How to Print a Poster-Size Chart on Ordinary A4 Paper

You've made a chart you love. Then you look at the size.

A big picture is wonderful on the wall. On the table it means a chart the size of a poster, and your printer takes A4.

You could shrink it. But then every cell is too small, the symbols turn into specks, and you are squinting at a chart that no longer matches your drills. A chart you can't read is worse than no chart at all.

Or you could take it to a print shop and pay for a wide-format print every time.

There is a third way. Print it in pieces, at true size, on your own A4 printer, and put it together like a jigsaw.

True-size cells at any size

A chart is only useful if each cell on paper is the same size as a drill on your canvas. That is what "true size" means, and it is how you can lay a drill on the chart and see exactly where it goes.

Poster-set charts keep true-size cells at any size. You can choose from A3, A2, A1 and A0, and from the US sizes too, and the chart is split across as many A4 sheets as it takes.

A note on access: one page is free; poster sets and the full set come with All-Access. You can try a single page in Mosaic Lab to see how the cells look before you decide.

Why the sheets overlap

Printers can't print right to the edge of the paper. There is always a thin margin they leave blank.

If sheets simply met edge to edge, you would lose a strip of cells at every join. So the sheets overlap: the same few rows of cells appear on both neighbouring pages. When you join them, nothing is missing and nothing is out of line.

Trim marks and the assembly page

Each sheet has trim marks in the corners. They show you where to cut, so the overlapping part lines up with the next sheet.

The assembly page is the map. It shows how all the sheets fit together: which is top-left, which is next to it, and so on. Print it, keep it beside you, and number the backs of the sheets lightly in pencil if you like. It saves a lot of "which one goes where?".

At print time: Scale 100%, Margins None

This part matters more than anything else in the post.

When your print dialog opens:

  1. Set Scale to 100%. Not "Fit to page", not "Shrink to fit". If the printer resizes the page, your cells will no longer be true size.
  2. Set Margins to None. Let the chart use the whole sheet.
  3. Print one sheet first and check it. Lay a drill on a cell. It should sit neatly inside.

If the drill looks too big or too small, the scale setting is almost always the cause. Fix that, then print the rest.

Putting it together

  1. Trim along the marks, following the assembly page.
  2. Lay the sheets out on a clean table, face up, in the right order.
  3. Check the overlaps. Symbols should continue across each join.
  4. Tape on the back. Turn the whole thing over carefully and tape the joins from behind with ordinary sticky tape. The front stays smooth, and you can rest your canvas, tray and elbows on it without catching tape.

Start with the top row and work down. A big chart will want a big surface, but a clean kitchen table or the floor is plenty.

Laminate for a reusable chart

If you plan to work from the chart for weeks, consider laminating it. A laminated chart wipes clean, shrugs off spilled tea, and lets you mark off the area you've done with a whiteboard marker. A cold laminating sheet or a trip to a local print shop will do the job.

If you only need the chart a few times, plain paper is perfectly good.

A quick checklist

Then pour yourself a cuppa. Your big chart is ready.

Make your own crystal-art chart → Mosaic Lab