I will be laying out a 3364 x 1188mm presentation in InDesign next week that will be printed on 32 A3+ sheets, and cropped down to A3 (full bleed) to join seamlessly, with no overlap. Is it possible to set up the document to appear as the matrix of sheets, a spread of more than two pages - eight A3 landscape across by four down to be precise. This would be ideal, as I will want to test print single pages without having to move the entire presentation around to get the right bit onto the page.
Failing that, when printing/exporting, how can I get InDesign to tile the layout onto A3+ sheets, with A3 crop marks? In print dialog, if I select the page as A3+, it assumes that I wish to use the full printable area, therefore tiling unevenly onto fewer pages..
Alternatively, can the print box itself be moved (like in VectorWorks), in which case I could just snap to an A3 grid and print individual sheets?
I would export to a .pdf and do it in acrobat - you can tile and add hash marks and all that jazz pretty easily.
I'm sure there is a way in InDesign.
But why 32 A3 sheets? why not just take it to a plotter? I mean it will be more expensive to print but it will look better and save lots of time! Printing and trimming 32 sheets will be a pain and the trimming process is never perfect so they probably won't line up exactly right.
Thanks Nicholas-- Yes, I have been using the manual tiling method, moving the zero point on a grid of my own A3 crop marks, printing onto A3+. It seems that this is the easiest way, as all the crop marks line up, facilitating tear-free trimming.
Lucas-- While I appreciate your $0.02, I have many good reasons for printing 32 sheets. 1. My A3+ inkjet is 8 ink, while the plotters are CMYK. This means that I get much better colours, greys in particular - for example, a 10% K will be printed using the light grey and light light grey cartridges instead of a 10% mist of black. In my experience, this looks better than a seamless plot and always lines up perfectly. 2. All 32 sheets will be cut with four passes of a laser-guide guillotine, which is rather accurate. 3. Single sheets can be updated/test-printed easily, at any time of the day/night, without waiting for the use of a large-format printer.
Epson 2400 - I would highly recommend it. The K3 ink is expensive but really worth it, especially for matte prints. Best greyscale quality that I have seen.
$14 or so per cartridge isn't bad--I have a Stylus Color 3000 and filling that each time is like buying a new low end printer or two…I just realized this fact as I typed it btw; lovely
anybody know anyone that wants an Epson Stylus 3000?? (very low mileage)
Apr 13, 09 6:04 pm ·
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InDesign Tiling
I will be laying out a 3364 x 1188mm presentation in InDesign next week that will be printed on 32 A3+ sheets, and cropped down to A3 (full bleed) to join seamlessly, with no overlap. Is it possible to set up the document to appear as the matrix of sheets, a spread of more than two pages - eight A3 landscape across by four down to be precise. This would be ideal, as I will want to test print single pages without having to move the entire presentation around to get the right bit onto the page.
Failing that, when printing/exporting, how can I get InDesign to tile the layout onto A3+ sheets, with A3 crop marks? In print dialog, if I select the page as A3+, it assumes that I wish to use the full printable area, therefore tiling unevenly onto fewer pages..
Alternatively, can the print box itself be moved (like in VectorWorks), in which case I could just snap to an A3 grid and print individual sheets?
Thanks in advance.
I would export to a .pdf and do it in acrobat - you can tile and add hash marks and all that jazz pretty easily.
I'm sure there is a way in InDesign.
But why 32 A3 sheets? why not just take it to a plotter? I mean it will be more expensive to print but it will look better and save lots of time! Printing and trimming 32 sheets will be a pain and the trimming process is never perfect so they probably won't line up exactly right.
Not sure if this is the ideal method, but have you tried manual tiling? Here's a how-to link. Manual Tiling
Another way would be to export the Indesign file to Illustrator and you can move the print view in the print dialog.
Thanks Nicholas-- Yes, I have been using the manual tiling method, moving the zero point on a grid of my own A3 crop marks, printing onto A3+. It seems that this is the easiest way, as all the crop marks line up, facilitating tear-free trimming.
Lucas-- While I appreciate your $0.02, I have many good reasons for printing 32 sheets. 1. My A3+ inkjet is 8 ink, while the plotters are CMYK. This means that I get much better colours, greys in particular - for example, a 10% K will be printed using the light grey and light light grey cartridges instead of a 10% mist of black. In my experience, this looks better than a seamless plot and always lines up perfectly. 2. All 32 sheets will be cut with four passes of a laser-guide guillotine, which is rather accurate. 3. Single sheets can be updated/test-printed easily, at any time of the day/night, without waiting for the use of a large-format printer.
And gaps can also be quite nice..
http://www.experimentaljetset.nl/archive/naim-state-alpha.html
That's a ice presentation Jack. Thanks for the link.
Jack--
just curious: which printer are you using?
Jack--
just curious: which printer are you using?
Epson 2400 - I would highly recommend it. The K3 ink is expensive but really worth it, especially for matte prints. Best greyscale quality that I have seen.
Stylus Photo R2400, to be precise!
$14 or so per cartridge isn't bad--I have a Stylus Color 3000 and filling that each time is like buying a new low end printer or two…I just realized this fact as I typed it btw; lovely
anybody know anyone that wants an Epson Stylus 3000?? (very low mileage)
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