Create your PDF with the Adobe PDF Printer
We recommend using your studio computer to prepare your PDFs and print them to our printers. You can also prepare your PDF on one of our virtual workstations or a MyApps session. Only send files to print from a studio workstation or printing kiosk.
From the program of your choice, go to File > Print. Choose the Adobe PDF printer from the dropdown menu in the window that appears. Make sure that your page size, graphics, and text are at their final scale and resolution at this point.
Do not use File > Save or File > Export to prepare your PDF! This creates an inherently different kind of file, that can result in many different and difficult to address printing errors. PDFs made that way are ideal for other circumstances, but not for printing.
After choosing a place to store the resulting PDF, a printing progress bar will appear. While most files will print quickly, some can take a long time, especially multi-page PDFs. If you see no progress after 3 minutes at this point, please seek help from the AT office. When the print completes, Adobe Acrobat will open the file. Check it for errors, correct page size, or abnormalities at this point. Seek help from the AT office, if there’s any issue you cannot address yourself.
In Acrobat (do not print from Edge or other PDF readers), select File > Print and choose the Draft-36 queue froṁ the drop down menu.
Insert the shorter dimension of your page in the Width field and the longer dimension in the Height field. You can use either millimeters or inches. Pages shorter that that will be cancelled by the print server.
Note: The Width range shows you the printer’s technical maximum width, not our media’s actual width. The number at the end of the queue’s name (ClearFilm-36, or SemiGloss-42)) is the exact width of the media in inches. The Height range shows you what is technically possible with the driver’s settings. We DO NOT recommend sending prints longer than 96 inches at once to any queue, and will not refund prints with problems beyond that range.
The wide-format manual feed printer can print as wide as 44 inches and is similarly limited to a recommended 96" length.
Under the Layout/Output tab, make sure the Rotation option is set to Autorotate if you are using the semi gloss or clear film printers, or using the manual feed printer with a roll. Use Avoid Clipping for the manual feed printer if you are loading you a sheet in Portrait orientation.
Note: Typically, Portrait orientation is the easier way to load a sheet into the manual feed printers.
Don’t change any other settings in the print properties window without consulting AT staff. Default settings for each device have been carefully selected for maximum reliability, quality, and speed.
From the Print Dialog in Acrobat, make sure that you have selected Actual Size and Auto Portrait/Landscape. DO NOT select Choose paper source by PDF page size. Check that your print preview looks correct. If something appears to be incorrect on the preview (rotation, cropping, etc.) check your settings and your page size again.
If your print preview looks correct and your settings match what is shown above, click Print.
Calculate the expected price of your print using the information on the printing costs page.
Remember that the wide format manual feed printer calculates prices according to area printed and the semi gloss and clear film printers calculate their costs according to the length of your print.
Go to a release station for a device matching the print queue you selected earlier and scan your badge or log in with your NetID. If the price on the release station doesn’t match the expected price to within a cent, something likely went wrong with your print, and you may see incorrect results. Please contact AT staff for additional help.