First off, to be pedantic, it is "PPI" you need 300 of, not "DPI".
How big is this banner going to be?
How are you going to get it printed?
Making a 300PPI image in PS is easy enough, but how were you proposing to make the PDF? Do you have the full ADobe Acrobat program?
Thanks for your reply,
I was given the DPI on the phone I may hve picked it up wrong.
The banner will be 12ft by 8ft, not sure how it will be printed.
I can convert a jpg to pdf online and I do have Acrobat but don’t use it much
How and where are you having it printed?
300 seems a little extreme for most oversized printing.
One thing I forgot to say. If I can create a 300PPi file I was told it will be 150MB, is that about right.
Cheers
Do you have another program? You will be much happier with output produced from Illustrator that Photoshop, provided you can create the artwork using text, paths, and gradients. Your file will also be much smaller.
If using Photoshop, then 100 ppi is plenty of resolution for the size of image you are creating. If you re not using path layers or text, then TIF or high-quality JPEG images will work just as well as a PDF. If you are using paths or text, then save the file as EPS with vectors and Distill that to make your PDF using press-quality job options in Acrobat Distiller.
One thing I forgot to say. If I can create a 300PPi file I was told it will be 150MB, is that about right
No. 300 ppi squared x 12 feet x 12 inches/foot x 8 feet x 12 inches/foot x 3 bytes per pixel (for RGB) = 3,559.6 Mb.
My file would be one ninth that size, or 395.5 Mb.
Cheers Scott,
It is the printer who says he is having problems. I sent him a jpeg image and he says he can do nothing with it. It has to be 300PPI and PDF
You will get no benefit from resampling an image up to that resolution. If you already have an image, then just change your image size to 12′ x 8′ without resampling and save that as a PDF.
It sounds like you aren’t talking to a pritner, but a reseller or salesman or receptionist or someone who doesn’t know much about printing. Anyone who knew would be able to give you much better advice and clearer file requirements.
No…
I don’t know who you are dealing with on this…
First: you can’t MAKE a 144" x 96" file @ 300ppi in Photoshop…it exceeds the 2GB and/or the 30,000 pixel limit on a side.
In Photoshop CS, you CAN make an image this large in the new PSB format, but I’m totally unfamiliar with that, and have no idea how you would output or translate this file to the printer.
At any rate, largest file I can make in PS 7 is :
144" x 96" @ 208 ppi. It is apprx 1.7 GB in TIFF format. PSD would be in similar range, might be somewhat smaller. PDF depends largely on output parameters, full Acrobat allowing much more tweaking that Photoshop’s PDF save options.
As others have said, 300ppi is too much for purposes that will be generally viewed from a distance. I believe billboards are generally under 30ppi, if that gives you any idea.
M
Cheers lads I thought I was being led up the garden path. I forgot to say, although the banner will be 12ft by 8ft the actual image will be centred in it and will only be about 2ft by 18inches
Good Lord, John…
That information would have been helpful up front.
yes, that’s about a 100MB file at 300ppi.
But the project sounds insane 🙂
M
If they want that image on a canvas to size, we are back to BIG files!
but how were you proposing to make the PDF?
File>save as>Photoshop PDF.
But if the image is only a small portion of the sign, I’d bring it into a drawing package. Corel Draw excels at this type of thing.
Bob
