4

Printing a Graphic Presentation Board from Adobe

Illustrator

Tutorial Created by Brijesh Bhatha, 2004. Updated 2006 by Corinne Stewart ([email protected])

GRAPHICS TUTORIAL # D4
Printing a Graphic Presentation Board from Adobe Illustrator
CP-208 Plan Preparation Studio - Prof. Elizabeth Macdonald

In the last series of exercises we learned how to create presentation boards in Adobe Illustrator.
In this exercise we will learn how to print a graphic presentation board created in Adobe
Illustrator.
STEP I. Setting up the Print Setup:
A: Selecting the Printer/Plotter:
1.

2.
3.

Open the Illustrator file created in the TUTORIAL #D4. We know that the size of the presentation
board is 48 X 36 inches.
From the File menu select Print Setup.
A Print Setup dialog box will appear on the screen.
Printer name will appear here

Print Setup dialog box

4.

In the Print Setup dialog box select the printer name from the available options and depending on the
size of the board to be printed. The size for this board is 48 x 36: which has to be printed in a plotter.

For this tutorial select \\CED-TREE\

LAEP LAB PLOTTER>Printers
Note: These plotters are available in the LAEP
lab, if you are plotting from a different location
check the type of plotter to be used for this
purpose.
Select the Printer

GRAPHICS TUTORIAL # D4
Printing a Graphic Presentation Board from Adobe Illustrator
CP-208 Plan Preparation Studio - Prof. Elizabeth Macdonald

B: Selecting/Editing the Paper Size:

Note: The paper size in the Size section will be a default size. We will have to change the paper size to
48x36 which is the board size to be printed.
1.


2.

3.

Click on the Size tab under the Paper section to see if the required size exists. Then select the
size. The size for this particular exercise is not present in the available options, hence we will have to
create a custom paper size.
To change the paper size, click on the Properties tab which is on the top right corner of the dialog
box.
A Plotter Properties dialog box will appear on the screen.
Click on Properties to open the dialog
box below

Check for the required paper size

Note: It is very helpful to take a test print of the page in a

smaller size before printing on a large paper. To print a test
page, Select Fit to this page option and select a letter size
paper and hit OK.

GRAPHICS TUTORIAL # D4
Printing a Graphic Presentation Board from Adobe Illustrator
CP-208 Plan Preparation Studio - Prof. Elizabeth Macdonald

4.
5.
6.

Click on the More sizes tab in the Application page size section.
A Paper Sizes will appear on the screen.
In the section Custom paper size type in the width and height in the respective boxes and hit OK.

For this tutorial enter 48 for Width and 36 for Height.

Manually type in the required
width in inches

Manually type in the required

height in inches

7.
8.
9.

The new size will appear in the previous Printer Properties dialog box.
In the paper Size tab in the Orientation section click on Landscape to select the horizontal format.
Hit OK and this dialog box will close.

Check this button to make the orientation of the

paper Landscape

Note: To print the board at full size, check the NO Scaling

option in the Zoom Smart Section at the lower section of
the dialog box.
10.

The new size will not yet appear on the Printer

Setup dialog box. Hit OK to
finish the page setup process.

The new paper size will appear

here

GRAPHICS TUTORIAL # D4
Printing a Graphic Presentation Board from Adobe Illustrator
CP-208 Plan Preparation Studio - Prof. Elizabeth Macdonald

Note: The Print area visible as two rectangles of dotted lines will be visible on the screen. Usually at this
time the size will still be the default one. To get the new size that we entered in the previous step do the
following: Open the Print Setup again. The new size will now appear on the dialog box. Hit OK without
doing any change in the setup. The new size of the Print area will now be visible on the screen.
STEP II. Adjusting the placement of the printable area to be on the Artboard:

NOTE: You need to adjust the placement of the printable area of the page. This is a good way to avoid having the artwork extend past the boundaries of the current page. You can adjust the page from any view. You
may find it easiest to choose View > Fit In Window so you can see all of your artwork while you adjust the
pages.
1.

Select the page tool (

window.

). The pointer becomes a dotted cross when you move it to the active

Page tool in the Tool box

is located along with the
Pan tool
Tool Box
To open the Page Tool
press and hold the cursor
with the mouse, roll on the
right and click on the tool

2.

Drag the page to the new location. As you drag, the page tool responds as if you were moving the
page from its lower left corner. Two gray rectangles are displayed. The outer rectangle represents the
page size, and the inner rectangle represents the printable area of a page.

NOTE: You can move the page anywhere on the artboard; however, any part of a page that extends past the
printable area boundary is not printed.

The Print Area will be in a random

location as shown above

Adjust the Print Area to fit the

paper size

GRAPHICS TUTORIAL # D4
Printing a Graphic Presentation Board from Adobe Illustrator
CP-208 Plan Preparation Studio - Prof. Elizabeth Macdonald

STEP III. Printing the Document:

1.
2.
3.

From the File menu select Print.

Print dialog box will appear.
As we have already entered the information in a Print Setup dialog box no changes will be required to
be done in this dialog box. The number of copies by default will be 1, change the number if you wish
to print more than one copy of the presentation board. Hit OK to send the print to the printer.

Specify the number of copies of the same print here

Opening the Print dialog box

On hitting OK the print will go to the Printer

After going through these steps you should be able to print a Presentation Board from Adobe
Illustrator, for any size of paper.

GRAPHICS TUTORIAL # D4
Printing a Graphic Presentation Board from Adobe Illustrator
CP-208 Plan Preparation Studio - Prof. Elizabeth Macdonald

What if my board wont print? Tips for getting a difficult board to print.
Tip 1: If the board has a large raster graphic (such as an aerial) with vector (lines) drawn on top, sometimes,
shifting the balance between raster and vector dominance can aid in getting the board to print. In the Document
setup window, selecting Custom opens the transparency flattener window. Try shifting the balance between
vector and raster to 50. If the board still will not print, try reducing the dpi on the vector and raster pulldowns
by 50 dpi increments.

2. Click on the Custom

Button in the setup
window

3. Pull the slider to

the middle, for a
value of 50

1. Go to Document Setup

4. If document still
wont print, adjust
these resolutions
downward by 50 dpi
at a time, attempting to print with each
adjustment

GRAPHICS TUTORIAL # D4
Printing a Graphic Presentation Board from Adobe Illustrator
CP-208 Plan Preparation Studio - Prof. Elizabeth Macdonald

Tip 2: Another way to get a large, complicated board to print easily is to export the board as a TIFF file, and
printing the file from Photoshop. The advantage of this method is the ability to easily change the size of the
board in very small increments in order to get the image to print. Exporting a board as a TIFF is also the best way
to get an Illustrator image into InDesign. The disadvantage of this technique is that exporting the board flattens
it, and to make additional changes, one must return to the existing Illustrator file and export again.

2. Name the file, and Hit Save

1. Go to File...Export

3. Alter the board settingsa 24 x 36 board can be set

at 200 dpi, while a larger
board at 150 dpi.
4. Optimally check Antialias, but the write may fail
and the program may ask
that you uncheck it.