What Exactly Are Digital Stamps?

Have you heard the term digital stamp or digistamp, but confused as to what exactly crafters are referring to? More often we are hearing that people are going digital, so what’s all this buzz about digital stamping?Simply put, digital stamps are black and white digital image files. They come in JPG or PNG file formats that you download onto your computer for manipulation before printing on your home printer. Instead of the traditional rubber stamp blocks, you get the final line art imagery in digital form. Thus the process of stamping turns into the process of printing digitally. You are then able to color the image, cut it out and use in your projects as you normally would.That said there are a few different types of images that crafters are using as digital stamps. The most common are professionally designed digital stamps marketed specifically to crafters for paper crafting projects. They are high-resolution files that usually appear very large when opened up on your computer. However, this high quality is necessary to achieve a smooth and non-jagged printed image. Also, as digital files you are able to resize the image, flip or create a mirror-image version, and even mesh multiple images together to create a scene. Professional images are the best type to use and you are definitely getting your money’s worth in quality. However, digital stamps already have a very low-cost compared to traditional rubber stamps because there is no material production cost for the blocks or rubber pieces.Some crafters also like to use printable kids coloring pages as digital stamps. This is usually a free alternative as many illustrators offer printable coloring pages as free downloads from their websites. Since the imagery is made to be printed, it is also of high quality and can be used exactly like the professional images. The only difference is that coloring pages usually come in PDF format, requiring the Adobe Reader program to view them. Also, the subject matter and detail of imagery is limited in coloring pages, given that the designs were made for younger children to color.In other cases, people might also use clip art as their stamp, but you must be wary of the low quality images. It is possible to find high-resolution line art to print and use, but usually clip art is small in size and meant for Web use. This means that lines and curves will most often be jagged and distorted when printed for use. Also, clip art often comes colored which adds the complication of de-coloring your images before printing or using them as colored graphics somehow. Clip art might be useful at times, but it’s certainly not made for the community of crafters who are looking for quality images.A quick search online will provide you with many online shops selling professional digital stamp images and many designers offer high quality freebies to try. Traditional stamp companies are also going digital with some of their images – joining the digital revolution – so it’s definitely time to get on board and try out digital stamping yourself.