How To Print Posters from Power Point to Osterman - Large Format Printer

By Hanz Makmur - Nov 11, 2003 makmur @ cs.rutgers.edu

This document explains how to Print Posters from Power Point to Osterman -- a large format printer. This document assumes you are using Microsoft PowerPoint and Windows 2000 or XP. Before you continue, make sure you have setup a printer queue on your Windows OS for the Osterman printer.

If you have NOT done so, please read:

- How to Add an LPR port on your Windows 2000/XP computer and

- Setting up Postscript Printer Queues on Windows 2000/XP

IMPORTANT:

During the Postscript printer Queue setup, you will need to specify the driver for Osterman. Osterman is a HP DesignJet 755CM/PS.

Note: For Windows 2000 users, the driver for this printer is available for Download at Adobe.com as a Universal Printer driver.

If you are using program like Quark Express, Adobe Pagemaker, after you download and install the Universal Adobe driver, you will also need to download and install the Postscript Printer Description (PPD) file from the same Adobe site.

Preparation Before Printing Posters.

The most important step in poster printing process is preparation. You have to think big. This means whatever you plan to put into the poster will print in bigger size than you are used to. If you have bitmap images, make sure you produce them in a high resolution 300dpi is recommended. Low resolutions images will come up pixilated with jagged edges and will look bad on the poster.

You also need to allocate enough time to print and for corrections. The poster printer is NOT a fast printer because it has to print a much bigger area and in higher resolutions. On average the printer takes about 20-30 minutes to print a full 36 inch wide, 40-60 inch long poster.

It is suggested that you print a sample to a PDF file or print to a black and white normal laser printer in a letter size paper before you sent a print job to the poster printer. This sample will provide you with a proof that your job can print correctly.

Setting Up Power Point for Poster Printing

The key to have a good poster print out in PowerPoint is the setup. If the setup is not correct, your output will not come out as expected.

Assuming you want to print a poster in a 40 x 30 inches, you need to set your Page Setup in Power Point to reflect that poster size. In this example, we need to make a landscape mode poster since the maximum width of a poster is 36 inches. See Figure 1. Please note that the poster printer has 36 inches wide paper and can print 36 inch by unlimited length paper. You will need to specify how you plan to print this poster later during the printing process. See Figure 4.

Figure 1

Once you setup your page, your layout will look similar to Figure 2. In this layout you create your poster.

Figure 2

When you are ready to print your poster, you simply select the Print item from the File menu. A window like that shown in Figure 3 will open. Make sure you choose the right printer and verify that the printer is correctly configured. Make sure you are printing the current slide and it is set to print ONE page of the slide you are looking at. You also need to check the properties of the printer where you need to assign the layout of your poster with respect to the paper on the printer.

Figure 3

The Properties window of the printer allows you define the orientation of the poster you are trying to print. In this example, you are printing a 40 x 30 inches poster. Since the paper mounted on the printer has a maximum 36 inches width you need to print it in landscape mode so the 30 side of the poster fall into the 36 width of the paper.

After you set the print orientation, you also have to tell the printer driver the type of paper is installed in the printer. To do this, click the Advanced button, see Figure 4.

Figure 4

Osterman normally has the 36 wide paper.(if we run out of 36 inch wide paper, we have some emergency 24 inch wide paper) To fit your 40 x 30 inches poster, set the paper size to 36x60 as seen in Figure 5. Please note: If you have a longer poster, you can change the size of the paper to the closest size paper to fit your poster, you may also adjust the postscript options, print quality, halftone etc. However, the default options are good enough for most people.

Once you complete the settings, click the next 3 OK button and the last OK button will send your job to the printer. When your click Ok, your print job will be queue to your local Osterman queue and it will quickly transferred to Osterman queue on porthos. To check the status of your printjob you can look at using lpq Posterman on porthos or by going to the Printer Status page.

This concludes the instruction Printing to Osterman Printer using Power Point . If you have more questions, please contact the DCIS Help Desk at http://please.rutgers.edu/help