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Note that if both of your poster dimensions are greater than 36", then 60" paper should be loaded on the plotter. Otherwise, print on 36" paper.


(The following guide uses a 36"x48" poster printed on a 36" wide roll as an example to illustrate the printing process. The settings indicated here allow short edge (36" side) to come out first from the plotter. If you print 48"x54" poster, you would need to load 60" paper, then adjust the settings accordingly to allow 54" edge come out first in order to save paper and reduce poster cost.)

  1. Load your PDF file on station 11 and open it with Preview.
  2. Make sure your poster looks correct in Preview.
    For an example of a poster that looks wrong in Preview, go to step 11.
  3. Go to File > Print. Make sure the printer is set to dmc-plotter.
  4. Portrait orientation should always be selected.
  5. Choose Manage Custom Size… under Paper Size drop down menu. 
  6. Click on + to add a Custom Paper Size, then change name from "Untitled" to your poster's dimensions -- 36"x48" in this example.
  7. Input your poster width and height in inches. Note that with portrait orientation selected in step 3, the width of the poster should be 36" in this case, and 36" paper should be loaded on the plotter. Note that the width is the edge that comes out first from the plotter; the height is how far along the paper roll you are printing. 
  8. Choose User Defined under Non-Printable Area and make sure to leave 0.25 in margin for all sides. Click on OK. 
    Refer the following screenshot.
  9. If your poster has no margins on all the four sides, refer to the following screenshot for a final check before sending your print job to the plotter. In the following example, the poster is printed at 99% scale to have the entire poster plotted.
     
  10. If your poster does have at least 0.5 inch margins on all the four sides, on the above screenshot, instead of Scale to Fit and Print Entire Image at 99%, choose Scale 100%, then Click on Print button. Your poster will be printed in its design size at 100% scale.
  11. An example of a poster that looks wrong in Preview: The light gray color in the background in the image copied below shouldn't appear. Don't print from Preview if the errors on the poster are so obvious and visible.
  12. The poster looks right when opening in Acrobat (i.e. no light gray background color appears.). Print from Acrobat instead of Preview.

     

    Printing from Adobe Acrobat 


    Note: 

    • A 48""x36" poster in landscape orientation is used in this illustration and a 36" paper/canvas roll is loaded. 
    • Mac works better than PC. It is recommended that you use a Mac to print a PDF file. For instance, if your poster is 60"x30" in landscape orientation, PC doesn't allow you input a 60"x30" paper. Instead, PC insists the paper used should be bigger in the length. If you enter 60"x30" width x length for paper size, it keeps changing the paper to 30"x60" and prints out the short edge of the poster first. If you have 60" wide paper loaded, it will be a waste of paper this way.  This pitfall can be easily avoided on a Mac.

      1.       Open the PDF poster file with Adobe Acrobat on station 11.

2. Rotate your poster 90 degree so that the poster is in portrait orientation.  

3. Go to File -> Print...;

4. On the Print window, click on Page Setup...;

5. Click Yes on the popped-up Page Setup dialog window.

acrobat-print-dialogue

6. On the Page Setup window, Format for: dmc-plotter, Paper Size - Custom Paper Sizes, make sure your Paper Size is set up as shown in the image below:

7.acrobat-plotter-1


  1. acrobat-plotter-2
  2. On the Page Setup window, make sure your setup is as follows.
  3. Then click OK on the Page Setup window.
  4. If your poster does have at least 0.5 inch margins on all the four sides, on the Print window choose Page Scaling: None instead of Fit to Printable Area to have your poster printed at 100% scale.acrobat-plotter-3
  5. If your poster doesn't have any margins on all the four sides, choose Fit to Printable Area to print the whole poster.
  6. Click OK to print.

 

Printing a Poster that is in PowerPoint format

(The following guide uses a 48"x36" poster printed on a 36" wide roll as an example to illustrate the printing process. Don't print the poster that is in PowerPoint format directly from PowerPoint since the poster won't print right. Instead, convert the PowerPoint file to a PDF file, then print the converted PDF file from Acrobat. )

  1. Open the PowerPoint file in PowerPoint;
  2. Go to File-> Save As..., choose PDF for format, then click Save button;
  3. Ask the author of the poster to double check the PDF file to ensure the format and layout is not messed up during the file conversion process;
  4. Open the converted PDF file in Acrobat;
  5. Acrobat -> File -> Print, 
  6. printer name: dmc-plotter; page scaling:page scaling: fit to printable area; auto-rotate and cent is checkedr;
  7. Page Setup..., Format for dmc-plotter; Paper size: 36"x48"; Orientation: portrait; - then click OK
  8. then click OK button on the print page to print. On the Print window,the preview of the poster is in landscape orientation.



 

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