Tiled printing is a method that

computer program A computer program is a sequence or set of instructions in a programming language for a computer to execute. Computer programs are one component of software, which also includes documentation and other intangible components. A computer program ...

s use to enable users to print images larger than a standard page, popularized by a program called The Rasterbator. A tiled printing program overlays a

grid Grid, The Grid, or GRID may refer to: Common usage * Cattle grid or stock grid, a type of obstacle is used to prevent livestock from crossing the road * Grid reference, used to define a location on a map Arts, entertainment, and media * News ...

on the printed image in which each cell (or tile) is the size of a printed page and then prints each tile. A person can then arrange the tiles to reconstruct the full image. Tiled printing has been widespread since the days of mainframe computers. An early example is the

Unix Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, an ...

banner 



A banner can be a  flag or another piece of cloth bearing a symbol, logo, slogan or another message. A flag whose design is the same as the shield in a  coat of arms (but usually in a square or rectangular shape) is called a  banner of arms. Als ...

program, which in some Unix variants created very large printable text banners out of ASCII characters. Programs were available to convert images to ASCII art that, when printed large enough and viewed sufficiently far away, appeared to be smoothly shaded. Modern software may use halftoning to achieve a similar effect. Another form of tiled printing, inspired by continuous feed printers, involves making a long message of letters, possibly with inline graphics of the same height, and printing it sideways over several pages to make a banner. This type of printing is usually associated with The Print Shop, a 1980s software package. Since high resolution images are used to create the prints, a large amount of ink is used in the process of making tiled prints. Inexpensive

ink jet printer Inkjet printing is a type of computer printing that recreates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper and plastic substrates. Inkjet printers were the most commonly used type of printer in 2008, and range from small inexpensi ...

s now allow people to make tiled printouts that do not sacrifice the original image's resolution at reasonable cost. These decorations are sometimes called ''rasterbations'', after a popular tiled printing program, "The Rasterbator." The Rasterbator program accepts users' images and divides them into a grid format. Users can specify how big the final product should be, in terms of pages. The Rasterbator then produces PDF images that when printed out, form the entire picture.

World records

Rasterbation is often the subject of record-breaking attempts to create the largest and most impressive tiled prints. The title of the world's largest rasterbation was previously held by "the Doomtech crew". However, in June 2007 the graduating class of the

University of Toronto Schools University of Toronto Schools (UTS) is an independent secondary day school affiliated with the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The school follows a specialized academic curriculum, and admission is determined by competitive ex ...

, a

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

high school, produced a rasterbation incorporating 1462 sheets of "×14" legal-sized paper. This achievement surpassed the previous record by over two hundred sheets, but then was overtaken by a group from Groton School in May 2008. The Groton School Rasterbation used more than 1500 sheets of 11x14" paper and was 100' tall, making it the largest ever. In June 2012, another graduating class from the University of Toronto Schools produced 74 rasterbations in one night, each incorporating 143 sheets of ×11" letter-sized paper, for a record-shattering total of 10,582 sheets. Each rasterbation included the face of one of the graduating students with a doorway cut out of his or her gaping mouth - altogether, they created a corridor of mouths throughout the school's hallways. In March 2013, a rasterbation of Edvard Munchs iconic painting

The Scream ''The Scream'' is a composition created by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch in 1893. The agonized face in the painting has become one of the most iconic images of art, seen as symbolizing the anxiety of the human condition. Munch's work, including ...

was created at Norway's largest computer party The Gathering (TG), as part of the art projec
"Scream from nature"
It is the largest known reprint of any Munch painting. The rasterbation, made by the crew a
Sørlanet
consisted of 1,517 (37 × 41) sheets of

A4 paper ISO 216 is an international standard for paper sizes, used around the world except in North America and parts of Latin America. The standard defines the "A", "B" and "C" series of paper sizes, including A4, the most commonly available paper size ...

, and measured .

References

External links

Applications

Pufferizer
- a free tiled printing application for Android devices and is designed for printing on standard photo papers
Tileprint
- a free tiled printing application for iOS-devices
The Rasterbator
- a popular tiled printing application for

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...

, which is free and open source software
The Rasterbator Online
- official online version of The Rasterbator
Rasterbator-NG
- a Mono-based Rasterbator version
Block Posters
- online application that creates any size pdf posters from up to 1 MB images (free)
PosteRazor
- a graphical multi-platform tiled printing application that takes

bitmap image In computing, a bitmap is a mapping from some domain (for example, a range of integers) to bits. It is also called a bit array or bitmap index. As a noun, the term "bitmap" is very often used to refer to a particular bitmapping application: ...

s as input and creates a multi-page PDF document (free)
pdfposter
- a command line tiled printing application for PDF files (free)
poster(1)
- a command line tiled printing application for PostScript files (free)

Articles

"Freebie Rasterbator Makes Arty-Looking Posters"
- ''PC World'', April 8, 2010

''PC World'', May 13, 2009
"Rasterbate in your dorm room"
''Dakota Student'', August 25, 2006
"Rasterbate More: Slap a pixelated Larry on your wall"
''The Harvard Crimson'', December 9, 2004 {{DEFAULTSORT:Tiled Printing Computer printers Photographic techniques