Using Lasercutter to Resize Existing Prints

Lasercutters can be used to resize existing prints, such as linocuts or woodcuts.  This can be extremely useful if you want to use them for a different purpose.  It can also be helpful if you want to modify an existing design in a very minor way. Let me show you how I used the laser cutter to adapt my Noah's Ark linocut print.

You can see my original Noah's Ark linocut on my printing press.  The original size was quite big, at 30cm x 30cm.  As it had a lot of unbroken background area, it meant it was quite a difficult print to do in terms of lifting the ink off the print.  You can see this in the photo above of a draft print.  It needed a lot of ink and pressure to get a decent print.  In addition to this, it is also quite a large picture area.  I decided I'd like to do a smaller, 20cm x 20cm version - not only would it be easier to print, but it would not take up so much wall space!

I scanned in the linocut, and using Photoshop Elements I changed the colours to grayscale.  I made sure the details were clear and of a high contrast.  I made a minor correction to one of the oryx and a giraffe, and also made the line weight of the elephants somewhat heavier.  Apart from that, it was mostly the same.  I made it greyscale and then inverted it (Filter - Adjustment - Invert) and saved it as a JPEG.  To translate this image for the laser cutter, you need to turn it into a vector using Inkscape. Open the JPEG, then go to Path - Trace Bitmap.  Adjust the settings till you are happy and then hit 'apply'.  You can then change the 'Path' created to the size you want - it is really important to remember to do this, otherwise it will likely turn out huge!  To ensure it would be cut out on the lasercutter, I created a square which was exactly the same size as my path (ie print).  This square had no fill in terms of a colour, but I did add a red 'stroke' around this square.  Hit Ctrl + Shift + D to resize the content to match the document properties.  If you want to read more about preparing vectors for lasercutting, read my blog post here.

You can see the two prints here.  It was indeed much easier to print the smaller version! You can see how much less patchy the texture of the ink is in the smaller version. This option of being able to use a lasercutter to resize a finished print without having to recut it by hand is so helpful - whether it is to correct a minor error, make a print smaller, or just slightly adapt a design.  My smaller version of my Noah's Ark design fits on an A4 sheet of paper, is much easier to post - and to frame!