Make 12x18" signs at home on 8.5x11" B&W laser printer

"Eco Clean" wrote

| Anyways, I don't have Paint Shop Pro, but I have Irfanview.
|

You should be able to get PSP5 he

http://www.oldversion.com/windows/do...-shop-pro-5-01

I just downloaded and tried starting the installer.
It worked fine. I bought PSP5 for $100 many years
ago. Since then I've bought PSP16. Unfortunately,
the latter is bloated and clunky. Overproduced.
I still use 5 for basic things. The versions online
seem to be perfectly legal. In fact, at one point
Jasc was giving older versions away with things
like routers, before Corel bought them out.

IrfanView is very good and solid but it lacks
one critical thing: A work window where you can
wortk on multiple images , paste layers, have
multiple undo, etc. IV might be able to cut up
the image, but it's worth having PSP or a similar
editor.

BMP is best. JPG loses data. GIF is 256 colors,
so it might dither.

| Maybe 100 ppi? Using that as an example, you
| would then resize to 1200 x 1800 pixels.
|
| That's the kind of math I was seaking!
|

You just have to match it up to the printer. For
instance, a typical photo should be printed at
least 300 dpi. That means to get a 5x7 print you
need 1500x2100 pixels. It doesn't matter what size
the image is and what dpi the printer is set for.
You just need to coordinate the two so that it
will print the size you intend. 300 dpi will give you
nicer edges on letters, but I guess that probably
doesn't matter much.

| The plan is to print to 8.5x11 paper and thentape it all together, and
then
| put thin sheets of clear 8.5x11 plastic sheets taped together underneath,
| and then cut out the "stencil" with an Exacto knife and then spray the
| signs.
|
Makes sense.

| Yes. A few dozen. It's really a joke for an eccentric neighbor's 80th
| birthday, where we plan on having someone take her to see a movie while we
| erect signs all over her yard based on her oddities.
|
You're very generous with your time. How do
you feel about yard work?

"nospam" wrote


| or better yet, have a print shop do it.

Very helpful, as usual.

"Just click the printer button, dummy."

"Better yet, go to a print shop."

I'm guessing your next gem of advice will be,
"Try asking someone who knows."

In article , Mayayana
wrote:



| or better yet, have a print shop do it.

Very helpful, as usual.

yep.

"Just click the printer button, dummy."

that's all it takes. it's actually a very simple task.

"Better yet, go to a print shop."

since the original poster has demonstrated he doesn't know what he's
doing (both in this thread and in others), a print shop would be a very
wise choice.

not only will they understand exactly what needs to be done, but the
results will be better since they will have equipment far better than
anything he may have, likely including a large format printer so that
it can be done in one piece.

I'm guessing your next gem of advice will be,
"Try asking someone who knows."

you guessed right.

mick wrote:
On 13/01/2018 12:40:14, Ed Cryer wrote:
Eco Clean wrote:
Windows sign printing freeware?
Does it exist?

Exact example here uploads.im/YpuVv.jpg
To spray paint plastic sign that are on 12 inches x 18 inches white
stock.

Goal is to create a life-sized cutout template on normal 8.5x11" paper.
Then tape template on 12"x18" white plastic stock.
Then spray paint letters of right size with red paint.

If not special sign printing free software is there a trick to print
a real size cutout template with a normal Windows 10 printer of
multiple pages of 8.5x11 inch paper taped together by using a trick
of some kind?

Plan is to spray paint once I tape the life-sized paper templates
over 12x18" plastic stock white boards.

Have you tried any of the online sign-designers? "Design house sign"
under Google gets them. I got mine here;
https://www.designahousesign.com/
Cool! And weathers well.

To get a print of it, I just did a screen-shot.

Ed

Thanks for that link Ed, you've made my day :-)
I was looking yesterday for new house numbers at the local diy shed and
couldn't find any I liked so gave up, never thought of looking for those
sort of websites.


