How do I print?
If you have designed your material on Canva, you can send your material for printing to prc@housing.ubc.ca if all the below are true:
- the design is in PDF format.
- the design is in one of the paper sizes available at the PRC.
- you are sure that you do not need to make any tweaks to the design (location, time or place of event, etc.)
- Your poster is in compliance with the Residence Branding Guidelines.
Please state the desired paper size and the number of copies required for each design. Ensure the PDF is attached – avoid PNG, adding a picture to the body of the email or sharing OneDrive links. Refer to the image to the right for an example on how to draft this email.
Note that Canva usually defaults to 18″ x 24″ size (A3). This is banner size printing and we do not use this poster size for printing on a regular basis. Nevertheless, PRC staff can easily scale this down to 8.5″ x 11″ (Letter) size so as long as the design is downloaded in PDF and you do not wish to make any edits on it, you can send this design by email and PRC staff can print it off on letter-size paper. Most event posters are printed on letter size paper.
If you are unsure about the size of the design, need to make tweaks or the design is not in PDF format, share the Canva design directly by following the steps here. Please only send posters in non-PDF version as a last resort (e.g. you do not have the original Canva design and another Residence Advisor sent you the poster in PNG format).
PRC staff may refuse or edit the poster if:
- there are spelling errors or grammatical errors
- information regarding venue, place and/or time are outdated or inaccurate
- it is not in compliance with the Residence Branding Guidelines.
- QR codes or links re-direct individuals to fill up a form that gathers student data on a platform other than Qualtrics (Google forms is not permitted).
You may be asked to re-do or re-structure the poster if there are major errors or concerns.
Paper Sizes
The main paper sizes used for printing are:
- Tabloid Size (11″ x 17″)
- Legal Size (8.5 ” x 14″) [least common]
- Letter Size (8.5″ x 11″) [most common]
We can also do banner printing – the width is capped at 24″ while there is no hard limit on length. Nevertheless, requests for long lengths (80″ +) are usually refused by PRC staff.
Banner printing is usually done if a banner is going up for more than 3 weeks. However, exceptions can be made particularly for banners of smaller lengths.
What happens if you try to print design that wasn’t designed in the correct size?
When a poster is designed in an inaccurate size, the system tries to expand the design in a manner that it does not pixelate or “stretch-out” the design. This results in white space around the design as pictured below. The system can easily scale down 18″ x 24″ into Letter size without issue but sizes like 11.25 ” x 11.25″ (Instagram Square-type Post) cannot be scaled similarly.
You can choose to cut-off the white spaces with our paper cutters in the PRC.