Printers/Designers - quick question on file size/print size possible

[gpanalysis]

Hi guys, I'd like to get the following comic book image printed as large as is possible before pixelation occurs (high res here) :

 

 

The image details (when opened in Photoshop) :

 

jpeg, 48.1 MB

5750 x 2926 pixels

21.617 x 11 inches

266 pixels/inch

 

Ideally I'm looking for something to be printed that's around 3 meters wide (approx. 10 feet wide)

[Makmorn]

Oddly enough, the larger the image, the lower the dpi requirements. Billboards are sometimes as low as 26 or even 13 dpi. Most home PC type printers only print at 96 dpi.

 

If you are having a printer do it, you might ask him to be sure, otherwise I would say change the print size, and maybe lower the dpi to keep the file smaller if necessary.

 

I found this company online, they print posters and they only use a max of 150 dpi

http://www.imagers.com/posters/postersetup.html

 

Hope that helps (thumbs u

[gpanalysis]

Thanks! Yes, I'll be taking it to a digital printer somewhere around Melbourne.

 

So the fact that the file is currently at a higher dpi is a problem? Or the printer will adjust the file as required before printing?

[Makmorn]

It should not be a problem, I was just giving you a reference on dpi. I have some large prints that were done by a billboard company at only 26 dpi, and they look great, but I don't know what type of printer they were using.

 

I would take it to the printer and ask him first as everyone has different software/printers.

 

I would not change anything unless they ask you to, they can resize it prior to printing.

 

 

[Flee-Marquette]

If you resize the image in Photoshop to 10ft wide and maintain the current filesize,

the dpi will be about 48 dpi. If you resize the image to 10ft and maintain the current 266 dpi,

your filesize will be 1.45G. Here is a banner we did that is 2' X 6' at 300 dpi.

 

[gpanalysis]

Hey Flee - would the final result be the same regardless of how it's resampled? Or do I fail photoshop resizing 101?

[Flee-Marquette]

Anytime you resample an image, the image quality is affected whether you are

deleting pixels or adding pixels. Like Makmorn said, the larger the image the less

the dpi can be. I also echo his suggestion that you take it to a printer and ask

them for their advice. They might be able to show you samples at different dpi's

so you can make an informed decision about how to process the image.

[Makmorn]

The only other suggestion I would make is the file type, jpegs are compressed so therefore some digital information is sacrificed for file size. Jpeg, gif and png are mostly for websites rather than print.

 

If you can obtain a tiff or eps from the artist, the final result would likely be a little better. If not, a jpeg will work, it's just not the best image possible.

[mackenzie999]

One very important factor is viewing distance. I've done billboards that look amazing at 9 dpi, because the viewing distance is so great. If this will be seen up close, any pixillation will probably be noticeable. Ask your printer to output a small sample at the resolution they are capable of for this, tack it to your wall or wherever it is going, and se if you like it.

 

It also depends on your eye. We designers are probably more sensitive to issues of image quality, whereas I find non-professionals tend to be a lot more forgiving.

[DiceX]

Rule of thumb is to have 300dpi at the final print size. You don't really need anything higher than that. However, 150dpi at the final print size is usually ok for something large, as long as it's going to be viewed farther than arms reach.

 

What that means is that the resolution has to contain enough pixels for you to resize the image into the size you want it to print, and still have 150 (or 300) pixels per inch.

 

If you want the pic to be 10 feet wide, it will need to be 18,000 pixels wide.

10 feet x 12 inches x 150 dpi

 

Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy.

 

 

[DiceX]

One very important factor is viewing distance. I've done billboards that look amazing at 9 dpi, because the viewing distance is so great. If this will be seen up close, any pixillation will probably be noticeable. Ask your printer to output a small sample at the resolution they are capable of for this, tack it to your wall or wherever it is going, and se if you like it.

 

It also depends on your eye. We designers are probably more sensitive to issues of image quality, whereas I find non-professionals tend to be a lot more forgiving.

 

This is absolutely true. If it's going to be viewed at around 20 feet away, you can probably cut the resolution in half. Just know it's going to look like mess up close.

 

 

[Aman619]

whats is the final usage going to be? is the key question. As others have said, will you be standing next to it like a large Picasso at a museum, able to see the faces closely and expecting all the details to be supersharp? or will it be a billboard, large but far away from the eye?

 

and keep in mind that your starting scan, while pretty adequate for most any usage, may already be too small to contain enough detail for the first usage I mentioned.

 

and of course counting image pixels and printing resolution dots/inch are totally different animals, they just sound the same.

