The Layout Window provides an accurate way of printing files which are larger than your printer, and automatically tiles them out in segments, ready to print onto a roll.
Potential applications for this feature include wall murals and vertical blinds as it automatically splits your designs and includes any bleeds required. Once the layout is created, you can save this as a template and share this amongst colleagues using a Palette.
- Open your design, and select Window Menu > Layout.
- Add your design to the page using the ‘New’ icon in the toolbar. Alternatively, use the shortcut ⌘K.
- Go to Layout Menu > Fit Frame to Content, or use the shortcut in the toolbar. Your full design will now be visible on the page.
- Click on the Size icon in the toolbar. The following window will open:
- Set your desired width and height of your first object, ignoring any bleed, as this is added later. If you are printing wallpaper or blinds, you should leave the ‘Height’ as the height of the document, and adjust the width accordingly.
- Click Set for New Colourways, then press OK. This visible area of your design will be reduced to this new size.
- Click on the object to make it active, and select Tile from the Layout Menu, or use the Tile icon in the toolbar. The following window will open:
It does help to know how many segments your design will tile into based on the width you entered in the Size window in Step 4. Either use a calculator to divide the width of your design into this new width, or use the Repeat Crop Window, which will tell you how many segments are needed once your chosen width is entered.
- Set the Tile drop down menu to Duplicate Objects.
- In the Number Across dialogue box, enter how many objects (segments) you want to fit across your page. If you are printing onto a roll, this should be set to 1 so that subsequent segments are placed underneath this.
- In Total objects, enter the number of segments your design will be split into (this is the number you worked out in Step 5)
- Use the Spacing options to apply enough space between each object. If you are tiling your objects down the page as suggested in Step 8, you will only need to enter a value in the Down Spacing.
If you are tiling more than one object across your page, you need to consider your bleed at this stage. For example, if you are going to apply a 0.5cm bleed, and want a 1 cm space, then enter 1.5cm in the Across Spacing.
- Set your Tile Design Origin accordingly. In this example, we want to split the mural into three vertical segments. Therefore we need to choose Across from this drop down menu. If we were printing segments which were also smaller in height than the design itself, we would choose Across and Down from this drop down menu. Click OK.
- Use the shortcut ⌘A to select all newly tiled objects.
- Apply a border to all the segments by clicking on the Size icon and adjusting the width of each object by the bleed size. So, if you selected 52cm for the width in Step 4 and you wish to apply a 0.5cm bleed, change the size to 52.5 cm. Click OK.
- Click Set Page in your toolbar to wrap the page to the newly tiled segments. If you need to apply a border to the page, go to AVA Menu > Settings and select Layout Window. This will open a window where you can set the size of your borders accordingly.
Note: if your media is not wide enough to accommodate all sections of your design, set your page width using Page Setup in the File Menu, then go to the Views settings in the Layout Window and set the number of pages required. We recommend you tick Show Frame to help you with the placement of the prints. You can turn this off before you print. Then, when using the Tile function, simply set the Number Across accordingly, to fit within the media width. Subsequent object will tile beneath this.