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Printing PMWall Mosaic Tiles and Labels

Updated Today · 4 min readIntermediate

When a Photo Mosaic Wall activation includes a physical board, PMWall prints each tile as it is placed so staff can build the board during the event. Each printed tile carries a C/R label telling the operator exactly which cell it belongs in.

Printing settings are split across two places: the printer hardware is configured on the device, and the printed label design comes from the Cloud template.

Turning Printing On

On the Runtime tab, enable Auto-Print Labels under Runtime Printing. Its description is "Send new labels to the printer or hot folder." With it on, each newly placed tile is sent to print automatically.

Printer Settings (This Device)

Open Settings > Printer.

Output Mode

  • Windows Driver -- Prints directly to a printer on this machine.
  • FMPrint -- Routes output through FMPrint.
  • Hot Folder -- Writes files to a watched folder for an external print system.

In Windows Driver mode, Use Windows default printer is on by default. Turn it off to pick an explicit Printer, with Refresh to re-scan available printers.

In Hot Folder mode, set Hot Folder Path to the watched directory your print workflow uses.

Label Profile

  • Apply CM3500 Preset -- Fills in the Epson CM3500 baseline in one click. Start here if you use that printer.
  • Label Width (in) and Label Height (in) -- Default 2.0 x 2.0, the standard mosaic tile.
  • Resolution DPI -- Default 300. Also used when PMWall generates the high-resolution export.
  • Labels Per Minute -- Default 120.

Labels Per Minute is not cosmetic. PMWall compares the time remaining against the cells still to fill at this rate. When projected capacity falls short, the event enters Critical mode, and that is the only situation in which Allow duplicate relaxation does anything. Set it to what your hardware actually achieves, or the warning arrives too late to act on.

Local Printer Tuning

  • Orientation and Compatibility -- Adjust for printer-specific behaviour. The driver-managed compatibility setting is the recommended Epson CM3500 baseline.
  • Padding (px) -- Left, Top, Right, and Bottom, for trimming alignment on local printing workflows.

The C/R Wall-Position Label (Cloud Template)

Configure this in the Printing tab of the PMWall template. Every printed tile gets a label such as C12/R4 so staff know exactly where it goes on the board.

  • Print the C/R position label -- On by default.
  • Position -- Bottom right (legacy default), Bottom left, Top right, or Top left.
  • Text color -- Default black.
  • Outline color -- Default white. This is a halo drawn around the characters so the label stays legible over any photo.
  • Label size -- Font size as a percentage of the label's shorter edge. Default 5%, range 1-30.

Keep the outline colour contrasting with the text colour. Guest photos vary enormously, and without the halo a black label disappears against a dark photo.

The label is applied to the printed output only. The saved tile image is never modified, so the wall preview and the high-resolution export stay clean.

Contest Winner Badges

If the event runs a contest, the printed label can also carry a winner badge. When the badge prints, a bottom-positioned C/R label automatically shifts above it so they do not overlap. See Configuring PMWall Contest Mode.

When Printing Settings Take Effect

Printer settings and the printed label options are re-read on every print pass, so changes take effect immediately, even while the mosaic is running. You do not need to stop and restart to fix a label colour or switch printers mid-event.

Planning Print Capacity

Printing is usually the real bottleneck in a mosaic activation, not photo capture. Before the event:

  1. Work out the total tiles: Columns multiplied by Rows.
  2. Divide by your actual labels-per-minute rate to get the minimum print time.
  3. Compare that against the event duration.
  4. Check media: work out how many rolls the tile count needs, and whether a roll change will land mid-event.

The Simulator tab in the Cloud template does this arithmetic for you. See The PMWall Event Simulator.

Before the Event

  1. Load media and print one test tile.
  2. Confirm the C/R label is readable at actual size and correctly positioned.
  3. Confirm the printed tile physically fits the board cells.
  4. Confirm Labels Per Minute matches what you measured.
  5. Pack spare media.

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