E size prints for making templates

[zeroseven]

I need to get a chair plan I've downloaded printed out in size 'E' (1118mm x 864mm). Went to Staples and they'd never heard of 'E' sizes (!). Found a printer who wanted £64 to print it on plain paper so he can whistle.....

Can anybody suggest a cost effective way to do this, its a PDF so I can just mail it to the company....


Thanks

 

[JakeS]

Can anybody suggest a cost effective way to do this, its a PDF so I can just mail it to the company....

Matthias Wandel sells a program called "BigPrint" which is specifically for printing larger-than-single-sheet images out, spread over multiple sheets with hatched lines across everything to easily line the sheets up:

http://woodgears.ca/bigprint/

The caveat with that is that home printers often don't print perfectly square - you may find that your plan is slightly taller or slightly wider than it should be, and any squares or circles in it are actually ever-so-slightly rectangular and ellipsoid. Obviously this deformation doesn't matter in the least when you're printing business documents or holiday photos, so most people never notice! [EDIT: apparently BigPrint can compensate for printer scaling issues anyway!]


Another option is to go to an on-demand poster printer. I've used Zip Posters in the past and been very happy with their high-quality prints, I'd expect their low-quality fly posters would do for 1:1 plans. A0 is just a couple of centimetres narrower and taller in the other dimension than your paper size, so if there's nothing in the immediate margins of the plan (across the narrow width) you could get a single A0 fly poster for £10.50 - or nearly ten copies for the same price as your previous printer's quote!




(For what it's worth: "E size" is an ANSI (American) paper size that's 34x44". That's why Staples haven't heard of it - because nobody uses it in this country. Your previous printer's quote was quite possibly inflated because they'd have to cut a custom size from larger stock to fulfil your order.)

 

[mseries]

I need to get a chair plan I've downloaded printed out in size 'E' (1118mm x 864mm).

so long as the paper is large enough and the design is printed at 100% (or scaled up to 100% ) does it matter if the design is printed on size E or something else ?

 

[RogerM]

Could you perhaps re-save the pdf full size in A4 format, and then just paste the separate pieces together?

 

[TimothyClaypole]

Corel Draw/Paint lets you print across multiple pages.



Didn't do the Cyan cartridge any favours... (hammer)

 

[Ant-]

Try your local library, had a few plans printed out at A0, cheap too.

 

[Brentingby]

Doesn't Staples make large prints from a roll of paper? It shouldn't matter what size paper it's supposed to print on. I think they just print as large as needed and cut it off.

 

[JakeS]

Doesn't Staples make large prints from a roll of paper? It shouldn't matter what size paper it's supposed to print on. I think they just print as large as needed and cut it off.

If they consider A0 to be the largest they print on (which isn't unreasonable most of the time!) then the roll of paper would only need to be as wide as the smallest dimension for A0... which is smaller than the smallest dimension of ANSI E paper, so it wouldn't work. As an individual you can make the decision that you don't need the outermost few millimetres, but as a service business, Staples' print shop isn't at liberty to make that decision for you.

Plus, in at least the Staples I've been in, they staff it with people who really only know how to operate the machines insofar as there's a big button marked 'Go' somewhere. If you ask for a paper size that isn't on their price list, they probably panic.

 

[Kitetraveller]

I have a plotter at work that prints on 42 inch wide paper on a roll.

I use it for printing kite plans...and work stuff!

I would expect your drawings have some space round the edges, so may well fit onto 42 inches.

Happy to print and post simple black and white line drawings in return for a small donation to East Anglian Air Ambulance.

Alternately, Adobe Acrobat (full programme) will tile a large pdf and print across multiple A4's. We also have that.

Just let me know.
Cheers
Andy

 

[zeroseven]

Andy thanks for that kind offer, what a great idea to raise money for the Air Ambulance I might take you up on that one day (I'm a big Norwich City fan so additionally keen to help out anything in that region!)

I've gone the PDF / tiling route which has worked.....kind of. The grid overlay mentioned in the first reply would have been handy as each 'tile' was quite tricky to line up. The plan is just for a garden chair so hopefully I'll get away with a degree of wonkiness

Thanks for so many replies.

 

[whiskywill]

If they consider A0 to be the largest they print on (which isn't unreasonable most of the time!) then the roll of paper would only need to be as wide as the smallest dimension for A0... which is smaller than the smallest dimension of ANSI E paper, so it wouldn't work.

The AO is only 2.54mm smaller in width and 71mm longer in length. Unless the drawing goes right to the edge, it shouldn't matter.

 

[Monkey Mark]

It was mentioned that home printers are not that accurate. What about your average office printer? I know they only usually do a3, but still easier to tile than a4.

 

[JakeS]

The AO is only 2.54mm smaller in width and 71mm longer in length. Unless the drawing goes right to the edge, it shouldn't matter.

A0 is 23mm smaller in width, but no, it probably doesn't matter at all - as I mentioned myself earlier. The point was that the people who work in Staples:

• Quite possibly aren't allowed to print people's jobs on smaller paper and miss off the edges, because like that the company avoids any disputes with customers who were sure it would be fine but it turns out are unsatisfied after the printing is done.
• Quite possibly don't know what E-size paper is (I wouldn't blame them!) and don't want to take a chance
• Quite possibly use software which would automatically scale the print down to print on whatever size paper they do have

It was mentioned that home printers are not that accurate. What about your average office printer? I know they only usually do a3, but still easier to tile than a4.

In terms of positional and dimensional accuracy, office printers are pretty much the same as home printers. It's just never been seen as an important factor by document printer manufacturers. Realistically there's not a huge amount of difference between high-end home printers and low-end office printers anyway; the main benefits you get with an office printer are larger paper sizes, duplex printing, more user-serviceable parts and a better lifetime/MTBF.

 

[Hitch]

Plotters don't come cheap, I was looking at an A1 plotter only today, our office supplies person has quoted us the best part of £1500, for a decent colour job, with 3yr warraty and 3 sets of inks.

 

[xy mosian]

The caveat with that is that home printers often don't print perfectly square - you may find that your plan is slightly taller or slightly wider than it should be, and any squares or circles in it are actually ever-so-slightly rectangular and ellipsoid.

Just as a matter of interest what are the typical errors?

xy