Complex tiled wall print with overlapping areas (banner mesh)

[STOKED-D]

Hey InDesign community!

I am not an English native and there are quite a few technical terms here so I hope everything is easy to understand.

I am currently working on a big project which will require me to print my illustration work at wall-size for a convention booth. The problem here is the booth is built as a truss construction so the illustration will have to be split in separate banner-mesh panels, varying between 5000x3000 to 2500x3000. The illustration has to be continuous, but I'm not really sure where to begin to export this as separate PDF's, ready for the printer. To complicate matters furthers, these banner-mesh are ringed and thus require an extra 'overlap' on top of their bleed, this is about 30mm that is folded backwards and stitched to form the reinforced edges of the banner.

Currently I'm thinking the answer will be somewhere in this direction

- Make everything in InDesign at 1/4th size, export at 400DPI (average DPI for this convention wall print is 100)
- Use Collated pages to make every panel a custom size and put them on top of eachother. Use Gutter to simulate the 'non-printing' areas
- How to approach the overlap: ???
- Export every banner with 3mm bleed

I hope everything is clear, I find myself with a thesaurus to find the right words to express the problem! . I have made a quick sketch to show how it is supposed to work.

Thanks in advance for all help!

Yours truly,
Vincent De Nil

[Bill Silbert · Accepted solution]

I assume that the art you’re using is a single raster image. I would create the file as a 1/4 size InDesign file making sure that the image comes in at 400 ppi since as you said the final resolution needs to be 100 ppi at its final size. I would create the file to the size that the full size illustration is as shown in your top image. I would set the file up with a bleed that incorporates the overlap you need plus probably about .25 inch extra (which will be a full inch when it is output at 400%). When I put in the image I would make sure that there is enough bleed and overlap for the overall image but would temporarily keep the graphic frame closed to the trim. I would then add the six pages that you show in the lower half of your screen shot using the page tool to make each page exactly the size it needs to trim to. Then I would go back to the first page that has the original full image and select it. In the control panel I would set the reference point icon to upper left and put in the width and height that matches the top left panel that you’ve shown (and also matches the dimensions that you’ve created page two of your document to). With the graphic frame now cropped to the size needed copy and paste it into page two at the upper left coordinates of 0,0. Then open the graphic frame for page one back to its original full size. Next change the reference point icon in the control panel to the top center and change the size of the page one graphic frame to the top center (and page three of your document) size. Then copy and paste that one onto the appropriate page (three). Repeat this process for all of the remaining sizes. When you’ve placed all of the pieces onto the appropriate pages you can delete the first full page. At this point you can pull out the graphic frames on each page to make the bleed. If you’ve done this carefully all of your trims should match exactly if they were played side by side and you’ll have the overlap and bleed you need.

One final word of warning: In order for this all to work the total dimensions of the separated pages must equal exactly the trim size of the full graphic (keeping in mind that we’re working at 25% of final trim size). Any variance from this will throw off all of the calculations.

[JonathanArias]

is your illustration vector? as in made in adobe illustrator?

[STOKED-D]

Jonathan: The illustration is pixel-based and a whopping 10gb right now (unfortunately)

Bill: I've read over your steps and it definitely sounds like that would work! I'm having a meeting with the printer tomorrow, I'll bring this up and we'll go over the files to see if we can work it out.

Thanks so far!

Regards,
Vincent

[rob day]

Before you go to the trouble of cutting up the banner, check with the printer. Both ID and AcrobatPro have built-in tiling capabilities, so it will be probably easier to deliver one PDF and let the printer handle the tiling at output.

Here's the help file on tiling from Acrobat:

Printing PDFs in custom sizes

Here's a 108"x198" PDF tiled to 24"x36" media

[Bill Silbert]

The problem with Rob's suggestion is that tiled pages will be equal dimensions where the specifications of this job are for pages of different dimensions. I do agree that talking to the printer first is always the best course of action.

[STOKED-D]

Just got off the phone with the client and printer, we have a DTP guy coming in who will handle the banner-cutting with a custom software they have there made specifically for this purpose.Thanks to everyone for all the tips!

V