Talk to the people who will be printing the image. They are the ones who can best advise you.
For elevator doors, you can probably get away with a resolution of 72-100 ppi at the final output size
My images are at 300 dpi
That statement means nothing unless you acompany it with dimensions.
Kind of like saying "I’m traveling at 100 mph. When will I get to your place?" you can’t answer that question unless you know the distance that needs ot be travelled.
If you don’t have enough pixels, I recommend you rescan at a higher resolution.
Well the elevator dors are being printed inhouse the billboards will be printed by another printer but i understand that it’ll be pixelated but will look fine from far away.
the images i’m using are 300dpi by about 11×14 inches but blowing them up to 42×83 inchs is going to be a problem.
there not scans though straight from the digital camera.
I’m pretty much at a loss on doing this.
brooks
there not scans though straight from the digital camera.
300 ppi at 11"x14" = 100 ppi at 33" x 42" = 50 ppi at 66" x 84"
So some slight interpolation should be fine. Digital camera shots seem to take interpolation better than scans, so you can always do that. Use bicubic smoother to increase your resolution to 100 ppi at the final size and you should have some decent results.
To be safe, you may want to print a test swatch to get the customer’s approval.
glad you found the right place brooks! 🙂 these guys are good. listen to them! 😉
OK, here’s what I can tell you from having done billboards and large scale work:
I kind of depends on the equipment it’s being printed with.
For the billboards you won’t have a lot to worry about. We used to work at a scale of ¼ inch = 1 foot and the billboards looked great.
For the elevator door cover:
Given the info you’ve provided, you have about 3300 px × 4200 px to work with.
First of all, 11 × 14 can’t be enlarged to 42 × 83 without some stretching or cropping in one of the dimensions because these two sizes don’t represent the same width:height ratios. That’s a separate issue you’ll have to work out. You’ll either transform/stretch the image to fit, or you’ll find other elements to fill in the areas left blank by the width:height disparities.
But let’s say you do work out the size issue, you may be surprised to see how crisp the images coming off some of the large format inkjet printers are, even at resolutions as low as 72 dpi or even 36 dpi.. Again, it depends on the equipment those door wraps will be printed on. And the amount of resolution necessary for the eye to perceive the print as crisp and smooth will also depend on the nature of the images being used. A picture of foliage wouldn’t likely need as much detail as you’d require for stark, sharp, art deco elements, for example.
Knowing what will work for a particular situation is largely a matter of experience.
3300 px ÷ 42 in = 78 ppi
4200 px ÷ 83 in = 51 ppi
