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



 
 
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  #131  
Old January 16th 18, 06:49 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,rec.photo.digital,alt.comp.freeware
Eco Clean
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Posts: 61
Default Make 12x18" signs at home on 8.5x11" B&W laser printer

- Susan Bugher wrote:

Yahbut all three apps have these tasks in common: tell a printer the
segments of an image file you want it to print, what scale/size you want
the segments printed at and where you want them to be placed on the
printed pages. That's all PosteRazor does, The Rasterbator and Posteriza
add some bells and whiistles (those are optional extras in Posteriza.)


I appreciate all the advice, which will help everyone who wants to create a
larger image than they can print with their printer.

All three programs are the same, but different:
a. Posterazor seems the easiest and most straightforward
b. Posterizia probably is more powerful if I could only get it to work
c. Rasterbator isn't worth the trouble as it's intended for artsy stuff

Susan - did you ever get Posterizia to print 12x18" using only 4 sheets of
paper (not 6)?

I couldn't figure out the switches to make it do that.
It would easily print to 6 pages, but I wanted it to print to 4 pages for
fewer seams.
  #132  
Old January 16th 18, 06:59 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,rec.photo.digital,alt.comp.freeware
Eco Clean
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Posts: 61
Default Make 12x18" signs at home on 8.5x11" B&W laser printer

- Mayayana wrote:

I don't have a preference with these. I doubt
I'll ever use any of them. But for people who may
be interested it's worth clarifying the difference.


I would agree that they have a limited use, where, for our purposes, nobody
suggested an easier way to just tell a freeware program what size you want
the output to be and it "tiles" the pages for you, printing *all* those
tiles in one shot.

Every other freeware option suggested required confusing manual
intervention, whereas these programs just tile for you.

I didn't try Posteriza.


I did and I couldn't get Posterizia to print to 4 pages.
It insisted on printing to 6 pages for a 12x18 output.

PosteRazor and RasterBator, despite having equally
annoying names, are very different. I made quick
samples:


Agreed on the annoying names.

www.jsware.net/Files2/RazorRose.jpg (PosteRazor)
www.jsware.net/Files2/RasterRose.jpg (Rasterbator)


Nice. Can we assume that both are *not* vector programs?

As you can see, they do very different jobs. Both
are designed to allow you to print out multiple pages,
line those up, and end up with a giant image. Both
are fairly limitd in that, well, who really wants to
paste together a bunch of printer sheets to make
a picture?


I agree they're designed for different purposes because Rasterbator asks
for a "dot size" which isn't important when all we care about is tiling.

So I'd drop Rasterbator off the list.
If I could get Posterizia to print to 4 pages, I'd put it on the list, but
if it insists on printing a 12x18 to 6 pages, then I'd drop it off the list
too.

So that leaves only Posterazor.

PosteRazor does it by simply enlarging each pixel.
It doesn't seem to resample.


Interesting. Larger pixels.

Just enlarges each pixel into a rectangle.


Interesting. Thanks for that observation.

So a wall-sized image
might be made of squares 1/4"x 1/4", 1x1 or even
3x3 inches. One might use that to create a 6'x6'
picture of a superhero on the living room wall for
a tragically overindulged child. Or maybe a giant
mural of your favorite vacation retreat.


Or maybe a 12x18" sign using an 8.5x11 printer!

Rasterbator doesn't do accurate, detailed enlarging.


Yes. You've shown that it's really an 'artsitification' program, that
happens to tile to poster size.

It does a stylized, quasi-pointilistic rendering. You
can choose the circle size to get different effects.


The smallest circle I could get was 1mm.

Where would you use that? Maybe at a retirement
party, to put up a giant, stylized image of the
retiree. Not a giant photo but rather something that
looks more like a painting.


I agree. I'm sorry I found Rasterbator when I looked for it.
I think I found it here... so blame them!
[https://www.cnet.com/how-to/print-yo...iant-posters/]

BTW, FinePrint should work, but it's not freeware.
[http://fineprint.com/]

Specifically
[http://fineprint.com/release/fp920.exe]

  #133  
Old January 16th 18, 07:40 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,rec.photo.digital,alt.comp.freeware
Mayayana
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Posts: 1,514
Default Make 12x18" signs at home on 8.5x11" B&W laser printer

"Eco Clean" wrote

| www.jsware.net/Files2/RazorRose.jpg (PosteRazor)
| www.jsware.net/Files2/RasterRose.jpg (Rasterbator)
|
| Nice. Can we assume that both are *not* vector programs?
|

You and your vectors.

