Creating Panels & Tiling in Software to send to subs

[TheSnowman]

I have had a few occasions where I needed to sub some stuff out and I needed to tile some items that would be printed, then shipped to me. I currently have a customer that has an 8' X 8' image, and they want me to have (4) 4X4's printed. I was going to sub this out, but I need to figure out how to take that image and have it set up correctly for when I send this to the printer. Can anyone point me to tutorial on this? I'm normally using Illustrator, but if it can't be done in there, I can probably hack my way through Photoshop enough to do it.

If anyone can point me in any direction I'd appreciate it. In the meantime, I'm back searching on YouTube.

 

[GaSouthpaw]

The way I do it when we're subbing out:
- Place guidelines at the X/Y coordinates where I want them. For your example, I'd set mine at 48.25 and 48.25 (allowing for a bleed) and split the art there with the cleaver, and delete what's outside. That should give you the bottom left. Save it as Panel 1 (or something similar).
- Open original image (or hit Undo as needed) and repeat, with the guideline at 48.25/48. That gives you the top left.
- Repeat with guidelines at 48/48.25. That's bottom right.
- Repeat with guidelines at 48/48. That's top right.

That's how I do it, anyway. I'd love a quicker way if someone has one (not that this way takes a long time or anything, but I love learning new tricks).

 

[oksigns]

Photoshop has the slice tool and in InDesign I like to treat each panel as a "page", utilizing the bleed for the overlap

 

[jfiscus]

Put guides in illustrator. 1" overlap. (so one at 47.5 & one at 48.5")
Put a rectangle in and use it as clipping masks to make 2 or 4 separate art files to send to your print vendor.

Personally, when we print other peoples' artwork here, I request they leave it alone and I use my RIP software to tile it appropriately.

 

[GaSouthpaw]

Put guides in illustrator. 1" overlap. (so one at 47.5 & one at 48.5")
Put a rectangle in and use it as clipping masks to make 2 or 4 separate art files to send to your print vendor.

Personally, when we print other peoples' artwork here, I request they leave it alone and I use my RIP software to tile it appropriately.

My only disagreement is when I want the panels to be in exactly one spot- though I can always say "I want it split (here)" if the printer's good with that.

(Edit)... I've also had a couple of printers who removed the masks and didn't print the damned things correctly!

 

[TheSnowman]

I don't get into photoshop much, but this worked good for me, only because I don't need an overlap since this is a flatbed print, and not a wrap. Would still like to find a quick way to do it automatically, but with the guides, I could probably figure out how to do an overlap without too much trouble.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMaDnbbwwvI