Large Format Printing

UAF Geology & Geophysics Computer Lab

Printing Posters from PC platforms

Compose your poster in an application supported in the G&G Computer Lab
Adobe PhotoShop, Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw are excellent for composing posters
MS Power Point is NOT a viable application for composing posters
Know your venue's poster requirements
If you need a 4' x 8' Poster, plan your seams to avoid art or text
Check the web calendar for availability
Send Bill (fnwkw@uaf.edu) an email request for scheduling if timing is critical
Hours for large scale printing are generally M-F 9am - 5pm (ie., DONE by 5pm)
(If 10 people want to print the evening before a meeting, this ain't goin' to work...)
I will have to put you in the Large Format Printing security group before you can print
Add the printer HP DesignJet 5000C on Geos-15.geology.uaf.edu
Print as you would to any printer, the print job is put in a queue
Let Bill (Rm. 308) know you've finished printing and he'll send your job to the printer
We can preview the job in the print server and correct some errors (e.g., portrait vs. landscape)
See print policy below to see if this is a free job or a $$ job
If this is a $$ job, give account code to June Champlin

Printing Posters from Mac platforms (v9.2 and OSX)

Compose your poster in an application that can generate Clean, Ascii-Coded, Postscript files
If you have never printed to the HP5000 before, do a test print for your application (ask Bill W.)
Know your venue's poster requirements
If you need a 4' x 8' Poster, plan your seams to avoid art or text
Check the web calendar for availability
Send Bill (fnwkw@uaf.edu) an email request for scheduling if timing is critical
Hours for large scale printing are generally M-F 9am - 5pm (ie., DONE by 5pm)
(If 10 people want to print the evening before a meeting, this ain't goin' to work...)
Generate your Poscript file and save on Nugget in the HP5000 folder in a folder
See print policy below to see if this is a free job or a $$ job
If this is a $$ job, give account code to June Champlin

Geology Dept. Policy on Large Format Printing

Potential users:

Class posters required for GEOS class
Research posters primarily based on G&G student research (first author is student)
Class materials to be used for GEOS class
Class posters required for non-geology class
Maps (or similar) required for G&G student thesis work
Geoscience research posters or maps with minor student association

Goals:

Encourage G&G student poster presentations, develop student presentation skills
Encourage/develop G&G student analysis of data in large formats
Facilitate G&G faculty/staff presentation of research
Facilitate G&G faculty/staff research analysis
Not lose $
Not to become a campus center for printing
Minimize waste, maximize success, minimize staff time on print operations

Policies:

1) Class Posters required for GEOS classes
Up to 3' x 3' per enrolled student in class - 1 per semester Free on HP HW paper
Additional at $1.50/sq.ft. on HP HW, $2.00/sq.ft. on HP Photo Gloss

2) Research posters with G&G student as first author
Up to 3' x 8' - 1 per semester Free on HP HW paper
Additional at $1.50/sq.ft. on HP HW, $2.00/sq.ft. on HP Photo Gloss

3) Class materials for GEOS class
Up to 150 sq. ft. per class/ semester - Free on HP HW paper

4) Maps (or similar) required for G&G student thesis work
$1.50/sq.ft. on HP HW, $2.00/sq.ft. on HP Photo Gloss

5) Research posters without G&G student as first author and other research materials:
Not G&G student originated or non G&G Class Posters up to 3' x 3' - pre-arranged by instructor, charged to Dept. Acct. #
$3.00/sq.ft. on HP HW, $4.50/sq.ft. on HP Photo Gloss

Dept. stocks 36" wide media (users can supply their own 42" media)
Costs are based on sq. ft., sq. ft. is based on usable paper printed.
Sq.ft. = linear feet * 3 for 36" media, sq.ft. = linear feet * 3.5 for 42" media.

File types: Any application supported in the G&G computer lab or postscript files (.ps or .eps).
Other limitations: Avoid MS Power Point, 1 - 5 day lead times, longer lead
times necessary before meetings with a lot of G&G Dept. participation.

Hints for adjusting images (brightness/contrast, sharpness, file size) using Corel Photo-Paint

Open the file in Photo-Paint:
1. From the Windows Start menu, select Multimedia ... Corel PhotoPaint 10.
2. From the Photo-Paint menubar, select File ... Open, and browse to your image (often .tif).

To adjust brightness and contrast

1. From the Photo-Paint menubar, select Image ... Adjust ... Brightness-Contrast-Intensity
2. Experiment with the different settings. This is very subjective, and depends a lot on the original quality of the image.
3. When your image is appears as you like it, click OK.
4. You can undo a limited # of adjustments through the undo button. But once you've saved the image, retreat is not an option.

To "sharpen" an image

1. From the Photo-Paint menubar, select Effects ... Sharpen ... Sharpen
2. Experiment with the different settings. Again, this depends a lot on the original slide quality.
3. When your image is appears as you like it, click OK.
4. You can undo a limited # of adjustments through the undo button. But once you've saved the image, retreat is not an option.

To reduce the file size by saving as a jpg (JPEG bitmap) file

If you will be using the image in Poster, or in a web page, or attaching it in an e-mail, you can reduce the file size considerably by converting the TIFF file to a JPEG file:
1. From the Photo-Paint menubar, select File ...Save As.
2. Change "Save as type" to JPEG bitmaps, enter a filename, click save.
3. In the JPEG export window, adjust the compression and smoothing bars as high as you can (especially compression) without compromising the image quality too much (again, you can “drag and pan” in the left preview window to see how the changes will look in critical areas of the image). The new file size will appear below the right window (try to get this to something lower than 150,000 bytes).

revised October 2005