[Qgis-user] Fw: How to change Map resolution in QGIS Print Layout

[John Antkowiak]

 Hi. I cannot find an answer to this in the QGIS User Guide or online tutorial videos, and I'm a very inexperienced user.

My datasets are linked below. They're from the State of North Carolina and consist of 1) all the streets in the State, and 2) all the county boundaries. I clipped each layer so that I'm working with the streets in Alamance County only. I use the "StreetName" attribute to label the layer.
I need to create a paper wall map to help a charity plan its delivery routes. I have no innate sense exactly how big the map has to be; I'm starting with an assumption of a 60" roll of paper. (I've already had to rule out a commercial or purchase of a predesigned product. Doing it myself will cost me probably ten hours, which I can spare, but save nearly a thousand dollars that I can't.) 
In my Print Layout, I set the paper size to 60" wide by 115" high. (It would be nice if I could change the interface ruler units from mm to inches, but I don't see how. This would help me ensure the desired margin.)
I add the map and adjust its scale to fit the entire county as large as possible on the layout page. I hope I'm expressing the scale correctly, but I believe the smaller the scale number, the closer-in the map appears. The closer I zoom in, the more street names should appear. I would prefer that all street names are visible.
But here's the first challenge.
The Print Layout window acts as a preview of the final printed product, and what it shows me when viewed at 1:1 scale is not what I want to see. All the vector lines and all the labels are so pixelated that they're almost illegible. It makes no difference what the map scale is, because the size of the labels and their resolution doesn't change with the map scale. 
I tried going back to the source map and adjusting the label font size from the default (10) to 12, but it didn't change the outcome. It only yielded bigger pixelated illegible labels. (I exaggerate; they're not illegible they're just very difficult to read, almost to the point of rendering the whole exercise moot.) I tried adjusting the output dpi in the Print Layout to 500 dpi, but I think all that does is make the pixelated labels more sharply pixelated. The preview didn't change at all.
A screen capture is attached.
Once I solve that problem, I suspect I'm going to find that a scale of 18,000 - which allows the entire county to be shown on one page without losing any vector data - isn't close enough to display enough of the street names. I'm going to have to create map panels, which adds a level of complexity to my learning curve. 
Any insights on this situation would be most appreciated. Have a good day -
John A.


The two datasets are found here:https://connect.ncdot.gov/resources/gis/Pages/GIS-Data-Layers.aspx

Download the layers titled "Road Characteristics Arcs Shapefile Format" and "County Boundary Shoreline" to reproduce exactly what I see. Clip them as described above.

  
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