2026-04-14
How to work with large output files from a Gang Sheet Builder
Once you start using a gang sheet build to produce big jobs, you will soon realize that:
The generated output files tends to get big really fast (especially when rendering at 300 or 600 DPI)
When combining logos from multiple jobs, it gets hard to find the output file that contained the 2 small logos for company xyz
So rather than just exporting a simple output file, I decided to output a “sidecar file”. It’s just a fancy word for an archive with a specific extension 😊
In this self-contained archive I include a preview/thumbnail (low resolution) copy of the output, the output itself, all the logos in the output, and a definition of logos in the job: number of copies, sizes etc. for each logo.
My Sidecar viewer is just a very basic program that operates in one of two ways:
If you just open a sidecar file, if will just open the thumbnail/preview: a fast way for you to visually identify the job/logos
If you keep shift pressed down when opening a sidecar file, you will get all the details about the job, and also be able to extract the actual print file/the entire content of the archive.
Written by: Jesper Halvorsen