12th Grade — Production Skills: Large-Format & Photo Printing

⏰ Do Now — Start Here

Why might a color that looks great on your screen come out wrong on a printed poster?

🎯 Today's Big Question

How do we correctly prepare and run a design on our large-format and photo printers?

📈 By the End of Today, You Will Be Able To

Prepare a file at the correct size, resolution, and color mode for large-format printing.
Operate the large-format and/or photo printer to produce a finished piece.
Troubleshoot a common print problem (color mismatch, cropped bleed, paper jam).

🧰 What You'll Need

Large-format printer + photo printer access
A finished, approved design file
Various paper/media stock

📋 Your Plan for Today

Day 1: Guided Practice

Do Now (5 min): why might a color look different printed than on screen? Mini-lesson/demo (10 min): preparing files for large-format output (size, resolution, bleed, color mode).
Guided practice (25 min): prepare a sample file and run a test print, checking for issues.
Share (5 min).

Day 2: Independent Production

Do Now (5 min).
Independent production (35 min): prepare and print a real approved job (yours or a classmate's) at full size, troubleshooting any print problems that come up.
Log lessons learned (5 min).

🖥️ Today's Slide Deck

Short, on-the-board pacing slides — project these to follow along. (The full details are in the handout above, not here.)

Day 1

⬇️ Open / download this slide PDF

Day 2

⬇️ Open / download this slide PDF

📚 Key Words

Large-Format Printer: A printer capable of producing posters, banners, and signage far larger than standard paper.
Bleed: Extra image area beyond the trim line so a print has no unwanted white edge.
Color Mismatch: When a printed color looks noticeably different from what appeared on screen.

✅ What Your Finished Work Should Include

Final printed piece checked against the approved digital file for accuracy and print quality.

Exit Ticket: What is one thing you'd check on a file BEFORE sending it to the large-format printer, based on what you learned today?

📊 Before You Leave

Quick, anonymous class check-in -- takes less than a minute.

Class Check-In

📁 Portfolio Update — Once a Week

Once a week, add your best finished or in-progress yearbook (or, later, studio) work to your portfolio with a 1-2 sentence caption -- and once you're in the Design Studio phase, a photo of the piece in its real, installed location if possible. This is the same evidence trail you'll use for Archive & Portfolio and any PBAT/portfolio review.

✍️ Example description for your Google Sites portfolio (fill in YOUR blanks -- don't just copy this):

For this piece, I made ______________ (name what you made) for “Production Skills: Large-Format & Photo Printing.” This project asked: “How do we correctly prepare and run a design on our large-format and photo printers?” I used Large-Format Printer by ______________ (explain how you used it in THIS piece). The hardest part was ______________, and I solved it by ______________. I'm proud of ______________ because ______________.

🔗 Want to Learn More?

No extra links for this lesson.

🚀 The Extra Mile

Cross-Class Connection: The same materials-and-tolerances thinking a Shop/Tech or Engineering class teaches about working with real equipment.

Career Connection: Large-format production is direct, hireable skill for Photography print work and studio production roles.

Go further -- turn this into a portfolio piece:

Print a large-format poster for a real school event or club, start to finish, using correct bleed and resolution settings. Start here: check your file's resolution at the poster's actual final print size, not its thumbnail size — most large-format failures start with exactly this mistake.
Write a "how to prep a file for large-format printing" guide — real technical reference material for future students. Start here: list the exact settings (bleed, resolution, color mode) you had to fix on your own poster — that list is the guide's outline, already written.