Jumbo photo strips — sometimes called giant photo strips, large photo strips, or XL strips — are extra-long prints that make a big impression at any event. Guests love them, and they're a great premium offering for photo booth operators at graduations, proms, and brand activations. Depending on your printer, you can produce:

The printer creates the long strip by printing multiple panels back-to-back on a single continuous strip:

Jumbo photo strips require our USB direct printing — a single wire from your iPad to the printer. If you haven't set that up yet, start here: USB Direct Printing — Getting Started.

You don't have to build a jumbo strip from scratch! We've created an example event in your Templates, along with an example jumbo strip layout you can open in the Curator designer.

Use the template as-is, or open the example layout in the designer to see how a giant strip is put together — then swap in your own photos, graphics, and branding. It's the fastest way to get a jumbo strip event up and running, and it guarantees your canvas dimensions are correct from the start.

If you'd rather design your own from scratch, build out a layout exactly as you would for any other event — the only difference is the canvas size:

Where do these numbers come from? Prints are produced at 300 DPI, so simply multiply each dimension in inches by 300. A 6-inch-wide strip is 6 x 300 = 1800 pixels wide; an 8-inch-wide strip is 8 x 300 = 2400 pixels wide. The height works the same way: for example, 20 inches x 300 = 6000, and 32 inches x 300 = 9600.

You can add any number of photos to the strip — one large photo, twenty small ones, or anything in between. The design is entirely up to you.

Jumbo photo strips go out over the same single-wire USB connection as any other print. With your event configured and your printer connected, the app reads your layout and sends the correct instructions to the printer automatically — no print sizes to configure in the app.

When the printer produces a jumbo strip, it makes multiple passes (three or more), pulling the print paper in and out multiple times as it lays down each panel.

Do not grab or pull the strip while this is happening. The print may look finished as it extends out of the printer, but the printer will pull it back in for the next pass. Pulling on the strip mid-print can ruin the print and jam your media. Wait until the printer fully releases the strip before handling it.

Your exact cost depends on what you pay for your media, but here's a great real-world breakdown from Curator user Cathy Mullis Wood, who did the math for the community:

The same math applies to the 8-inch sizes on the DS820 / CX-02W: take your cost per case of 8x12 media, divide by the number of prints per case to get your per-panel cost, then multiply by 2 for an 8x22 or by 3 for an 8x32.

Use these numbers as a good average — your cost per strip will scale with whatever you pay per case of media.

A 20-inch (or 32-inch!) photo strip is an awkward thing to hand a guest at a busy event. Community members have found that these flat poly bags fit the 6-inch jumbo strips nicely and make a clean, professional handoff:

Please note: these bags will not fit the 8-inch jumbo strips (8x22 and 8x32) — those are both wider and longer, so you'll need a larger bag for the DS820 / CX-02W sizes.

Whether you call them jumbo photo strips, giant photo strips, or large-format photo booth strips — your guests will just call them awesome. If you run into any issues, please reach out to our support team via the chat bubble below.