quick question about making a high quality poster

AN
Posted By
Allen_N
Jan 2, 2004
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648
Replies
7
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Closed
I want to make an image for a 24"x36" poster. I want the quality and resolution to match (or be close enough) the quality of the average detailed poster you’d see in a store. What would be a good resolution to use? 200-300 PPI? 600 PPI?

A 24×36 inch image with a 300 PPI resolution is 222MB. Would that produce a high quality that resembles most posters or would I need to go higher? I just hope I don’t have to work with 1.5GB filesizes and have my CPU melt down. Thanks!

* Edit* The main thing I’m trying to avoid is spending a ton of time working on something, just to have it printed in poster size at kinko’s and have it turn up blurry or pixilated.
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L
larry
Jan 2, 2004
Depends on how it’s going to be printed. Each method of printing has an optimum resolution that looks best when printed. I use a Durst Lambda for photographs 16×20 and larger. The optimum resolution is 300 pixels per inch. The Noritsu I use at my local Costco is optimized for 320 pixels per inch though I use 300 from all the hundreds of files I prepared for the Frontier before they replaced it with the Noritsu.

If you’re using an Epson, someone else will have to answer. I don’t make ink jet prints.

Larry Berman
AN
Allen_N
Jan 2, 2004
If my poster was made at 300PPI and it’s then printed on a machine optimized for 320, would it appear too blurry or bad? I have little experience with this and don’t know how it’ll be printed. I’m just trying to pick a good resolution to show fine details on most printing systems without picking something too excessive or too small either.
RL
Robert_Levine
Jan 2, 2004
How is it going to be printed? Nobody can answer your questions until you answer that one. And I have to tell you that the best person to ask is the printer, not us.

Bob
L
larry
Jan 2, 2004
It would be fine. Like I said, I have hundreds of images I print at 300 pixels per inch on a machine optimized for 320.

Actually not knowing how it was going to be printed, I’d probably create it at 300 pixels per inch.

Larry Berman
G
graffiti
Jan 2, 2004
If Allen is printing at Kinko’s, then it’s probably an ink-jet print (do some of them have other type’s of printers?).

300 would be fine but more than likely not necessary. 150-200 would more than likely be the minimum (and what I use for both ink-jet and Durst Lambda prints) image size for a decent print.
AN
Allen_N
Jan 2, 2004
Ok thanks guys, I’ll try it at 300 PPI to be on the safe side. I’d really hate to have it turn out grainy. Sorry about not being specific on the kind of printer, but I’m new at this and hadn’t considered differences between ink printers and other types. Thanks for the information, though.
G
graffiti
Jan 2, 2004
I’ll try it at 300 PPI to be on the safe side.

Yup. that’s the safe way.

If you’re ever concerned, just ask them to print a strip of the poster for you before printing the entire thing.

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