I wonder if anyone has come up with a formula for what size to make the .bmp from a scan of fabric for use in EQ? I know that sounds wordy...but especially with a large print, I have a difficult time getting the fabric to appear the right size when I add the .bmp into the fabric library. I usually settle for the colors being good and not worry about the scale of the fabric.

I will be watching this, because after having the software for 4 years, I *still* can't get my scanned fabrics to the right scale!!

I haven't done this in a while. I remember, though, that I had a hard time sizing the scan as well. The scan really needs to be a LOT smaller than the fabric. I know that there is a lot of support on the EQ website. You might do better going there for the answer. HTH

If you're scanning to GIF or PNG formats, you will need to scan at 96 dpi and for any other format, you scan at 72 dpi to keep your fabric in scale. This setting is in your scanner software - the interface pops up when you push the scan button on your scanner or when you acquire by TWAIN in an image editing program. (most people have Photoshop Elements or Paint Shop Pro, but you might have something else.

The default resolution is probably set to 200 or 300 dpi in your scanner, so you need to find where to override that in your scanner interface.

When the image is scanned and open in your image editor, check in "Image Information" or "Image Properties" to see that the image is 72 or 96 dpi, then do whatever tweaking you want to do to the image and then crop it to the size you want.

If the image is not the 72 or 96 dpi that you want it to be, change it to the correct resolution but check the option to "Maintain Original Print Size" or something similar. Then go on to the tweaking and cropping.

The EQ help files suggest cropping the scan to 3" square to keep the file sizes small, but I think I'd rather scan a whole repeat if I can. It does make your computer and EQ run slower to have large fabric images, though.

I've been saving 8" quilt blocks as fabric and dropping them into blank blocks on my Civil War quilt so that the quilt layout uses the exact blocks that I'm making. You really do notice the difference in performance.

See, now, I am 90% sure this is what I did, and it still doesn't work. Grrr. My scanner & I, we don't get along very well. I'll go back into my image files & see if I can re-edit them, we'll see how that goes.

I tried it once and decided it wasn't worth the effort (to me). I just find a similar color fabric in a file. You can download more fabrics from most of the fabric manufacturers' sites.

You might try importing the scan as a photo instead of fabric. This will allow you to keep the design larger, than if you do it as a fabric.

Lanny

Yes, but then you can't use it in your quilt block.

I'm thinking you could use it as a photo, just by using a photo program like Paint. Change the .jpg format to .bmp...hmmm, since from everything I've read so far, I think I know where I've gone wrong. I was scanning at 200 resolution. I will try 72 and I'll bet it will come out fine!!
Thanks all

EQ has great customer support. Give them a call when you have time to work with it while you talk.

ali