UPDATE: See my new video from March 2021!
Let’s say you’ve got a ginormous image that you’d like to print. Maybe it’s a picture of a map, and the resolution of the image is something like 2000 by 2200 pixels.
Obviously, you could just print the image to a single sheet of A4/Letter paper, but you’d lose a lot of detail.
If you’re a serious Photoshopper, you’d probably just fire up that particular app and use the built-in functionality to split and print.
For the rest of us, however, that’s not exactly what we’d call “easy”.
The good news is that Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 all give you a wonderful (AHEM!) application that does exactly what you need…
You’re going to find this hard to believe, but that built-in Windows app that will split-print an image for you is none other than Microsoft’s much-maligned Paint application!!
I know – whodduh thunkit?
Although I have to say that Paint in Windows 7 is definitely better than the previous version, at least in terms of looks…
In any case, here’s what you do:
- Open the image you’d like to print in Paint
- Select: Print -> Page Setup (Vista and 7), or File -> Page Setup (in XP)
- Under Scaling, select Fit to and change the setting to something like “2 by 2 page(s)”
- Click OK
- Print the image from Paint, and make sure to select “All Pages”
That’s it – you’re done. You can take any image and have Paint print it out on multiple sheets of paper. If you’d like, you can also adjust the page margins in the Page Setup. In any case, all that’s left is to trim the white border from the individual printed pages, break out the scotch tape, and go to town.
Before you know it, you’ll have your huge image printed and assembled on regular-sized paper.
What’s really strange about this little feature is that I know a lot of people who would love to know about it. But 10 out of 10 people I asked had no idea that Paint could do this. Most people I talk to also have no idea that even in Windows XP, you can select a bunch of images, right click, and choose Send to -> Mail Recipient. That will present a little box that lets you automatically resize the images to a smaller resolution before opening your default e-mail client and attaching the resized images to a new message. And yet every Mac user knows their system can do that…
But then, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised. When has Microsoft ever successfully advertised the truly useful features in their operating systems?
Just another echo of “Thanks!” The two tricks I learned were (a) how to do it with Paint, and the other (b) was simply to install the current version of Adobe Reader…. now my wife can print her ginormous (PDF) pictures on multiple pages to make her stencils for her patterns… all by herself…. yippee… you saved me from having to get involved every time she wanted a new stencil done…. Many thanks!
Brilliant! Just what I was looking for to print holiday panorama photos.
The answer was there all the time but many thanks to you for pointing it out.
Perfect to print a large “pin the tail on the bunny”. Thanks for the tip.
Fantastic! Just used this for work. Thanks!
Thanks so much for this. Not only is it surprising how few people know this; it’s truly astounding how hard it is to find the answer by Googling.
Thank you, this is a great tip!
Great tip, and exactly what I needed to print out a big image on multiple sheets that can be trimmed and pieced together without losing anything. Thanks!
When I did this I selected 2 by 1 because i need it printed over two pages and it simply printed the image on one page and left the other page completely blank…
Works great. Thanks for this!
Amazing tutorial. Works perfectly. Thank you!
@aidan try doing 1 by 2 and make sure your orientation is correct. i did this at first and by switching the numbers i got the results i wanted
Thank you so much, awesome tip!
Thanks a lot… much appreciated.. 🙂
You’re right. ‘Whodo thunk’ MS Paint could have done this. I sure wouldn’t have. I’m just grateful that I searched on the web for a solution before attempting to do it on my own. Many thanks!
Amazing! Exactly what I needed
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I would have loved to have known about this a long time ago!
Thanks a lot. 🙂
Very good good. thanks
Great tip! Used it as I was printing a mosaic image onto 5 x 5 A3 pages. One thing to consider is to be aware of setting the margin related to the printer used. Thanks!
Thank you!
Thanks a lot!
SO many THANKS… Helped me lot..
Thanks for this- making a french stencil for a painted tabletop. Exactly what I was looking to do! Worked perfectly.
@aidan
Me too. No matter what I tried with page orientation, etc. It printed the image on the first page only, and the remaining pages were blank.
