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I have a long image that's about 8 inches wide by 20 inches tall. It's open in Preview. For the life of me, I can't figure out how to get the top half of the image to print on one sheet of letter paper, and the second half to print on the second sheet.

Every time I try, it prints only on one sheet of paper. If I select Scale=100%, it prints a zoomed in part of the middle of the image on one sheet of paper, ignoring the top and bottom of the image. I tried Googling for an answer but the results are bad due to the generic-icity of the words "preview, print, mac, pages" - most of the results I saw were about printing multiple images on one page.

How do I print a PNG across multiple pages?

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    I can't add an answer because I don't have enough reputation, but to add to the strategy of splitting the image into several multiple images, GIMP can do that easily and with precision (you don't have to eyeball it like some of the other suggestions): graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/a/30012
    – twm
    Commented May 10, 2017 at 2:24
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    I ran across this online tool that also does the trick: Rasterbator: rasterbator.net
    – KJH
    Commented Nov 14, 2018 at 15:54
  • Also you can use LibreOffice Calc, here: superuser.com/a/1440189/1040115 some details.
    – mr NAE
    Commented May 23, 2019 at 8:41
  • see superuser.com/questions/161313/print-a-huge-svg
    – Wolfgang Fahl
    Commented Apr 25, 2021 at 10:31
  • Just yesterday I sent a bug report to Apple because I found it basically impossible to print a map in the Maps application without cutting off bits I wanted, or adding bits I didn't want, or both. Now printing over two pages, that would be incredibly clever.
    – gnasher729
    Commented Jan 31 at 12:46

12 Answers 12

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Here is how to use Safari to print an image to span multiple pages:

1) Open the image to be printed in Safari. If it is a local file, then choose File -> Open File.... Or if you already have the file open in Preview, you can drag the icon of the file from the title bar of the Preview window onto the Safari window or Safari icon in the dock. Otherwise, load the image from the Internet however you usually would.

2) Go to File -> Print... and then change the Scale (%) so that the image is the desired size. If you do not see the place to change the Scale, you may need to press the Show Details button. Safari will show you a preview of how the image will appear on each page, so you can see how big the resulting image will be. For the example, you can get the entire width on a single page, but the image will span 2 pages in length.

You may want to choose borderless printing if your printer supports it. For instance, for my Canon inkjet, I set the paper size to US Letter (borderless). However, I was not successful in achieving borderless printing in my one trial; Safari still left white borders around the image that I later had to trim.

3) Click print. Collect your prize from the printer. Trim away white space and then combine the different pages using tape, etc.

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    This is not what the Question asked for. He wants the print at 100% and not scale it down to fit the page.
    – graup
    Commented Feb 7, 2013 at 12:05
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    The answer does explain how to print across multiple pages; it just includes the option to tweak the size so you get the page dimensions you wanted.
    – octern
    Commented Feb 6, 2015 at 22:36
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    Maybe this method worked in an old version of MacOS X? When I tried it in Yosemite, I set the scale to 100% but it just clipped the one page instead of printing across two.
    – samkass
    Commented May 2, 2015 at 17:21
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    Printed a png at 200% across four pages in El Capitan 10.11.5 using this method.
    – jensph
    Commented Jun 1, 2016 at 21:15
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    Just an FYI for other people, this only works on bitmap image files, not e.g. PDFs
    – danio
    Commented Jul 15, 2019 at 16:25
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If you paste the pdf or image into Apple's Numbers app you can print it across many pages.

