Bright Ideas: PDF to Poster

It's my favorite time of the month! Time for the Bright Ideas link-up! I always get so many great ideas and I hope that my ideas help and inspire others!

Today I am going to show you how you can take a regular PDF and turn it into a poster!

I still have yet to master the art of the pretty anchor chart. I don't even consider the ones I try to make fit to be seen so I have no pictures to show you how horrible they are. 

My student teacher this past Fall made BEAUTIFUL anchor charts. Works of art - really! Wish I would have thought to take some pictres  to show you how MAGNIFICENT they are.

I would much rather create something on the computer then draw it out. That's where I ran into some problems. 8.5 x 11 was not big enough to be seen around the room. 

(Disclaimer: While I know and understand the value of creating anchor charts with the kids as we go, my OCD self cannot handle it. I will, however, create the anchor chart with my students on a plain piece of copy paper under the doc cam or this method found on this post here and then recreate it on the computer before I hang it up around the room.)

That's when I discovered the Poster Print feature that a lot of printers have. This is something that everyone knows about but it was a real eye opener for me and I am probably the last to know but just in case I want to share with you what has changed my life!

You just need to be sure that you have the "Print as Image" option unselected under Advanced Print Setup. (I spent an hour yesterday afternoon trying to get something to print into a poster and couldn't figure out why I was not given the option. Then I thought about this and voila - worked like a charm!)

First, choose the PDF or page that you would like to print into a poster.

Then hit print.

Choose the page (or pages) that you want to print as a poster. Make sure you click current page or specify the certain page(s) other wise it will print every page in the file. EEK! (PUH-LEASE learn from my mistake! hehe)

 Under page Sizing & Handling, choose the poster option. If it doesn't give you the ability to click on Poster then unfortunately it is something that your printer cannot do. (OR go check my tip from above and make sure the print as image option is not selected.)

My black and white laser cannot print to a poster my my photosmart and colored laser can.

 You will need to play around with the Tile Scale to find the size that you want. 

 You can see what it will look like before you hit print by clicking in the preview window.

This one is scaled at 150% and will be 17 x 22 inches.

 This one is scaled at 250% and will be 22 x 34 inches.

After you print the pages to the size you want it is time to CAREFULLY trim the edges and then tape together. I don't trim all the edges. I like to leave some overlap where the pieces meet on one of the sides to help when I tape it together. Depending on the size you print your poster to be, you will need to play around with it to determine the best way to trim the pieces.

(What I am about to show you is not quite an anchor chart but it was the only file I had with me when I printed it as I had left my portable hard drive with all my anchor charts on them. This is a scale from our current unit of study in Reading)

You can then run it through the laminator, if you are lucky enough to have access to a large laminator and then hang around your room!

This one is not yet laminated. You can see the 8.5x 11 on the right to see the difference in size. This one was scaled 150%.
 

 This one is also not yet laminated. You can see the 8.5x 11 on the right to see the difference in size. This one was scaled 200% - I think.

 
All three sizes together.

I prefer to print my posters on cardstock so that it is a little more durable but I used the last of my cardstock on our holiday calendar presents and have not yet bought another ream so I printed the above just using regular paper. 

I also like to use the transparent tape from Scotch - the red box. It's less noticeable. hehe

Hope this is as eye opening for you as it was for me! Now I can make pretty anchor charts and not have to start over (and over and over and over) again when I make a mistake!

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Don't forget to check out all the other "Bright Ideas" posts listed below.  If you see something you like, please leave a comment.  We bloggers LOVE to hear from you!

An InLinkz Link-up