Good post! I’ve gotta’ ask though,, when did “programs” become “apps” ? Isn’t there a difference?
In 2009 when this post was written, “app” simply meant “application” which was synonymous with “program”. Today, “app” is understood to mean something a bit different than “program” since tablets and smartphones don’t run programs, they run “apps”… Never mind that apps actually ARE programs! 🙂
Thanks for a great tip!
After printing out 30 pages and trimming the borders so as to be able to tape them together, I found that just above the print pages wide by pages tall selection, you can set the border width to zero on the left and bottom (Top and right as well. By doing this, it leaves a border on the right and the top which makes it easier to align the prints when taping them together.
Oh wow, this is really helpful! Thanks!
Thanks for the multiple print tip. Microsoft useless at making the obvious obvious.
I’ve been wondering how to do this for a long time. Thank you!
Thanks! I was in the process of printing something for work, and a quick Google search came up with your page. I’m glad it did – my map will look beautiful!
Thanks, this is great. For months I have been trying to print out a saying to make a template for a large canvas and this did the trick.
Works marvelously. I knew there was a way – never thought to look on paint! For those having trouble with printing on only one page and the other white, perhaps you need to crop your paint image so there isn’t white space around it.
Brilliant. This is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks soooo much. You really helped me with your infor.
There it is….THANK YOU
Thank you very much. You’ve been a great helper.
Thank you so much for this useful info! You just saved me a ton of time in creating a new painting based on a small sketch of mine. I use a mac at work and didn’t know the feature you mentioned and now that will save me time sending out pics in large batches at work. Double win! Thanks again!
Thank you so much for this useful info. Most of the other sites that came up suggested downloading some third party app, which was out of the question for me as my work would not allow it for security reasons. It’s great to know that it can be done with just Windows native tools!
Thanks a ton!
Amazing – thanks! I’ve been doing it the hard way for years (Word, copy images, crop each, etc)
Thank you! Brilliant, quick, easy and worked first time.
I found this article. Unfortunately it did not work for me.
I had a number of images of emails I received from someone trying to defraud me. When I tried your solution I found it cut off the page in the middle of a sentence.
I used this solution instead: Using the free paint.net program, I edited each image and followed this procedure:
1. Scaled the width to 8 inches.
2. Cropped the image at a break in between paragraphs, making sure it was no more than 11 inches long.
3. I resized the canvas to make it 11 inches long. (That way all the pages would be printed in portrait.)
4. I saved the cropped image appending page1 (or page 2, etc.) to it’s name.
5. I printed the cropped image.
6. I hit undoe until the entire image appeared.
7. I selected the next portion, and cropped that at no more than 11 inches.
8. I went back to step 3, and repeated until I had the whole image in page size pieces.
If this were a picture, I’d leave a little overlap on the top of each page to make taping it together easier.
Thanks a lot….
Thanks!!
I’ve always used Rasterbator for such tasks … didn’t know that paint can actually do something usefull!
Thanks a lot
@eric
You needed to use “MS Paint” which is part of *every* MS Windows installation from Windows 95 right up to Windows 8.1
*NOT* ‘paint.net’ which is a separate application you’d have downloaded & then installed yourself (or someone for you).
Note the difference? “MS Paint” NOT “Paint.NET”! Get it?
No wonder you couldn’t get it to work, buddy!
@Indian Tech Support Guy
I’d hate to have you at the other end of the support line Indian Tech Support Guy…
Note the “I found this article. Unfortunately it did not work for me. […] When I tried your solution I found it cut off the page in the middle of a sentence.”
No wonder you came up with such a stupid and pompous answer, you obviously don’t know how to read “buddy”!
Many thanks!!
It worked perfectly, if only I had known sooner 🙂
Thank you so much! I just spent an hour trying to make the newer version of Paint.net work with no luck. And all I had to do was open my image in the older Paint. Yeah! it worked. Thanks again.
Hi there. Thank the Lord for you – and Google!
I’ve been scratching my (balding) head, trying to remember how to do this and all the time, all I had to do was find your info on Google.
Many thanks for a superb service. 🙂
This is something that works… Thanks.