How to increase the size of a printout?

[royfarnol]

If I'm not hallucinating this used to be very simple - even with Vista! - but I cannot find it now?

I have some documents in old-fashioned writing (or should I say scribble?) which need to be printed bigger in order to try and decipher them with the aid of a magnifying glass.

Your help appreciated, Roy.

[DaveA]

Depends on how you get this hand written data into your computer.

If you are scanning the pages then you need to use 600 dpi or higher. the higher you go the larger the printout can be.

[royfarnol]

I just print-screened it from the internet into word. I remember doing similar some years ago and using the print dialog to upscale it and printout bigger.

(By the way I also recall scanning in some "Model Railroader" trackplans and putting them into Paint where they swelled enormously for a reason that escapes me!)

[Rudi]

Hi Roy,

If you screen print a web page and paste it into Word there are a few things you can try to improve the legibility of the screen capture (whether it be on the screen or on a printout)

Try these options:

- Once the image is in Word, use the Picture tools to crop the image (1) and remove everything around the edges except the text you need.
- Since you crop off most of the screen capture, this allows you to size the image bigger in Word. Increase the image by dragging the corner size handles outwards (2)
- If the image (and the text is bigger), use Word's correction tools to sharpen the image and add some contrast so the text becomes darker (3 + 4 +5)
- At this point the image should be larger and sharper than the original screen capture. (6) You can view it on the screen or print it as is without additional print settings

Here is an example from a screen capture of small text on a web page...

Original screen capture:

0.jpg

Cropped and corrected screen capture after sizing (focus placed on the first two paragraphs)

1.jpg

[BobH]

Nicely done, Rudi!

That is a very, very well done how-to. Care to share how you did the callouts?

[Rudi]

Nicely done, Rudi!
That is a very, very well done how-to. Care to share how you did the callouts?

TX Bob...

I use ScreenPresso, a dedicated Screen Capturing application (free of course :) )

A bit of the interface with toolbars and tools and annotations...

1.jpg

[royfarnol]

Thanks for all your trouble.

I took a sidestep and re-saved the Word file as a PDF file where you can upscale the printout as big as the paper you can use. An extra step but a simple answer.

Much obliged to you all, Roy.

[Rudi]

No prob...
Glad your resolved it.

[BobH]

Thanks Rudi!