I'm a mine of useful tips! (:-
If you have a dripping tap and you're not sure of the washer size, try
this - I did;
https://goo.gl/YtxuS6

Ed

On 1/12/2018 10:35 PM, Eco Clean wrote:
Windows sign printing freeware?
Does it exist?

Exact example here uploads.im/YpuVv.jpg
To spray paint plastic sign that are on 12 inches x 18 inches white stock.

Goal is to create a life-sized cutout template on normal 8.5x11" paper.
Then tape template on 12"x18" white plastic stock.
Then spray paint letters of right size with red paint.

If not special sign printing free software is there a trick to print a
real size cutout template with a normal Windows 10 printer of multiple
pages of 8.5x11 inch paper taped together by using a trick of some kind?

Plan is to spray paint once I tape the life-sized paper templates over
12x18" plastic stock white boards.
maybe this site will help: http://www.blockposters.com/


--
Zaidy036

In article , am says...

"Eco Clean" wrote

| Anyways, I don't have Paint Shop Pro, but I have Irfanview.
|

You should be able to get PSP5 he

http://www.oldversion.com/windows/do...-shop-pro-5-01

I just downloaded and tried starting the installer.
It worked fine. I bought PSP5 for $100 many years
ago. Since then I've bought PSP16. Unfortunately,
the latter is bloated and clunky. Overproduced.
I still use 5 for basic things. The versions online
seem to be perfectly legal. In fact, at one point
Jasc was giving older versions away with things
like routers, before Corel bought them out.

IrfanView is very good and solid but it lacks
one critical thing: A work window where you can
wortk on multiple images , paste layers, have
multiple undo, etc. IV might be able to cut up
the image, but it's worth having PSP or a similar
editor.

BMP is best. JPG loses data. GIF is 256 colors,
so it might dither.

| Maybe 100 ppi? Using that as an example, you
| would then resize to 1200 x 1800 pixels.
|
| That's the kind of math I was seaking!
|

You just have to match it up to the printer. For
instance, a typical photo should be printed at
least 300 dpi. That means to get a 5x7 print you
need 1500x2100 pixels. It doesn't matter what size
the image is and what dpi the printer is set for.
You just need to coordinate the two so that it
will print the size you intend. 300 dpi will give you
nicer edges on letters, but I guess that probably
doesn't matter much.

| The plan is to print to 8.5x11 paper and thentape it all together, and
then
| put thin sheets of clear 8.5x11 plastic sheets taped together underneath,
| and then cut out the "stencil" with an Exacto knife and then spray the
| signs.

I use a copy of Paintshop Pro 7. Partially because well over a decade or
so ago now I came in possession of a "cracked" copy you can simply copy
and run, That makes it so easy to install with the only issue ever
arising was a "permissions" issue after some Win version upgrade on a
folder that was easily cured. I like it because it's so "clean", small
footprint, fast and full featured and does what I want it to, easily.
I've never found a reason to switch to anything else.

On 01/13/2018 2:06 PM, pjp wrote:
In article , am says...

"Eco Clean" wrote

| Anyways, I don't have Paint Shop Pro, but I have Irfanview.
|

You should be able to get PSP5 he

http://www.oldversion.com/windows/do...-shop-pro-5-01

I just downloaded and tried starting the installer.
It worked fine. I bought PSP5 for $100 many years
ago. Since then I've bought PSP16. Unfortunately,
the latter is bloated and clunky. Overproduced.
I still use 5 for basic things. The versions online
seem to be perfectly legal. In fact, at one point
Jasc was giving older versions away with things
like routers, before Corel bought them out.

IrfanView is very good and solid but it lacks
one critical thing: A work window where you can
wortk on multiple images , paste layers, have
multiple undo, etc. IV might be able to cut up
the image, but it's worth having PSP or a similar
editor.

