Impression Obsession Digital Stamps

How to work with digital stamps What is a digital stamp? Digital stamps are black and white computer graphics files that you can print

from your desktop computer (or tablet in some cases) to color and use just like traditional rubber stamps.

The main difference is that there is no physical product. You download them and save them on your computer like you would photos. Digital stamps typically come in two formats, JPG and PNG. These are technical terms describing the file format they come in. We offer our digital stamps in both of these formats and when you download them, they come in a ZIP file, which is a format that compresses them to make them as small as possible and which must be “extracted” before you use them. Digital stamps are cost-effective, always print perfectly, and can be a great addition to your stamp collection!

An example of one of our digital images (K1006-DG)

How Are They Used? Typically you will print and color your digital stamps. Many of our digital stamps, especially the Gary Robertson ones, are card-sized and will likely not be paired with many other images on a card. Some of the smaller ones might be combined with each other. That’s the main reason to use a PNG file. PNG files have transparent backgrounds so when you put them close to other images, or over top of them, in a drawing program, they won’t have white boxes around them which get in the way and could block out parts of another image. What Do I Need to Use a Digital Stamp? You need a desktop or laptop computer, and a printer. You will need to know how to extract ZIP files, download and save files. If you have a graphics program like Photoshop Elements,

there are many fun things you can do like printing them in a color, cropping them, erasing parts, and doing special effects to them, but just to print and color them you don’t need any special software. Coloring Digital Images You will probably want to color your digital stamps as you do traditional stamps. What you use to do that will depend on the type of printer you have. If you have a laser printer, you can color option to feed paper straight through the printer (without having to wrap it around a roller like most laser printers do). This makes inkjet printers work FAR better with thicker paper like cardstock. How To Download Your IO Digital Stamps When you purchase (or download our freebies) digital stamps from Impression Obsession, our system generates an

immediately with water-based media, alcohol markers, colored pencils, etc. If you are using an ink-jet printer, sometimes water-based media will cause the ink to run. You can heat set your ink to help with that, test your particular printer first. Alcohol markers also work with inkjet printers. One other consideration for printing is that many inkjet printers have the

email for EACH image you purchase. The emails contain a link to the files. You simply click on the link to download them. You will probably want to create a folder on your computer where you store these purchases so you have access to them any time you wish. If you lose your files, your computer crashes, or have any other problem with your files, you can always access the download links from your Order History on our site. Extracting ZIP files Our free downloads just come in JPG format because it is easier for people who are new to digital stamps to just download the one image. Our digital stamp products for purchase,

however, are delivered in ZIP file format. In order to use the images, you must first download the file, then extract it. When extracted, the two file types will be in one folder and you can use them individually. To extract it you can right-click on it (if you are a PC user) and choose “extract all”. If you have the file selected, “Extract All” is also a toolbar option at the top of your screen. Here’s a video showing you how to extract files from a ZIP file:

Resizing Digital Images One of the best attributes of digital stamps is the fact that you can print them at any size you want. While you can’t do certain techniques with digital stamps like embossing, using them with clay or other surfaces, or doing various inking techniques, the one thing you can do easily and quickly is print them at whatever size you want and place multiple images on a sheet of paper. If you have graphics skills and software, there are many programs you can use. If you are new to working with digital images, you may not have invested in special

programs just yet. You can use your word processing software (like Microsoft Word and other similar programs to resize and put multiple images on a page. Here is a video showing that process: We hope these tips help you to enjoy your digital stamps from Impression Obsession!