Printing Maps

Print poster size (tiled) at 116 Henry St office

Print overlapping tiles, then trim and tape together.

On a Mac: Open the map (PNG or JPG version) in Paint. Go to File > Print > Page setup and choose multiple pages.
On a PC: Open in Adobe Acrobat Reader. Print. Under Page Sizing & Handling, select Poster. Change the Scale (eg 300%), and overlap (eg 1/4") as needed. However, some users have reported that the "Poster" button is greyed out in the free version of Reader, particularly on newer versions of macOS. So this may not work. Barb uses Adobe Acrobat, but she has a paid version. Also possible in Illustrator (also not free).
Other free options: PosteRazor from posterazor.sourceforge.io (free), blockposters.com, GIMP, Inkscape, Docuslice.

Note:

Use heavier weight bright white paper for maps.
Sometimes in Adobe Acrobat, if I print with "save toner" sometimes it doesn't print the linear features correctly - it makes them too thin. Fix by printing once after unchecking "save toner". Then if I go back to "save toner" it seems to work.

At printers

Flash Print in Cambridge will print on vinyl for $10/square foot (typically $60 for our size maps), or $15/square foot to print and laminate.
We have used vistaprint in the past; they charge $57.77 to print one poster 24" x 36". Plus shipping. We have our projects stored there under president@navigationgames.org account.

We make drawing maps for Cambridge Public Schools and end up with a jpg or png.

To edit the image:

Photopea (free online program)
- Remove background: Select > Magic Cut (then wait a few seconds); then File> Export As > PNG
- Can add text in photopea.
- Just discovered this program in 2026... It was created and is maintained by a single developer named Ivan Kutskir in Prague. He started it as a passion project around 2013.

To convert to PDF:

with Adobe Acrobat (Barb has a private license to Pro)
- File > Create > PDF from File (or just open the image file)
- Save As...
- You can add text in Adobe Acrobat
To add text to a PDF without using Adobe Acrobat: Smallpdf.com/edit-pdf, pdfescape.com, sejda.com/pdf-editor, ilovepdf.com, photopea.com

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