Printing over multiple pages from inkscape... a solution

[gazz292]

Not sure if people have found this proble or not.... but if you use the excelent free vector art proggy 'Inkscape' to layout you cp overlays, you may want to print out a mock up of ten to test it on your cp before taking the file to a proffesional printer, and finding out you just wasted your money as something dosent line up/hits another control in the side etc.

but if you try to print a full size cp from inkscape.. assuming it is larger than the paper your home printer uses, it will only print the first page of the multi page split image, and stop,

The solution is to use a proggy calles 'posterazor' it's free too.

unfortunately it only works with raster files, but thats fine for doing mock ups of your CP i rekon, the proffesional printer that prints the final design onto a single sheet of large paper gets the vector file.

anyhoo, firstly you click 'export as bitmap' in inkscape, make sure it's set to export at 100% size, and tell it where to save it to etc.

then start posterazor, it's extremely easy to use, first page you load the file you just exported,
next page you set up the paper size and orientation your using on your printer,
then you set the borders, then the overlaps, and finaly you save it,

it's saved as a multi page pdf file,

i have the free pdf reader on my pooter, and it opens it automaticaly after saving in posterizer,

you then just print out all the pages, making sure you print at 100% scale,

once all the pages are printed (8 pages for my 550 x 700 cp overlay) you trim off the borders on the edges that will overlap other pages,

then using either tape or glue, stick the pages together lining up the overlaps, and you now have a cheap mock up of your cp overlay,

i printed out about 15 versions of my cp overlay before i got it all right, silly things like the wire from the trackball being against the cp sides, other obstructions below the cp and so on.

Also it let me pretend to be playing at the cp, i did do a full mock up using a sheet of chipboard i had laying about, and it showed up my initial design for 2 right handed joysticks wasnt a good one, as the arthritis in my fingers got to me after a while, so i changed to a right and a left handed joystick, and can now swap over when my hands hurt too much.

Anyhoo, i imagine most people already know this, or dont use inkscape and thus dont have the multi page print out problem, but i found it very very handy once i discovered it, so thought i'd share my findings with other, in the hope it helps them.

heck, if you really wanted to, you could print your final cp overlay out like this using good quality paper, presuming your the type who prefers to play the thing than look at it with a microscope finding faults that is 

[Nanba sempai]

I have heard about this program, but personally I use this poster creator.