How can I create a 3' by 3' "poster" made of pieces of 8.5" by 11" paper?

May 19, 2005 3:48 PM

What tool can I use to make a "poster" approximately 3' by 3' consisting of individual 8.5" by 11" pieces of paper? Something like Rasterbator, but without the raster part.

I need to make a poster for a presentation for my class chemistry. Nothing fancy, but I don't want to go the colored-marker-on-poster-board route. I’d like to use Photoshop or something to throw all my diagrams and text into one image, print the image on a bunch of US letter-sized paper and piece them all together. Like Rasterbator, but without the rasterization, since some of the text will be smallish and need to be readable. Does such a tool exist? Can this be done with Photoshop, Word, or Illustrator alone? It would need to run under XP on OS X 10.2.8. Thanks!

posted by DakotaPaul to Computers & Internet (12 answers total)

Rasterbator ? Such a product exists ?
posted by elpapacito at 3:56 PM on May 19, 2005

Response by poster: Sorry: Rasterbator. Neat tool, just not quite what I need.
posted by DakotaPaul at 3:59 PM on May 19, 2005

Response by poster: Uh, that was, "run under XP or OS X 10.2.8."
posted by DakotaPaul at 4:04 PM on May 19, 2005

if it's a one-off just do it in gimp or similar. chop into pieces, save as postscript (at which point you can scale the image) and print.
posted by andrew cooke at 4:05 PM on May 19, 2005

I know you can do it in Illustrator, as I've done it before. When you create your poster, just set a custom size of 3' x 3'. Then you go into Page Setup, IIRC, and tell it to tile imageable areas. This will give you dotted lines on the image that show you exactly how it will break up onto pieces of paper. Then you just lay it out and print the relevant pages afterwards.
posted by web-goddess at 4:05 PM on May 19, 2005

Best answer: Okay, I just did it to refresh my memory. You create the custom size artboard, then (on Illustrator CS on a Mac) you go into the Print dialogue. Under "Setup", there's an option called "Tiling." Change it to "Tile Imageable Areas." Then select "Done" without printing. Make sure that you've got the page tiling visible (using the View menu). If you don't like the way the pages overlap, you can move the tiling using the Page tool (which lives under the Hand in my toolbox).
posted by web-goddess at 4:13 PM on May 19, 2005

This is the one thing Microsoft Publisher is really good at. Choose the "Banner" template. The feature is, surprisingly, really comprehensively implemented and good at doing this task. You can fiddle with the margins in the print setup dialog, and make the sections overlap if necessary.

I have a huge poster of Willow and Tara holding hands in Once More With Feeling above my bed, created using MS Publisher, a color laser printer, and 10 sheets of A3 (11x17). It looks great.
posted by cillit bang at 4:18 PM on May 19, 2005

You can do it in Photoshop and Quark too--lots of programs support tiling.
posted by amberglow at 4:26 PM on May 19, 2005

Response by poster: Thanks, web-goddess, I'll try that when I get home tonight.

amberglow: where's the tiling option in Photoshop?
posted by DakotaPaul at 4:32 PM on May 19, 2005

DakotaPaul - It's been a while since I did this, but if your poster is largely text based (like the banner on a science presentation, for example), I remember making posters using either MS Office or Corel Office - there was an option to open a poster template as a document - you defined how large you wanted it, and it was printed over several pieces of paper. They lined up very well, though you needed a good paper cutter.
posted by jb at 8:17 PM on May 19, 2005

Dunno about a tiling tool in photoshop, but if you lay down a grid of guides, the marquee tool will snap to the guides, and make it quite simple to cut/paste the pieces into new files. It should be fairly accurate. Fairly as in +/- a pixel or two. And you have the option of using non-square tiles, or inconsistent sizes, so that critical parts of your presentation are not split across seams. Pretty simple if you only have to do one, and you are familiar with PS. Activate "rulers", click on the ruler and drag into your work area to make a guide, if you never used them..
posted by Jack Karaoke at 1:21 AM on May 20, 2005

If you've got Illustrator, don't use Photoshop to build the whole poster, just use it for the figures and then import them into Illustrator to line them up and tile them for final printing. That's what Illustrator is for. Why turn a screw with a butterknife if you have a nice screwdriver right there next to you?
posted by caution live frogs at 9:39 AM on May 20, 2005