Tutorial: Print your arcade project across multiple pages

[leapinlew]

Lets say you wanted to print your control panel or side profile for your cabinet and you have an image thats larger than your printer can print. I'm sure there are several ways to solve this problem, but here is my solution.

What you will need for this project
Visio (I'm using version 2003)
Printer

Step 1
Open Visio and insert the picture you want to print. In this instance I'm using a side profile shot of Galaga

You'll notice I have the Ruler on. You can turn this feature on by selecting View>Ruler

Step 2
I changed the % so I can view the whole image . I click the image and it creates the green squares that you can drag the image to the size you want.


Step 3
Next we tell Visio to print the image across multiple sheets of paper by selecting File>Page Setup and on the Page Size tab click the radio box that says "size to fit drawing contents". It will show you how many sheets your image will need to be printed on.


Thats the way I do it! I'm sure there are other ways to do this - I'd be interested how others are doing it.

[Tahnok]

I use Visio as well, but I try to go easier on my printer by cropping out anything that can be figured out by measuring. For example, with that profile you show, I would cut off the entire lower part up to the CP curve and possibly even the straight vertical line between the CP and top. It's easy to then place just the curves from measurements taken in Visio.

[IG-88]

How do you crop the image so that only the drawing itself is shown and not the background?

[leapinlew]

How do you crop the image so that only the drawing itself is shown and not the background?

It happens automatically as soon as you select the size to fit option

[patrickl]

You can do the same in Illustrator.

From the menu select File -> Print. In the listbox on the top left of print dialog select "Setup". In the Tiling combobox choose the tiling option you want. I used "Tile Full Pages" and your set.

You can position the art on the pages (lower left of the dialog) so the print is positioned nicely on the pages (no broken curves if possible).

You can even see the page tiling while you are drawing (from the menu select View -> Show Page Tiling)

[ark_ader]

Can you not install a printer driver for a plotter and then take the file to kinkos?

I would think that would be more practical......

[leapinlew]

Can you not install a printer driver for a plotter and then take the file to kinkos?

I would think that would be more practical......

Yes, you could do that. If that works for you. There are many times you just want a quick mockup of a control panel, and you may need to print it several times.

• less expensive - costs equal to the paper + consumables
• Faster - you can print this more quickly than you can drive to kinkos and wait for them to print it
• Accessibility - Some people may not have a kinkos or print show near them

Here is an example of my multi-williams CP. I printed this thing about 4 times making tweaks to it.

Printed it 4 times in the course of 1 day as I was trying to figure out the best ergonomics.

I started this thread to share with those asking how I print to multiple sheets of paper, but I was also curious what methods others were using. What we have so far is Visio and illustrator. Anyone else using other programs to accomplish printing a large image on multiple sheets of paper?

[ark_ader]

Can you not install a printer driver for a plotter and then take the file to kinkos?

I would think that would be more practical......

Yes, you could do that. If that works for you. There are many times you just want a quick mockup of a control panel, and you may need to print it several times.

• less expensive - costs equal to the paper + consumables
• Faster - you can print this more quickly than you can drive to kinkos and wait for them to print it
• Accessibility - Some people may not have a kinkos or print show near them

Here is an example of my multi-williams CP. I printed this thing about 4 times making tweaks to it.

Printed it 4 times in the course of 1 day as I was trying to figure out the best ergonomics.

I started this thread to share with those asking how I print to multiple sheets of paper, but I was also curious what methods others were using. What we have so far is Visio and illustrator. Anyone else using other programs to accomplish printing a large image on multiple sheets of paper?

Seems a lot of work.  Could you not just pick a paper size like A3 and print it out on 8.5x11 sheets and use some tape to match up the artwork?  Something like on Powerpoint?  Actually while I was typing this I pulled up one of my old sketches and tried it.  It works.  So you can print out your CP on the fly.

Would that be easier than having to buy visio?

[leapinlew]

Seems a lot of work.  Could you not just pick a paper size like A3 and print it out on 8.5x11 sheets and use some tape to match up the artwork?  Something like on Powerpoint?  Actually while I was typing this I pulled up one of my old sketches and tried it.  It works.  So you can print out your CP on the fly.

Would that be easier than having to buy visio?

Some (most) programs will not automatically print across multiple sheets of paper. Can you explain how you did it in powerpoint?

[patrickl]

Would that be easier than having to buy visio?

I thought the idea was that we all describe how we do this with the software that we have/use. That way people, who are looking for a way to do this, can decide which would be easiest/cheapest for them.

BTW it's not like it's a lot of work in Visio or Illustrator. You basically set a single check or make a choice in a combobox.

[ark_ader]

Selected A3 from Powerpoint - Loaded my sketch up and printed it on my new HP printer.  I hate doing it this way (as sissors and my fingers don't get along too well), but if it works don't knock it I say!

Worked first time.  I see your point about using Visio.  I think its a great program, but not many people have access to it.  My version is Powerpoint 2000 and its a HP F4135.

Didn't want to poo poo your thread, but I thought it was more complex than it should be.  I have done this with my CP diagrams in the past but on different printers, and yes it does help in revision.  My Kinkos idea was for cutting out sides for the cabinet, as it acts like a great templete.

Kudos to you for your idea though.

[IG-88]

Worked first time.  I see your point about using Visio.  I think its a great program, but not many people have access to it......

Well, I do have it and really like it. Thats why I'm asking questions about it.

[barrel_hopper]

Cool I will print this and check the size to my cabinet.....I will post back.

Thanks for the info people 

[RobotronNut]

... sissors and my fingers don't get along too well ...

i don't know if this will be of use to anybody, but i figured out a way to make a PDF that i could give to anyone, and they could make full-scale printout with no scissors required, only tape. i used illustrator 10 and acrobat pro 6. it's been quite a while, so i can't give an exact recipe, but the basic outline of what i did was:

• in illustrator, choose one of the 2 tiling options under "Document Setup" (i don't remember which one worked)
• print to PDF (it gives you a file name dialog for each page)
• in acrobat, assemble all the separate 1-page files into a single PDF
• to print, use a recent version of the free Adobe Reader, with "Page Scaling" set to "None" and "Auto Rotate and Center" NOT checked. Then just tape the sheets together; no cutting is necessary.

for an example, go to the page linked in my signature and scroll down to the bottom.

for all i know, there may be a much easier way to do this, but it was the best i could come up with a yr or2 ago.

[Minwah]

BTW it's not like it's a lot of work in Visio or Illustrator. You basically set a single check or make a choice in a combobox.

I can never figure out how to do this. I think Publisher does it easily enough, I used to use that at work, but I can't seem to do it in Illustrator (or anything else I have)...can you point me in the right direction?

Edit: I use this for printing control panel artwork...usually need a few tries to get it right. Also gives you an idea what it is gonna look like...sometimes it doesn't look quite right and needs changing.

[patrickl]

My computer died and I haven't completely installed the replacement so I don't have Illustrator running at the moment, but íf you look at the screenshot in reply #4 it should help.