College of Built Environments at the University of Washington.
Printing: Using the Gould Plotter
Application Tips for Plotting
Best Practices
- Plot at least 1 day before the project is due.
- Plot at off times such as early mornings or evenings.
- Set a document resolution of 150dpi or less.
- Use JPEG or PDF format.
- For best results limit plot length to 72" or less.
- The plotter cannot plot all the way to the edge of the paper! Be sure to allow at least a 1/8" border (so the maximum plottable width is 35.75").
- Always set a custom paper size when plotting. Select Print. In the Printer menu, select "\\RIPPER\Gould_Color_Plotter." Then click on Properties-> Advanced... -> Page Size -> Postscript Custom Page Size..
Application Tips for Plotting
- Plotting from Adobe Acrobat
-
Set the Custom Page Size width to 36":
In Acrobat, select Print. In the printer menu, select "\\RIPPER\Gould_Color_Plotter." Then click on PROPERTIES-> ADVANCED... -> PAGE SIZE -> POSTSCRIPT CUSTOM PAGE SIZE. The custom page size MUST be set to 36" wide, even if the document is only 20" x 20" or even if it the document is wider than 36". Once the width is set to 36", set the height to the other dimension.
Don't worry if the orientation is opposite of the file's actual dimensions since Acrobat will rotate the document to fit onto the plotter page. (NOTE: After you type in the length, click the mouse someplace in the box. If you just hit "Enter" after typing in the number, your new dimensions will not be saved.)
-
Make sure your plot looks okay in the print preview window:
Once you've set the Custom page size, exit out of all the windows until you are back at the first print window. Take a look at the Preview box - it will show a small version of your document and the page dimensions. By default the "Auto-Rotate and Center pages" box should be clicked, so Acrobat will have rotated your document to fit the page dimensions you set earlier. Be mindful that the "Shrink oversized pages to paper size" box is checked by default, so if you've set your page dimensions wrong, Acrobat will shrink it to fit the page. IF IT DOESN"T LOOK RIGHT IN THE PREVIEW WINDOW IT WON'T LOOK RIGHT WHEN YOU PLOT IT. Try changing from Landscape to Portrait (or back).
-
- Plotting from Adobe Illustrator
If you are using Adobe Illustrator, it is strongly advised NOT to plot from the Illustrator program directly. Illustrator has a tendency to drop out layers when it plots, especially if it's a large and complex file. If you do decide to plot from Illustrator, the instructions are the same as for Adobe Photoshop (see the Photoshop hints on this page).
A better option is to save the Illustrator file as a PDF and then plot that file from Adobe Reader or Adobe Photoshop. Make sure to UNCHECK the "Keep Illustrator Editing capabilities" in the pdf dialog box when saving from Illustrator. This generally works well.
To be safe, open up the Illustrator .PDF file in Adobe Photoshop and then resave it as Photoshop .PDF. Photoshop will save it in a format that has no layers, so nothing can be dropped out. Open the Photoshop .PDF in Acrobat or Photoshop and plot from there (see instructions below). Acrobat sends the file to the ripper in a compressed format which makes it much faster than Photoshop. You lose some image quality and some colors might shift, but for most purposes it is insignificant.
- Plotting from Adobe InDesign
For documents created in InDesign, first export out as a PDF then open with Photoshop, flatten the image and resave as either a jpg or pdf. Open in Adobe Photoshop and plot from that application (see the Photoshop hints on this page).
- Plotting from Adobe Photoshop
Use the "Print with Preview" command rather than the Print command. Follow the same instructions for Acrobat to set the Custom Page Size. Always set the custom page width to 36", and rotate the plot to fit. IF IT DOESN'T LOOK OKAY IN THE PREVIEW WINDOW, IT WON'T PLOT CORRECTLY. Try changing from Landscape to Portrait (or back).
- Plotting from SureTrak / Primavera Project Planner
Go to File -> Print Setup. Select "PDF995" as the printer and set paper size to "PostScript Custom Page Size". Go to Properties -> Advanced and again set paper size to PostScript Custom Page Size. Set width and height to 36". Click 'Okay' and select File -> Print. Set Print Quality to 144 dpi and click 'OK'. PDF995 will prompt you for a name of your document. Once the PDF is saved, open and follow the above instructions for plotting from Acrobat or Photoshop.
- Details for CAD plotting
Click here for detailed directions for plotting from Autocad
- Details for ArcGIS plotting
Another exception is plotting from ArcGIS. To our knowledge, the best way to plot from ArcGIS is to save the file as a JPEG and print from another application.
- Details for Powerpoint plotting
From Powerpoint use "Save As" and select the "web page" option, and choose jpeg or tif from the drop down menu. Then open file in Photoshop. At this point plot normally from Photoshop (ie. custom paper size,etc).
Troubleshooting FAQ:
Q: My plot printed out okay, but it's a lot smaller. What happened?
A: This mostly happens in Acrobat, which by default scales the plot to fit the paper space you selected. Make sure you have set the page WIDTH to 36", even if your document is wider. Then set the height to a longer dimension. For example, if you have a document that is 60" wide by 36" high, set the Custom Page Size width to 36" and the height to 60".
If you put in a number larger than 36" for the width, Acrobat will shrink that image to fit onto the 36" wide paper. This is what usually happens when plots print out small. Unfortunately Acrobat doesn't show this in the print preview, so this is one instance where it looks okay in the print preview, but does not plot correctly.
Q: My plot came out blank.
A: Try sending from Photoshop if you plotted from Acrobat, or switch to Acrobat if you plotted from Photoshop. If the image is a JPEG, set the type to JPEG.
rev. 05/2007