How to Split a Poster Into Smaller Pages

The hardest part of making a poster at home is printing the desired image at full-scale. The average poster size ranges from 18 inches by 24 inches tall to 27 inches by 40 inches tall. Therefore, printing posters can be difficult when using a regular printer that only handles 8 inch by 10 inch tall paper. Instead of using various online programs that cost money to divide your poster into printable sections, simply transform your image into a portable document format (PDF) and adjust your printer settings free of charge.

• 1

  Open the poster image with any photo-editing software.

• 2

  Save the file, but change the format to a PDF by either adjusting the format through the dropdown menu or typing ".pdf" after the image's name in the "Save As" dialog box.

  On Mac OS X computers, it is possible to change the format without photo-editing software. To do so, click on the image's icon in a folder on the computer, and press "Enter" to highlight the icon's name field. Type ".pdf" after the name, then press "Enter" to close the field and subsequently change the format.

• 3

  Open the poster PDF with the latest version of Acrobat Reader (see "Resources").

• 4

  Go to "File" in the menu bar and select "Print."

• 5

  Adjust the "Page Scaling" option in the "Print" dialog box to "Tile All Pages." Also, make sure the subset is set to "All Pages in Range" and that the "Tile Scale" is at "100" percent. A diagram of the poster will be displayed on the right-hand side of the dialog box, indicating the poster's size and the amount of 8 inch by 10 inch paper that will be used for printing. To reduce or increase the amount of paper being used, simply adjust the "Tile Scale" percentage.

• 6

  Click "Print" when you are finished customizing the printing options. Within a matter of minutes, a full-scale poster will be printed, at home, onto multiple pages.

• 7

  Dry each printout. To prevent smudging, do not put the pages on top of one another. Once dry, check each sheet for discrepancies and print a second copy if necessary.