Phase IV -- Spraying ink

At last, print is about to appear on the paper.   But before you waste one drop of ink, make sure your poster is set up correctly and everything is ready to print.

 
 

When you are ready print, regardless of the operating system, you must match the Poster Page Size to the Printer Properties. 


Your job is to set the Printer Properties parameters to the same values of the Paper that is loaded in the printer which match the page size definition of your poster.


This takes 4 steps.

Match the Poster to the Plotter to the Paper

Your poster has been proofed, reproofed, and reviewed.  No Errors!  Now you are ready to print.

  1. 1.Check Page Setup to be sure of your designed page size.  Write it down if you need to. It should match one of the Industry Standard Page sizes.

  2. 2.Click Print from the File menu and do these three functions --

  3. BulletSelect the HP Designjet Z3100 44in printer from the list of printers.

  4. BulletClick Properties to customize the printer properties

  5. BulletSelect the Paper/Quality tab and set the Document Size to match your Page Setup size.  The output page size must be equal to or larger than the Page Setup size.

  6. BulletSelect Paper Type to match the paper that you loaded in Phase II.  Your choices should be either HP Heavy Weight Coated or HP Premium Instant Dry Photo Gloss

  7. BulletSelect either Portrait or Landscape depending upon the orientation of your poster and the dimensions of the paper.  If your poster is 48” wide then it must be a portrait layout rotated because the paper is only 42” wide.

  8. BulletClick OK

  9. 3.Click Preview and be sure that the poster prints on one page without a lot of spare white all around it.  If it does, you did all things correctly.  Close the Preview.

  10. BulletIf the Preview is not correct, you may have to select “Scale to Paper” to get it be correct. Scaling can introduce formatting errors!

  11. BulletIf the Preview is NOT correct DO NOT PRINT!  Fix the problem before spraying ink!

  12. 4.Click OK to print.

Check it out!  The Printer should start humming! 

Watch the first few lines to be sure that the printer prints the background.  That is an option that is often turned off on PowerPoint.


If there is an error, either no background or improper orientation or the wrong paper, press the red X button on plotter to kill the print job.  Go back to our computer and check the Print Properties to make sure that all the options are set correctly.