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Banner printing..dpi settings
As many have heard, we just recently purchased a 54" VersaCAMM at work. I am going to be doing some banners for work that are 3’x8′, they will be about 10-15′ in the air. The artwork was done by a design company at 200dpi, is this overkill? Should I drop it down? I just looked at an old file we had of the previous banners and they were only 72dpi sized to finish size. Anyone have opinions/suggestions?
Thanks!
-Marek -
15 Replies
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Hi Marek. 200 dpi is a bit higher than you need, however the higher res the nicer the final product, it just takes longer to process. If they are providing the file, I would keep it that size, not drop it. However you don’t have to go that high, normally we aim for 150 dpi at size. 72dpi is the minimum we would do at size, but it looks fine, and at a distance would definately be okay. Have I contradicted myself? Good luck.
Janice
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😀
Thanks!
I will print a couple of samples in the morning. We are tight on time as well, so this may come in to the equation as well.
-Marek -
Marek. Tight on time, don’t sweat about it. What they send will do. Let it rip.
Janice
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good advice here marek.
That high in the air, I’ve been forced to print 50dpi coz the client has had a deadline and the file supplied was not correct. Looks OK from a distance tho.
72 dpi is the lowest I like to go, but having said that, I will print 300 dpi if that is what the client provides. I prefer 150dpi or 200 personally, but that is my choice. Plenty of shops near me do 72dpi as a maximum anyway.
The higher the res, the better the clarity, especially a photo print.
Warner Bros here like everything to be printed at maximum dpi too.
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The problem is Shane, we are the client. :lol1:
The marketing department had an outside company design the banners (because they have the biggest budget in the park), so we are printing them for..well…us.
I’ll try them at 200dpi, if it takes too long to rip/print, I will drop it down to 100. I usually design at 100-150dpi for most signage in the park and I am quiet happy with the result. Plus with them being up in the air, the quality should not be diminished much.
-Marek -
quote Marekdlux:😀
The problem is Shane, we are the client. :lol1:
The marketing department had an outside company design the banners (because they have the biggest budget in the park), so we are printing them for..well…us.
I’ll try them at 200dpi, if it takes too long to rip/print, I will drop it down to 100. I usually design at 100-150dpi for most signage in the park and I am quiet happy with the result. Plus with them being up in the air, the quality should not be diminished much.
-MarekMarketing depts are a breed of their own aren’t they 🙄
One of the themed parks I look after, sends all their artwork to a freelance design company. Problem is , every time I query anything, the design company charge the park for answering my enquiry.
Even if I just want to clarify a colour, the park will get a bill for my phone call.
Drives me nuts. They do good work, but their attitude on the phone is like they are God, and I’m some pleb that should ask permission to breath!
I got sick of being treated like a moron the other day, they got me on a bad day, so I rang them to tell them that they had an attitude problem, and they had the business ethics of a terrorist!…. They took the call, listen to what I had to say, told me I was entitled to my opinion, and then billed the park for my call. 😳
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quote Shane Drew:I got sick of being treated like a moron the other day, they got me on a bad day, so I rang them to tell them that they had an attitude problem, and they had the business ethics of a terrorist!…. They took the call, listen to what I had to say, told me I was entitled to my opinion, and then billed the park for my call. 😳
:lol1: :lol1: :lol1: :lol1: :lol1:
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I resized to 1/4 the size at 300dpi. Printing now. 😀
Thanks for the advice everyone.
-Marek -
Get hold of the Roland guide, it’s on their website as a pdf, it gives a guide to image dpi/viewing distance.
Steve
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i wouldn’t worry too much about dpi… the golden rule is to try not to resample as the RIP will resample again… if you have to resample, try and get it close to a print resolution (in our case 540dpi), so then I divide that by 2 equals 270dpi or 4 equals 135dpi. Although not that important it just makes resolution sence and may speed up RIP times.
Expect to wait between 2 minutes to 10 minutes for a RIP to process, then it prints. RIP times is normally less then User time.
Remember if it arrives at quarter size @ 200dpi then it is actually 50dpi at correct size. So, the rip will scale up the artwork to suit.
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When talking dpi / ppi there is a difference, correct?
When checking an image in Photoshop you can be looking at Pixels (ppi) not dots (dpi).
When preparing a file for large format posters you only need to be looking at 50ppi even when running on a 300dpi machine. The true resolution of the printer is only going to be seen on vector elements like text etc.
On POS work which has a close viewing distance I would increase image resolutions to 100-150ppi where possible. I find if the image is not of a high enough resolution, instead of resampling the image (increases process time) you can save from photoshop as an EPS. In the saving options tick the interpolation option. This then dithers up the file in your RIP (softer edge hiding pixels).
If I have a large file I would only reduce if compromising process time etc.
Stuart
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PPI is DPI politically correct.
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quote Dave Rowland:PPI is DPI politically correct.
Depends who you are dealing with. Printers prefer to talk in LPI (Lines per inch). I think 150lpi is equiv to 300dpi, but I’m not really sure. I’m sure I’ll be corrected here if I’m wrong. I can take it, I’m married after all!
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its not shane… sorry
lpi is how many lines per inch.. used in screening terms for meshes and in litho its used to to print seps out… how many dots in each plate to make up a photo.
PPI / (old fashioned DPI) is pixels… a laser prints at 600 or 1200dpi, thats 1200 dots per inch. However it may try and print a photo in grey, it would try and print that all dotty looking at around 85lpi @ 1200ppi
Litho/image setter/direct to plate is about 2500dpi at 150lpi… silk screen can be around 120 (mesh per inch), then a formula to prevent patterns so you end up printing around 55lpi with a 600-2540dpi laser/inkjet/imagesetter.
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Thanks Dave,
I’m not going to argue with you coz I didn’t understand a thing after sorry 😛
Thanks for cleearing it up tho. Must confess I am only going off what a printer told me after ranting on the phone how ‘we are killing his industry with our new technology blah blah’
He started on about how I don’t even know the terminolgy blah blah.
I told him he was an idiot and hung up. Turns out I was right then – he was an idiot!
Cheers mate
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