I’ve visited at least 5 print shops all over Taiepi, and while they will print transparencies they only print A4 sized. I need A3 sized (I could print A4 at home) but none of them will do it.
Does anyone know of a print shop that will print A3 sized transparencies? Rather know this for sure before I run to them in this heat. Almost every print shop I asked will not do it, looks like almost nobody prints A3 sized transparencies.
It’s for silkscreen printing.
Check nearby some big universities like NTU or NTNU is what I’d do if you haven’t already. They always have independent print shops for students.
I remember a shop near FJU that would, but I cannot be sure if they still do.
When I used to live near TKU none of the shops around there would do it.
This is the one I remember when I lived near NTNU.
@Taiwan_Luthiers its better if you look for an actual print shop as opposed to a repro shop.
The problem with most repro shops is they don’t stock A3 film as it’s seldom used.
Before I got my own A3 printer I used to have an agreement with a local shop where I would supply my own film that was compatible with their printer and they would print for me.
This depends on how much printing you’re going to do, and your investment.
If you are using an A3 screen to do multiple elements you can just butt up 2 x A4’s and make sure nothing crosses the join.
You can actually do the same if its one big print with a bit of crafty masking ether before exposer or before print (if its an open or closed bit of the screen).
Plan ahead a little and nudge the design around so you miss any fine text or anything that will be noticeable.
Yes, I have done it but I’ve found alignment is a pain, and that the printer seems to print each prints at slightly random scales, meaning when I piece it together it does not line up by about 1mm. This is enough to cause problems especially if the print is complex.
As for supplying my own film, a lot of shops won’t accept this because the wrong films will melt inside the printer and ruin it, and they won’t take the chance despite your insistence that it’s the right kind.
Do you have any tips on getting consistent scale?
set your home printer to “print to scale”, and set to 100%
don’t use scale to fit.
Drop a couple of registration marks in a closed bit of the screen and mask them off before print, this will help you line up.
Talk to them, be polite, make friends, there is always a work around.
No they are not going to print on some random pice of plastic from some random bloke on the street.
Ask them to get a box and you pay for it and keep it on consignment for you, maybe they will tell you where to get and keep in an unopened packet, see what they are happy with.
This all depends on what investment you are looking at, a long term project or a one off.
If you have already invested in an A3 press I take it your looking long term, or if its just a one off, whoever is developing your screen will have the correct printer, or at least the contacts.
Do you know the best way to do this in illustrator? This is how I’m tiling the stuff.
I am not using “scale to page” or anything, just that they have a tile option and I need to actually do a preview as it has weird ordering, and if I am not careful it will print 6 blank pages and 2 usable pages.
But even when this is done the scale is just slightly off, to the point when I draw black lines to help with alignment, it does not line up. This isn’t bad enough to make the print impossible but if I were doing halftones it could cause problems.
the easiest way in illustrator is just to set up two A4 artboards, save out as a PDF without bleed.
it sound like the scaling is being done on the printer, you really need to check the advanced setting.
I’m working so I have just done a quick screenshot to show what I mean, the registration marks at the top and bottom could be masked off later.
I haven’t tried that. I’ll give it a try and see how it works…
Have you considered calling the stores first?
a bit of editing to save TL a reply 
