How to Enlarge a PDF Mug Rug Pattern

Whilst a small mug rug is a beautiful thing, sometimes a little bigger is just what is needed. With that in mind, I would like to share with you how I enlarged my mug rug pattern using a home printer and Adobe Reader (if you don’t have Adobe Reader you can download it for free from Adobe).   Note:  These instructions will not work for tablets, phones, handhelds or touch devices due to the limitations of the Adobe Reader application.   

Valentine Hearts Mug Rug Pattern

Firstly choose your mug rug pattern - you will find a large selection in my Etsy Store.  For this project I chose to enlarge my Valentine Hearts mug rug pattern in order to create a Valentine Hearts table runner.

Valentine Hearts - large and small

Before we start you will need to open the pattern you wish to enlarge in Adobe Reader.  Make a note of the page number of the appliqué sheet (all Patchsmith patterns have page numbers at the bottom). Once the pattern is open, proceed to the print screen as you normally would (i.e. from the ‘file’ menu or using the print icon or by pressing CTRL + P keys).  This will open the print dialogue box as shown:

Adobe Reader Print Box
 (if you don't see this screen then you should make sure you are using Adobe Reader - it will say 'Adobe Reader' at the top of your screen, next to the file name)

Now you are ready to make the following changes to the print dialogue box to enlarge your chosen pattern sheet (descriptions for each step are provided below the screen shot):

You can print out these instructions for a larger view of this screen shot.

1.         Firstly, you only want to enlarge the appliqué sheet and not the complete pattern so enter the page number of the appliqué sheet into the ‘pages’ box of the ‘Pages to Print’ section.  In the case of the Valentine Hearts pattern this is page 3.

2.         Select ‘poster’ in the ‘Page Sizing and Handling’ section. This will change the preview picture on the right hand side. The ‘poster’ option does not enlarge the print but positions it over multiple print pages. 

3.         Now comes the fun bit – ENLARGING.  Enter a figure larger than 100% into the ‘Tile Scale’ box.  100% is the normal size so if you wanted it twice as big you would enter 200 into the ‘Tile Scale’ box.  (Do this and then click on the ‘poster’ button again to see the preview picture change.  It is now showing eight pages and the mug rug is twice as big.  Change the 200% to 150% and click on the ‘poster button’ - the number of sheets in the preview picture has now changed to six - the mug rug is 50% bigger than the original.)  You need to decide how big you want your pattern to be and this can require a bit of trial and error if you are not very good at math.  In the case of the Valentine Hearts runner I enlarged to 175% which made each heart measure approximately 7½” wide by 6¼” high. 

Tip:  Whenever you enter a figure in the ‘Tile Scale’ box click on the ‘poster’ button to change the print preview so you can see how many sheets of paper you need.

4.         Make sure the ‘Cut Marks’ box is checked as this will help when you come to stick the pages together.

5.         Then press ‘Print’ – making sure you have enough paper in your printer.  You may find some pages are blank due to size you’ve chosen and the way the appliqué page is centred on the page – just reuse any blank sheets. 

Tip:  Any print-check guide will no longer be correct as it would also have been enlarged i.e. 150% enlargement will make 1” measure 1½”, 175% will make 1” measure 1¾”, 200% enlargement will make 1” measure 2”, etc.

6.         Stick the pages together to create an enlarged pattern sheet.   

7.         A VERY IMPORTANT STEP.  When you go to print another pattern your computer may remember the last print settings used so you will need to reset your print screen so that the pattern prints to the ‘actual size’.  Make sure the following are selected when printing patterns to the correct size (i.e. not enlarged):

And if you prefer to read these instructions as you work through the steps you can download a PRINTABLE COPY just for you:  

Until next time ..................