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Turn Photos Into Posters

The following is the process that shows how to get a phone photo printed in high resolutions color, without a color printer assembled using the program YottaPrint.

This is a photo taken on an old smartphone that I found suitable for display. This smartphone is old but still has or produces decent resolution photos - most

smartphones do. You need to get the photo you want onto your computer.

First you need to know the file name. On an Android, go to Gallery, select the image you want. To find the name of the file, display the image on your phone, then using your phone’s settings button, select Rename. Note the name of the image that you like. Now with a little technical know-how required, we’re going to be

connecting your phone using the usb cables that came with your phone to your computer, to get the image out.

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Once plugged in the computer, Apple or PC should recognize the connection. This procedure is for Android but the procedure to locate photos you want to download from Apple phones is actually easier.

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On Android, look for something called DCIM, then Camera. Buried there you should find the file name that you noted earlier, the file that you want to display. Select Copy, then go to a place on your computer where it will be easier to find later and select Paste. Now you have your image ready to load into YottaPrint.

Locate and launch the Yotta Print program from where it is installed on your computer. Choose File, Open, and point to the directory you just saved the image to display from your phone and hit Open. YottaPrint can take some time to load, especially large images. This demonstration has been sped up. Make YottaPrint full screen and it’s time to select your printer.

We created a video on how to install a printer driver called CutePDF. It’s a free pdf printer generator as well. And all you have to do to find it is to go to YouTube, type in CutePDF Kneson, and see the video.

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Assuming you have the CutePDF driver installed, you’re going to select it from the printer drop down box. Then you are going to go into Properties, and you’re going to select Tabloid for the page size. Tabloid is 11x17 and will give you a larger surface for each panel.

For this project, I chose a free randomly sized piece of paneling to help demonstrate how YottaPrint can help save money. Most paneling can be recycled to create huge wall murals. This piece is 49 inches wide by 39 inches tall.

In YottaPrint, anchor the widths, making sure the checkbox between width and height is selected. You usually want to print one page at a time, because each page takes time to print. This demonstration shows the entire wall poster printed at once, sped up.

Once the print process is finished, you are going to see a box asking you to give the pdf file a name. Name it something that is pertinent to the image, and save it in a place where you can find it. As you can see in this demonstration, ‘SequoiaPDF_All’, shows all of the panels of a large wall poster.

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The next step, to getting a wall poster created without a color printer, is to use a professional print service, such as FedEx. In this demonstration, you would go to the printer’s website, find their online printing section - the website may look different from the time this video was published. And then you just follow down the path to upload the ‘SequoiaPDF_All’ file that I had created from YottaPrint into the FedEx website. And that download process was also vastly sped up because the file is quite large.

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Then, once you get all the panels printed, you head to your local FedEx Office, and you have all the pages in a high gloss format ready to create your wall poster.

The next step is to lay out all of the pieces that you have received, so that you can see how the finished product is going to look. To proceed, you’re only going to trim two edges of each page, the left and upper edge of each page is all you need to trim because the lower pages are going to be overlaid on top of the previous pages white depth.

Starting with page one, using the best paper cutter you can get, cut the left edged the top edge of each page. Once you get the left and top of each page trimmed, it’s time to reposition the product using a relatively new product

called Repositionable Glue. These glue sticks are available everywhere, including online, just make sure the product says ‘Repositionable’.

Next you are going to take each piece, and you are going to cut the top and the left sides only, because the bottom and the right sides will be overlapped. Cut each piece one by one, cut the end piece, and then position each piece using the repositionable glue.

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Just sketch out the square, cover the back, and position the piece, without being too careful because it is repositionable - which means that you can move the pieces round. Move across the row, and it’s time for the next row now.

As before, you are going to cut the top and left of each page. And just as before, you are going to use the repositionable glue to position each page on the panelling. Now the best way we found to glue the back of each page, is to do each corner, go around the edges carefully, and then just do a scribble motion down the middle of each page. Do all pages the same way. Just as before, you are going to move across, and then the finished result is almost done, except for the bottom row.

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You’ll notice that the pieces for the bottom row of this mural are shorter than the panelling, but you just move across the row, and place the pieces using repositionable glue, as before.

It’s not likely that you’ll run into this situation, but you may have to cut out the bottom row. With panelling, you can use a razor knife but just be careful not to cut yourself and use a straight edge.

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The next part of this video, is going to show you how to fasten pieces permanently, so you can make one hardened piece of art. The first thing you are going to need is stuff called Mod Podge. And what you do is you take this stuff and you are going to put it on half of the back of each one of the panels, that you’ve already positioned with the repositionable glue. And the glue will allow you to pull off parts of the pieces, so that you can permanently lodge the pieces on the backing with Mod Podge. You just pull off half of a piece at a time, you make sure to carefully go along the edges, fill in the middles, and then just flatten down the piece back to its original position. And then you do the other side and go across the mural like this until you have finished the edges.

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And that is your finished look. After you get to this point, you are going to have what looks like a finished work, but you can take it a second step by covering the top with Mod Podge as well to create a glossy, hardened look that has more permanence.

To perform this step, you just start pouring Mod Podge on top of the poster/mural. It’s going to feel like you are ruining the piece, the entire time I was sure I was ruining the poster. I had used

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Mod Podge as a child but had forgot what it does. And as you’ll see as you keep going, the result is surprising. Now you must not hold back on pouring the Mod Podge right on the front of mural. Unevenness doesn't count - parts of it will feel like you can put more on. But again, don’t hold back. The more Mod Podge you can get on the piece, the better.

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As you can see, once you finish, it looks like the piece is ruined, but let it dry. For added durability and thickness even put a second coat on top of the first.

As you can see, the finished product is extremely durable and surprisingly clear. This photo came from a very old smartphone, and smartphone pictures today are even higher resolution, and will give even clearer results.

Brought to you by Kneson, makers of YottaPrint.