Printing Large Charts from Ancestral Quest Ancestral Quest provides 4 options for printing large charts. 1) Some charts can be printed directly from within Ancestral Quest to your standard printer with letter size paper, so that you can print a large chart on many sheets of paper, and then tape or glue them together. Learn How 2) If you have a large printer connected to your computer, simply select a large paper size and print directly to your large printer. (Most users do not have direct access to a large printer from their computer.) Learn How 3) You can use AQ’s capability of printing to a PDF file. Select a paper size up to 200” x 200” and print to a PDF file, then take this file to a company that has large printers and pay them to print it for you. Learn How 4) Incline Software has teamed up with a printing service which can take your PDF file and ship you a completed chart, or you can select a custom chart from their list of charts and work with them to customize it to your liking. While AQ has a large selection of options for large charts, you may want to browse the selection of this charting service. They will work with you to get a custom chart just the way you want it. Learn How
	Option 1 Printing Large Charts on Your Normal Printer, Using Several Sheets of Paper. This option is available for the following charts in Ancestral Quest: Ancestry Wall Charts Descendant Wall Charts Descendant Dropline Charts Line of Descent Charts (Will only print 1 page wide, but for as may pages long as is required) To use this option, select the chart, choose your options, make sure the Destination is set to “Printer/Screen” and click on Preview. You will see the report in sections. If you need to make changes, close the Preview window and adjust your options, then click on Preview again. When you are ready to print, click on the Print button. You may want to change the font sizes for various parts of the report, especially the size of the Title. By default, the title font is set small enough to fit nicely on a single sheet of paper. If you intend to have a larger chart, you will want to make the title font larger. After the pages all print, lay them out on a table and tape them together or glue them. Some of the reports (notably the Ancestry and Descendant Wall Charts) will print a legend in a corner if you leave enough margin. This legend can help you know which piece of paper goes into which position within the overall chart. Back to Top Option 2 Printing to a Large Printer Connected Directly to Your Computer. This option is available for the following charts in Ancestral Quest: Fan Charts Ancestry Wall Charts Descendant Wall Charts Descendant Dropline Charts Line of Descent Charts All other reports can be printed to a larger piece of paper, but they may not be optimized for it To use this option, select the chart, choose your options, and make sure the Destination is set to “Printer/Screen”. Now go into Page Setup or Printer Setup to select the printer and the size of paper you want to use for this report. Finally click on Preview. If you need to make changes, close the Preview window and adjust your options, including paper size, then click on Preview again. When you are ready to print, click on the Print button. You may want to change the font sizes for various parts of the report, especially the size of the Title. By default, the title font is set small enough to fit nicely on a single sheet of paper. If you intend to have a larger chart, you will want to make the title font larger. Back to Top Option 3 Printing to a PDF File, Which Can be Sent to a Printing Service This option is available for the following charts in Ancestral Quest: Fan Charts Ancestry Wall Charts Descendant Wall Charts Descendant Dropline Charts Line of Descent Charts All other reports can be printed to a larger piece of paper, but they may not be optimized for it To use this option, Select the chart, choose your options, and make sure the Destination is set to “PDF File (.pdf)” Go into Page Setup or Printer Setup to select the size of paper you want to use for this report. To do this, you will need to find the “Properties” button next to the name of the Printer, (which should be “PDF-XChange 3.0”). Click on this button. You can select one of the predefined paper sizes, or choose “Custom” and select a paper size up to 200” by 200” (508 cm by 508 cm). Depending on the type of report you are printing, set the orientation to portrait or landscape. Finally click on Preview. If you need to make changes either to the paper size or the report options, close the Preview window and adjust your options, then click on Preview again. When you are ready to print, click on the Print button. The report will not actually print on your printer at this time. Instead, you will be asked for the name of a file. Give the file any name you want, but it should end in “.pdf”. For example, name the file “MyAncestryChart.pdf”. If you know of a printing service, you can take this file to them, or you can attach it to an e-mail message to them requesting that they print the chart for you. Depending on what is available in your community, a common printing service is Kinkos. You could also send the file to Generation Maps, our printing partner. If you are doing a color chart, you will probably find their prices to be more reasonable. Back to Top Option 4 Choose a Large Chart from the Selection at Generation Maps Simply visit the Generation Maps website and browse through their list of report options. As you choose a chart, you will need to be prepared to send them a copy of your Ancestral Quest data file, or send a GEDCOM file to them that they can use in preparing the chart for you. If you want Generation Maps to print a chart that you have prepared using Ancestral Quest’s charting capabilities, follow the steps listed in Option 3. Back to Top