Plotter Printing Services by MDRU

The MDRU staff provide large format printing on our in-house plotter as a service to EOAS faculty and students at a greatly reduced rate over external print shops. Because fees for service only cover materials and maintenance, turnaround time is dependent on the demands of the Office Manager’s daily schedule.

Turnaround Time

Anticipate an average turnaround time of 36-48 hours. Advance notice (5-7 days) allows us to reduce printing time for multi-poster job (e.g. course printing). Rush jobs (on-demand printing) will be charged at double our standard rates.

Print Costs

Print costs are billed by linear foot of paper on a 42 inch-wide roll (e.g. 1 linear foot is 42" wide x 12" tall). Average conference poster costs range from $32 to $72, depending on size and paper options.

Bond Paper (Matte) $9/linear foot

High-Gloss Photo Paper $18.00/linear foot

Preparing Large-Format Files for Printing

1. Ensure your file fits on a maximum 41.5-inch print width (either landscape or portrait orientation). We do not want to have to shrink your poster to print it.

2. Save your file to ensure plotter compliancy – use PDF compliancy standard X-1A:2001

You definitely don’t want a poster full of symbols and special characters. Many printers attempt to match fonts in your PDFs if not told otherwise. When a printer can’t find your font, it substitutes a nonsense font in its place. Saving to a PDF compliancy standard helps ensure no errors are made during printing.

In Adobe Illustrator:

select File --> Save As --> set file name and select PDF. A PDF settings box will pop up; at the top, select Adobe PDF Preset [PDF/X-1a:2001]. Save PDF.

In Microsoft Powerpoint

select File --> Print --> select Adobe PDF as printer. In Printer Properties, set Default Settings to PDF/X-1a: 2001. Save PDF.

3. Submit Job according to the following naming convention: Speedchart_YourLastName_SupervisorLastName_JobTitle_DateYYMMDD

For example: ABCD_Smith_Hart_MapYukonScale1M_151225

4. Email your print request to the MDRU Office Manager,  Hyejeong Ryan (mdruplotter@eoas.ubc.ca ).  Hyejeong will advise on printing turnaround time, and contact you for pick-up.

Thank you!