How to Print Wall Murals with a Canon imagePROGRAF, Free Layout Plus, and PrintTac Wall Fabric

If you’re already printing with a Canon imagePROGRAF large format printer, wall murals are another application you can add to what you produce without changing your basic printing workflow.

Canon’s Free Layout Plus software for Windows can take a finished oversized image and divide it into individual panels for tiled printing. Pair the software with PrintTac Wall Fabric by Midwest Inkjet and a compatible Canon imagePROGRAF series printer, and you have a straightforward workflow for producing custom wall murals, branded interiors and other large-scale wall graphics.

Here’s how we recommend approaching the process.

Preparing Artwork for a Wall Mural

Start with the wall itself. Measure the installation area and establish the finished dimensions of the mural before preparing the artwork.

Image quality becomes increasingly important as the artwork gets larger. Viewing distance gives you some flexibility with resolution, but photography and other raster artwork still need enough detail to handle the enlargement without obvious pixelation or loss of image quality.

Take a look at the composition before moving into the tiled layout. Pay particular attention to where the panel transitions are likely to fall. When possible, avoid placing them through small text, logos, faces or other areas where alignment will be especially noticeable.

Once the artwork is ready, bring the finished image into Canon Free Layout Plus and set the final dimensions of the mural.

Creating the Tiled Layout in Canon Free Layout Plus

Free Layout Plus includes a Tiling mode that divides a single image into the individual panels needed to produce the finished oversized graphic. For wall mural printing, this gives you control over the size and arrangement of those panels before anything is sent to the printer.

The width of your PrintTac roll should be part of that layout decision. Whenever possible, we recommend setting up the panels to take advantage of the full printable width of the media.

If you're printing on a 36-inch roll of PrintTac with a compatible 36-inch Canon imagePROGRAF, for example, configure the tiled output around the available printable width. This allows each mural panel to come off the printer at its intended installation width rather than producing a narrower panel that has to be trimmed before installation.

Before sending the job to the printer, use the Free Layout Plus preview to look at the complete tiled mural. Check the number of panels, their dimensions and where each transition falls within the artwork.

This is also the time to determine how you'll handle adjoining panels during installation. If your installation method uses an overlap, account for that while setting up the tiled output rather than trying to compensate for it after the mural has been printed.

Printing Wall Mural Panels on PrintTac Wall Fabric

PrintTac Wall Fabric by Midwest Inkjet is a 9 mil, 225 gsm polyester wall fabric with a matte surface and repositionable/removable acrylic adhesive, and it's compatible with aqueous, latex and UV printing.

Before printing the complete mural, we recommend producing a representative test section. Choose an area containing important colors and fine detail so you can evaluate how the finished artwork will reproduce.

It's also a good idea to test PrintTac on the actual wall surface before producing the entire job. Paint, texture and surface condition can vary, and a test gives you an opportunity to evaluate the installation surface before committing to the complete mural.

Once you're satisfied with the test, print the individual panels using the tiled layout created in Free Layout Plus. When the job has been set up around the full printable width of the roll, each panel can be produced borderless at its intended installation width, eliminating an unnecessary trimming step.

As the panels come off the imagePROGRAF, keep them in order. Numbering the back of the liner 1, 2, 3, 4 and so on is a simple step that makes things considerably easier when the graphics reach the installation site.

Installing the Finished Wall Mural

Make sure the wall is clean, smooth and properly prepared before beginning the installation.

For the first panel, establish a level vertical reference line rather than assuming the corner of the room, ceiling or floor is perfectly straight. Take your time positioning this panel because it establishes the alignment for everything that follows.

From there, work across the wall in sequence, aligning the artwork from one panel to the next and using the seam or overlap method established when you prepared the tiled layout.

PrintTac's removable adhesive allows the material to be repositioned during application, which can be particularly useful when you're aligning adjoining mural panels.

With the panel dimensions and transitions already established in Free Layout Plus, the installation follows the same layout you reviewed before printing. Once the final panel is installed, the individual sections come together to create the finished continuous wall graphic.

Adding Wall Mural Printing to Your Application Mix

We like wall murals as an application because they fit naturally alongside many of the graphics our customers are already producing with their Canon imagePROGRAF printers.

Retail customers can use custom wall murals for branded spaces, seasonal campaigns and feature walls. Schools can produce educational graphics, maps and school branding. Offices can turn photography, company history and branded artwork into environmental graphics. Restaurants and hospitality businesses can use wall graphics to completely change the appearance of a space.

For print providers, wall mural printing can also create another opportunity with customers you're already serving. A customer buying posters, presentation graphics or signage may also have conference rooms, reception areas, retail spaces or other interior walls that could become custom graphics.