BMP is best. JPG loses data. GIF is 256 colors,
so it might dither.

| Maybe 100 ppi? Using that as an example, you
| would then resize to 1200 x 1800 pixels.
|
| That's the kind of math I was seaking!
|

You just have to match it up to the printer. For
instance, a typical photo should be printed at
least 300 dpi. That means to get a 5x7 print you
need 1500x2100 pixels. It doesn't matter what size
the image is and what dpi the printer is set for.
You just need to coordinate the two so that it
will print the size you intend. 300 dpi will give you
nicer edges on letters, but I guess that probably
doesn't matter much.

| The plan is to print to 8.5x11 paper and thentape it all together, and
then
| put thin sheets of clear 8.5x11 plastic sheets taped together underneath,
| and then cut out the "stencil" with an Exacto knife and then spray the
| signs.

I use a copy of Paintshop Pro 7. Partially because well over a decade or
so ago now I came in possession of a "cracked" copy you can simply copy
and run, That makes it so easy to install with the only issue ever
arising was a "permissions" issue after some Win version upgrade on a
folder that was easily cured. I like it because it's so "clean", small
footprint, fast and full featured and does what I want it to, easily.
I've never found a reason to switch to anything else.


I still have my original Paint Shop Pro 7 Cd and it still loads and runs
fine in windows 10 Creator.
It is like you say one of the best programs I ever bought, Does
everything I want and then some, And no bloat in that one. Small and
efficient, It was written by *Real* coders back then.

Rene

In article , pjp
wrote:


I use a copy of Paintshop Pro 7. Partially because well over a decade or
so ago now I came in possession of a "cracked" copy you can simply copy
and run, That makes it so easy to install with the only issue ever
arising was a "permissions" issue after some Win version upgrade on a
folder that was easily cured. I like it because it's so "clean", small
footprint, fast and full featured and does what I want it to, easily.
I've never found a reason to switch to anything else.

no, you like it because you stole it and didn't have to pay for it.

On 01/13/2018 11:34 AM, Zaidy036 wrote:
On 1/13/2018 10:50 AM, Eco Clean wrote:
- Sjouke Burry wrote:

Print that as deeply colored(or black) as possible.

My only printer is an old HP laser jet.

The printer isn't the problem because I will cut the letters out.

That makes a stencil.

The problem is how to print to 8.5x11 that scales up to 12x18.

Not sure if this would help but use as 11 x 8.5 instead and print half
on each of two papers. You would only lose 1" width and height giving
0.5" borders.

If you have a photo editing program of any sort that will crop then just
take your 12x18 photo and:
crop the top left quadrant to 8.5x11 and print.
Then crop the top right to 8.5x11 and print.
etc for the 4 quadrants.
They'll overlap but I think you said you didn't mind and would just tape
them together.

At least if I'm reading what you want to do right!

Eco Clean wrote:
Windows sign printing freeware?
Does it exist?

Simple with drawing software. I use CorelDraw where it and do tile
printing and n-ups, but not free. A quick look and what you want can be
done in LibreOffice Draw. The function is Tile printing:

https://help.libreoffice.org/Common/Print_2

--
Take care,

Jonathan
-------------------
LITTLE WORKS STUDIO
http://www.LittleWorksStudio.com

- Mayayana wrote:

You should be able to get PSP5 he
http://www.oldversion.com/windows/do...-shop-pro-5-01

Can you help me with the next step given the BMP file:
[http://www.fileconvoy.com/dfl.php?id...064faba 60af]

1) I created the above newt.bmp from the powerpointe.
2) I installed PSP5.1 as per your link above.
3) I opened up "newt.bmp" in PSP5
4) I hanged the DPI from 72dpi to 100dpi using
FilePreferencesGeneralProgramPreferencesRulersA ndUnits
DefaultResolution = 100 pixels / inch
5) I resized the BMP from to 1152x1728 pixels to 1200x1800 pixels using
ImageResizePixelSize=1200 [maintain aspect ratio of 0.666666666666667:1]
6) That made the "ActualPrintSize=11.520x17.280 at 100pixels/inch
(Don't ask me why that is not an even number of pixels.)
7) FilePrint{choose laster printer with regular paper in it}OK

This is what results.
http://www.fileconvoy.com/dfl.php?id...a44a2679 3d03

It looks a lot bigger than it should be but maybe it's OK in size.
I measured the printout to be 8 inches wide (+1/4-inch unprintable margins)
so that makes the result 16 inches wide instead of 12 inches wide.?????????

