Here’s a great way to make cardboard cutouts of pretty much any size from a regular digital image. The only real limits are the amount of cardboard you have (I’m guessing plenty if you’ve bought a stroller or flat-pack furniture lately) and how much paper & ink you want to use.
Not unlike Dave Banks’ amazing "Large Format Printing as Wallpaper" post, this is a way of taking an image and super-sizing it, this time using free software called The Rasterbator. Despite sounding like something Regina Lynn would review in the Sex Drive column, with a bit of rasterbation experimentation this delivers excellent results.
Either using the online or standalone version, The Rasterbator takes your image and scales it to any dimensions you specify – literally! The finished image is made up of dots in the same way as newsprint images, and is delivered as a multi-page .pdf document with guide-lines for cutting out.
In the simple example above I used an 800×600 cellphone image scaled up to the size of 4 sheets of standard inkjet paper, then pasted it onto cardboard and cut it to shape. In retrospect I wish I’d made it twice the size and used a better photo!
I’ve found this perfect for making large party banners and posters – there’s a rasterbation gallery on the website if you’re seeking inspiration or just want to check out what other people have made. The largest one so far is Rasterbation TG06, a magnificent 7.35 x 10.39 metres, constructed using 1225 sheets of paper.
Sounds like a challenge to me!
