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Turn your design into pages of letters, decorations, labels, and repeating tiles. Print at the intended size, join any oversized pieces, then use your board as the layout reference while assembling the display.
About 7 minutes plus printingUS Letter or A4Cutting and classroom assembly
1. Prepare the pieces and their physical size
Print Pack is for a display built from separate pieces. It rearranges items to use printer paper efficiently. The board background and empty canvas space are not printed as a full-size backdrop.
Select important items and check Width (in) and Height (in) in Properties. Editor zoom changes your view, not their print size.
Show every layer you want printed. Hide alternate designs and guides you do not need.
Move intended pieces onto the board. Hidden and fully off-board items are excluded.
Group items that must stay together, such as a shape with wording placed over it.
Finish any text editing, save, and resolve editing conflicts before exporting.
If you want the entire composition together, including the backdrop and board positions, use Save as Document (PDF). See Which BoardCraft Export Should I Use? for the comparison.
2. Download a Letter or A4 Print Pack
Open Export in the editor's top bar.
Choose Export for Printing. Check that the button says Download Print Pack.
Select Print paper size. Choose US Letter for 8.5 × 11-inch sheets or A4 for 210 × 297 mm sheets.
Choose Download Print Pack. Keep BoardCraft open while Preparing your files runs, and wait for the download.
Extract the ZIP. Open the extracted PDFs in a viewer before printing.
Changing paper size changes how pieces fit onto sheets; it does not shrink them to fit. Print Pack is available on all plans, with Free-plan export limits. Read any limit or error message before retrying.
3. Recognize the pieces in the PDF
Board content | What to expect |
|---|---|
Decorative text and Word Builder | Individual non-space characters prepared as separate pieces. |
Regular text | A composed text box, keeping its paragraphs, lists, and formatting together. |
Clipart, uploads, and shapes | Complete pieces, packed or rotated when they fit and tiled when oversized. |
Groups, name tags, and Face Inserts | Composed pieces that retain their internal arrangement. |
Repeating banners and custom repeating borders | Printable copies of their unique tile artwork. |
Sideways letters or rearranged decorations are expected: page packing saves space. After cutting, turn and position each piece to match your design. Overlapping items on the board are separate unless they belong to a composed element or group.
4. Choose the right PDF from the ZIP
The download uses the board title and ends in -print.zip. The base PDF contains the pieces prepared for your chosen paper.
Filename ending | Use it for |
|---|---|
-print-letter.pdf | The base pack on US Letter paper. |
-print-a4.pdf | The base pack on A4 paper. |
-complete-tabloid.pdf | An optional whole-piece alternative on 11 × 17-inch paper with a Letter pack. |
-complete-a3.pdf | An optional whole-piece alternative on A3 paper with an A4 pack. |
A companion PDF appears only when suitable oversized pieces can fit whole on the larger paper. It contains those pieces, not the entire board. A ZIP with just the base PDF is normal.
5. Print a test page at actual size
Match the paper. Check the PDF page size, printer setting, and paper in the tray. A Tabloid or A3 companion needs that larger paper.
Use Actual size or 100%. Turn off Fit, Shrink, or similar scaling. Print one PDF page per sheet; multiple pages per sheet reduce the pieces.
Check the preview. Use single-sided printing for cut-out pieces and inspect the edges for clipping.
Print one representative page. Measure a known piece with a ruler. For tiled artwork, check the assembled size after a dry fit.
Continue when the test is correct. Keep the same settings for every page that belongs to the job.
6. Join oversized pieces before cutting their outline
When a piece cannot fit the usable sheet area in either orientation, Print Pack splits it into sections. It can rotate the artwork first to reduce the number of sheets. Shared edges include a shaded overlap strip and a dashed guide.
Sort and dry-fit the sections. Match the artwork and edges on a table. Use the digital board as a reference, and mark the backs in pencil once the order is clear.
Trim the joining edge as needed. Remove the plain paper margin from the edge that will sit over its neighbor. Keep the matching shaded overlap strip.
Align the overlap. Match the repeated artwork and dashed guide. In this example, the first section's straight right edge sits over the second section's left overlap strip.
Secure the join. Check alignment before gluing the overlap or taping from the back. Repeat for additional sections.
Cut the outside silhouette last. Trim the joined decoration, then turn it to the orientation shown on the board.
7. Cut, sort, and arrange the display
Cut out standalone pieces and sort them into title letters, labels, decorations, and repeating tiles. Keep a preview of the board nearby: the PDF sheet positions are packing positions, so they do not tell you where to mount each item.
Lay out the title and largest pieces first. Add smaller decorations, then alternate the banner or border tiles in the sequence used in the editor. Check how many copies you need against the downloaded pages; print additional copies of a tile page if your display needs them.
Check spacing and alignment before fixing the pieces in place. Use the board to confirm letter order, overlaps, and the orientation of tiles around corners.
8. Fix common printing and assembly problems
If you see this | Check this |
|---|---|
Pieces are too small | Check Actual size or 100%, matching paper, and one PDF page per sheet. |
Letters are separate | This is expected for Decorative text and Word Builder. Use Regular text for a composed text box, or group a design that must stay together. |
A decoration spans several sheets | Join its sections at the overlap guides, or use its larger-paper companion if one is included. |
Artwork is missing | Check hidden layers, board-edge placement, and the latest saved edits before exporting again. |
A large full-board page downloads | Choose Export for Printing. Save as Document (PDF) exports the complete layout instead. |
An export error or limit appears | Read the message, resolve any save conflict, and check your export allowance before retrying. |