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How to print the DIY planner in Europe

19 07 05 - 00:16 - Bookmark this post

OK, yeah, I confess. I recently started to use the DIY planner Hipster PDA version from A Million Monkeys Typing. Just trying it out in conjuncture with my Moleskine to see where it leads me. So far, it’s been pretty handy. Making some notes during a short meeting with some direct NA’s on it, using it a shopping list in my wallet, jotting down some ideas on the bus. Again, it’s a tool to use besides something else for me. It is not the tool or the holy grail.
What I found troubling about the downloadable templates, is they all use the American system for printsizes. OK, listen up: In Europe we don’t have indexcard sizes like 3×5 inch. We use the A-system (or whatever it’s called) and we have indexcards in A7 size. Or A6, whatever you prefer. A7 equals to 74 × 105 mm which comes to 2,9 × 4,1 inch. So the templates are too big. I was too lazy to fire up Fireworks and sort out how to resize the templates, so I just changed the printersettings to print the PDF’s in a proper size. So to all Europeans who want to print the Hipster templates, here’s the trick:
In Acrobat, go to your printersettings and open the printer properties. I have a HP deskjet 5150. Your own printersetting will differ from mine. First, make sure your papersize is set at “Indexcard (3×5 inch)”. You might want to make a customsize of it. Then look for Resizing options in your settings and change them to 85%. This will resize your template to 85% and it will fit on A7-index cards.
Now I look forward to anyone changing the original png-files to A7 format as well. Or perhaps Doug Johnson will do this himself ;-)

According to Wikipedia:

The international standard is ISO 216, which defines amongst others, A4. ISO paper sizes are all based on a single aspect ratio of the square root of two, 1:1.4142.
The largest standard size, A0, has an area of 1 m².
m3 - 19 07 05 - 13:10