In Part 3 of the Muse Mosaic Getting Started series, we'll go over how to set up your printer before the event. Since the billboard will likely be printed before the event, and the billboard takes into account the size of your prints, it's very important that you configure the printer (or at least know its output size) before printing the billboard. You can learn about setting up the billboard in Part 2 of this series.

We use the Primera LX 500c for our mosaic events, so this tutorial will use that printer as an example.

1.

First, make sure what size prints your printer is capable of. Our Primera LX 500 can do 2x2 square sticker prints, so that's what we'll use for our mosaic. Check the owner's manual for your particular printer to see what size prints it can make.

2.

In Muse Mosaic, navigate to Event Admin and then the Mosaic Settings tab. Under Mosaic Size and Shape make sure you set the Image W / H to the proper aspect ratio of your print. The setting here affects the ratio of the width of the image compared to the height.  The height value is always 1, and since our print is square the ratio should also be set to 1. You can adjust the ratio by typing in a value or using the small up and down arrows. Try it yourself and you'll see the shape of the grey square change to reflect the ratio.

3.

Navigate to the Print Layout tab in Event Admin.

Because we changed the ratio in the previous step to square, you'll see that the preview image on the right is square, and the individual images under the Final page layout are also square.

The Sticker size will be the physical size of the print. Our printer will be printing 2-inch x 2-inch stickers, so we should set that to 2.

The Final page layout shows you how the images will be arranged on the printed page. The screenshot above shows that 6 pictures will be printed on our page, which is not right for our printer! If you change the Number of stickers per page to 1x1, you'll see one square under the Final page layout and the Paper size will be 2.0 x 2.0 inches.

4.

In the sample image on the right, do you see the small text on the bottom left corner of the image?

That's the label text that's added to each print, and it tells you where on the billboard grid to put that image. In the case of the example, it would be placed in row 13, column 20.

You can adjust the size and position of the text in the Label Text Position box.

5.

Now to actually select the printer. Go to the Printers tab under Event Admin, and find your printer in the list in the Multiple Printers Selection box. Then check the box next to the printers you want to use.

In the Printer Settings box, you'll see paper settings for your printer in Windows, and whether or not they match your settings in Muse Mosaic. If everything matches or your print layout will at least fit on the printed page, Paper orientation and Paper size will both say OK.

You can also set the number of printed stickers for each image that gets added to the mosaic by increasing the Amount of Prints option.

That's it! Your printer and the printed page are now set up correctly in Muse Mosaic.

In Part 4 of the getting started series, we'll actually start the mosaic! Keep going to learn about everything in the Live Progress tab.