Download Name Histories and Coats of Arms Products
As well as printed coats of arms, name histories and greetings cards on paper, you can also order the same name histories and coats of arms from us as a JPG image file. These are fully completed products (the same as the printed versions) and are available sized A4 (8.25 x 11.75 inches or 210mm x 297mm), US Letter (8.5 x 11 inches or 216mm x 279mm) and other sizes where shown. Greetings cards can be supplied as either A4 or US Letter for printing on either paper size (which is then folded in half).
Digital downloads may be the best choice if you are in a hurry for something, would rather print yourself, have printed at a print shop, to save on postage or delivery times, or if you have no intention of printing (i.e. for use as a digital image or inclusion in a digital photo album).
The files are provided as a JPG image at 300dpi.
We also supply coats of arms on their own (not on a background) as a transparent .PNG image file.
If choosing the digital download option to print yourself, we recommend the following for best results.
Paper:
We recommend a high quality matte, satin (semi-gloss) or even glossy photo paper (or brochure paper) of around 180gsm (approx. 50 lb) or higher for scrolls that contain coats of arms, shields, crests or other images. Plain heavyweight paper can normally be used for scrolls that do not contain images, including scrolls that print a ‘scroll effect’ or parchment effect background.
Printing scrolls with images on plain paper is not a good idea because the colours in the images will look very flat and dull, and not at all nice, whereas matte, satin or glossy photo paper will bring out the full image detail, colours, sharpness and will look so much better. Also, printing on plain paper less than 120gsm (approx. 33 lb) or so can cause the paper to ripple. Photo paper is available in all image sizes given above.
If printing on pure parchment paper, rather than parchment effect paper, we recommend using a heavyweight parchment of at least 160gsm (approx. 43 lb). This type of paper is often available as 80, 90 or 100gsm (approx. 22-27 lb) but once printed with ink, or if left out of a packet for a day or two, will often curl up or buckle. Good quality thick parchment paper of 160gsm (approx. 43 lb) or above doesn’t normally suffer with these problems.
For greetings cards, we strongly recommend card specifically designed for printing greetings cards (A4 or US Letter in size that are then folded in half). Again, a satin or glossy finish is recommended and at least 180-280gsm (approx. 50-75 lb).
Printer:
Virtually all good quality inkjet and laser printers should print our name scroll images as intended. You may need laser compatible paper or card for laser printing. However, when printing, we recommend that the following settings are used:
When using plain or matte paper:
Select plain paper or your specific paper type if it’s listed, borderless printing and print at the highest quality setting
When using photo or brochure paper (both satin and glossy):
Select high resolution or your specific photo paper type, borderless printing and print at the highest quality setting
The print setting options does not necessarily mean changing your printer’s advanced settings, or dpi or anything like that, just the basic print settings as given above. Specific paper type means if, for example, you are using a Canon printer with Canon brand paper types.
It’s always a good idea to use photo paper designed for your own printer brand for the best results (for example, using HP Photo Paper with a Canon printer may produce significantly inferior quality prints), or use a photo paper that specifically states that it is compatible with any printer brand.
Using your own printer’s branded inks rather than compatible inks will nearly always give the best results and longevity of the printout.
Borderless Printing
When you print without a border, you will need to match the same paper size in your printer settings. For example, an 8 x 10 inch image should have an 8 x 10 paper size selected in your printer settings. In addition to this, you may have to change another printer setting for borderless printing.
A typical setting might be Paper Handling, then Scale to fit paper size and Destination paper size: 8 x10 Borderless. For more specific details, please refer to your printer’s manual for your particular brand and model of printer.
Please note that some printers do not support borderless printing. If this is the case and you are printing an image that is smaller than the maximum size of paper that your printer can print on (i.e. printing an 8 x 10 image on a larger sheet of A4), then you can always print the image onto the larger sheet and trim the excess after printing. If taking to a picture framer, they would be able to trim this for you. Also, bear in mind that any borders that are printed are normally no more than approximately 5mm wide, and up to 5mm of the printed edging is often hidden inside a picture frame.
Further tips:
- Check that your printer is set to print at 100% scale (some printer settings can reduce the scale to 90% or so resulting in a smaller printout).
- Use your printer’s preview option to make sure everything looks right before printing. There shouldn’t be any need to adjust anything, but it’s best to check first.
- If required, you might want to ‘Print to PDF’ or ‘Print to File’ (if available with your computer’s Operating System (OS)) as a test print to check that the finished printout will be as expected.
- Make sure your printer’s paper setting is at the correct paper size (i.e. A4, US Letter or 8 x 10).
Our name scroll digital downloads are supplied at the standard sizes shown above and should print the same as any standard image, photo or document (it’s best to print at the highest quality). However, we are unable to provide support for printers, printer settings or the way they print, other than the information given here.
Coat of Arms Images Only
You can also order a coat of arms image on its own (not as a completed scroll with a background) and these are provided as a 600dpi PNG image file. If you need the image to have a transparent background so that the background you are placing it onto will show through, rather than have a white background surround, then most graphics software will do this or you can simply save the PNG file as a JPG file.
To change a PNG file to a JPG file a range of different software and apps can be used to do this, for example, the built-in image or photo viewer in Windows or Mac (Preview), popular graphics software such as Photoshop (Elements), Pixelmator, Affinity Photo, GIMP, or office software such as Microsoft Word, Apple Pages, Libre Office, etc., and these can also save a PNG file as a high quality PDF with a white background.
To change a JPG file to a PNG file, the JPG image should first be converted into either a PNG or GIF image type for transparent areas. The white background (and any shadows) on our coats of arms images will allow the background to be made transparent cleanly using a magic wand tool (i.e. in Photoshop or Mac’s Preview). Also, keep in mind that any white areas in the coat of arms image will rely on white paper to show through if printing.
Please note that digital downloads and coat of arms images from us should only be used for your own use, and should not be re-sold to others.
Download Delivery
When you order a digital download, these are not sent to you as an email attachment. Many email services or mailboxes have a size limit on file attachments and won’t deliver email attachments if they exceed their limit (although these images are normally no more than a few MBs in size). This could also pose a problem if checking email on a mobile phone or with a limited data connection.
Instead, you will be supplied with a web link so that you can download the file directly from our website when it’s most convenient for you.
The download link will load your image directly into your web browser as an image file. To save this file, you can either drag and drop the image to your computer, right mouse-click and select Save Image from the menu, or select Save Image from your browser’s main menu.
Please note that the downloadable images are normally only made available for download for 30 days from the date your order has been completed, so please ensure that you save a copy within those 30 days.