poster printing

[arethinn]

I thought I had asked about this before, but if so I can't find the post where I did it.

Can anyone recommend a service for printing a one-off poster, or possibly fabric wall hanging/"tapestry"? (Or unframed canvas, which would be my preference, but those seem to be pretty expensive for the approx. 2' x 3' size I want if you don't go to this one shitty and spam-sending company that shall remain nameless, so I've pretty much resigned myself away from that.) I've been poking at Redbubble a bit, but it's not clear to me whether I can just use them just to print one copy for myself (like some t-shirt printers will do) or whether the system only supports putting things in the marketplace (although I suppose I could just buy one and then immediately delete the design).

Comments

[caraven]

Does your library have a plotter you could use? Mine's got a nice color plotter that will print up to 3'x3' in poster-style cardstock for about $2-ish USD? (You do need a nicely high-res image, of course.)

[arethinn]

My library? That is not something it would ever occur to me might be at a library. We certainly don't do that kind of service (we have enough trouble with ordinary document printing!). I have no idea what the campus printing center would charge for this sort of work (surely more than $2!), but the content of the poster is, ah, a bit sensitive, so I wouldn't want to have it done anywhere they might know my face. Also, it needs to be flexible so it can roll for transport, so cardstock isn't suitable.

eta: Maybe I'm not understanding what a "plotter" is. What do they usually use it for? Archived blueprints or something? I'm just a bit baffled at the idea of a library doing photo and poster printing-style services.

[caraven]

Well, my university library has such a thing--it's poster-stock, so it rolls easily enough already. I had a student print such a thing off for some internship-related project they were helping with--full color, at least 18x24--and it came out only $1.75 or so, which surprised the hell out of me. The fact that it's self-service is also nice, though the directions on how to do so require some attention.

The plotter I'm thinking of is basically a huge color printer, and apparently our students (who know of it and how to use it) have used it to print posters on the cheap. You probably have to do your trimming with a paper cutter or x-acto knife, but... I remember hearing about plotters back in the '80s, and they were these huge engineering/drafting monstrosities, but they've apparently advanced since then. And, admittedly, my uni is very engineering-fondling (far more than "friendly"), and we have one of the better makerspaces, too, for things like 3d printing and tons more. (I'm pondering 3d-printing a small statuette of Hermanubis based on the 3d scans of the statue in the Vatican Museums...it might cost me $3 plus time?)

[zeeth_kyrah]

Where a printer (line printer, laser printer, or whatever) is for mass-fill of paper, a plotter is basically a CNC device for line drawing. My grandfather on my dad's side was a geologist in the petroleum industry, and he used a plotter to print out maps from the USGS map service for his work. I also saw them used in a number of engineering places in the '80s for printing blueprints and similar things.

A plotter is definitely not designed for full-page fills, but a 3D plotter/printer could do it. The device would be similar, after all.

[arethinn]

Yeah, that's the sort of thing I would have though a plotter useful for - maps, blueprints, which a library might plausibly have archived (perhaps on on microform or something). So the idea of printing a poster is weird.