Adobe Illustrator Help

June 2, 2011 8:47 AM

I need to print an Adobe Illustrator file on four or six sheets of 8.5 by 11 to make a single, life size print of the original file. I have no idea how to do this. Hope me.

I have this template file of a guitar I'd like to make. The template is Adobe Illustrator. I do not have a large scale printer to print it actual size on one sheet of paper so I need to print parts of it over four or six 8.5 by 11s. How do I set the controls in AI to do this?

posted by spicynuts to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

This might vary based onwhat version you're using and your specific print, but it should be pretty simple figure out the differences

Choose print.

There should be an option to tile pages. You want to select that.

Chose an overlap of .5 inches. This overlap will allow you to match up the various pieces of paper by laying a portion of them over each other.

Click print.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:53 AM on June 2, 2011

You'll find the "tiling" option that Brandon mentions in different places, depending on which version of Illustrator you're using. Newer versions will show it in the General section of the Print Dialog box but in older versions of Illustrator you'll find it under Document Setup. In either case, most of the time this is set to Single Full Pages, but to tile you'll want to change it to Tile Imageable Areas.

Additionally, there's a way to preview and modify the tiles before you waste paper printing them out. You'll want to select the Show Page Tiling (or Print Tiling) option in the View menu and then use the Page Tool in the toolbar to position your first tile. The rest of the tiles will align with it. This essentially divides your illustration into a "grid" of multiple pages. The grid is only for your reference; it does not print. You might need to adjust the tiling position if any important parts of your illustration are on the boundary between pages.
posted by Jeff Howard at 9:45 AM on June 2, 2011

I find that InDesign has a better tiling function than Illustrator and gives you better marks to cut the final size from for large mockups like this.

I always import my Illustrator file into an InDesign file at full size and then under the Print dialog box under Setup choose Tile, Auto, then set an overlap of at least .5 inches. You can see how many pages it will print out onto in the grid box on the left and you can adjust the overlap to get amount of pages you want to tile onto depending on the size of your file. Try both horizontal and vertical orientations to see how it would print out best for you.

Then select Marks and Bleeds in the Print dialog box and turn on Crop Marks before you hit Print, that way you get the all the trim marks you need. If you have a light table to line up all these marks it makes things easier to tape up all the pages together. I have even used a window as a light box to help me tape the pages together. Hope this helps!
posted by blacktshirtandjeans at 10:02 AM on June 2, 2011

There's a tool called the rasterbator that does this.
posted by theora55 at 10:44 AM on June 2, 2011