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Printing A0 Posters.
0. Table of Contents.
1. Introduction.
1.1 Charging.
2. Windows users.
2.1 Preparation of output with PowerPoint.
2.2 Printing a Powerpoint
poster
3 Printing Posters from other systems.
3.1 Unix / Linux.
3.1.1 LaTex (Unix
/ Linux)
3.2 Macintosh.
4 Collection of posters.
Appendix A - Installation of the printer drivers on Windows.
Appendix B - Setting up a print queue
from Unix / Linux.
B.1 Linux (using LPRng).
B.2 Solaris (version
8).
Appendix C – Notes about this document.
A printer/plotter is available at the Printing Centre, which is capable of producing A0 posters (as well as other sizes up to 3 feet by 6 feet (91 cm by 183 cm)).
A0 posters (image size 32.7 x 45.4 inches (83.0 x 115.4 cm)) are printed on paper 3 feet (91 cm) wide and 4 feet (122 cm) long. Note that if the shortest dimension of your image exceeds 32.7" (83 cm), then one of the paper sizes 36" x 60" or 36" x 72" should be selected in place of the ISO A0 option. (see below).
This printer is located in the Printing Centre
To produce a poster on your machine, assuming you are using Microsoft Windows, you will first need to install the printer drivers, this procedure is detailed in Appendix A.
Word has a maximum page size considerably less than A1 so its use was not recommended for poster production. It is now possible to blow up a smaller page (produced say in Word) to A0 or A1, using window's HPGL/2 driver. It is not possible to check the output produced by this method using GhostView, and there is a commercial alternative, available at a cost of £32 per copy. There is a licensed copy in the Computing Service.
The rest of this document however assumes you are using PowerPoint to produce the poster though other software can be used.
This document assumes that you want to use PowerPoint to produce your posters. Other applications can be used but it should be noted that Word will not accept paper size as big as A0 (in Word no dimension can be greater than 55.8 cm (22 inches) ).
Note: Until you have installed the printer drivers on your machine (see Appendix A) you will not be able to use most of the features described in this document.
Open PowerPoint, select File and then Page Setup and then set the paper sizes and orientation as shown:
Set the Slide sized for: box to Custom and Orientation to Portrait before setting the Width and Height. If you intend to produce different size of posters or print in landscape orientation then you should set appropriate values. The settings shown below will produce an A0 portrait poster (Note the comment on margins below):
If your computer is set up to display dimensions in inches you should note that the Width and Height above are 33.11 inches and 46.81 inches respectively.
|
Size |
cm |
inches |
|
ISO A0 |
84.09 x 118.92 |
33.11 x 46.82 |
|
ISO A1 |
59.46 x 84.09 |
23.41 x 33.11 |
|
ISO A2 |
42.04 x 59.46 |
16.55 x 23.41 |
|
3ft x 5ft * |
91.44 x 152.40 |
36.00 x 60.00 |
|
3ft x 6ft * |
91.44 x 182.88 |
36.00 x 72.00 |
* There is a maximum dimension of 142 cm, (4ft 8in) in PowerPoint. A 3ft x 4ft 8in (91 x 142 cm) poster will print using the 3ft x 5ft option but larger posters must be produced with other software.
The printer enforces a margin within the above sizes. The actual area printed on an A0 poster is given in HP's documentation as 83.0 x 115.4 cm (32.7 x 45.4 inches). If you image goes right to the edge of the page you might do better using these sizes in place of those from the table above. The printing area of an A1 poster is given as 83.0 x 56 cm (32.7 x 22.0 inches).
Now create your poster using all the facilities of PowerPoint that you need.
To produce a poster of any size in PowerPoint select File and then Print.
Select the printer \\serposter\serposter and, tick Scale to fit paper if you need to click Properties.
Look on the Layout and select the size you want
The system will enlarge or reduce the size of the poster before printing, but it is always a good idea if possible to design the poster for the paper size on which it is to be produced.
Click OK on the Properties and Print screens to send the output to the printer.
The printer accepts PostScript and is available on Computing Service machines unix4 (serlinux33) as serposter. To send a job to the printer use the command:
lpr –Pserposter filename.ps
In the case of Unix/Linux no support is available for the preparation of the PostScript file.
Should you wish to set up your own Unix/Linux desktop machine to print posters you can do so by establishing a queue on your machine which sends output on to a printer called serposter served by a machine called printhost. This will eliminate the need to have a window open connected to one of the Computing Service's machines. Instructions for setting up your own machine are given in Appendix B.
It is possible to produce posters from LaTex, this is the responsibility of the user. It has been noted that on at least one occasion when LaTex was used it was necessary to edit the PostScript file before it was sent to the printer.
Software is available for producing posters on a Macintosh. No support is available, but a CD-rom of the relevant software will be provided on request, this will be charged for at the cost of the media.
Once the job has been queued to the printer you should visit the Help Desk and ask the staff to produce the poster, and make arrangements for payment or charging for the output. Output remaining in the queue for more than 7 days will be deleted automatically.
You will be able to watch the job being produced and can request that a member of the Computing Service abort the job at any point of its production. If you choose not to be present at the time of production the Computing Service will print your job unchecked and will not stop your job, however obvious any errors in the output may appear. All output produced must be paid for, whether complete or not (unless due to printer failure).
The printer used is specified as a DesignJet 800PS (C7780C) currently running Firmware Version: L.22.09.
The Computing Service accepts no responsibility for any errors in the production of the output.
At present we are only offering a service for output printed on semi-gloss paper.
Cardboard tubes suitable for transporting and storing A0 and A1 posters are available for purchase at the Help Desk.
Select start then Printers and faxes .Double click the Add a Printer icon.
Click next on the Welcome screen.
Select A network printer, or printer attached to another computer and click Next.
On the next screen click Type the printer name......., and then enter the name \\serposter\serposter in the box. Click Next.
You will be asked if you want to make this printer your default, the normal (default) answer is "no" click Next,
Click Finish on the "Completed" window.
The method to use for setting up a print queue so that you can queue a poster from you own desktop is highly dependent on the version of Unix / Linux that you are actually running.
Create an entry in /etc/printcap as follows:
serposter|Help desk poster printer\
:sd=/var/spool/lpd/serposter:\
:mx#0:\
:lp=:\
:force_localhost:\
:rp=serposter:\
:rm=serposter:
Make sure that the directory /var/spool/lpd/serposter exists and is owned by lp.lp.
Give the command lpc reread.
The line :force_localhost:\ is needed otherwise the LPD system will try and bypass the server on which the jobs are held pending production by the Help Desk.
Open admintool
and select Browse and then Printers.
Select Edit, then Add
and finally Access to printer.
Give the Printer Name as serposter
and the Print Server as
serposter,
add any Description
you like and click OK.
This document was prepared on a machine running Windows XP (with a slightly non-standard Desk-top colour scheme), the exact format of some of the screens may vary with other versions of Microsoft windows.
All sizes given in this document, whether expressed in feet and inches or metric units, must be regarded as approximate.
The person originally responsible for the content of this page is Peter Allott.