selected.
Step 8. Select “File – New” from the drop down menus. You will be asked “Save changes to untitled?” You can click the “No” button.
Step 9. Select “Edit – Paste” from the drop down menus. A cropped version of the pricking pattern will appear.
Step 10. You can change the size of the pricking pattern with the “Image – Stretch/Skew” drop down menu.
Step 11. A Stretch and Skew box will appear. We are interested in the stretch controls. To make the pattern smaller set the stretch percentage to less than 100%. Put the same number in both Horizontal and Vertical boxes to keep the proportions the same. Click the “OK” button and your pattern will be resized.
Step 12. Print the pattern. If the size is not as you want it you can adjust it by changing the stretch settings.
If you have any questions or comments about this process please add them in a comment to this post. If you are trying this for the first time let me know if this tutorial was useful.
I found this tutorial to be straighforward and very helpful. Thank you very much for your help.
Mac computer instructions
On a Mac computer there are two different kinds of screenshots; “screen” and “selection”. By using the selection screenshot you can cut out the need trim off the extraneous matter in a full screenshot.
To take a screenshot you hold down four keys together:
Command + Shift + Ctrl + 3: screenshot copied to clipboard
Command + Shift + Ctrl + 4: select area of screen to copy to clipboard.
To select an area, hold down the key combination and drag your cursor around a block with the mouse. When you release the mouse button the screenshot will be captured. You can then paste the result into your image editing program.
Alternatively if you have OS X you should also have the “Grab” utility that can be found in HD/Applications/Utilities/Grab. Once you open the Grab utility there are selections for capturing Selection, Window, Screen or Timed Screen under its Capture Menu. I understand that Grab saves the file as a .tiff file by default.
Mac OS-X comes with free image editing software called iPhoto. You can use this to resize your pictures.
I find I can reduce and enlarge on my printer and print the reduced or enlarged pattern.