No, they're not vector programs. You might want to
look those up so that you have a better idea. A raster
image is a bitmap. It's defined by points/dots/pixels in
a grid. All of the operations you might do, like sharpening,
lightening, resizing, etc deal with the relationship between
the pixels. For instance, a sharpening routine will
mathemiatically amplify the light/dark difference at
edges.
Raster images are limited in terms of enlarging because
you basically have to make up the missing pixels. On the
other hand, raster is best for most things because it
allows for extensive detail.

Vector is mathematical.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_graphics

It doesn't define dots. It
defines patterns. So vector is great for things
like simple logos that need to display 1" high here and
3' high there. The formula will be basically the same
for both. Likewise with a font character. A 1/8" A vs
a 6" A is only a difference of scale using the same
formula. If it were raster it would require using far
more pixels and thus be a gigantic image.

None of this matters a bit to your project,
except insofar as that if you create an image of
fonts, do an extreme enlarging, then print that,
you'll get jagged edges. You've spent days
exploring different software when any one of them
probably would have served the purpose.

| I agree they're designed for different purposes because Rasterbator asks
| for a "dot size" which isn't important when all we care about is tiling.
|

It's all *you* care about. But since this is
a public discussion it might be useful info
for others.

| Rasterbator doesn't do accurate, detailed enlarging.
|
| Yes. You've shown that it's really an 'artsitification' program, that
| happens to tile to poster size.
|
Exactly, yes.

| Where would you use that? Maybe at a retirement
| party, to put up a giant, stylized image of the
| retiree. Not a giant photo but rather something that
| looks more like a painting.
|
| I agree. I'm sorry I found Rasterbator when I looked for it.
| I think I found it here... so blame them!
| [https://www.cnet.com/how-to/print-yo...iant-posters/]
|

I actually think it's the most interesting of the
three. Just not what you need. If I were doing tiling
I'd do it in PSP.

Though it's worth noting that one should *never*
download from CNet. They're famous for putting junk
in the downloads. They're also not entirely honest.
I know because I used to post my shareware on their
site years ago.
Then they started pressuring authors to pay for
reviews and I stopped listing. The whole idea that
authors would pay for allegedly neutral reviews was
not a tenable business model. Not to mention that
software authors were providing all the content for
their site. They were trying to straddle the news
model and the advertising model at the same time.

Yet they still
have pages for my software! Some time ago I
found one of my old programs listed with a link
to a download in Russia. I never authorized the
page or the download and don't know what the
file was. But trying to reach the people at CNet
has always been fruitless in my experience.

CNet still has a page for my WEB-ED coding editor.
Fortunately the link at least goes to my site. But
the company name and download link are wrong,
and it's about 15 years out of date! The downloads
that actually come from them are more suspect.

So it's a good idea to avoid them. You can
usually find things at MajorGeeks. That's kind
of a silly looking site but they seem to have
their act together and they seem to be honest.
But it's always best to download from the
homepage for the software, if ther is one.
Information about requirements, functions,
etc can often be wrong or outdated at
software listing sites.



  #134  
Old January 16th 18, 08:26 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,rec.photo.digital,alt.comp.freeware
Susan Bugher
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 43
Default Make 12x18" signs at home on 8.5x11" B&W laser printer

On 1/16/2018 12:59 PM, Eco Clean wrote:
- Mayayana wrote:


I didn't try Posteriza.


I did and I couldn't get Posterizia to print to 4 pages.
It insisted on printing to 6 pages for a 12x18 output.


snip

If I could get Posterizia to print to 4 pages, I'd put it on the list, but
if it insists on printing a 12x18 to 6 pages, then I'd drop it off the list
too.


I tried an image with a height / width ration of roughly 2x3 - printer
set for letter size paper, portrait orientation (detected by Posteriza).
No problem setting 4 pages - then I went back to step 2 and rotated the
image 90 degrees. Still no problem getting 4 pages with the new image
orientation.

