I was wondering if we are able to print our patterns to a disc. The reason I am wondering, is because it is very time consuming to print on 8x11 1/2 paper and put all together, so if we can print to disc, can take to a commercial printer and they could print for me on proper plotter.

Is it possible? If so how?

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I was wondering if we are able to print our patterns to a disc. The reason I am wondering, is because it is very time consuming to print on 8x11 1/2 paper and put all together, so if we can print to disc, can take to a commercial printer and they could print for me on proper plotter.

Is it possible? If so how?

I've done this a few times, but it is not totally trivial. You must have some way to convinvce Windows that you have some method of printing on large paper. Normally, you do that by installing a printer driver for a plotter. Windows now knows you can do big paper and it will let you enter that page size.

But, if you are printing for some printer that is not on your computer, you have to fake Windows out. Fortunately, there are ways to do that. This is one you would use if you are going to have Fed Ex / Kinko's do your printing. I would expect that other services that offer plotter printing would have something like this.

1. Go to:Fed Ex Kinko Printer Service

2. Download and install the driver they have there. Windows will now believe you have a plotter. It will be named Fed Ex Kinko or some such.

3. Run MPD and select "File - Page Setup". In the "Paper Size" drop list, you should now have something that lets you set your paper size really big. Set it really big.

4. Load chart and pattern and print each piece. Each piece should now draft as a one-page printout. If that happens and you print, be sure to select the Fed Ex Kinko thing as your printer, the click ok. It should prompt you to supply a file name and location for the file to be saved to.

All of my uncertainties about what shows on-screen is because I have not done this in several years. But, it worked fine then, so it should not have gotten worse since. At that time, they had some means of uploading the files, they would print them, then have them waiting for you when you came in. I believe they also took the files on disk, but then you would have to wait or come back to get the printout.

That's all I remember about it. Got great single sheet patterns....

I print my patterns at home at 1/4 scale on 8-1/2 x 11 paper. Then I take them to Fed Ex Office (formerly Kinko's) and copy them to 400%. I think this may work better than printing to disk. I can group the smaller pieces together - extras, etc. to save on costs. I tape several pieces to one page. I don't like taping full-size pieces together. This way, the only matching I have to do is on full-length pants printed at quarter-scale. I live in a small town, but we have an art supply store locally that also makes enlarged copies. The only problem with this system is that the cost is as much as a commercial pattern at full price.