Plotting Your Poster Science Research Fellows Summer Colloquium July 23, 2009

1. Plotting Your PosterScience Research Fellows Summer ColloquiumJuly 23, 2009 Dr. Hilary Eppley, SRF, Director, Dept. of Chemistry Dr. Wade Hazel, Dept. of Biology Dr. Jim Mills, Dept. of Geosciences Tavia Pigg, SRF, Assistant Director

2. Prior to Plotting Reserve a Date and Time to plot Reservation book is in the plotter room (JSC 220) Once you have finished plotting, fill in the total number of square feet of paper used (this includes any ‘mistakes’). One hour is usually plenty of time for one poster Most posters can be plotted in 15-20 minutes The Plotter Room is open M-F 8-5 pm. If you wait until the last minute to plot, there is NO GUARANTEE that you will be able get time on the plotter. Plotting Your Poster

3. Poster Format Posters can be created using the following programs (just a few examples) PowerPoint (create as a single slide) Adobe Illustrator Canvas Save the file as Filename.pdf (preferred for the PC) Filename.jpg, filename.gif, filename.eps, filename.tiff Plotting Your Poster

4. Issues Avoid color backgrounds (uses a lot of ink !) Use Times, Arial, Helvitica fonts if possible Equations and symbols can be tricky to print correctly Colors are usually WYSIWYG – blues may be purple however (the plotter expects RGB colors) If you have problems, it is usually the graphics in the poster that have become corrupted Plotting Your Poster

5. What you will need in the Plotter Room Your Faculty Supervisor (no exceptions!) Know where your poster file is Flash drive Network Drive (I-drive or P-drive) CD/DVD Plotting Your Poster

6. NOTES Do not turn on the plotter. The plotter starts automatically. DO NOT OPEN THE COVER ON THE PLOTTER. This will cause the plotter to completely reboot – a long process… Always visually check to see how much paper is on the roll. If paper is needed, contact Jim Mills (JSC 214, x4669) or someone in the Geosciences Dept. Plotting Your Poster

7. HP Designjet 5500 Cover (Never Lift Up!) Cancel Button Ink Cartridges Power Button Status Window Paper Roll Note: The plotter will ‘bounce’ around while it plots – this is normal.

8. To start, turn on the PC and log in. Your faculty supervisor will need the password to login Do not turn on the plotter. The plotter will start automatically. Plotting Your Poster STARTUP

9. Double-click on the RIP CENTER icon in the upper left of the screen Plotting Your Poster STARTUP RIP Center Icon

10. RIP Center Click on the OPEN command in the upper left of the box to find your file. ‘Open’ Command

11. RIP Center A new dialog box will open. Use this to find the location of your file.

12. RIP Center Plotting Your Poster Once you have found your file, click on it and then click the ‘Open’ command. You may also place your file on the desktop and ‘drag’ it into the RIP Center.

13. Plotting Your Poster RIP Center Once you have opened your file, you can see the status of the ‘Ripping’ process by clicking once on the file name. The ripping status is shown in the upper right of the dialog box. The overall status of the job is shown in the lower right of the dialog box

14. Plotting Your Poster RIP Center Once the file has been ripped, an image of the poster will appear on the right. Don’t panic, the quality of the image is always bad. Note that the poster is in ‘Portrait’ mode. We’ll need to rotate and resize the poster next.

15. Plotting Your Poster RIP Center To rotate and resize the poster, click on the command ‘Preflight’. This will take you into a separate program and open a new dialog box.

16. Plotting Your Poster Preflight An very poor image of your poster will appear, don’t worry this is normal. The ‘Paper and Media’ tab automatically opens. The default values are fine. Click on the next tab ‘Preview and Size.’

17. Plotting Your Poster Preflight Preview and Size Tab Note that the size of the poster is wrong. First, rotate the image 90o. Then click on ‘Apply’. The poster will be rotated 90o and you will be able to check the size on each margin.

18. Plotting Your Poster Preflight Preview and Size Tab Preflight will now re-rip your poster and change the orientation. A status box will appear while the ripping is taking place.

19. Plotting Your Poster Preflight Preview and Size Tab The width should be equal to, or less than, 36” The poster will now appear in landscape mode, and, you can check the size with the rulers along each margin. Be sure the top ruler shows a width no more than 36”, the width of the paper. Note the image quality may still be poor. It’s ok.

20. Plotting Your Poster Preflight Preview and Size Tab Second, you may need to change the width to 35.45”. Third, click on the ‘height’ box and it will automatically scale your poster. This value will be close, but may not be exact, to what you desire. Fourth, click the ‘Apply’ command.

21. Plotting Your Poster Preflight Preview and Size Tab Preflight will now re-rip your poster and change the size. A status box will appear while the ripping is taking place.

22. Plotting Your Poster Preflight Tiling Setup Tab Now, click on the ‘Tiling Setup’ tab. Click on the ‘Enable Tiling’ box so that the checkmark disappears. This turns off the tiling.

23. Plotting Your Poster Preflight Print Tab Click on the ‘Print’ tab. No further changes are needed. Click on the ‘Submit’ command. This will process all the changes and send the file back to the RIP Center.

24. Plotting Your Poster RIP Center You are now back in the RIP Center box. The file will be re-ripped and you can see the status in the upper right (if you cannot see the status, click once on the file name). Ripping Status Job Status

25. Plotting Your Poster RIP Center Once the file is ripped, you will see a rotated image of your poster in the correct orientation. The image quality will still be poor.

26. Plotting Your Poster RIP Center To begin printing the poster, click on the plotter status line. Now, click on ‘Print Now’. The plotter will turn on automatically and begin to print. Problems? Read the next page.

27. Plotting Your Poster RIP Center If the poster does not look right, gently push the ‘Cancel’ button on the plotter (top right side). This will stop the plotting and reset the plotter. DO NOT OPEN THE COVER. The plotter will cut off the poster for you.

28. Once the poster has successfully printed, the plotter will wait ~3 minutes before cutting it off. The allows the ink time to dry. You can check the time in the status window of the plotter. You can remove any excess paper by using the trimmer across the room on the table. Plotting Your Poster

29. Plotting Your Poster RIP Center You can start over by deleting your file (right click on the mouse on the file status line). Re-open the file and start the RIP process again. If this does not work, you may want to restart the PC.

30. Printing with PowerPoint Only (NOT using the RIP Center) Save your file to the desktop Go to ‘File > Page Setup’ (for an example, see next page) Set the height to 36” or less (remember the paper is only 36” wide) Go to ‘File > Print’ Check the box for ‘Current Slide Only’ Go to ‘File>Print>Properties’. In the ‘Paper’ section, select ‘Edit Paper List’ and enter the size of your poster. Go to ‘File>Print>Preview’, check your poster to be sure the entire poster is on the page. Click on ‘Print’. The plotter should begin printing. Plotting Your Poster

31. PowerPoint Slide Printing This is what the slide format should look like in ‘Page Setup’. The width should be the longest dimension. Set the height to less than 36”. Select ‘Landscape’ for the slide. width height Plotting starts along this edge

32. Congratulations! You should now have a completed poster. Plotting Your Poster