This tutorial deals with
printing low cost posters. You can print these posters
on your printer at home, the office, university or a student
center. The posters on this page are all made up of either
a bunch of A4 or A3 pages printed on an everyday laser
printer and then taped together to form one large poster.
All you will need to do is download the PDF file located
below, and click on print. Very easy.
You need
Adobe
Acrobat Reader to view the files.
This project might cost you up to 5$ to print or free
if you have a printer. Total time needed is around 30
minutes from beginning till the end.
The Materials
The following items are needed:
- PDF file with artwork (available for download below)
- Laser Printer
- Scotch tape (preferably non-gloss)
- A wall
- A friend to help you put it on the wall
The Artwork
I have prepared 4 different layouts for you to choose
from to print. The sizes of all 4 vary so make sure you
have enough room for your chosen poster. They are big!
Hakim Freedom
Image size: 1.8 x 1.2 meters
Paper consumption: 9 x 4 = 36 sheets
download
file [PDF 1.3MB]
Bachir
Image size: 2.1 x 1.2 meters
Paper consumption: 10 x 4 = 40 sheets
download
file [PDF 1.7MB]
Hakim Black
Image size: 1.5 x 1.4 meters
Paper consumption: 7 x 5 = 35 sheets
download
file [PDF 1.5MB]
MA113
Image size: 1.5 x 1.4 meters
Paper consumption: 7 x 5 = 35 sheets
download
file [PDF 1.6MB]
Hakim Big
Image size: 1.7 x 2.65 meters
Paper consumption: 8 x 9 = 72 sheets
download
file [PDF 3.0MB]
Printing Artwork
For this project I decided to go with the "Hakim
Freedom" poster. All you need to do is open the file
in Adobe Acrobat and choose Print from the file menu.
When printing the image, choose Page scaling: Fit to paper
at the options window that comes up. Most printers cannot
print to the margins of the paper so this will ensure
that all the images will be completely printed.
Once the artwork is printed do not jumble the papers up.
Keep them in the same order they were printed. If you
mix up the papers you will end up with a puzzle not a
poster.
Preparing to Tape
Once you have done printing their are a number of ways
of taping the printouts together. You can either start
putting the pages 1 by 1 onto the wall and taping them,
or do what I did which is arrange them on the floor and
then tape them together. Make sure though you have enough
room on the floor.
Nearly Done
Now that you have arranged the artwork on the floor its
time to tape them together.
Taping it Together
This is the hardest part now. You have to tape the pages
together. Due to the amount of pages it will take you
a bit of time but you don't have to be 100% accurate in
arranging the edges. Use small pieces of tape to tape
each edge to the other. Once you are done taping all the
pages together then you can start taping the outer edges
and overlaps in the middle for better rigid·ness.
And Done!
Once you have finished all the taping, get a friend or
family member to help you put up the poster. It is too
big to put up alone. Once its up on the wall step back
and enjoy the result.
The Ultimate
For a better result you could trim the edges of the pages
so you don't have a white frame around every piece of
paper.
Upsize
You can easily double the size of the poster by printing
on A3 sheets instead of A4.
Poster Usage
These posters are very easy and cheap to print. You could
print them all and hang them around your room or print
them at university and hang it on one of the walls. Your
options are unlimited.
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