How To: Maximizing Paper Use with Ganging & Nesting

One thing I can consistently hear from Sawgrass Users is a desire to save paper.  Often, I’ll be asked if you can cut the paper and then use the remainder for another job. While this works for vinyl cutters, it’s not the best solution for printers.  Using non-standard size paper in any printer can cause jams.  But you have nothing to fear – there is functionality in PrintMate to help you simplify the process of putting multiple designs on your sublimation transfer paper. 

Ways to Send to Sawgrass PrintMate

There are four different ways to send files to PrintMate:

• You can send files from our design tool, DesignMate
• You can upload files directly into PrintMate with Create and Add Buttons
• You can send directly from any program on your Windows or MacOS using Send to PrintMate
• You can drop projects into your Quick Print on your desktop

As a reminder, you will configure your settings for those last two options in PrintMate before sending your files.  With both Send to PrintMate and QuickFolders, you can enable AutoPrint so your files go to the printer with your settings while skipping the extra step of the jobs opening in PrintMate.  You will need to disable that so your files will open in PrintMate for what we’re working on today:  Ganging and Nesting.

Understanding Ganging & Nesting

These big words have very simple definitions:  Nesting is when you combine multiples of the same image on your page; ganging happens when you use several different images to fill your paper.  

Nesting

We’ll start with Nesting.  For this example, I’ve added a design by clicking Create.  By default, your first image is going to be in the top left corner.  It will be moved in far enough from the corner so that it fits within the margins of the printer.  If you need more room around the image, you can go down to your print settings and center the image on the page.  With multiples, it is fine to start in the top left corner.

One very important thing to discuss is the size of your image.  When you bring in a design, it is going to respect the canvas from the original document.  For example, if you created something on a canvas that is 9”x4”, it is going to reflect that as the size, even if your actual design is only 3”x 5”.  The extra area around your actual image can be removed by clicking the “crop to image area” button.  This is very helpful with ganging and nesting.

To add more copies of this design, I’ll just go to repeat and increase the number.  You can manually enter the number or use the up arrow.  Now that our images are on the page, let’s add more space between them to make sublimating them easier.  In our Design Files area, you’ll adjust the spacing.  As we saw with adding copies, you can type in a number or use the up arrow.  It should be noted that space is being added to the right and bottom of each image.  This gives you more accurate spacing.  

Once you have your page setup, you can hit print.  If you needed more copies of an image than what you are seeing on your page, you can use your page options at the bottom of the job settings.  Let’s say I actually needed thirty of this image.  I can just increase the number of copies.  Note that in this case, you’re not increasing the number of images, but of complete pages. 

Ganging

Ganging is going to similar, but there are a few differences we need to point out.  We’ll start with an example where we drop our images into our PrintMate Quickfolder on our desktop.  As you’ll see both images drop into the same PrintMate tab.  You’ll see that both files are in the Design Files section and you have an arrow you can use to collapse or expand the jobs as you’re working with both.  If you needed multiples of any of your designs, you can still change that under repeat.  You can also change the spacing on each design, or by clicking the button for “space all items simultaneously,” you’ll get a box where you can add the spacing to all images on your page.  

To maximize space on your paper, you can also rotate your image to increase the number that fit on a page.  If you are doing multiples of a single design, you’ll see that all copies rotate.  

If you are ganging multiple images, you can add new projects to the page with the add button.  The Add button opens a finder window so you can grab files on your computer.  You’ll notice that if you select multiple files, they will all be added to your project.  This is a great time saver when grabbing multiple files!  

When sending jobs from DesignMate to PrintMate, each job will open a new tab.  In the Design Files area of PrintMate, choose one of your jobs from the “Select a Job” list and then select “Merge into Tab.”  This will combine your jobs into the same tab and you’ll be able to adjust your spacing and rotate as needed to get the best fit.

That’s the basics on ganging and nesting.  If you have any issues or questions, please reach out to our support team at care.sawgrassink.com.  See you next time!