Highland History Timeline Help

[Buck Buchanan]

I am in the process of working on a timeline of Scottish Highland history for the N. CA Clan Buchanan tent. I am attempting to place historic dates and information onto a timeline that would be printed onto a vinyl banner of approximately 20' in length and 3' wide. We will probably break the printing on the vinyl into 2 x 10' lengths, to fit the 2, 10' x 10' EZ Up tents we use. The banner would of course be Buchanan yellow, like our kilt.

I have found that Microsoft Excel is too difficult to work with and MS Word doesn't seem to have the ability to be 20' in length; however I have easily put most to the timeline together in the MS Word format. I may be trying to use the wrong software to accomplish what we would like to do. If anyone has any experience with how I can take a file to a printer & get our Scottish History timeline printed in the aforementioned proportions, I would be grateful.

Thanks,
Buck
ith:

[Chas]

Hi Buck,

I do not know that this is something that you will be able to do yourselves. A friend of mine used to run a sign making business. You went to him with your graphics or text on a floppy and he would cut vinyl lettering and pictures using an old Windows 3.1 PC connected to a cutting table. The end results would then be transfered to either Perspex sheets, or a kind of rip-stop nylon, or a vinyl banner.

The largest, readily available, printers in the UK are A3 in size, but they print sheets not from a roll. I think you will need specialist equipment. And as this would be a one-off (the history isn't going to change), you would be better off going to a banner-maker and getting it done correctly. Sorry.

Regards

Chas

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Buck, you might contact Caberdancer and see if they can be of any help.

[Livingston]

If you have it, Photoshop would be the best to use. If not, talk with a local printer such as Kinko/FedEx and ask them what they feel would be best. They will print directly to the vinyl and print from a large roll. They could possibly print both 10' sections at the same time and therefore save material and $$ for you. They also will put grommets in for you at each corner and every 2' across the top.

Just looked at the width you were thinking. At 36" the savings won't happen.

[blackbeard]

I have had Kinkos print 10ft banners for my company at a very reasonable price.

I have to agree that Photoshop/In Design or Corel Draw (my personal favorite) would be the best choice. However, if you don't have access to those, Open Office has a word processor that does not have the page size limitations that MS Word has. I have used it to make layouts as large as 5ft and I'm pretty sure that it will go larger. And Open Office is a free download! With Open Office you can save the file in any format that your local print shop will accept. (doc, pdf, etc)

No, I don't work for Sun Microsystems they just make a good product that is FREE!