Overview
The large format plotter is available to print posters for displays and presentations for staff and students of the University of Birmingham.
The posters are printed on a 36 inch wide high gloss paper roll, length is trimmed automatically by the plotter, width manually by the user.
Standard paper sizes include A0, A1, Arch E.
Custom page sizes can be accommodated up to 917mm (36.1") by 15m (50ft).
For those in Physics only an account number is needed, for the rest of campus an internal order is required.
Hours
Please be aware that the staff providing the printing service are not dedicated to this task, and you are strongly advised to leave plenty of time between your print job submission and the required by date. The usual hours for the printing service are 10am-12pm and 2pm-4pm.
Job Submission
To ensure that you provide all the right details, and to make plotting your job easier, please use the provided system. This will perform some automated checks on your job before I get to deal with it.
You can bring posters on CD's and memory sticks as a last resort, but the job submission form needs to be completed anyway.
File Formats
PDF is the recommended file format because you can review exactly what will be sent to me outside of the application that created the poster. The only exception is for posters with transparency effects. PDFs don't always do these well.
Alternatively, you can send Microsoft Office, Star/Open Office, Postscript, and most standard image types.
Unix users should always use PDF rather than an office file.
Mac users should always print to PDF.
Office 2007 users are recommended to save as a PDF and submit that.
Important: You must make sure you embed fonts in all your posters. (See tips below)
Page Costs
Note: These costs were increased on 1st July 2006.
| Size | Cost | Previous Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Arch E | £28 | £23 |
| A0 | £25 | £20 |
| A1 | £20 | £15 |
| Custom page | £ poa | £ poa |
Paper sizes and margins
The plotter uses a 917mm wide roll of high gloss paper. So any paper size you request must fit within 917mm less printer margins on its smallest dimension.
The plotter margins are:
Leading & Trailing Edges - 17mm.
Sides - 5mm.
All posters are auto rotated to use less paper.
This means all A0 and Arch-E are printed in portrait and all A1 posters are printed in landscape. This means that A1 posters have side margins of 17mm.
What ever page you send will be forced to fit the margins of the page size you request.
Even if you have added your own margins these margins will be added to them. It is recommended that you only add margins where you want to increase those required by the printer.
These are the recommended media sizes for your software. If you need larger margins than the plotter minimums then you should add them in your software.
Poster Creation Tips
Example files
File formats
PDF, Portable Document Format - you should check your poster on another machine to be sure there are no compatibility problems. Remember to set the PDF page size to your poster size, don't leave it at the default A4. It is recommended that you set the output quality to 600dpi.
PPT, PowerPoint - you must embed fonts, search for 'embed fonts' in the applications help system. Or if available you could use 'Pack & go' or 'Pack for CD' (File menu), an optional component of Office 2000 or newer.
ODP, Open office - you should always save as PDF. This eliminates font differences on MAC, UNIX and Windows systems.
Application page size
You should always set your application's page size to the sizes above. If you use an application page size that is very small e.g. A4 and I have to enlarge it to fit your requested page size you may be disappointed with the print quality.
Job Submission
Only try to send one poster at a time. The web interface will seem to allow you to send multiple posters, but only one will be in the job queue.
Guillotine
To chop off the excess paper there is a guillotine available outside the office.
Collection
The posters can be collected from Poynting Physics room PB8E (basement). The Poynting building is R13 on the campus map. The main enterance is on the Physics West (R9) side, the stairs are to your right, go down one flight then turn left. PB8 is at the end of the corridor, PB8E is near the far end.
PDF creation from Windows
If you have an administrator account on your computer then installing the free PDF creator 'CutePDF' is recommended. Go to 'Cute PDF' site now.
This will install a new printer that will print to a PDF file. Don't forget to set the paper size and quality from inside the printer driver.
Quick links to the driver 'CuteWriter.exe' and the helper 'converter.exe'.
Finally...
If you need to contact someone:
Plot queue administrator: John Bryant 
ext 4-6471 Poynting Physics Room PB8E.
Web and 2nd line plot administrator: Mark Cooke 
ext 4-4674 Physics West Room 123.
3rd line plot administrator: David Stops 
ext 4-3652 Physics West Room 222.
Maintained by Mark CookeLast Updated: 15-Sep-2010