printing ideas??

[rickmann]

milkweed, I don't understand exactly what you are attempting to do but I can give this advice. I would start your file off at a high resolution and dimensions that you need to print and if you need to make smaller you can then reduce it. I wouldn't reccomend taking something small at a low resolution and making it larger, everything will start to go pixelated, and you will start to get artifacts in your prints.

C-ya
Rick

[XanderFX]

A good rule of thumb. Multiply what you want your final output size to be by 300 which is the minimum for a good print (300 dpi) so your image size in PS would be 20 x 300 by
30 x 300 or 6000 pixels x 9000 pixels. It is going to be a gigantic file so I hope you have a ton of RAM. As far as printing I saw some really cool images at Siggraph done in PS and printed on canvas at some large sizes.

http://www.siggraph.org/artdesign/gallery/S02/onwall/koen/2bigimage.html

Here is a link to some of the work

[TheNeverman]

You can get descent image quality at 150ppi, but 300 would be tops you need for a continuous tone image...

n8

[antzero]

for what you are wanting you will need lots of ram for photoshop and patience too. and even more hard drive space to save your psd files. especially if you use alot of layers in photoshop. once you get your image finalized and you go to get it printed. you need to make sure that you save it as a TIFF not a JPG. due to the dimensions that you want they will need to use roll feed printer, like one of the high end HP deskjets. those usually use a RIP server and RIP servers don't like jpgs very much. and one final point be sure you change your color settings from RGB to CMYK. other wise who knows how the printed piece will look.

[TheNeverman]

While the .tif format is great for print - I wouldn't say it's the 'only' choice. It's best to check with where you will be getting it printed (as different print shops handle things differently).

Also check with what color mode they'd like it to be given to them in. Some of the newer RIPs have great RGB->cmyk conversion tables... The chances they'd even use the same CMYK profile as what you'd have at home is pretty slim...

n8

[antzero]

your right that TIFF is not the only option. an EPS file would work great as well. i still wouldn't suggest a jpeg. while its true some of the new RIP machines have good RGB to CMYK conversion tables. i have seen a RIP machine slow to a crawl with a JPG file in a magazine layout.

this is due to the differences in compression formats and the way that the color tables are stored. with a file as large as he is wanting printed, i would be afraid that it would break the RIP box.

the RIP process is the means of turning vector digital information such as a PostScript file into a high-resolution raster image then transfors the raster image to individual dots that the imaging device can output. another thing that rip machines do, is it creates color seperations more specifically 4 color seperations.

so if it has to convert the pixel RGB-format to a raster CMYK and then to color seperations! that rip box will run out of memory really fast and then freeze up really bad especially with how BIG that files is going to be.

personally, i would still use a CMYK tiff format or even an eps format. but that is just my humble opinion. later...

the infamous antzero
graphic designer / digital artist

[TheNeverman]

well - personally I'd go the route you suggest too... but unfortunetly there's some, 'interesting' print shops out there that have different criteria than us 'normal' people...

again - just best to check with the print shop he'll be going to...

n8

[jeroentje]

Last week I had one of my digital paintings printed on canvas and framed on a 50x40cm size.
The specs of the printing company (KleurGamma, Amsterdam):
- TIFF RGB (uncompressed)
- 300dpi
- No layers, no paths, no extra channels.

It wasn't cheap but the result was awsome.

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