Susan
--
Posted to alt.comp.freeware (using WinXP-SP2, Win7professional-32 bit)
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.pricelesswarehome.org


  #135  
Old January 16th 18, 08:42 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,rec.photo.digital,alt.comp.freeware
Susan Bugher
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 43
Default Make 12x18" signs at home on 8.5x11" B&W laser printer

On 1/16/2018 12:46 PM, Mayayana wrote:
"Susan Bugher" wrote

| Yahbut all three apps have these tasks in common: tell a printer the
| segments of an image file you want it to print, what scale/size you want
| the segments printed at and where you want them to be placed on the
| printed pages. That's all PosteRazor does, The Rasterbator and Posteriza
| add some bells and whiistles (those are optional extras in Posteriza.)
|

I don't have a preference with these. I doubt
I'll ever use any of them. But for people who may
be interested it's worth clarifying the difference.

I didn't try Posteriza.
PosteRazor and RasterBator, despite having equally
annoying names, are very different. I made quick
samples:

www.jsware.net/Files2/RazorRose.jpg (PosteRazor)

www.jsware.net/Files2/RasterRose.jpg (Rasterbator)

As you can see, they do very different jobs. Both
are designed to allow you to print out multiple pages,
line those up, and end up with a giant image. Both
are fairly limitd in that, well, who really wants to
paste together a bunch of printer sheets to make
a picture?

PosteRazor does it by simply enlarging each pixel.
It doesn't seem to resample. Just enlarges each
pixel into a rectangle. So a wall-sized image
might be made of squares 1/4"x 1/4", 1x1 or even
3x3 inches. One might use that to create a 6'x6'
picture of a superhero on the living room wall for
a tragically overindulged child. Or maybe a giant
mural of your favorite vacation retreat.

Rasterbator doesn't do accurate, detailed enlarging.
It does a stylized, quasi-pointilistic rendering. You
can choose the circle size to get different effects.
Where would you use that? Maybe at a retirement
party, to put up a giant, stylized image of the
retiree. Not a giant photo but rather something that
looks more like a painting.


If you want to see what changes those two apps make in the original
image file before storing it in the PDF file grab a copy of PDF Image
Extraction Wizard - a Windows utility that allows you to easily extract
bitmap images from PDF documents and store them as individual image files.

You can get the 750 KB file he
http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/page36.html#PIEW
http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/files2/pdf_image_extraction_wizard_12_setup.zip


Susan
--
Posted to alt.comp.freeware (using WinXP-SP2, Win7professional-32 bit)
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.pricelesswarehome.org


  #136  
Old January 16th 18, 09:19 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,rec.photo.digital,alt.comp.freeware
Zaidy036
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6
Default Make 12x18" signs at home on 8.5x11" B&W laser printer

On 1/13/2018 2:14 PM, Zaidy036 wrote:
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/



http://posteriza.freedownloadscenter.com/windows/


--
Zaidy036
  #137  
Old January 16th 18, 10:11 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,rec.photo.digital,alt.comp.freeware
Mayayana
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,514
Default Make 12x18" signs at home on 8.5x11" B&W laser printer

"Susan Bugher" wrote

| If you want to see what changes those two apps make in the original
| image file before storing it in the PDF file grab a copy of PDF Image
| Extraction Wizard - a Windows utility that allows you to easily extract
| bitmap images from PDF documents and store them as individual image files.
|

No need. PDF XChange Viewer has that option.


  #138  
Old January 16th 18, 10:46 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,rec.photo.digital,alt.comp.freeware
Susan Bugher
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 43
Default Make 12x18" signs at home on 8.5x11" B&W laser printer

On 1/16/2018 4:11 PM, Mayayana wrote:
"Susan Bugher" wrote

| If you want to see what changes those two apps make in the original
| image file before storing it in the PDF file grab a copy of PDF Image
| Extraction Wizard - a Windows utility that allows you to easily extract
| bitmap images from PDF documents and store them as individual image files.
|

No need. PDF XChange Viewer has that option.


Your version may but mine does not. I'm running v 2.5 (documentation says
"Currently the new PDF-XChange PRO Viewer offers these additional
Features: ...
Extract PDF Image content to Raster format")

Susan
--
Posted to alt.comp.freeware (using WinXP-SP2, Win7professional-32 bit)
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.pricelesswarehome.org


  #139  
Old January 16th 18, 11:58 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,rec.photo.digital,alt.comp.freeware
Paul[_10_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 64
Default Make 12x18" signs at home on 8.5x11" B&W laser printer

Jonathan N. Little wrote:
Eco Clean wrote:
- Jonathan N. Little wrote:

So the goal is not to save to an image format, and just tile out of the
creation program, right?

That would be most ideal. Professional software such as CoreDraw do
drectly, which by the way a large number of the sign maker industry use.


