Enlarging PDF charts

After downloading your Chatelaine chart, the first task that faces you is to print it out. If you simply print the relevant pdf document, you'll end up with a chart which is unreadable, except with a magnifying glass. The trick with the pdf file is to enlarge the design using Adobe Reader's snapshot tool and either print the snapshot immediately, or copy the enlarged section to another (word processed) document. Instructions and advice on enlarging charts can be found at the Chatelaine bulletin board on ezboard. The discussion is also added to as new versions of Reader become available.

Additionally, if you join one of the Chatelaine groups on Yahoo, such as Chatelaine Design Support, then instructions can also be downloaded from there. If you still have problems, then both at ezboard and on Yahoo, you'll find a bunch of friendly stitchers more than happy to help.

I believe that the way in which Martina supplies her designs as pdf documents that you can enlarge so readily is very good. Many of the paper based charts you can buy are so small that, although still readable, they can make it harder for you to follow the chart. The advantage of these pdf based charts is that it is entirely up to you how large you print the chart. Of course, the disadvantage is the number of pages you end up printing the chart out on.

However, the biggest disadvantage of these pdf based charts is that it can be incredibly fiddly and time consuming working out exactly how you do want to print the chart and how large you want the symbols to be. You're also printing each page of the pdf document on to multiple sheets of paper and need to make sure you keep track of how all these pages fit together - no small task! This makes printing charts very complicated and heavy going for those who aren't so familiar with the workings of a pc.

But - don't be discouraged - it really is worth it! If you do have problems printing out your chart - come on to ezboard or the Yahoo group and just ask!

I've printed out my chart slightly larger than I would normally use a chart and , for the first time, I'm using a marker pen to mark off stitches as I do them - the larger chart gives me more space to do this without making a mess of the rest of the chart. So far it's working well.

To be continued ...........

Edited at 5.20pm

It's just been posted on ezboard that one contributer has just written some new instructions for enlarging charts with Adobe Reader 8 - see here for the instructions - and thanks to the person who wrote them!