Most printing can be done on a normal, small printer that takes regular sheets of paper. Unless you’re planning a special event that requires posters or banners, you often don’t need anything bigger than an 8.5” by 11” print job. But for those occasions when you need to print big pictures, you want to know if (and how) your printer can accommodate your needs.
Sure, you could go to a professional print shop and get whatever you needed printed out in short order – but there’s an additional cost. Sometimes, you can pay that cost (and if so, professional printing is a great way to go). For other occasions, you want to save money by using in-house flexo printing and sleeve accessories instead.
If you want to learn how to print big pictures, here are five printing tips to guide you in this process:
1. Resize your picture
Resizing could be an option when you want to print big pictures. Maybe you have a great photo that you’d really like to see hanging on your wall, but it’s kind of small. Or maybe you found a super great image or graphic online that you’d love to use in a classroom, a community centre, a church, etc. but, again, it’s too small.
If that’s the case, then don’t worry! You may have the option to resize the image up until a lack of resolution makes it appear blurry. Use different resizing dimensions and experiment until you get the largest image with the best quality possible.
2. Use printing software
A good trick to print big pictures is to divide the large image among many different sheets of paper, and then tape/glue all those sheets together. This can be done with printing software. Simply open the program and insert your desired image. If you keep the image (however big it is) at full resolution (instead of scaling it down), you should be able to print the big pictures on several pages.
If you want the picture to appear seamless, you’ll need to choose a borderless printing option for best results. Some printers don’t work well with marginless images however, so you might have to print with margins and then trim them away. Once you have the print settings adjusted to your liking, print the whole thing out and then assemble your picture!
3. Use a professional print service
It is best to use a professional service if you’re not all that technically minded and you aren’t confident about how to print big pictures. Maybe you don’t want to take the time to figure out these websites, applications, or softwares. Maybe you don’t even own a printer. If any of these are true of you, then it’s probably time for you to check out professional printing services – whether it’s an online website that will ship the print to you or a brick-and-mortar location with their own printers, paper, ink, etc.
Wherever you decide to go, make sure to read reviews and do your research in order to get the most professional service and the best prices.
4. Use online websites
There are at least a couple websites online that will take whatever image you want, make it larger for you (if necessary), and then put it into a format that makes it easy to print out and assemble your image.
These websites can definitely take a lot of the time and guesswork out of printing big pictures. So if you’re looking for a super easy/simple solution, be sure to check out these types of websites.
5. Retouch the pictures
When you print big pictures, keep in mind that every little detail will be magnified in great detail. A blemish on the pictures will be very visible on big printed pictures. For this reason, you will need to use software to retouch the pictures before you print them out.
