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Large Format Printing

HP Design Jet T1100ps

The HP Design Jet T1100ps printer, located in the Computer Lab, (Room LL22 in the Olin Center) is capable of producing high-resolution prints up to 42“ wide, and of limitless length. There are currently two types of paper available in the lab for general printing. One is basic HP poster paper (42” wide) and the other is basic HP High Gloss photo paper. These instructions refer specifically to printing to the HP Design Jet T1100 printer from Adobe Photoshop 7. The process is very similar with other applications, but you’ll have to refer to documentation of the application to find out how to size your document.

Prepare the Document

In Photoshop, the first thing you’ll need to do, is size and crop your document to proper dimensions for the printer. Keep in mind that in your final image, only one dimension can be larger than 40“. Although the printer works on a 42” roll, it cannot print edge-to-edge. It’s best to leave at least 1“ margins between the size you tell Photoshop to scale the image to, and the size of the paper you tell the printer you want. To print at the largest possible size, enlarge the document so that the smaller of your two dimensions is exactly 40”.

In Photoshop

  1. On the menubar click Image → Image Size.
  2. Make sure Constrain Proportions is checked at the bottom of the window.
  3. In the Document Size box, change the smaller of the two values for Width and Height to 40 Inches.
  4. Set Resolution to 150 pixels/inch.
  5. Click OK.

Set Up Printer

If you haven’t already added the printer to your computer, do so. Click Start→Run(Windows Key + R), and enter the following:
\\printvs02\MHL22H01
Hit enter and click Yes when it asks if you’d like to install the printer. You only need to do this once.

Page Setup

Now we’ll tell Photoshop and the printer what size paper you want to print on. In Photoshop:

  1. On the menubar, click File → Page Setup.
  2. Click on the Printer button.
  3. Select \\printvs02\MHL22H01 from the drop down menu.
  4. Click Properties…
  5. In the Paper box, make sure Roll is selected with 42 inch roll in the drop-down box next to it.
  6. Click the drop-down box next to Size, scroll all the way to the bottom and select «Edit Paper List… »
  7. You are now defining a custom paper size to be printed off the roll of paper. You may leave the defaults checked for Used Standards, but make sure that in the Units box, English (in.) is checked.
  8. Enter your paper size in the boxes under Custom paper sizes. Make your dimensions at least 2 inches larger than the image size you specified earlier (this will give you 1“ margins, if you want wider margins make these dimensions larger, but remember only one of them can be larger than 42”.)
  9. Click OK
  10. You should now have something that says Custom 1: a x b in. in the box next to size, where a and b are the dimensions you entered in Step 8. You now need to specify the orientation of your image on the page you have defined. You’ll want to use the settings in Orientation to do this. You’ll need different settings depending on which dimension in your image is closer to 42“ and which dimension is larger.

  11. If Your image is a portrait, select Portrait.
    1. Then, check the image to the left, and compare it to yours. If both your x and y are less than 42, check the rotate by 90 degrees checkbox.
    2. If only your y is larger than 42, leave the box unchecked.
    3. If x is larger than y, you have a landscape image, skip down a bit.
    4. If both are larger than 42, your image and/or paper size is too to print on this printer.

  12. If your image is a landscape, select Landscape
    1. Then check the image to the left. If both x and y are less than 42, leave the Rotate by 90 degrees checkbox unchecked.
    2. If just x is larger than 42, check the box.
    3. If y is larger than x, you have a portrait, skip back a bit.
    4. If both x and y are larger than 42, your image and/or paper size is too large to print on this printer.
  13. When you are satisfied, click OK.
  14. Click OK again.
  15. Click OK again.
  16. On the menubar, click File → Print with Preview.
  17. Verify that everything looks to be in good shape. In the preview screen you should see your image with a nicely sized border around it. Make sure Center Image is checked and Scale to Fit Media is unchecked.
    1. If everything checks out, click Print