The Rasterbator: Huge DIY Artwork

Here's a little tip for you to play with if it gets rainy in the next few weekends, and you're stuck inside.

The Rasterbator is an infamous website which allows you to blow your own picture up to 20 meters in size. The quality of the images is up to you and will depend on your paper and printer...

How does it work?

The folks there transform your pic into many, one page PDF files and send them back to you. You then print out the images and piece them together. This is how they put it:

The Rasterbator creates huge, rasterized images from any picture. Upload an image, print the resulting multi-page pdf file and assemble the pages into extremely cool looking poster up to 20 meters in size.

Simple, right? Think of all the things you could do with this. Outside of the rather limited selection of image that they have on file, think about AT'ers doing faux headboards, curtains, any type of decorative motif, like columns, or working with color to piece together a really beautiful pic of a forest scene or landscape. We'd love to host a rasterbator contest for interiors...

>> Our Original Rasterbator Post with 42 Comments

>> To get started just head over to http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/

(ReEdited from 2008-06-04 - MGR)

Comments (19)

Finally AT does a piece on this wonderful site!!! They turn out much more classy and "adult" than you'd think!

posted by aladywhoknows on June 4th 2008 at 6:31am
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very nice!

posted by sugarpond on June 4th 2008 at 6:36am
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Its not the first time alady. Thanks to AT I've used the site for over a year now.

posted by Sara48 on June 4th 2008 at 6:52am
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Infamous, why? Also why does "The Rasterbator" link back to this page?

posted by mgn on June 4th 2008 at 9:19am
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If only the folks behind Rasterbator had a functional Mac version.

posted by Devyn on June 4th 2008 at 5:00pm
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This is also incredibly easy to do in Photoshop for those that have access to it. It's called "Color Halftone". The trick is to convert it to grayscale and resize it first, but it works like a charm.

posted by Jeremy In VA on June 4th 2008 at 7:50pm
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I prefer ProPoster as it doesn't halftone the image. It's more complicated than rasterbator, but gives much more control.

posted by Shane_ on June 4th 2008 at 8:26pm
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I used Rasterbator (hate the name) for my Cinco de Mayo/Kentucky Derby Party a month ago. These worked great to add some tacky but fun decorations to our party. I also made a huge picture of a horse and put it up behind the bathroom door which was a fun surprise for my guests. This was a very classy party if you didn't get that.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jessicagulish/TresDeMayoFestival/photo#5199764183692676562

http://picasaweb.google.com/jessicagulish/TresDeMayoFestival/photo#5199764252412153330

check out the jockey in the background
http://picasaweb.google.com/jessicagulish/TresDeMayoFestival/photo#5199764381261172274

Happy rasterbating.

posted by JessG on June 4th 2008 at 9:21pm
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Yeah, what is this "finally" doing a piece on them? It's like about once a week or so since I've been reading AT, and every time, they pretend it's some big revelation or well-kept secret.

posted by K T G on June 5th 2008 at 1:16am
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mgn...I was also wondering what they've done to become "infamous"!

posted by UWSretreat on April 30th 2009 at 12:08pm
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i did this in my dorm room, i took a picture of the boston skyline at night, and then blew it up, and tiled it (220 pages) around two walls of my room to create a headboard!

posted by donovans8 on April 30th 2009 at 12:12pm
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Question for those whove used it: Do you just tape papers directly to the wall or do you have any unsual fun methods (ie framing each one, pasting them onto canvas first...)?

posted by eyelight on April 30th 2009 at 1:02pm
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Rasterbator is infamous in the street art world, at least! Its the budget way to print out posters or other images for wheat-pasting and what not.

posted by sholt on April 30th 2009 at 1:14pm
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Yes kitteh, you can has cheezburger.

posted by estydesign on April 30th 2009 at 1:55pm
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Hmm, I've been using this site for years. And FYI, homokaasu (the url name), is Finnish for Gay Gas.

The more you know... :P

posted by pikku.sukka on April 30th 2009 at 2:34pm
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Infamous perhaps simply for the name.

posted by fivemonkeys on April 30th 2009 at 2:47pm
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Rasterbator = having fun with your own poster (?)
lol

posted by baileyb on April 30th 2009 at 7:06pm
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kiitos pikku.sukka!
as if rasterbator could get any more awkward :S

posted by pompote on April 30th 2009 at 8:33pm
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Great link. I hadn't heard of this application before.

I'm going to be Rasterbating all day long.

I use a Mac, and I'll able to use the online version without any problems.

Can't wait to see what others come up with.

posted by Travis74 on April 30th 2009 at 10:05pm
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