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How to choose a large format printer

Does your business need to do large format prints on a regular basis? Two solutions can be considered: equip yourself with a tracer or enter into a partnership with a service provider. You opt for the first solution. So be sure to buy the right large format printer for your needs. You must take into account certain criteria: format, type of printing, etc. You must also provide yourself with ink and support. And provide a maintenance schedule. Indeed, it is necessary to carry out some maintenance operations. So you will always have quality prints. For this type of intervention, Techlines is one of the companies to contact.

Regarding the criteria for choosing a plotter, here are the basic elements.

The purpose of printing

Generally, we need to use a plotter for technical applications (architecture, design office, etc.), communication, advertising and graphic arts. Each activity has different objectives.

In architecture, priority is given to precision. The number of colors takes a back seat. Therefore, a plotter with 4 to 6 colors is sufficient. A printer with 6 to 8 colors is suited to the needs of an activity focused on communication or production (printing, reprography, etc.). In the field of graphic arts (photography, museum, photo lab, etc.), faithful reproduction of images requires a printer with 8 to 12 colors.

You also have to think about where the posting will be. For a short-term outdoor display, pigment ink is ideal. For a long period, a latex or eco-solvent ink should be used.

The dimensions

It is also important to consider the dimensions of the documents to be printed, the place where the plotter will be placed. It is necessary to include the place for the storage of consumables. The print format of an architectural plan differs from an advertising banner, an architectural firm does not have the same needs as a printer. Here are the main existing formats:

large format plotter: 60 inches

plotter format A0: 36 inches to 44 inches

plotter format A1: 24 inches to 36 inches

A2 format plotter: 17 inches to 24 inches.

Print volume

If the quantity of posters, plans or photos to print is large, it is better to choose a plotter with 2 or 3 reels. For large printing volumes, an ink cartridge having a large capacity is required. At least a 300 ml cartridge, at best 700 ml. In addition, for an optimal production, the printing speed of the plotter is essential.

Memory and connectivity Some files can be memory intensive. Also to avoid saturating the network, opting for an internal hard drive is recommended. This will save you time. access to files is faster. Although recent plotters are equipped with a USB connection, using the integrated network card is safer.

In addition to these criteria, the use of a plotter requires maintenance. First, to make the investment made in the machine profitable. Then to preserve the performance of the plotter and the print quality. By hiring a professional, you can be sure that your printer will be well maintained. You will be freed from a task and save your time.

There are several brands and models of large format printer on the market. By reading these criteria, you will easily find the right tracker for your business. However, if you still have doubts, consult a professional.

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How to Print and Cut on Cricut Maker

The Cricut Maker is a new addition to the Cricut family. What makes it unique from other cutting machines is that it can both print and cut shapes and letters. You can design your own lettering or use some of the preinstalled fonts like Caliber, Changa One, Freestyle Script, Carlyle Caps, Merienda One, sansation condensed light, modern no 2 etc.

Cricut  Designing

However just because you have been able to design your own words doesn't necessarily mean you will be successful applying them onto an object such as cardstock. If you aren't meticulous about how you align your words then chances are they will not stick well or even overlap each other.

I'm going to share how I was able to align my own lettering and how I checked how well it would stick before printing the final design on cardstock paper. Other items you will need includes, Cricut Maker machine, computer with a USB port, usb cable micro sd memory card for your computer (the same kind of memory card that you use in cameras), cricut maker printer (preferably wireless) , blank piece of cardboard or mat board, scissors/paper cutter/ X-Acto Knife...a pen that is broad enough so that it can draw over the edges of letters like a sharpie marker.

If you aren't already familiar how the Cricut Maker works then there are two options when using this device, you can either use the keyboard to type in your words or you can upload a font from your computer. I will assume that you not only know how to connect your Cricut Maker device to your computer but how how to use programs such as Word and how to install fonts onto your computer's hard drive so that they become available for printing.

I also want to give a quick tip on how to make sure that when using any font, it is well aligned with how you originally entered them while typing into word or other editing software.  

Instructions to start the process 

Using your Cricut Maker, choose a font that is similar to how you are planning on having your lettering. For example if you are printing out 'Happy Birthday' then find a font that has letters in all capital letters with straight or diagonal lines like Caliber One shown below:

Once you have chosen the font for your project then load it onto your computer via USB. By loading it onto your computer using this method, you will be able to know how far apart each letter needs to be from another based off how wide each letter is. The width of each face of a letter is how much space it takes up when you have a character that has both upper and lower case letters. You will need to divide how wide each letter is by how many letters are included in your project so that way you can figure out how wide the largest amount of space should be between each piece of text.

To know how far apart each face's width needs to be, place your paper on top of an Instagram photo or another image that has faces displayed on it (no filters) then start measuring how far apart two different faces spaces themselves from each other using a ruler or appropriate sized pen. If any letters like 'm' are more inclined towards one side that just means that based off how they are slanted, there will need to be a little more space between how far the 'm' is slanted and how far the next letter to the right or left of it is.

Example: how wide each face of Caliber One was on my computer is approximately 14mm so how much space there should be between two faces spaced at 14mm apart from one another are about 4 mm (14 divided by 2). The letters m and i need an extra 5 mm within their width because they are slightly inclined.

Notice how how much room that is given for spacing based off how wide each face takes up. Because I don't have a ruler long enough to measure how tall my letters would take up vertically, I made sure that the initial letter span was large enough like how how the 'H' is larger than how tall most of the other face widths are. The entire text word doesn't need to be spaced as well evenly but how you space everything will determine how easy it will be for your printer to print out how you have it placed on a piece of cardboard or mat board.

Using whatever method you wanted to type out what you needed, I typed up how I would like my project to look in Microsoft Word:

Tip: Make sure that when typing your letters into Word for printing, turn off all invisible characters (such as tabs and paragraph breaks). This way there won't be any spaces or indentations between where one letter is and where the next one begins. 

Printing Process

Using Caliber One font as an example, I have how many characters are included on my print out which will be how many pieces of card stock or mat board to cut out how many letters there are. Once you have how much space each letter uses and how many letters you need for your project ready to go. It is time to get started cricut printing, for best quality printing you have to print by using best quality printer for cricut maker project.

Print out how you would want your words spaced out onto a piece of card stock or matte board using the settings that match how wide each face width of the text would span. If using how I printed out my "Happy Birthday" example then choose to only select the top two lines (labeled as 0.7mm) since this font doesn't use any lower case letters like 'a' or 'g'.If printing how I did in the example above, I would need to print out how wide how much each face spans out.

 If for example how wide each face width is a pencil lead sized space then how many pencil leads it takes up would be how many pages that will print on. As you can see from my text below, how many faces there are per page will vary. For example how wide the faces span takes up 3/4 of how much ink is used so for that reason alone if using matte paper (recommended) and setting your printer settings to draft mode , you only need two pieces of card stock /mat board to cut out all the letters needed for your project (but make sure how wide how ever how often it takes to get the two pieces of card stock/mat board to match how wide how much space each face width will take up. 

Cutting Process

I would recommend using whatever paper you have as long as how much ink for each color uses a consistent amount of space. After setting up your project how ever how however , it is now time to cut out all the letters! If like me, your printer doesn't cut or doesn't print as large and therefore cannot cut what you need then choose either an X-Acto knife (what I used) or a cricut cutting machine .

Tip: never use how large and heavy duty an X-Acto knife unless you plan on using it constantly. Keep in mind when choosing which type of knives/blade to use how how how how how how how how much space each letter uses so that way you don't wind up how ever much room there is on the blade. I would recommend an X-Acto knife for projects how ever small they are.