Printing Full SIze Drawings on a Letter Size Printer!

[DavePEI]

Did You Know?

Have you ever had a large scale drawing on PDF and wanted to print it out full sized, but your printer's maximum size is 8x10? Well normally, it would take a trip down to a copy shop, and even then, they might not be able to do it absolutely full sized.

Well the Adobe Reader has an option which will allow you to do a multi page full size copy. This has existed in the Adobe Reader for many years, but over the years and many updates, it has become somewhat obscured. A lot of people don't know it can be done.

Load the file, and go to print. Under Paper Sizing and Handling, select Poster.

Adjust Overall Size using Tile Scaling - 100% gives you a full size print, 50% gives you a half size print. The one I did last night was 42.5 x 33 inches full size, and I did two versions, one full and one half size. It prints it by tiling the document on multiple pages which can be stitched back together.

Now, of course, you do have to tape the sections of paper together afterwards, but it gives a good print. I used this to print out full sized copies of the Code Call Unit last night from a PDF I made up last year from a TIF scan sent me by Keith Hlavacs, after doing some serious digital clean-up of the scan. That file is available in the files area on the Museum FB page..

With my eyes getting poorer, it will be very helpful for me to have a full sized print of the drawings as I set it up!

Once I have the system operational, I will keep these drawings in a binder above the unit itself, to make sure I always have them at hand.

Just thought I would pass this along as a hint here...

[TelePlay]

Yes, that works and if one wants to make the stitched together document permanent, you can take it to a copy shop that has a large blueprint sized copier and make a copy. That gets rid of the taped document and the risk of the tape drying out over time and falling apart. The large sheet can be rolled and stored in a tube.

And some of the places with those copiers can also print the full sized pdf.