Resolution for a print

[John.Taggart]

Hi Alistair

I would always work at 25% at 300 dpi this would give you a workable file size of around 74MB. Just make sure that if you bring any files in that they are at least 300dpi.

Cheers 😀

[David Rogers]

quote johnt:

Hi Alistair

I would always work at 25% at 300 dpi this would give you a workable file size of around 74MB. Just make sure that if you bring any files in that they are at least 300dpi.

Cheers 😀

In other words – 75dpi.

For a giant ‘poster’ 75dpi is OK – but a REAL 300dpi would be better…just a couple of GIGABYTES in size!!

If possible (ie. not any pictures) – send it to your printer as a vector & let THEM render it to a suitable resolution. (Or even an EPS with embedded images)

This can sometimes save you BOTH time as them ripping a 1 or 2Gb jpg will take forever!

I’ve done a few 300dpi ‘posters’ at about 6′ x 5′ – was a bit over a Gig uncompressed – just 94Mb though when saved as a jpg.

Dave

[John.Taggart]

Hi Alistair

I usually send this size for anything from a banner to a vehicle wrap and you really can’t tell the difference between a print that’s been done at actual size, which takes forever to work on and RIP and one at quarter size.

Don’t let the fact that I’m a new member fool you into thinking that I have no experience in setting up files for digital artwork (over 10 years). I can’t explain the the technicalities as to how it works, but Photoshop EPS files printing at 25% at 300dpi scaled up on the rip, look pretty much the same as 300dpi at actual size when they’re printed.

Not trying to be confrontational, just now it works. 😀

[David Rogers]

quote johnt:

……..I can’t explain the the technicalities as to how it works, but Photoshop EPS files printing at 25% at 300dpi scaled up on the rip, look pretty much the same as 300dpi at actual size when they’re printed.

Not trying to be confrontational, just now it works. 😀

You’re not being confrontational in ANY way!!

At anything over 2 or 3 feet away – they’ll look basically identical. It just depends how close you expect it to be scrutinised by the client. 75dpi is a LITTLE grainy for close-up work, as up ’til now I’ve always specified up my prints at about 300dpi when I subbed them out (now do them at 720)…but your printer will probably notice it didn’t take half an hour minutes to RIP!

Dave

[John.Taggart]

Your right Alistair, Just new to the forum and don’t want to start P***ing anyone off. This is my experience of setting up print files and your right, if your up really close and pedantic you could spot the difference. But on a sign that will probably be up above head height the 25 % at 300dpi would be fine.

Cheers 😀

[Karl Williams]

I normally start the artwork on photoshop at around the 100dpi mark at full size. When it’s complete I flatten the image and save it as a tiff file with LZW compression. When it’s in the rip software this rips at either 720 x 720 for quality prints or 720 x 360 for lower quality at a higher print speed. Not much difference between the 2 though.
If the image is designed in corel and exported for contour cutting it’s exported as an eps. From coral this for some reason makes a larger file. Lets say sometimes 40 or 50 mb. When ripped as an eps in the shiraz or onyx software the profiles are set at the higher dpi increasing the file size much higher.
One thing I can’t get my head around is why an eps file from coral dulls the image when ripped. It’s as if the software can’t recognise the colours.
I’ve tried using different palettes for vector images in rgb and cmyk but the result is the same.

Karl.

[John.Taggart]

Hi Karl

Never used Corel so can’t comment on the colour dulling issue. The only thing I can put forward as an explanation is maybe your screen calibration isn’t spot on so what you see on the screen isn’t necessary what you get on the print. I also know that in Photoshop some people work in RGB and then convert to CMYK on the RIP or in Photoshop which can put some of the colour out of gamut range which dulls sections of the image when printed.

John 😮

[Andrew Edwards]

Just a thought – if you have the ONYX RIP are you applying an input profile to your CMYK or RGB Vector in the Quickset?

If you are, turn it off & you will see colours that are much less washed out, although a little less accurate.

You can leave the input profile on for the images (ie bitmaps) as the RIP will look inside a PDF and treat each element differently.

If you have a different RIP it may be the same issue as this is a regular one that comes up.

[Jason Xuereb]

It really depends. How hi res are your images to begin with. If your blowing up a small jpeg and its going to blur then a reduction in dpi won’t make much difference. If you have hires images work at 150dpi if your close or like as said 75dpi if your a few metres away.