Notes on printing posters for conferences

Printing costs for our users (email to inquire if you qualify) is $5 per linear foot and the max width is 42" on our plotter. The maximum poster size at many conferences (such as the Society for American Archaeology conference) is 4x8 feet. The maximum recommended poster size is therefore 7.5' long (90") by 42" and it will cost you $37.50.
See this article for advice about preparing and plotting posters for the SAA conference
http://www.swanet.org/2007_pecos_conference/misc_articles/2005_Homburg.pdf

Generally people print posters at the ARF from Acrobat PDF files or from Adobe Illustrator (a good free alternative to Illustrator for MacOS and Windows is called Inkscape). As a second choice, you may prepare your poster in Powerpoint if you don't wish use illustration software.

Specs on the ARF plotter

The ARF plotter uses photographic dye (not Ultrachrome ink). Discontinued by Epson in 2009

Overview

  • 44" wide format printer (printable area width = 42")
  • Maximum resolution 2880 x 1440 dpi
  • 4 picoliter droplet size
  • Available with 6-color Epson Photographic Dye or 7-color Epson UltraChrome Inks. The ARF plotter is configured for Photographic Dye (Epson says we cannot switch to Ultrachrome ink).

Paper: Epson recommends SingleWeight Matte paper 44". Singleweight is usually 32 lb bond (5 mil).