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Old January 14th 18, 07:49 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,rec.photo.digital,alt.comp.freeware
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Default Make 12x18" signs at home on 8.5x11" B&W laser printer

- Jonathan N. Little wrote:

LibreOffice's "PowerPoint" is Impress not Draw. If you were making a
graphic then PowerPoint was the wrong too to start with. PowerPoint is
for presentations...multiple "slides". I would try exporting PowerPoint
slide as PDF then import PDF into LibreOffice Draw.


It's hard to say PowerPoint was wrong because PowerPoint was and is
absoloutely *perfect* for making the signs which are almost all text with
graphics around the border) as shown here.
[http://www.fileconvoy.com/dfl.php?id...064faba 60af]

PowerPoint just stinks at printing to four tiles to scale a page by 1.4.

I tried a few methods, all of which failed:
http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00538_Print...le-tiling-.htm
http://posterprinter.sourceforge.net
Installing an old HP Deskjet 6940 printer driver (which does tiling)

Then I found this suggestion to use "rasterbator".
https://www.cnet.com/how-to/print-yo...giant-posters/

I am currently testing Rasterbator which is showing great promise.

1) Download & install "Rasterbator" freeware from https://rasterbator.net
https://rasterbator.net/Download

2. Note that Rasterbator is in metric, where the math is that 1.4 is the
ratio of a US letter 8.5x11" paper to a US sign 12"x18", where the metric
equivalents are US Letter is 216mm x 279mm & US sign is 30.48cm x 45.72cm.

216mm times "X" is 304.8mm, hence, (X) = 1.4

3. Run Rasterbator with a ratio of 1.4 sheets wide
Rasterbator: English newt.bmp US Letter 1.4 sheets wide
Output image size: 30.2 x 45.4cm
paper consumption 2x2=4sheets
Dot size = 1mm

4. This quickly results in a perfectly tiled PDF file of 4 pages that can
be taped together to create a stencil.

Actually, the tiles are a bit too perfectly tiled, in that there is no
overlap, and those ghastly unprintable margins get in the way. Luckily that
magical "1.4" ratio can be tweaked to any number you need it to be, and
there are a few other options I'm playing with at the moment such as the
dot size and whether I tile by width or by length.

It's not a perfectly honed sequence yet, but Rasterbator shows promise
because it *matches* the desired ratio, which is a 1.4 ratio of US letter
to US sign sizes.