How to split large picture into A4 format?

[Alec Leamas]

I am not an experienced graphic designer and I guess this is quite a common question, but I haven't found a good answer.

I have designed a board for a boardgame in A2 format. I would like to print this in A4 tiles for a 'mockup' or draft version.

I have originally designed it in a Pages document (from which I can save in PDF of course, if that helps). As I figured out I would be somewhat limited in using this format, I have started over in Pixelmator which gives me more options regarding file formats.

I use Mountain Lion and I do not have access to Photo Shop. I have downloaded a program called Posterazor but haven't got it to work (won't accept the input file).

Which would be my best option to get the board printed out in A4 tiles?

Thanks in advance!

 

[snberk103]

I have used Poster Print (from Luxor) to make posters. It worked well. It seems to be discontinued. However still available for downloads.

Also look at Doubletake for Mac. Still maintained. I bought it before cheap app store options were available. At the time I thought it was money well spent, but now you may find it expensive. Doubletake works well doing a bunch of things, including printing posters.

You should be able to export your board as PDF from Pages, open it in Preview and export it as a JPG for Doubletake or whatever you use.

The other option is to simply take your Pages file at the full size. Snap 2 grid lines down the middle and across the middle to mark the centre. Now just simply select each quadrant and "Copy". Open an new A4 Pages document and "Paste". Resize to fit. Print. Repeat for each quadrant.

Or... Add a horizontal and a vertical line to mark the centre (same as above) and save the full sized Pages document as a PDF. Open in Preview, and select a quadrant and Crop to eliminate the other 3 quadrants. Save as an A4 sheet, and repeat for each quadrant.

Luck.

 

[Alec Leamas]

Perfect, thank you very much. I hadn't noticed that you could convert pdf docs in Preview, so I did just that and could then use Posterazer to split it. I had some trouble with the document sizing down somewhere in the process but after a couple of tries I found the right way to do it.