How to Make a Printable Picture Puzzle

You can create a printable picture puzzle to serve as a personalized gift or as an activity for a child to complete. Pictures can help bring back happy memories, making completing a puzzle of it more enjoyable. Puzzles may come in various sizes and pieces. By making your own printable picture puzzle, you can customize the size and number of pieces to suit the person you plan to give it to. There are Internet sites and graphics programs, such as Adobe Photoshop, you may use to create printable picture puzzles.

Go Dumpr.net to create a jigsaw puzzle by selecting "Jigsaw puzzles" from the home page. Click on "Browse" to select and upload the picture file you wish to create a jigsaw puzzle with. Click on "Continue" when finished. Right click on the picture puzzle image created and select "Save Image As." Click the "Save" button to save the image as a file to your computer. Open the file in Windows Live Photo Gallery and click the "File" menu to select "Print." Select your paper size and a layout and click "Print" to print on hard stock paper. Cut the puzzle pieces out of the printout.

Print a jigsaw puzzle template on sticker paper. You can find a jigsaw puzzle template at FreePrintableFun.org or DLTK-Kids.com. Open your picture file in Windows Live Photo Gallery and click the "File" menu to select "Print." Select your paper size and a layout that will measure the same or smaller than the printed jigsaw puzzle template and click on "Print" to print on sticker paper. Apply one printed sticker paper to each side of hard stock paper, ensuring that the jigsaw puzzle template is directly behind the location of the picture. Cut out the puzzle pieces based on the jigsaw puzzle template outline.

Create a printable picture puzzle using Adobe Photoshop. Open your picture file in the program and create another layer of the picture by clicking the "Ctrl" + "J" key on your keyboard for Windows or "Command" + "J" for Macs. "Layer 1" will be added to the "Layers" palette. Create another layer that will be called "Layer 2" by clicking on the icon at the bottom of the "Layers" palette that pops up as "Create a new layer" when you place your cursor on it. Change the background color of "Layer 2" to black by clicking on "Edit," selecting "Fill" and clicking on "Black" from the drop-down menu for "Use." Click "OK." Click on "Layer 1" in the "Layers" palette. Click on the "Filter" menu to select "Texture" and select "Texturizer." Click on the drop-down menu with three horizontal lines next to "Texture" at the right of your screen. It will pop up as "Load Texture" when you place your cursor on it. Locate the "Puzzle" texture from your computer and click "Load." Back on the "Texturizer" dialog box select "Puzzle" in the drop-down menu for "Texture." Adjust "Scaling" to “200%” and "Relief" to "6" for the appearance of the puzzle pieces on the image. Click "OK." On the "Layers" palette, click on "Layer 1" and drag it up to go before "Layer 2." The picture file now appears with a jigsaw puzzle outlines and is ready to print on hard stock paper. Cut the puzzle pieces out.