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    This is the only one that worked for me
    – allanwright
    Commented Apr 24, 2015 at 23:27
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    I would appreciate more details in this answer. I tried to import an A0 PDF but it was scaled down to something slightly larger than A4. The print dialog wanted to print various page numbers, spreadsheet headers, etc, some of which were unobvious and/or challenging to disable. Could you please expand on the necessary steps to print an oversize PDF or image over multiple pages, with no additional adornments from the hosting app?
    – tripleee
    Commented Mar 1, 2016 at 11:26
  • Just drop the pdf into a Numbers document. (It will get resized, but don't worry). Now, when you choose Print (cmd-P) you get a view that lets you see how your document will be split across pages. Pull the Content Scale slider to increase your print. That's it!
    – larsr
    Commented Mar 1, 2016 at 12:40
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    I managed to pull this off, but it's less than ideal. As suggested at discussions.apple.com/thread/2219021?start=0&tstart=0 I deleted the initial table in the empty document (select Delete from the Sheet1 drop-down menu) so I got a completely clean slate. Then I did Insert > Choose ... to import my PDF. It came in much smaller but I was able to reset it to 100% (in the Arrange side pane, click Original Size) and move it to X0, Y0. Finally, Print ... brought up a preview where I could reset the Content Scale to 100% and set all page margins to 0. (Continued.)
    – tripleee
    Commented Mar 1, 2016 at 12:51
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    There is still a page number footer which I could not get rid of completely. You can remove the actual page number by double-clicking and backspacing, but the footer still takes up a strip of maybe 10mm at the bottom of each page, resulting in a grid of 25 pages, where the content would properly only require 16. Printing pages 1-20 got rid of the strip of empty pages along the right; I then simply used scissors to trim the footer from each page, and the large amount of extra whitespace below the bottom, and finally assembled a 4x4 grid with duct tape on the back.
    – tripleee
    Commented Mar 1, 2016 at 12:54
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For PDFs:

At least on Mac OS X, the Adobe Reader application (version 10+) has this feature in its print dialog. There's an option to print as "poster", meaning 100% scale across multiple pages.

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    OP specifically asked about PNGs.
    – Tuesday
    Commented Oct 25, 2015 at 21:12
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    You can use Preview to export any PNG as a PDF. This solution works well.
    – James Owers
    Commented Nov 29, 2015 at 18:15
  • Acrobat does a fantastic job of doing this. It's a great way to print up mocks of mobile sites. Thanks graup!
    – Cloudkiller
    Commented Apr 13, 2017 at 20:15
  • Except the free Reader can't put the output to PDF or Open in Preview. I would like to be able to selectively print the "tiles" since I was outputting a large 20 page tile/poster and the last 2 sheets didn't print and the job failed. I have no desire to print the whole thing again and would like to just print the tiles I need. Why Acrobat does not support SYSTEM FUNCTIONS of print to pdf and open in preview, I have no clue. (Print to PDF is the one I need).
    – chadbag
    Commented Apr 27, 2020 at 23:00
  • Using Adobe Reader was ultimately the fastest solution for me. It's a 500MB download, otherwise easy to install. I used GIMP save to pdf. Adobe Reader's poster print preview is nice; play around with the zoom %; it shows exactly how the page split is going to look.
    – pretzels1337
    Commented Nov 1, 2023 at 21:55
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There are several programs that are designed for this:

  1. PosteRazor: Free. Functional (though ugly). Will cut raster image formats as you have requested. Will not cut PDF's.
  2. SplitPrint: $6. Powerful, and can be used from the print menu, but I have found it slightly difficult to understand.
  3. TilePhotos: $1.
  4. MindCad Tiler: $5. Highly rated by people I know who have used it.
  5. ImprintStudio: $12.50.

I'm sure there are others if you search, but these were the low fruit. Some of these only deal with PDF's, but will nonetheless allow you do drag from preview. At worst, you can always print to PDF and then open in these programs.

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  • TilePhotos now $9.99 (June 2017)
    – Richard
    Commented Jun 13, 2017 at 19:54
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    I have used MindCad Tiler, and it does the job way better than the free version of Adobe Reader.
    – Cai
    Commented Oct 22, 2017 at 13:12
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    PosteRazor is awesome, they have a free online version now that did exactly what I wanted and gave me more control over the output than converting the image to pdf and printing as a poster in Acrobat.
    – Rylee Corradini
    Commented Nov 5, 2019 at 23:20
  • PosteRazor online version is really great and straight-forward
    – linqu
    Commented Sep 1, 2021 at 11:52
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If you want to stick with preview, a quick and dirty way to do it :

  1. Open image in Preview
  2. CMD+a to select all
  3. Grab selection handle and drag until exactly in the middle of the picture. Dimensions of the selection will be shown while dragging the handle, dimensions of the whole picture can be found with the "Inspector" ( CMD+I)
  4. CMD+C and then CMD+N to create new image from selection
  5. SHIFT+CMD+I to invert selection, CMD+C and then CMD+N to create new image
  6. Print your 2 images.