[Lebowski]

The sign company that I use to order large banners, sdsign.com, only requires a dpi of 125 at final print size and the banners look fantastic. But yes, ask your printer what size they prefer, but for a banner that size, my opinion is 125 dpi saved as a .tif file.

 

*At its current size, you could pretty easily do a 4' x 2' banner with a nice image quality to it.

[DiceX]

Also note that you can up the resolution on an image, but it doesn't up the resolution.

The image has to have the resolution from the onset. You can res down, but you can't improve the image by res'ing up in Photoshop.

 

 

[sckao]

Yes, start from the highest possible quality image. (thumbs u

 

(48 megs is actually not that large.)

 

 

 

 

[mschmidt]

Most home PC type printers only print at 96 dpi.

 

That's not really true, unless if by "most home PC type printers" you mean "80s dot matrix printers"

 

Nowadays most standard sub-$100 inkjet printers have a print resolution around 1200 DPI, and even dirt-cheap b&w laser printers can print at at least 600 DPI.

[Makmorn]

You are most likely correct, I have not bought a home PC printer in a long time

[Aman619]

Most home PC type printers only print at 96 dpi.

 

That's not really true, unless if by "most home PC type printers" you mean "80s dot matrix printers"

 

Nowadays most standard sub-$100 inkjet printers have a print resolution around 1200 DPI, and even dirt-cheap b&w laser printers can print at at least 600 DPI.

 

but thats just more "number mumbo jumbo". The printer uses those 1200 "dots of ink" to produce "dots of image"... and images are actually described in terms of "dots of image" per inch not dots of stuff.

 

In other words, if the printer is spraying 1200 pieces of stuff per inch, and you want it to use 16 of them to create each dot of your image for each color ink, you end up with only 75 true dots of image (per ink color) per inch, or, in printing terms, an image of only 75 dots per inch. (and what you get with this ratio however is a healthy assortment of 256 levels of greyness to describe your image. Picture a 16x16 grid and start filling in some dots with black in any combination you can think of. After you do them all, you will have created 256 different combinations which will appear to the eye as 256 different sized little dots: 256W/0B, 255W/1B, 254W/2B etc etc...) I have a printer friend who drummed this into me...

 

It's all mumbo jumbo. Just ask your printer and let him do the rest. After all, you can't get a larger scan at this point anyway, can you?

 

[mschmidt]

Most home PC type printers only print at 96 dpi.

 

That's not really true, unless if by "most home PC type printers" you mean "80s dot matrix printers"

 

Nowadays most standard sub-$100 inkjet printers have a print resolution around 1200 DPI, and even dirt-cheap b&w laser printers can print at at least 600 DPI.

 

but thats just more "number mumbo jumbo". The printer uses those 1200 "dots of ink" to produce "dots of image"... and images are actually described in terms of "dots of image" per inch not dots of stuff.

 

In other words, if the printer is spraying 1200 pieces of stuff per inch, and you want it to use 16 of them to create each dot of your image for each color ink, you end up with only 75 true dots of image (per ink color) per inch, or, in printing terms, an image of only 75 dots per inch. (and what you get with this ratio however is a healthy assortment of 256 levels of greyness to describe your image. Picture a 16x16 grid and start filling in some dots with black in any combination you can think of. After you do them all, you will have created 256 different combinations which will appear to the eye as 256 different sized little dots: 256W/0B, 255W/1B, 254W/2B etc etc...) I have a printer friend who drummed this into me...

 

It's all mumbo jumbo. Just ask your printer and let him do the rest. After all, you can't get a larger scan at this point anyway, can you?

 

That's not correct, though (my background's in print design).

 

You're right when you say that colors are reproduced by combining a large number of half-tone dots to emulate various tints. But this also means that having a printer with a resolution higher than the resolution of your image is critical - for instance, a 250 DPI color photograph will look best when printed on a 1000+ DPI printer.

 

Printing a 250 DPI color photograph on a 300 DPI printer is a different matter, though - as the half-tone dots are combined, the lower resolution of the printer comes into play & you end up with larger "blots" on the paper. Which, in turn, translates to an image that looks more much more pixellated than the one above.

 

Anyway ... for what the OP is talking about, he's nowhere near the level of resolution needed to print an image in that size. At 150 DPI (which is the minimum I'd go here), his image will print very nicely at about 40" x 20". If he bumps that up to the 10' he's looking for, you're looking at an effective DPI around 50 - which I can guarantee you is going to look nasty & pixellated when printed.