Tech Brand Talk

[#1]

There are times you want to print something bigger than a 8.5" x 11" or A4 sheet of paper. But it can be a hassle to figure out how to piece pages together to make a giant poster. Maybe there is some software you can buy? Or maybe the solution is already in your hands!

Some printer drivers, like those from Lexmark, include a built in "poster" mode. This takes a standard page and magically enlarges it to fit on 4, 9 or more sheets of paper. Here's an example of how you might use it.

If you are planning a trip to New York City, you can find a map online like this one. It's a PDF file, so it is easy to print. But as a single page it is far to small to be useful.

[Enter Poster Mode] From the Adobe Reader print dialog, click Properties, then click the Advanced tab. In the Layout pull down, select "Poster". You can choose the size of your poster here.  There is no need to change the page size in the application, just click print. Now each page comes out as a giant 4 or 9 page poster. With some tape and a paper cutter or Exacto knife, you can create a very useful map.

This works well for things that are in "vector" formats - like Word documents with text and clip art, or PDF files. Photographs and other "bitmap" formats may look blurry when you turn them into poster sized pages.

Give it a try and let everyone know the results in the comments here.

[#2]

One of my favourite printer feature is being able to print 2 or 4 pages on one page..... double-sided means I can print 8 pages on physical piece of paper.  This saves ink as well as paper!