Unique Uses for a Home Photo Printer
A home photo printer can be used for much more than printing photos. Think crafts, and creating DIY wrapping paper and customized greeting cards. Think clothes, and designing personalized iron-on transfers. And think cleanup, and printing creative cues to help organize your home, attic to basement. You can even think archiving, and scanning old photos to create digital copies. Here’s just a sampling of what the best photo printers offer beyond photo printing.
1. Greeting cards
Personalize your well wishes with one-of-a-kind greeting cards. We’ll provide the structure—PIXMA printers include Canon’s free card template—you provide the creative. Home photo printers give you the flexibility to create cards in various sizes, or in various parts.
Print an 8x10 sheet, fold and send out a 4x5 greeting. Or print a 4x6 photo, mount to the front of a card and layer it with ribbon or twine. Print on glossy paper to get a nice shine; print on matte paper, and the card is easier to fold. Tip: If the front of your card is a photo—or something graphics heavy—you may want to print the inside of your card first; that way, the front passes through the printer only once.
2. Iron-on transfers
The interior design industry is seeing a strong trend toward customization. So why not follow suit with the designs you wear? Start by creating your own T-shirt (or apron, pillowcase, cotton bag…you get the idea) design using any graphics software application. Print the design on iron-on transfer paper (complete instructions should be supplied with the paper)—use light transfer paper for white and light-coloured fabrics, dark transfer paper for darker fabrics. (Tip: Print your design on regular paper first to make sure you’ve set up the printer correctly.) Then, iron your shirt before ironing on the transfer: removing wrinkles ahead of time ensures a smoother transfer. Finally, iron the transfer on to your shirt (or apron, pillowcase, cotton bag…you get the idea).
3. Wrapping Paper
Make the gift wrap as much a part of a gift as what’s being wrapped. Upload a few of your favourite photos with the gift’s recipient, or maybe images that offer clues as to what’s about to be unwrapped, to your computer.
Set the size of paper on your computer editing program and lay out a grid of your chosen photos. Print on plain paper, or use something a little thinner for easier folding. Place the image you want to have the most prominence on the top of the box, then wrap the gift as you would with regular gift wrap.
4. Colouring pages
Kids like to be kept busy, whether it’s a rainy afternoon trapped inside, a day with the grandparents or a long car ride. Print out downloadable colouring pages, puzzles and crosswords to occupy active minds. Even Mom and Dad may want to express their creative sides, or even just de-stress for the day themselves. You’ll receive 10 free downloadable pages—with designs created by Sheridan College students—from Canon with a PIXMA purchase.
5. Storage cue cards
Has the time finally come to do something about that stack of storage boxes piling up in the “spare bedroom?” Do you rely on guesswork when choosing which bin of off-season clothes to drag up from the basement? It’s time to get organized. Take a snapshot of each bin’s contents, print on 4x6 or 5x5 card stock, and tape the photo to the storage box or bin. There’s still clutter, yes, but now it’s organized clutter. A photo printer can do only so much.
6. Old photo reprints
In the days before digital, physical photos filled family albums. Now you can scan, save and reprint old family photos, or any memento, really—genealogical records, old school artwork, a family tree—into digital files. For photos that you want to reprint the same size as the original, scan them at 300 dpi. For photos that you want to enlarge (or crop), scan them at a resolution that leaves you with 300 dpi after it’s been resized.
Here’s, for example, how to enlarge a 4x6 original to an 8x10 reprint: Divide the larger dimension by the small dimension to get the necessary multiple (8 divided by 4 to get 2) Multiply that by the desired resolution (2 x 300 dpi = 600 dpi). Scanning an old snapshot at 600 dpi retains the sharpness when you reprint it as an enlargement. It’s easy to reprint smaller than the original; reprint larger, though, without increasing the resolution and a photo may lose its sharpness and appear pixelated.
7. Scrapbooks
Scrapbooks are both a great gift idea and a wonderful way to archive the meaningful moments for you and yours. Variety is the key to a truly memorable scrapbook. One way to do that: mix in a few full-page photos or patterned pages. With the PIXMA TS9521C—an all-in-one-printer for crafters—you can print photos, images and documents as small as 3.5” x 3.5” or as large as 12” x 12”! You can even create original background paper that ties into your images. Many PIXMA printers also come with My Image Garden, a software app that lets you add text to photos and offers creative options such as photo collages and filters.
8. Print on creative paper
Sometimes you want to display photos on more than just your phone. Turn your digital handiwork into physical artwork and print your photos at home. With PIXMA printers, it’s as simple as selecting your photos, choosing the paper size and clicking print. The new PIXMA TS9521C has the capability to print on restickable paper and magnetic photo paper! Show off your printed photos around your home, display them on your desk or maybe even add them to your scrapbook.
9. Nail stickers
Keep your favourite images at your fingertips. With the Nail Sticker Creator for Canon app, you can make your photos part of your manicure. The app lets you create original designs (or select from 200 predesigned sets) for every event or special occasion. Edit your design by adding stamps or text to it, or even changing its base colour. Then print and press on. File the edges, and apply a top coat to seal and protect your nails. To remove, dip your fingers in cold or warm water and, starting at your fingertips, slowly pull the stickers off.
Awaken Your Artistic Side with PIXMA
Explore Canon’s lineup of PIXMA home and photo printers, then take a digital stroll through Canon Creative Park, where you’ll find hundreds of free downloads and templates for not only stationery, colouring pages and greeting cards but also calendars, wall decorations, scrapbook pages and much more.