An A1 poster from four A3 sheets
A1 is exactly four A3 sheets. Tiling onto A4 would need eight pages and eight seams; A3 halves both. Since almost every copy shop and convenience-store machine prints A3, you do not need a large printer of your own.
Load a file to start.
No upload — everything runs in your browser
Printing through a network print service
In Japan you upload the PDF to Seven-Eleven net print or the Lawson and FamilyMart network print service, then type the reservation number into the copier in store. A3 colour costs about 100 yen a sheet and monochrome about 20, so an A1 poster comes to roughly 400 yen. These services cap the upload at around 10 MB, so compress a heavy photograph before loading it here.
The setting that matters at the machine
Choose actual size, same size, or 100 percent on the copier. Fit to page shrinks the artwork by two or three percent to clear the A3 margin, and all four seams then fail to meet. Print one sheet first, measure the 50 mm ruler on page one, and only then run the other three.
Watch the four-corner junction
A 2 by 2 grid meets at a single point in the middle where four corners converge, and that is the hardest place to keep true. Join the top pair, join the bottom pair, then bring the two halves together along one long straight line. Gluing the four sheets one after another drives all the accumulated error into that centre point.
Frequently asked questions
How many A3 sheets make an A1?
Four. A1 is 594 by 841 mm and A3 is 297 by 420 mm, so a 2 by 2 grid fits exactly. Even with the default 5 mm margin and flap it often still fits on four; the sheet count on screen tells you.
What is the process at a convenience store?
Upload the PDF on the operator website or app, get an eight-digit reservation number, and enter it at the multifunction copier. The number is usually valid until the next day. Select A3, colour or monochrome, and single-sided.
Does my file stay on the print service servers?
This page never uploads anything, but once you register the PDF with a network print service it is stored on that provider server. For confidential material, use a USB stick instead or delete the job after collecting it.