OR drag and drop the image into Safari and print it there. Safari will happily span it over several pages for you.

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    This is actually an excellent way to go about it because it is likely that you will be able to find a better place to divide your image than simple size algorithm is going to find. I used the Safari method but it split my image in the middle of a line of text. Using Preview to Select; Copy; New from Clipboard; I was able to get complete sections/paragraphs on each page and decided to go with 3 instead of 2.
    – Bruno Bronosky
    Commented Mar 25, 2019 at 17:49
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an update to larsar - you can drag the picture into excel. and then in print, choose scaling--> fit to 2 pages wide x 1 page tall. you might have to trim off a little bit margins after you print them out.

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I've never done this but I'm guessing this will get you closer:

Don't print from Preview where there is no Page Setup menu option, try printing from another application like Pages if you have it (copy/paste your image into Pages or another application).

Go to Page Setup in the File menu and under Paper Size make a custom page size of 8"x20".

Once you've done this you can scale your image (drag a corner) to fit the new page size.

Now if you put 8.5" x 11" paper in your printer and print "borderless" I'm not quite sure what will happen but it might work. It might work even if you can't print borderless.

Many who do fine art printing routinely print wide landscapes with roll paper but I'm guessing you don't have the tools for this.

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  • Unfortunately, my Pages installation (Yosemite) did not have any option to tile the output. Maybe this also depends on the installed printer drivers? I just got a small section of the middle of the large page I wanted to print.
    – tripleee
    Commented Mar 1, 2016 at 11:47
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Building on graup's answer, use Preview to export the image to a PDF, and then use Adobe Reader to print out the image in a poster format.

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    Welcome to Ask Different! This answer has already been given. You could make your answer stand out by describing the necessary steps in more detail, including screenshots etc.
    – nohillside ♦
    Commented Mar 25, 2013 at 15:47
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    +1 Preview + Reader has not been suggested by anyone else.
    – Bennett McElwee
    Commented Mar 13, 2015 at 1:52
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For those who recommend using Safari, let me add that Safari does not care if your printer has margins. It will "cut" your image apart into the available paper size, but hands that image over to the printer (which probably will knock off the ⅛"-¼" it can't print). When you assemble your image, it will look as if you're viewing it through window panes.

I use Adobe Illustrator and "Tile Imageable Areas," but since that solution is wicked expensive if you don't already have it, Sam Goody's recommendations should suffice.

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I had an interesting experience with this problem. The first image I tried worked perfectly- it was very tall - Portrait Mode- and it printed across 2 pages using Safari. However, when I tried a very wide image- Landscape mode, specifically 17x11, Safari would not allow me to make it preview the print across two pages. It wouldn't work until I rotated the image in Photoshop so that it was again taller than it was wide. Then Safari would let me print it across two US Letter pages.

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Yes, it can be done in Preview - and incredibly easily!

You don't need Safari, you don't need Acrobat or any paid app, and you don't need poster settings, trim lines, large margins, etc.

For our purposes, we can consider a PDF simply to be a locked-down image file. Publishers and printers will disagree (embedded fonts, etc.) because PDFs were created for proofing, but that's not how most of us use them. Knowing this, we can take advantage of the fact that it's just an uneditable image file (markup, etc. notwithstanding).

  1. In Preview, export your PDF to jpeg
  2. Open the jpeg in Preview and measure the image with the marquee tool
  3. Divide this by the number of pages you want to print onto
  4. Use the marquee to select and crop (Cmd+K), then print a page
  5. Undo crop and repeat
  6. Drink coffee and feel smug

That's it - super simple!

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Increase the size of the image to 101% and the printer will give you the option. You will have to do some cutting to paste them together.

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  • That does not seem to be the case.
    – Calion
    Commented Oct 26, 2018 at 23:50

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