How to Open, Resize and Print a Digital Stamp Using OpenOffice Draw

There are many ways of using digital stamps. You could simply print out the stamps and then cut them out to apply to a card or other projects. Another way of using the stamps is to position the stamps on the page first, for instance to lay out the stamps to make a handmade greeting card, and then print this. You will need to know how to open, resize and print the image which ever way you intend to work.

Using OpenOffice Draw

1. Go to Format > Page to open the Page Setup dialog.
2. Select the paper size and orientation as required. Reduce the margins to 0.00 and then click OK.
3. Now go to Insert > Picture > From File to open a file browser window and navigate to your downloaded digital stamps file and click the open button. This places the digital stamp that you selected into the page.
4. When you click on the digital stamp, the mouse pointer will change to a cross and you can drag and drop the digital stamp image as required. You can also change the size of the graphic by clicking on any of the eight green handles that surround the image and, while holding your mouse button down, dragging the handle. If you want to keep the proportions of the image the same as you resize it, remember to hold down the shift key as well as the mouse button as you resize the image. When you're happy with the size and positioning of the digital image, you can insert any further stamps as required.
5. One feature of using OpenOffice Draw is that images can be rotated to different angles. To do this go to Modify > Rotate and you'll see the grab handles around the stamp change to red.
6. If you click and drag one of the corner handles, you'll see that you can rotate the image.
7. If you want to insert a new page go to Insert > Slide to add a new blank page. The document automatically moves to this page, but you can select which page you want to work on by selecting form the thumbnail pages in the panel to the left.
8. If you want to add text to your design, but don't have a suitable text stamp, you can use the Text tool from the Drawing toolbar. If you can't see the toolbar in your version of OpenOffice Draw, go to View > Toolbars and then click on Drawing and the toolbar will become visible. When you look in the View > Toolbars menu, all the visible toolbars have a tick next to them.
9. The Text tool is represented by the letter 'T' in the Drawing toolbar, so click on that to select it, and when you bring your mouse pointer back over the page you'll see it's turned to a crosshair. Now click and draw a textbox on the page.
10. Type your text into this box. If you highlight the text you can use the Text Formatting toolbar above the document to change the font, the size and the alignment as desired.
11. Use the preview function to check the images on the page. When you are happy with how they look, print the page in the normal manner. Note - when printing if you are offered the option to 'Suppress Transparency', select 'No'. In many cases it won't actually make any difference as the digital stamps aren't overlaid, but in designs where they do, suppressing the transparency can have unexpected results.