This is the whole process, once, with the decisions explained where they come up. It takes about five minutes on screen. Printing and taping take longer.
1. Open the editor
Use it in your browser at no cost, or install the app for your platform:
2. Decide what is fixed — grid mode or size mode
Do this before you bring any artwork in. It is the one choice that shapes everything else, and setting it first means the canvas is already the right shape when your image lands on it.
Grid mode sets the layout size using a fixed number of papers.
Use it when the constraint is paper. Three columns by three rows of A4 gives you whatever poster that adds up to.
Size mode automatically adjusts the grid and paper count to match your desired print size.
Use it when the constraint is the wall, the frame, or a pattern that has to print at true scale. Enter 36 x 24 in and Docuslice works out the sheet count.
Full explanation, including how the sheet count is calculated: grid mode and size mode.
3. Choose your paper size and orientation
Pick the paper that is actually in your printer's tray. Letter and A4 are the common answers; the full list is in supported paper sizes.
This is the sheet, not the poster — in grid mode it is what your rows and columns are counted in, and in size mode it is what your dimensions get divided across.
4. Add your image or PDF
Use the add-image, add-SVG or add-PDF button — or, in the browser and desktop apps, drag a file onto the canvas. In the browser you can also paste an image straight from your clipboard with Cmd/Ctrl + V. Whichever route you take, you get a selection step where you tick what to bring in. See adding images, PDFs and SVGs.
Start with the largest version of the file you have. Nothing downstream can add detail that was never there.
This is the payoff for setting the layout first: the app now knows how big you are printing, so it can tell you straight away if the image is too small for it, and offer AI enhancement. Import into a canvas of unknown size and that warning has nothing to measure against.
5. Leave the margin alone
The margin starts at 0.50 in, which is the right value for a first print. This step is here to tell you not to change it.
It is tempting to drop it to 0 to use every millimetre of paper. Do not. Consumer printers cannot print to the paper edge, and a margin of 0 is the single most common cause of content coming out cropped. It is also what makes overlap possible, because overlap is measured as a fraction of the margin.
A bigger margin means less usable area per sheet, which can mean more sheets. That trade is explained in margins.
6. Turn on the guides that help you assemble
Two settings pay for themselves on the first print:
- Cut lines — where to cut each sheet. See cut lines and scissor marks.
- Page numbers — which sheet goes where. Twelve identical-looking sheets of blue sky are unassemblable without them. See page numbers on tiles.
7. Export
Choose PDF for a single file that prints in one go, or images if you would rather handle sheets individually. Which to pick, and what vector PDF changes: export formats.
Signing in is required to export. It is free — see signing in and accounts.
8. Print at 100%
In your printer's dialog, set the scale to 100% / Actual Size. Not "Fit to page", not "Shrink to printable area". Fit-to-page silently shrinks every sheet and your poster will not line up or measure correctly.
The other settings worth checking are in print settings that matter.
9. Cut and tape
Cut on the lines, work in order, overlap the sheets the right way round: assembling your poster.
If the first print goes wrong
It usually goes wrong in one of four ways, and each has a page:
Before printing twenty sheets, print one. Any of the four shows up on the first one.