I hope this isn't a "tired" subject.

[OCtoolguy]

I know I have seen this subject commented on but it still remains a mystery to me. So, here goes......When you find a pattern in a book and can't just cut out the page, how do you go about getting the pattern onto paper to work with it? I have a great book but when I do a scan of the patterns I end up with something that I can't seem to work with in Inkscape or Gimp without a great deal of work in between. I also would love to be able to print the final patterns out in red. A few of you kind folks have tried to help me out with this but it still eludes me. Should I first do a copy of the pattern in the book and then scan it or am I wasting my time trying to get something that can be imported into whatever software program I am using. I have tried Inkscape, Gimp and Paint so far because they are free. I'm sure if I was to spend a bunch of money on something else, it may or may not work any better. Right now, I'm just very confused. I'd sure appreciate it if someone would go through all the steps of how you do it. The whole idea of figuring out what format to save the pattern in is another can of worms. JPG, PDF, SVG.....it is so confusing. I must be muddleheaded because I can usually figure this stuff out. HELP!!

 

[crupiea]

I just take a picture of the pattern with my phone and email it to myself. Then I can play with it on the computer. Dont know how to make them red though.

I use paint.net to adjust the pattern like cropping it and such. I save them as jpg so it will open across platforms.

Once i get it right in paint. net I open excel or any spreadsheet program you have like that and insert the pic. Then you can adjust the size and it will print out across multiple pages if you want to. Just need to tape them together or course when done.

Edited September 29, 2018 by crupiea

[dgman]

Ray, I have several books that have missing pages because I’ve cut out the page in order to scan it. I had made a suggestion to Fox Chapel on making their pattern books easier to scan, but that never happened.

[OCtoolguy]

1 hour ago, dgman said:

Ray, I have several books that have missing pages because I’ve cut out the page in order to scan it. I had made a suggestion to Fox Chapel on making their pattern books easier to scan, but that never happened.

Thanks Dan. I just hate to cut it up but if I have to well, it's my book. This new laser printer I bought has a much better scanner too. I'm going to give it another try. I am also going to try what Crupeia suggested. I took some pics and I will try working with them. 

 

[kmmcrafts]

I've never had an issue scanning them in the book.. I just open up the book as far as it'll open and let half the book hang out the scanner lid.... or are you talking the magazines? If talking about the magazines.. I bend the staples up so I can lift off the pattern section... maybe they don't put them all on bigger sheets in the center of the magazine anymore? If the pattern is in and odd place I fold the papers until I can get to the said pattern and scan it.. 

I've said this many times.. It'd be nice to receive a yearly CD copy of all the patterns for the year that was printed in the magazines... for those that have the yearly subscriptions.. I'd even pay more for the yearly magazine to come on CD.. maybe they could do that as an option or make a paid website to read the magazine... much easier to keep a CD than a magazine.. 

[OCtoolguy]

30 minutes ago, kmmcrafts said:

I've never had an issue scanning them in the book.. I just open up the book as far as it'll open and let half the book hang out the scanner lid.... or are you talking the magazines? If talking about the magazines.. I bend the staples up so I can lift off the pattern section... maybe they don't put them all on bigger sheets in the center of the magazine anymore? If the pattern is in and odd place I fold the papers until I can get to the said pattern and scan it.. 

I've said this many times.. It'd be nice to receive a yearly CD copy of all the patterns for the year that was printed in the magazines... for those that have the yearly subscriptions.. I'd even pay more for the yearly magazine to come on CD.. maybe they could do that as an option or make a paid website to read the magazine... much easier to keep a CD than a magazine.. 

That's a great idea Kevin. I subscribe to the magazine but I have never taken any of the patterns out yet. I keep meaning to try some of them but so far they haven't tickled my fancy so to speak. No, what I"m having trouble with is scanning from one of the pattern books. This one is called Boxes, Bowls and Baskets. They don't have a pattern section in the middle. The patterns are on each different page or article. I have done one so far and I posted the pics of it. But, I had a heck of a time to get it to what I wanted. A couple of the folks here, including Travis tried working with the scans that I sent them. It seems that either my scanner wasn't doing it's job correctly or there were other problems. The one I'm working on now has two or three parts on one page and I scanned the page. Then, I tried to import it into Inkscape to be broken apart into the 3 pieces so I could work with them. It seems like it should have been simple but it proved not to be. I am going to try copying the whole page, cutting it apart with scissors and then scanning each individual piece. Maybe then I can import it and work with it. I want to be able to scale parts of it larger and then to change the color of the pattern lines to red for easier cutting. I am not one to give up on something until someone tells me that it's just impossible and I'm wasting my time. I just wish I knew these software pieces better. I would love to take a class but I've checked around and nobody is offering any. Now, If I wanted to BUY CorelDraw, I could take a class in that. I don't get it. What's the difference in teaching something that more people might be using that limiting it to only the programs that cost a bundle?

