[Zombie Pumpkins!]

"when I print out a pattern it has the page number and date time stamp on the bottom"

Here are a couple videos to help you remove the headers/footers from the printer patterns.

Printing without headers/footers, and resizing (Internet Explorer, Windows)

Printing without headers/footers, and resizing (Firefox, Windows)

[lonogod]

Thanks for bringing it up, lonogod. As the phrase goes: If you see something, say something.

"They have fuzzy edges instead of the crisp edges"

Vector patterns printed from this site have proven to be a little unreliable. Since they are just mathematically calculated points and curves, if those calculations are misinterpreted, the patterns can print out looking like unrecognizable scrambled fractals. So to keep the printed shapes and colors consistent, the patterns are flattened and rasterized before printing. The lines might look a little softer, but I think it's still just as easy to follow the black outlines.

"the patterns now print much smaller (and in the top left-hand corner of the paper)"

Now this is curious. For anyone experiencing this, can you tell me what web browser and operating system you're using (and the version numbers of each, if possible). I'd like to see if there's a trend of this being an issue with a certain software combination. If a certain browser seems to be the issue, I'll test the same scenario here and see if I can recreate and fix the problem.

In the meantime, you should be able to change the size of the printed pattern by changing the resizing/scaling percentage in the print software dialog box that pops up right before you print. This will look slightly different depending on your brand of printer, but here are some examples of the settings windows you might see:



If you're using the Google Chrome browser, you will likely have to click this link to bypass their custom print preview, and get into your system printer dialog settings:

I really hate to disagree with you here, but I can show you images of what I'm talking about. I use our system at work which takes a digital scan of every page we print. So I have the examples that I can share with you. I know you don't want me to post them on here since anyone could get the patterns for free, but I can certainly PM you with them if you would like. It's dramatic!

I don't know if the problem started when you got the Firefox issue resolved or when you launched the new site. I just know that something was changed to cause this issue. At work we print from thousands of different websites and do not change any settings. This site is the only one that is having this issue. I have tested it in Firefox, IE, and Chrome and it occurs in all of them.

When did you start rasterizing the files? Were you doing that before the switch? Our system at work basically takes the file and makes an exact digital copy of it. So whatever kind of file it was, that is what we get. I can say that I just zoomed in on a pre-issue file to 6400% and it is crystal clear which means it is definitely a vector image.

Let me know if you would like for me to send you the images. As Ajax pointed out earlier, this doesn't work well with the Stick 'n Carve. I printed one and it is just not as clear as it should be compared to before the issue began. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's certainly not ideal.

Thank you,

- Lonogod

[lonogod]

For those of you who are not having issues, are you reviewing the prints side by side with prints from before the new launch (or whatever is causing the issue)? I wander if it is more subtle for some than others. This really is quite the head-scratcher.

I'll go ahead and send you the PM though Ryan. Sorry for the trouble!

- Lonogod

[Ajax]

I printed off the Ash pattern and now his face is right long .

[matspud]

Just looked at my prints. In both IE and Safari, the "header/footer" issue reared its head after the relaunch. Fixed it but wonder what triggered the change.

[Mayor of Haddonfield]

Just looked at my prints. In both IE and Safari, the "header/footer" issue reared its head after the relaunch. Fixed it but wonder what triggered the change.

You're exactly right. I just went back and looked at the patterns I printed out prior to the launch and there's no header/footer. Now all the ones I printed today from the same printer has them. No changes were made to the print settings.

[Euri]

Here are a couple videos to help you remove the headers/footers from the printer patterns.
...

Ryan, I LOVE you!!! Thanks very much this worked exactly and now I'm catching up on my printing. It was just a minor thing, but it was really driving me crazy. I appreciate very much that you took the time for the video.

[Zombie Pumpkins!]

I really hate to disagree with you here, but I can show you images of what I'm talking about.

Thanks for sending over those images privately. After taking a look, I can tell you that what you're seeing is correct and exactly as intended.

To clarify, at the time of the website redesign, we also premiered the new backend printing system. At that point, it switched from vector patterns to raster patterns. This is why you can zoom in on the old patterns, and not the new ones.

Yes, unfortunately a rasterized image will look blurry if you enlarge it greatly, but since the majority of users print the patterns on a standard size sheet of paper (which is also roughly pumpkin-sized) this wasn't deemed a horrible compromise.

A true problem would be the inability to print patterns at all. The previous system used vector files inside Flash SWF files. These did not work on mobile devices (33% of audience), and recently became broken in the Firefox browser (10% of audience). And for quite a few people with older browsers, the vectors printed with an unusable "scrambled" appearance.

Given those above stats, you see that nearly half of the potential audience was being shut out. So the choice was easy... either lose half of the audience, or switch to rasterized images, which while not being quite as sharp, are ubiquitous and work for everyone.

And if the pattern is printing smaller or off-center, that is sadly just a side effect of each browser's decision to scale to fit or add margins. Every browser plays by it's own rules when it comes to printing. I can't determine the exact size the pattern will print on the page, unless I only offer my patterns in pre-printed books.

Anyway, regarding the lines not being as crisp, I really don't think this will effect the general user. You only need to follow along a black line with a pumpkin carving saw. But of course, I welcome everyone's feedback, and if there are truly problems, I will get them fixed.

I'm sorry if the current system makes it harder to scale up on large scale printers for oversized pumpkins and other projects. I'll continue researching for better options, but for general pumpkin carving I hope all is still good for everyone.




I honestly don't believe

[lonogod]

The way you were responding originally, it made me think that you had always rasterized the files. At least this clears up why the issue exists now versus before. I knew I wasn't crazy! Haha!

As for losing half of your audience, I personally feel that you could come up with a better way of overcoming this. Using internal PDF viewing capabilities for instance. Many insurance companies use this so people can view and print documents at any time...even on mobile devices. That will keep the files scalable while still giving you the ability to limit saving the documents to computers. Using an internal PDF viewer, you can remove any and all user functions if you wish. Heck, you can even restrict the viewing portion so that only the print button is available to the user.

Just food for thought.

Thanks for reassuring me that I was not going insane!

- Lonogod

[Kayo]

everything i have seems fine i do hve it on my computer not paper though