Printing 20 inches images

First step, throw away the rubber cement and get yourself a can of spray adhesive (like Super-77). It will provide a much more even and much better coating of adhesive for your artwork.

As for the output, there are a few methods you could use that would be cheaper. Tile your artwork into 4 quarters and output them onto tabloid (11" x 17") paper. Tabloid (also called ledger) paper is a standard size for copy shops and is output using their regular copiers. It will cost more than a letter sized print, but not anywhere near the cost of a poster. Just remember to leave a minimum of .25" bleed on all edges and give yourself some crop marks to simplify cutting the pieces out.

I use an HP Desktop 9650 wide format printer for my printing. I recently bought this printer at OfficeMax for $300. There was an instant $100 rebate (off the $400 retail price). (I'm not sure if that offer is still available though). Anyway, the printer can print postcard size and card stock all the way up to Super B format which is (13" x 19"). The output is very clean, colorful and comparable to what I've seen at Kinkos.

As I publish my own games, I needed to find an alternative to Kinkos (which was costing me about $11 for a large print). Instead, I use 60 lb. 17" x 11" paper for my artwork (purchased at Kinkos for about $10 a ream). The graphics are printed in two sections, one slightly longer than the other to offset the seam from the crease in my game board. I then spray mount the two sections on to 14" x 14" checker boards which I buy for $3.00 a pop, including the box, which I spray paint silver. The silver paint covers the checkers set graphics and gives the box a clean, professional look. I then attach my own graphic to the top of it. The seam in the artwork is a few inches from the board's crease. I've gotten pretty good results with this technique. I've also been able to keep my production cost down which allows me to sell the games at a cheaper price.

Personally, I don't use quad-fold boards as I have found it to be too tedious to attach the graphics.

I'm not sure how to attach an image to this post. Instead, please e-mail me at moffpeter2@aol.com if you'd like to see a sample of my work.[/img]