 

[new2woodwrk]

I just scan them on my scanner - I've not had an issue with any of the scanned images - I've now saved hundreds of scanned images from magazines and books over the summer

[OCtoolguy]

16 hours ago, new2woodwrk said:

I just scan them on my scanner - I've not had an issue with any of the scanned images - I've now saved hundreds of scanned images from magazines and books over the summer

But have you tried to do anything with them other than print and cut? I want to do some alterations to the patterns.

 

[Brianr24]

Ray I scan them then I import them to Inkscape. Once in Inkscape I trace to bitmap then duplicate so you have two bitmap images now then you can do pretty much anything to that image. 

[Dee]

For those of you who have loose pages from books, this may help.

I sometimes need to remove a page from a book to avoid distortion while copying or scanning.

In order to keep the book together, I have separated the pages from the spine and placed each page in a page protector. Then the book can be saved in a 3 ring binder for future use without losing any of its integrity or any information. 

 

[OCtoolguy]

57 minutes ago, Brianr24 said:

Ray I scan them then I import them to Inkscape. Once in Inkscape I trace to bitmap then duplicate so you have two bitmap images now then you can do pretty much anything to that image. 

Thanks Brian. I have tried to do this with a scan that has more than one piece on it but I haven't been able to isolate each piece by itself. I know I must be doing something wrong but so far, I can't figure it out.

 

[Foxfold]

.

Edited October 1, 2018 by Foxfold

[Brianr24]

35 minutes ago, octoolguy said:

Thanks Brian. I have tried to do this with a scan that has more than one piece on it but I haven't been able to isolate each piece by itself. I know I must be doing something wrong but so far, I can't figure it out.

 

If I understand what ur problem is? Once you change scan to bitmap you can erase anything you don’t want hence isolating what you do. Use the eraser tool. But you have to trace image to bitmap or it will not allow you to erase.

or tape white paper over the image you don’t want to scan. Before you scan it. I use the eraser method.

Edited September 30, 2018 by Brianr24

[OCtoolguy]

1 minute ago, Brianr24 said:

If I understand what ur problem is? Once you change scan to bitmap you can erase anything you don’t want hence isolating what you do. Use the eraser tool. But you have to trace image to bitmap or it will not allow you to erase.

or tape white paper over the image you don’t want to scan. Before you scan it. I use the eraser method.

I will give that all a try. Thanks for your help.

 

[tgiro]

Open the book or magazine as far as it will go and scan. Sometimes, I have to press on the top of the scanner to get the page to lay flat. Be sure your scanning software save the image as a jpeg.

Once the image is in the computer - you want to make it a redline image -- Irfanview -- https://www.irfanview.com/

Irfanview is a freebie graphic viewer. it allows you to view, crop, enlarge, reduce, and even change the color of graphic images.

Once you have Irfanview loaded, load your pattern jpeg into Irfanview.

Click on the Images menu in the tool bar then click on Color Corrections or type a [Shift]-G.

When to Color Corrections window opens, find the Red (R) slider button under Color Balance. Move the slider all the way to the right and click the OK button. You'll see that your pattern has turned red. Save the red image, so you can use it later and then print your red pattern.

Have fun with it.

Edited October 1, 2018 by tgiro

[OCtoolguy]

16 hours ago, tgiro said:

Open the book or magazine as far as it will go and scan. Sometimes, I have to press on the top of the scanner to get the page to lay flat. Be sure your scanning software save the image as a jpeg.

Once the image is in the computer - you want to make it a redline image -- Irfanview -- https://www.irfanview.com/

Irfanview is a freebie graphic viewer. it allows you to view, crop, enlarge, reduce, and even change the color of graphic images.

Once you have Irfanview loaded, load your pattern jpeg into Irfanview.

Click on the Images menu in the tool bar then click on Color Corrections or type a [Shift]-G.

When to Color Corrections window opens, find the Red (R) slider button under Color Balance. Move the slider all the way to the right and click the OK button. You'll see that your pattern has turned red. Save the red image, so you can use it later and then print your red pattern.

Have fun with it.

Thanks so much Tgiro. I have had that program for many years and only used it for photo viewing etc. Now, you have opened my eyes to a whole new world. I just messed around with it and it is so easy to change the colors of patterns. I also imported one of them into Inkscape and I think it is starting to become a bit more understandable. At 75 years young, I might just learn something new. Old dog new tricks.