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POSTERS

Introduction

Creating a Poster    (Examples of Printing Directly)
Enlarging or Converting Image Files
Previewing with gv and Printing from the Command Line

The "poster" printer, a HP DesignJet 5500 PS, makes color posters of up to 35"h x 47"w. (Although the printer supports paper up to 42" wide, it is loaded with 36" wide paper.)  

To use the poster printer, you will need to create a large postscript file first. N.B.: The poster printer does not automatically scale pictures to fill the 36"x48" frame!!! You have to first enlarge the picture yourself, or you'll get an 8.5"x11" image at the end of 4' of blank paper!

Creating a Poster

First, you must install the printer driver software--i.e., add the poster printer--on the machine on which you create the poster.   The poster printer is an HP DesignJet 5500 PS.

  • Macs: see here.  
  • Windows: see here (you may need to download the driver from http://www.hp.com).  
  • The department-supported Solaris and Linux machines already have the poster printer added, served by astro.berkeley.edu. 
  • Users of OpenOffice 1 and StarOffice 7 may need to run spadmin on the command line to add the printer (HP DesignJet 5500 PS). If the DesignJet 5500 PS is not on  the list presented by spadmin, the driver for the DesignJet 2500 CP has been shown to work in one instance and can be used.

Create an image file using OpenOffice (StarOffice on the Suns), PowerPoint, Gimp, xfig, PhotoShop, FrameMaker, etc.  In all of these software packages, there is a command to set the page size.  We recommend a maximum page size of 35"w x 47"h.

If you are certain that you know what you're doing, and you have added the poster printer to your list of printers, you can print the poster directly.  Be sure that the page size is set to ARCH E (36"w x 48"h) format.  As a sanity check, we strongly recommend printing first to a PostScript or PDF file and then using gv or Acrobat to preview the file. In some cases--often with Macs running PowerPoint--a file will display fine in your computer's print preview but will give the poster printer a case of indigestion. A good workaround in these cases is to generate a high resolution PDF file, then print the PDF file using acroread on lupus or morph or another modern server.

Examples of Printing Directly:

Preview and Other Non-X Apps (Mac OS) Print using File>Print... or apple-P.  Select Printer: poster and click on Advanced.  In the Copies & Pages menu, choose Paper Handling.  Check Scale to fit paper size: and select ARCH E. Uncheck Scale down only.  Then, under the  Preview menu item, select Portrait or Landscape rotation such that the image is no more than 35" wide and uncheck Scale to fit.  PowerPoint Users also need to select the ARCH E format in the Page Setup at the bottom of the print dialog box!!
OpenOffice/StarOffice (All Platforms) Print using File>Print... and select <poster>, then click Properties...  Under the Paper tab, select Paper Size: ARCH E and select Portrait or Landscape orientation such that the image is no more than 35" wide.
PowerPoint (Windows) Print using File>Print... and select the poster printer. Click on Advanced and select Paper Size: ARCH E and select Portrait or Landscape orientation such that the image is no more than 35" wide.  Set PS Options> PS Output Option: Archive Format.  This last setting includes the fonts in the PostScript file.  

      

Enlarging or Converting Image Files

You can enlarge an image file by using xfig (or photoshop, gimp, framemaker). Instructions for enlarging with xfig are here. You can convert large files of other formats (e.g., jpeg, gif) using the command convert as follows:
       convert -page ArchE file.jpg file.ps
       convert -page 2520x3384 file.jpg file.ps

(units are pixels, 72 pixels = 1inch; we suggest 35" x 47" maximum, since a little space is lost to the margins.) Your file will be expanded and centered withing the space specified by -page.

Powerpoint:There's a discussion of how to convert a powerpoint file to a poster here.

Previewing with gv and Printing from the Command Line

If you have created a PostScript file, you can check the size and orientation by using gv in an X window running on a machine with gv installed, e.g. meso.berkeley.edu or your own machine:
    gv file.ps

A printer file saved by Windows is almost PostScript and must have its first two lines deleted with a text editor in order to be viewed by gv and sent using lp.  On a Unix system, the process is:

  • dos2unix windows_file > file.ps
  • vi file.ps or emacs file.ps
    remove the first two lines above %!PS-Adobe-3.0
  • gv file.ps

To print your poster, enter on the command line:
       lp -d poster file.ps


Be Careful!

Since posters are expensive, we want you to be certain that you know what you're doing! If you have any doubts, please run your files past one of the sysadmins before printing them.

It takes a few minutes to ship the data to the printer, and another few minutes to print! If it becomes immediately apparent that your job is not printing correctly, you can hit the cancel button on the printer.

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To suggest changes, additions, clarifications in this documentation, contact Central Services: central@astro.

$LastChangedDate:: 2008-02-15#$