Printing a D size layout on an A size sheet

I'm hoping someone can help with this minor issue. I'm getting started with Chief and don't have ready access to a plotter for 'D' size layouts...so I've been relagated to printing on my 'A' size inket printer....aaarrgh !

In the Page Setup dialog box, CA shows that there will be 16 pages of the 'A' size sheets to make up the 'D' size equivalent that I can then cut and tape up. There's something like a 10% overlap with each sheet so this really does work. It's not pretty, but....

My question is if my layout is really only a single 'D' size sheet, is there anyway to print just one or two of the 16 pages and not all of them? When you click the printer icon, the Print Dialog box opens, and allows you to adjust the Print Range... but this range seems to be the range if I had multiple layout pages. Example if I had 10 layout pages in my project, and want to print just page 5 to 7, then I would insert 5 and 7 in the Print Range. This would actually result in a total of 48 'A' size sheets (3 layout pages X 16 sheets per layout page).

Now that I have everyone totally confused and think I should just go out and by a 'D' size plotter... is there any solution?

Thanks for the help and all the great posts that I've learned a ton from !!

jt-

For starters, how much do you use Chief? If you are using it for your full time income and most of your customers want/need "D" size prints, then maybe a "D" size plotter is the right move, but I would think about these things first.

1.) If you only need "D" size prints occasionally I would suggest you print to PDF and email to a local print shop for pickup.

2.) Many customers are using 11x17 ("B" size). I use a Canon i9100 printer that prints 13x19 and I rarely need "C" or "D" size plots.

A Plotter is a fair-sized investment. I would run some numbers to see if it will pay for itself, and how soon.

Hope this helps and welcome to the show!

If you just want to see how the pages look, then use "fit to page"
but note that you will lose scale doing so.


The HP 9800 does 13 x 19 and costs aroung $199. The Hp 110 plus does 24 x 18 and 24 x 36 (and 24 x ? banners) and is on sale till end of June for $880.

Lew

John: I have scar tissue on this one as I'm sure we all do. Design in 24x36 layout. I have fast laser (1200dpi) for sanity checks, HP 1000 (600dpi and color) on eBay delivered for $100 gets 13x19 (very slowly but who cares?), and Planexpress.net account for important, volume stuff in 24x36 delivered next day anywhere for 1/2 Kinko's (and the rest) cost. You can print "check plot" native from within Layout at 1/2 scale to the HP-1000. It is fine for checking things and fine for most presentations. Maybe 5 cents B&W incl. paper. Put color on glossy stock for a real WOW (renderings, etc.). Maybe 25 cents incl. paper and ink. For plan check submittals and checking, use Planexpress.net. This requires printing to PDF995 "printer" (free, ships with CA) and ensuring you have selected proper paper size from within the printer window (advanced button, I think). This gives you three print methods at minimum cost and they tend to be redundant. If there is a chance scaling can become an issue, I just build a scale and assign it its own layer... exposing that layer when running to an unscalable output (laser, print-to-fit, etc.).

Good luck.

All, Thank You for each of your inputs. I totally forgot about the PDF995 and for the important plots, I have a Kinko's nearby. I will also check out Planexpress.net. I had not heard of that site. Thanks again!!