Ravelry requires patterns-for-sale to be in PDF format. When I first started designing, I had no idea how to make a pretty PDF. I would just type it out, choose a nice font, insert my picture and upload. But something about that just didn't suit my very type-A personality. I wanted it to be fancier and more polished and professional-looking especially if I was going to be charging for the pattern. So, I went on youtube and researched how exactly to design in Microsoft Word. Basically, I learned how to use Word as a desktop publisher of sorts.
I have a pattern coming out on Friday. It's a lovely basketweave pattern shawl and I'm going to show you my design process using that pattern as an example. Here's everything I've learned:
1. Open notepad and type it all out.
Yep, notepad. Not Word. Type out your intro, materials, special notes, and, of course, your pattern in a simple notepad document before you even open Word. Make sure it's edited and ready to go.
2. Open a new document in Word.
When you open your document, before you do anything else, go to the insert tab. Then click "shapes" and then "new drawing canvas." Creating a canvas on your document will make Word act a bit more like a desktop publisher. You'll gain complete control over where you place your pictures and text boxes, rather than being confined to the margins Word defaults to.
Ok, once you have your drawing canvas, go up to "position" on the toolbar and then "more layout options." Then go to "text wrapping" and then "In front of text."
Now you can stretch your canvas out to fit your page. If you want to leave a margin, go for it.
At this point your document should look like this:
3. Add more shapes.
Now, you can add another drawing canvas for your header or for your various text boxes. Simply follow the same steps: Insert > Shapes > New drawing canvas > Position > More layout options > Text wrapping > In front of text. You can use these additional shapes for the notes, stitch abbreviations, gauge, title, and anything else that you typed up earlier in notepad. Learn how to add text in the next step, which is:
4. Jazz it up!
You can do 4 basic things to any of your shapes or canvasses. These four things are adding an outline, filling your shape with color, adding text within a box, and adding a picture.
Here's how to do each one:
Add an Outline
Right click on your canvas or shape > Format Drawing Canvas > Line Color > either Solid Line or Gradient Line (select your preferred color) > Line Style (select your preferred style)
Add Fill Color
Right click on your canvas or shape > Format Drawing Canvas > Fill > either Solid Fill, Gradient Fill, Pattern Fill, or Picture/Texture Fill > Select your preferred fill
Add Text
Select your shape and go the Format tab at the top of the toolbar > Draw Text Box > Draw it within your shape > Type or Paste your text into the newly created text box > To get rid of the white background, go up to shape fill and select no fill > To get rid of the black border, go up to Shape Outline and select No Outline
Then, format your text just how you would normally in Word. Highlight it, and choose fonts, colors sizes, boldness, italics, all that jazz.
Add Pictures
Right click on your canvas or shape > Fill > Picture or Texture Fill > File > Select picture file
5. Make use of pro hacks.
As I was designing, I found that there were a few things that were super duper helpful.
1. With a shape or canvas selected, use the arrows on your keyboard to nudge it down, up, or over incrementally. This is super helpful in getting accuracy that you may not be able to with your mouse.
2. Hold down the Control key on your keyboard to select multiple elements, group them, and be able to move them as one unit. This is helpful when you notice that all of your page elements could really be moved to the right by like 1 pixel. Select them all, and then use your arrows to move them all.
3. Unless your pattern is really short, you'll probably need more that one page. In order to add another page, go to the Insert tab and click "Blank Page."
4. Down in the bottom right corner, you'll see a little toggle button with a zoom percentage next to it. Bring this way down to 50% so you can see the whole page at once.
5. You're not confined the the preset Word color options. Whenever you're looking to select a color for something, you can click on "More color options" and customize it. Then, the next time you want to select a color for a different element, this custom color will pop up for ya.
6. Save as a PDF.
Once you have your document looking fabulous, you're going to go up to File > Save As > Type in your document name > Select "PDF" from the drown down menu.
Voila! You did it!
5. You're not confined the the preset Word color options. Whenever you're looking to select a color for something, you can click on "More color options" and customize it. Then, the next time you want to select a color for a different element, this custom color will pop up for ya.
6. Save as a PDF.
Once you have your document looking fabulous, you're going to go up to File > Save As > Type in your document name > Select "PDF" from the drown down menu.
Voila! You did it!
Here's my PDF in progress:
That big blank section will be for the picture, but we'll keep that a surprise until Friday ;)
And that's about it! Pretty cool, huh? I never knew this was possible with Word. It's awesome!
Go experiment with this! It's a fantastic tool and, for most of us with PCs, it's also a free one!
I hope you learned something from this post!
I'll see you Friday with tips on how to successfully launch a pattern.
Until then,
Grace
