[meleliza]

So I really want to sew up that Bistro Dress and I thought I’d take another stab at this large format printing malarkey. I got some recs for copy shops then started by calling a place close to hubby’s office. They quoted me precisely $57!

I’m going to say that again: fifty-seven United States dollars.

good grief.

If I upload it to Staples.com, it will only take the entire 58 pages, which costs $120.

• This topic was modified 10 years ago by meleliza.

[Robin]

Costs me $9.00 in Canada at my local print shop. Call a place that prints blue prints. You’ve been working on this for a long time.

[meleliza]

Agreed. I’m trying one more place and then will officially give up on the large format concept altogether.

There aren’t any print shops that are on my way to school, groceries, soccer or fabric stores. They are mostly in the finance district, but I found an architectural place that’s sort of near a birthday party I have to take one kid to tonight, but I don’t know if they will get it right. I’m not holding my breath. I hope they don’t hate it when I show up with three kids in tow right before closing.

[Todd Gibson]

If it’s an issue with a place not being able to print just one page of a PDF, you can always split the file and send just the page(s) that are the large format sheets.

I do this with the full version of Adobe Acrobat. It has the option of deleting pages in a PDF. Save the file under a new name and delete all pages but the last.

I haven’t tried it yet, but @sahmcolorado mentioned a free piece of software to do the same if you don’t have the full version of Acrobat in another thread.

Also, I have a suggestion for breaking out a single page from a pdf to make it easier to upload only the large page for printing. I downloaded free software called PDF Split and Merge (pdfsam). It works really well. You can use it to combine multiple pdfs into one file, split into separate files, or take individual pages out and save them as a new file. You can even use a “visual” option to move, add, and delete pages by dragging and dropping thumbnails of each page. It works great.

[meleliza]

All that sounds complicated, to be honest. But I’m happy to report that after an adventurous Friday afternoon rush hour (Philly takes Friday afternoon rush really really seriously) we located the print shop in a slightly creepy basement despite the lobby confusion of an Asian American conference of some kind and picked up a correctly scaled p58 for $8 and made it to the birthday party only a few blocks away. And they said I could order these in the future too. It’s always a circus when you have to drag all 3 kids anywhere.

But I currently have plans for at least two Bistro dresses, and I probably spent less time tracking this down than taping all those pieces together. And one sheet of paper is easier to work with.

I think I would pay $30 for a pattern I know is reliable and arrived at my door ready to use. A well drafted pattern is worth a lot.

[Lightning McStitch]

I’m so glad you’ve got this sorted @meleliza. I have to confess that whenever I see a thread about PDFs with your name on it, I have to look. Kind of like watching motor racing for the crashes.
(please don’t take that unkindly, I genuinely sympathise with your frustration too).
I wish it was so easy down under. Our largest standard paper size is just too small, so we tape together little ones instead!
The dress will suit you perfectly, I look forward to seeing it.

[meleliza]

Lol!

[Nicole]

I am pleased you have found a option that works. 🙂

[Anonymous]

Yes, glad you found a print shop. I’m sure Philly has loads of blueprint shops that deliver as well. Even little Fort Collins has quite a few in the part of town where engineering companies are. I love getting mine printed full size and they are only a few dollars. BUT, sometimes I’m too impatient to wait until the next day to pick them up so I just tape. Liesl’s PDFs are so wonderfully easy to tape together. Actually kind of fun – but then, I’m weird. LOL

[Georgia]

Hi I was jut wondering if there was anyone from Australia who could help me with knowing where we are able to get the large format printing done??? I was hoping to sew up a skirt for myself!

thanks for you help!

[Sarvi]

Where in Australia are you? Try googling “reprographics [town name]” and see what that pulls up. I tried it with Sydney and Rapid Reprographics, Allied Reprographics, and Reiga Reprographics all came up on the first page of results. I’m sure if they couldn’t do it they could recommend another printer who could, who might not have the word reprographics right in the company name (my printer is called BP Digital).

If you are quoted more than, say, $15 (which sounds very high to me), they are quoting you for the wrong kind of print, probably something intended for display rather than a working document on ordinary paper (just like regular cheapo inkjet paper, only bigger).

Not meaning to be unkind about a person who probably received zero training, but a clerk who cannot figure out how to print only a given page of a PDF is a sure sign you’re in the wrong kind of print shop. The big printers work just like every other printer: a little dialog box pops up, you type in the number of prints and which pages, etc.

• This reply was modified 10 years ago by Sarvi.

[Lightning McStitch]

@Sarvi, the problem is that the largest standard paper size in Australia is what’s known as A0 which, in inches, measures 33.1×46.8
(link: http://www.papersizes.org/a-paper-sizes.htm)
There are some PDF’s which might print fine on that if you check first that they don’t go beyond about 33″ of the intended 36″ print. But plenty of others would lose the edges.
We can source 2A0 but then you are looking at artistic print quality. The print chain stores simply don’t stock that stuff, or have machines that can deal with it. Getting an architectural printer to do it for you costs big bucks.
@Georgia, I’ve had no luck (as explained above). Sticky taping or glueing A4 sheets is really not that bad.

[Lightning McStitch]

And so I was curious to try again…
an online search finds lots of reprographic shops in my large capital city. Most of which are only listed as a business directory listing and would need a phone call to see what they can do. About a dozen had websites. Most of them only offered A3 or A2 at biggest. One or two offered A0.
Eventually I found one that had an online quoting service for B0 size (39.4×55.7″). Here’s the quote for the most basic paper quality…
1 Large Format Print (1-10)s
Unit Cost: $54.55
Extras: $0.00
ex. GST

Total: $60.01
inc. GST

[Justine J]

Ahhh, Shelley – you beat me to it – your average Aus print shop can’t print the large format sheets 🙁 – but as you say, taping the pages isn’t actually that big an issue – I do it while watching tv – I don’t sew at night any more, so this is a way I can do something sewing related and still be sociable.

However, if you know an architect or an engineer, they may have a printer which could do the job (my brother is an engineer, and he is able to print them for me – alas, he lives 2 hours away!)

• This reply was modified 10 years ago by Justine J. Reason: Autocorrect

[Todd Gibson]

The question to ask is if the shop has a plotter that prints from a 36″-wide roll of paper.

These are standard printers made by major manufacturers like Canon and Epson. They will print on sheets of paper, but that’s where you run into problems with size trying to print a pattern sheet.

It could be that employees just assume you want it on a standard sized sheet. But if their machine can print from a roll (and if they have a roll in house), they should be able to do it for you.