How to print digital journaling on a physical pocket card

Since college my handwriting gone weird because we used to take notes in the class in such a speed that I didn’t have time to pay attention whether my writing was pretty or not. Writing like that for many years left an ugly handwriting habit even in my everyday life. There were times I couldn’t even read my own writing! Can you imagine how bad it is? God bless my professors who had to read my exams!

That’s why I don’t like to write my journaling by hand. Plus, digital typing looks very consistent, easy to fix the mistakes, and there are many type options and colors you can choose from if you want a different feeling for each album page.

But there is this problem; what happens to the the pocket/journaling cards you printed long ago. Or maybe you just purchased the physical journaling cards and you don’t want to write by hand on them. Can you still print journaling onto these cards?

That’s a big yes! In this week’s article I’ll show you how you can print digital journaling on a physical pocket card. For this you’ll need a printer, access to Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, and obviously, physical pocket cards for journaling.

1. Preparing the template paper

Download the PSD template I prepared for you. Depending on your paper choice (letter size or A4) open the PSD file in Photoshop. You’ll see two rectangles with outlines. The small one is for 3×4″ pocket card and the big one is for 4×6″ card.

Download Journaling Print Template

First of, print this page as is on a photocopy paper. No need for a fancy photo paper since this will be only used to align the printed card with the journaling. Once printed, you can use this page for many times. So don’t throw it away.

2. Writing the journaling.

If you have the digital copy of the journal card in your computer, open it in Photoshop and type in your journaling as you’d usually do.

If you only have the physical copy of the journaling card, you can scan it with your scanner and bring in the journaling card into the Photoshop. Make sure your scan setting is set to 300dpi. Crop the scanned image and resize to the actual size of the card in Photoshop. Otherwise the journaling won’t be aligned properly. You can see the image size in Photoshop by going to Image > Size on the top menu bar. Journal on this digital copy in Photoshop.

When you’re done typing, disable the journal card layer and flatten the document with a white background. Copy the entire document with Ctrl(Cmd)+A in Photoshop and paste it into the print template Ctrl(Cmd)+V.

Hover your mouse on one of the journal card outlines layer, depending on the card size you used (3×4″ or 4×6″), hold down Ctrl and click on the image icon of the layer. You’ll see marching ants around the outlines. This will select the boundaries of the outline and will help you align your journaling with the card.

While selection is still active, select the journaling layer, press V on your keyboard to select move tool. And click on the “vertical center” and “horizontal center” align buttons on the tool bar.

Now the journaling is aligned with the template, onto the print part!

3. Printing the journaling

Take a piece of washi tape and tape your card on the printed template.

Note: Be aware that washi tape might damage your journaling card depending on the paper quality. I’ve printed my journaling card onto Epson matte presentation paper and the print side of this paper gets damaged when taped with washi tape. That’s why I’ve rolled the washi tape and taped my card from the behind, not from the top or bottom.

Once you taped down the card onto the template, place the photocopy paper in your printer. My printer prints from the top of the page, so I’ve placed mine upside down.

Back into the Photoshop! Disable the card outlines in the template by clicking eye icons on the layers panel. Just leave the journaling on the page. And print the entire page by going to File > Print.

Make sure “Scale to Fit Media” is unchecked. You can choose the paper settings from the Print Settings button in this dialogue box as well. If you want to know more about best print practices for hybrid scrapbooking check this article as well. Hit the print button once you tweaked the settings according to your paper type.

Voila! Here’s a card perfectly aligned with the digital journaling! Now that you know how to digitally type journaling onto physical pocket cards no need to be afraid of ugly handwriting, spelling mistakes or smudged pen ink.

I hope this article was helpful in your own memory keeping crafts! Once you have a chance to read the article and try this method yourself, share with me in the comments your own practice.

As always, keep documenting because life’s worth recording.