Besides, it's only the top left corner, and it has 1/4 inch margins on all
sides because my printer does not print to the edge of the page.

Why did only the top left corner print?
How do I get the other 3 corners to print?
And why is the size completely wrong?

- Eco Clean wrote:

And why is the size completely wrong?

Here is a photo of what the paper looks like next to the sign blank.
http://www.fileconvoy.com/dfl.php?id...a35c4149 1ce3


What did I do wrong in following your exact steps?

In article , Eco Clean
wrote:

What did I do wrong in following your exact steps?

following them.

"Eco Clean" wrote

| 1) I created the above newt.bmp from the powerpointe.
| 2) I installed PSP5.1 as per your link above.
| 3) I opened up "newt.bmp" in PSP5
| 4) I hanged the DPI from 72dpi to 100dpi using
| FilePreferencesGeneralProgramPreferencesRulersA ndUnits
| DefaultResolution = 100 pixels / inch

That probably doesn't do anything. DPI is only
relevant in context. It's confusing. If your monitor
is dispaying 96 DPI and your printer is printing
300 dpi, a 600px wide image will print at about 2"
wide and show onscreen at about 1 screen inch.
That won't change if you change the DPI setting
in PSP.

| 5) I resized the BMP from to 1152x1728 pixels to 1200x1800 pixels using
| ImageResizePixelSize=1200 [maintain aspect ratio of 0.666666666666667:1]
| 6) That made the "ActualPrintSize=11.520x17.280 at 100pixels/inch
| (Don't ask me why that is not an even number of pixels.)
| 7) FilePrint{choose laster printer with regular paper in it}OK
|
| This is what results.
|
http://www.fileconvoy.com/dfl.php?id...a44a2679 3d03
|
| It looks a lot bigger than it should be but maybe it's OK in size.
| I measured the printout to be 8 inches wide (+1/4-inch unprintable
margins)
| so that makes the result 16 inches wide instead of 12 inches
wide.?????????
|
| Besides, it's only the top left corner, and it has 1/4 inch margins on all
| sides because my printer does not print to the edge of the page.
|
| Why did only the top left corner print?
| How do I get the other 3 corners to print?
| And why is the size completely wrong?

It looks like you're fine, but it's better to print it
with Irfanview. You got the top left because that's
default. You got more than half because the paper
is 8" wide. If in IV you set custom height to 12x18,
IV will lay it out oriented to top left and you should
get the second image you posted. IV has the total
image as 12x18 and it's showing that to you in
terms of how much will fit on an 8x12.

For the next one,
uncheck "centered" in the position section and set
the left to something like -4. That should give you
the top right section. Then do the same for bottom
right and left. You'll end up with 4 sheets that
should look right when you overlay them to make
one piece 12x18.

Are you just printing parts? You didn't cut it
up into 4 pieces and 4 images? I guess that makes
sense, since IV can give you whatever layout you
want. I don't think PSP can do that.
But you will waste ink if you're going to print
all the overlapping parts rather than making 4 images
and printing those.

"Eco Clean" wrote

| And why is the size completely wrong?
|
| Here is a photo of what the paper looks like next to the sign blank.
|
http://www.fileconvoy.com/dfl.php?id...a35c4149 1ce3
|
|
| What did I do wrong in following your exact steps?

See my other post. It looks right to me. Newts
and "official" are centered, no? The right top
corner piece will then overlap.