Searching4: print PDFs as Poster

[AbteriX]

Hi all,

i want to print out some of my PDFs (calendars, quick sheets,...)
of more than one DIN A 4 (i.e. 'letter' ) -papers, but how ????

I can print more then one PDF-page on one DIN-A4/letter paper (4 => 1)
but how to resize one PDF-page to four papers (1 => 4) ?

I found tools like Posterazor, Posteriza or Rasterbator, but i seams the work with pics only.
If i would make a shoot of the PDF and increase the size, i am shure i can't read the words anymore.

I could resize the AcroReader window and increase the zoom and print out
a few of this zoomed views and stick the output somehow together....

but is there not an easier way ?

[Carol Haynes]

Are there any options in your printer driver to specify a larger sheet of paper and output in multiple page?

If there are you could set your printer to A2 (and actual output to A4) and then in Acrobat set the output to A2 and use scale to page?

Here are my Canon Settings to do this:

Here are the Acrobat Print options set up:

Note I am using Acrobat Pro CS2 so the appearance of the options may be slightly different in Reader.

This seems to work for me, and the output has nice crop marks for pasting the pages together.

[AbteriX]

Thank you Carol,

but no, i can't make the output size bigger in my printer driver (LJ4100)
not to talk about any "Poster Printing" option

So i need an other printer driver, or 'FinePrint' , thinking that can do such things.
I will search for an freeware alternative for FinePrint.

Thanks

[Carol Haynes]

I wonder if some of the 'to file' drivers can do this?

If you can process images you could use something like http://www.print-driver.com/ to convert your PDF file in to BMP or TIF images and then print those.

[AbteriX]

FinePrint didn't do that (found v4.65 as TBYB on my HDD)

[mouser]

there is a very cool program called ClickBook:
http://www.bluesquirrel.com/products/clickbook/

that may be able to do this and more.

it's sort of like fineprint (another fantastic app), but made more for specialty booklet printing.  but i notice they have a poster mode.

if it works, maybe we could contact them and fineprint and see about a discount?

[AbteriX]

Thank you for that tip, i will try this next week.


Posters are designed to expand one page onto multiple pages
to make it larger. It requires some trimming and taping,
but you can make some impressive posters.

Homepage text

Booklet printing - ClickBook print banners posters, brochures, day planner inserts, microfiche, and more to make information mobile.
ClickBook, a powerful yet easy-to-use printing utility, lets you print customized day planner pages, wallet booklets, church bulletins, brochures, greeting cards, posters, business cards, flipbooks, catalogs, banners, microfiche, CD covers and more from Internet, Windows, or CD-Rom files! ClickBook, helps you scale and rotate digital photos, e-mails, documents, favorite on-line content, or other critical information into 170+ mobile and convenient layouts.  You can even design your own custom layouts and save up to 75% in paper costs!

Features:
# Works with any Inkjet or Laser printer.
# Magnified Zoom - up to 800%.
# NEW! Convert booklets to PDFs.
# NEW! Support for 48 new printers. NEW!
# Rearrange print order of each mini-page in a booklet. NEW!
# Print multi-page Banners and Posters.
# Use 75% less paper with booklet printing!
# Walks you through double-sided printing.
# Prints 170+ different styles!
# Rotates, reduces & realigns documents automatically.
# Combine files from different applications into a single printout.
# Save time and money.
# Offers endless bounds of creativity.
# One-click to Add or Delete a Page.
# Sample documents.
# One-click booklet printing from Microsoft Office applications.

Buy: $49.95

[Carol Haynes]

You could buy a cheap Canon printer for that and use their drivers (which do everything on that list as standard) ;-)

[mouser]

carol has a good point - with the price of printers you might definitely think about upgrading if you have a cheap printer.  i LOVE the driver on my canon pixma as well..

[AbteriX]

You could buy a cheap Canon printer for that and use their drivers (which do everything on that list as standard) ;-)

Really ? Fine! That are facts i love to hear. I don't care about n page per minute
or such tec facts. To see how things work (like driver frontend) i take higher. But
that is not that what you see in prospects or on the market.
The same with TV and video (well, DVD players now), most thing i want
to try bevor i buy is the remote control, no matter wich model is better in the prospect.

But i have to print out on an HP LaserJet  ,
my HP DescJet 500C at home is lost under a cover of dust for years 

Thanks for the help!
We should open threads like "How pleased are you with your printer/scanner driver" , should i ?

[Carol Haynes]

The first image above is one of the tabs for my pixma printer driver.

OK you won't get a pixma for $50 but you'll probably get a cheap Canon model for that and as far as I can tell they have a common driver interface. I used to have a Canon S520 and that had an identical driver interface.

If you can afford a pixma you can get one that will automatically print double sided, produce A5 booklets automatically and print posters (of any size) in A4 tiles with alignment markers for sticking the poster together.

Mine also prints CDs and DVDs directly (a European model - which would be fine for you, though the US version deosn't because of the US record companies - they forced Canon to disable the facility!)

It is a really great printer, with brilliant photo quality prints and the consumables cost is less than any inkjet I have tried.

Here is a similar model on a UK website (mine is the ip5000 - this is the nearest currently manufactured). OK it is a bit more expensive but there are cheaper models. Here is the range available, at least at DABS UK