Nobody can disagree that the expensive stuff is better. The hard part
is doing a good job with the free stuff.

I recommend that you design it in LibreOffice, Inkscape, or hell even
PowerPoint! Then export as vector PDF.


I'd *love* to save PowerPoint as "vector PDF".
All I see in Powerpoint 2007 is "PDF" though.

Is "vector PDF" an option only in the newer Powerpoint versions?


Ugh, MS stuff is a real s**thole... Well depending on your version of
Powerpoint convert text to shapes and when you export it will be vector.

https://www.google.com/search?q=PowerPoint+convert+text+to+curves

My version, which I never used, is v2003 pre-ribbon version so I don't
think it is possible in my old version.


PDF supports both vector and bitmaps.

It's up to the print driver to generate efficient code.

If you want examples of efficiency, look at the size
of the Adobe PDF standards documents, the thousand pages
of nicely formatted text... and the small file size.
That's your assurance of a "mostly vector" approach.

You don't have to stuff subset fonts into a document,
but it's a common default.

Back in the good old days, the printer had fonts stored
in firmware. Your print went to the printer, with just
the font name, like "Helvetica", and the printer rendered
each letter for you. Now, that's efficient. Doing subset
fonts, splatting out bitmap equivalents and the like,
that's the modern shabby way to do it. When you examine
how printing is done, you'll see as many variations on
a theme, as you have fingers and toes.

If you look carefully under the covers, some of it
can be fixed (by clever choice of settings) and some
not.

When I first installed the Microsoft Universal PostScript Driver,
for print to PostScript capability, all it was outputting
was bitmap prints (the entire page was stored as a bitmap).
But by changing PostScript version setting (possibly to 3),
it switched to more vector-like stuff, and the output was
much improved and not full of jaggies. It's the discovery
of these settings, that makes the difference to your experience.

If you want high quality, you have to work to get it.
It won't be delivered on a plate.

Take LibreOffice, as a "poster boy of bad output". I've seen
all sorts of unusual output, such as a simple text document
where each letter, some goofball had tried to "drop shadow"
the text by using two instances of each letter. It was almost
like I had "blurred vision". Ugly and idiotic. Another bad
habit LibreOffice had at the time, was "micropositioning"
letters. Each letter was assigned an XY coordinate. What
does that do ? It ruins the ability to copy/paste text from
the PDF, into any other tool. Words are no longer words.
This shows a distrust of the rest of the print chain, as
the layers underneath know how to position the letters
for typeset quality. Trying to override how the rest
of printing works, that's the work of idiots. And it
makes your PDF files that much bigger. Since there is
interaction between micropositioning, and what the
printer wants to do, the spacing actually ends up
jagged as well! The output is ugly to your eye.
A win.

You must learn a *lot* about your tools, if you expect
to correct evil like this. It's a full time job for
a person who cares about the quality of what they produce.

Blanket statements, just don't cover this topic all
that well. You run into one egregious mess after another.
The only person who cares about the quality of your
print or PDF... is you. Nobody else cares.

If I wanted something approaching high quality output,
I'd use my copy of FrameMaker/FrameBuilder. But it's
a bit expensive for single copies. When I need to make
output a particular exact size, I can count on the
print chain from there, getting it right on the
very first print. Someone at that company, had an
inkling about typography. While every PC had MS Office,
we also had a significantly large site license for
Frame as well. All my tech specs were done in Frame.
(Everything we did, was a "500 page document".)

That product wasn't originally by Adobe, but they
bought the company.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_FrameMaker

Paul
  #140  
Old January 17th 18, 12:26 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,rec.photo.digital,alt.comp.freeware
Eco Clean
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 61
Default Make 12x18" signs at home on 8.5x11" B&W laser printer

- Susan Bugher wrote:

No need. PDF XChange Viewer has that option.


Your version may but mine does not. I'm running v 2.5 (documentation says
"Currently the new PDF-XChange PRO Viewer offers these additional
Features: ...
Extract PDF Image content to Raster format")


Where do you get it?
Searching, I find lots of the crap-sites have it.
[http://download.cnet.com/PDF-XChange...10598377.html]
[https://pdf-xchange-viewer.en.softon...?ex=DSK-347.1]
[http://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-...-Viewer.shtml]
[http://soft.mydiv.net/win/download-P...e-Viewer.html]

Might this be the official site?
[https://www.tracker-software.com/pro...change-viewer]
 




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