Printing at A1 - Scaling up [HELP]

Does anyone here know about printing to A1 scale (thats 4xA3 size!)

Printing is done on a plotter at uni, for presentation work, i wanted to make a few layout files tonight to show, but working in paint shop pro at a1 size is very slow even with 1gb ram.

If i designed my sheets at A3 scale and simply turned them up by 400% would the quality be lost greatly do you think?

Any help greatly appreciated...

(also, what if i designed the A3 sheet and saved with a much higher DPI? )


Jenson drives it like he owns it; Lewis drives it like he stole it

Firstly, A3 to A1 scaling is 200%, not 400%. Secondly, depending on what DPI your inital drawing is at, the upscaling will reduce the quality (probably quite a bit if the DPI is low.

If you're really stuck and can email me your picture inside the next 90 minutes, drop me a PM and I'll give you my email address.

Thanks mate!

Its' alright though, it is over the next few days. I'm working on a project for Monday.

(And yes, 200% not 400% lol silly me!)

Would you suggest then that if I designed the work presentation on A3 and set the dpi from its current whatever it is to something much better for scaling upwards?

I've no idea on figures, the A3 printer I use for smaller work is a HP Deskjet 1220 that claims to print at 1200 dpi.

Doesn't changing the dpi change the size of an image?

Currently I have a blank A3 size image with the dpi set to 100.

I've no idea what the average 'basic' dpi for an A3 bit of work is, my guess is to just double whatever that is.

Then again, if it resizes it might just be worth the slow hassle of working with A1 dimensions to begin?




Jenson drives it like he owns it; Lewis drives it like he stole it

It's probably worth doing it at A1 to start off with. Doing it half-scale requires that you do everything at half of what you want it to be when you finally print it.

>Doesn't changing the dpi change the size of an image?
No. Changing the number of pixels will change the size of an image. Unless you're doing scaled plans of a building or something, setting the image to 'fit to media' (or similar) when printing means you don't really have to worry about it that much. Generally at my work (surveying office) we have 1500x1500 (pixels, not DPI) aerial photos that print brilliantly on A1 with a DPI of 100-150.