So i’ve been asked by a client to design a banner/backdrop for them to have behind their merch table.
Off the top of my head this seemed like an easy task, but then they said they wanted to use a photo for it, one that is big, but obviously not big enough.
What do you think I should do for it?
I was thinking going over the entire thing with the pen tool/converting it into a vector image.
The other option would be to do it halftone maybe.
What’s the best way to do this/what’s the best process?
26 Comments
joeROOSTER said about 1 month ago
how big is the banner going to be?
FuzzyInk said about 1 month ago
Most banner/sign shops should be able to take care of this for you. We just had some work done and their capabilities were very good.
jayeMOSH said about 1 month ago
In the past they asked for a 9ft x 9ft
Im not sure if it’s the same size now.
jayeMOSH said about 1 month ago
This shop is asking for the file to be prepped, and I just read their specifications and they say 72dpi.
Which makes it alot easier, but still.... I though just about all printers only printed good quality at 300dpi at the lowest.
illdthedj said about 1 month ago
halftone then live trace the halftone sounds like it could not only look good big, but also look cool in general (everyone likes a good halftone)
also just live tracing it....live trace dosnt just do black n white...it does color and grayscale as well.
i guess it depends if your client is set on making it photorealistic or not
jayeMOSH said about 1 month ago
I was thinking of live tracing it to save time, I guess i’ll just see how it looks. You think halfton in PS or Illustrator?
illdthedj said about 1 month ago
also, i know here where i work (a winery) i had to design a 90 inch tall banner of a wine bottle shot, and the highest res image they had was not high res enough....and some guy here in mechanical (they make sure the designer’s designs are perfect for printing) used some program to res it up...something using fractals or something.
maybe theres some image resolution-upper program out there for free or trial use?
i mean, for a banner you can get away with 72 dpi...150 is preferable...what size is the image and whats the dpi?
i came from nothing said about 1 month ago
banners and digital - like actuall size art at 72-150dpi alldepnds on the LPI of the printing machine
octopus art said about 1 month ago
i didnt really read a whole lot of those comments, but i design 8ft - 40ft banners alot and 100dpi is perfectly fine. it doesnt and will never most likely be clear up close, but thats why its so big...its meant to be seen far away.
djredbrownie said about 1 month ago
150 and higher is what was always expected from my printers. They do have programs like illdthedj mentioned that can scale the images up for you so it’d be a good idea to ask your printer if they have the capability.
Acid said about 1 month ago
If you need to make the image bigger and are going with the halftone option, do it in photoshop and you can set how big the dpi is, so say its a 72dpi image at 100x100, you convert it to 300dpi using the halftone thing in photoshop, then it makes it into 1500x1500 at 300dpi, you can just copy it and then open a new document of 1500x1500 at 72 dpi and your sorted. Im not very clever with the whole printing and dpi and stuff, and those numbers arent right, but what I mean is making it a halftone image on photoshop you can make it big and then copy it into a 72 dpi image. long winded explanation is over.
jayeMOSH said about 1 month ago
Yeah i’ll probably give them a call and ask what I should do.
I may just do the halftone thing regardless...
illdthedj said about 1 month ago
what are the dimensions of the photo given to you?
does the photo need to be color on the banner? or can it be black and white? if black and white, a halftone could look cool. depends what the banner is for tho, and if a halftone styled look is appropriate for the client.
joeROOSTER said about 1 month ago
i think if you take the pic they give it should work fine as is. just make sure the pic they give is high quality.
bodegainc said about 1 month ago
Try the program Genuine Fractals. You can upsize images with very lil loss to quality
Ben Danger said about 1 month ago
http://www.alienskin.com/blowup/blowup_examples.aspx
make planes not waste said about 1 month ago
Its a misconception. It depends on the ratio of distance v size (i.e. how big the print is and the distance it is vieweved from)
I am a photographer by trade, I just got my degree and we were taught that if you were printing a photograph, then the larger it is the less dpi you need it because the larger photograph the further away you need to be to appreciate it. Of course if you go closer you will see the 'grain' but that is the same of smaller images also the closer you go.
So 72dpi for 9ftx9ft sounds about the right dpi from a photographers point of view. :)
djredbrownie said about 1 month ago
I’m not discrediting what you are saying but the best thing that anyone should do is to talk to the company who will be doing the printing. Advice is great but every printer has their own process of doing things and it’s better to get your info from the horses mouth. If you’re doing something for a corporate entity then you should ask them what color guide they’re using so you can match your spot colors exactly. DPI is recommended by the job requirements so if you send them the image or a rough of the image with everything else then they will give you the requirements they will need to make it a successful print.
darenisdopeee said about 1 month ago
not sure if someone already posted this but from what i experienced when i got my banners made they print banners in 72 dpi so you can make the file huge
(300 dpi dragged onto a 72dpi)
cajun metal said about 1 month ago
Place that shit in Illustrator and scale it up to the requested size. Since it’s vector you can scale without distortion. Next Song.
Jon Kruse said about 1 month ago
I was trying to think of this program
Randomentity said about 1 month ago
i print banners, and i think so does Erik[gameyy], and ThinkBaker.
I recommend a 150-300 ppi image, that’s Pixels Per Inch, at the size it’s going to be printed. Depending on what it is, if it’s photos, and it’s at size, 72 MIGHT be okay at a distance for the final image. As far as the resource images you use to make it, they should be around 300-600 cuz they’ll be scaled up.
the printer itself prints between 400-600 DPI so your image will look just like what you created.
jimmyheartcore said about 1 month ago
Don’t live trace it dude.
A 150 dpi image is good. Just blow it up, sharpen, and keep it clean.
A good trick to use for blowing it up -
Get two layers with the same image. On the top one, sharpen it and select the shadows. Then select inverse and delete.
On the bottom layer, blur the image so that everything looks smooth. The shadows should make it look pretty sharp still, without the bottom layer showing the jpeg artifacts.
derekdeal said about 1 month ago
i just did this for a 12x12 foot banner for a large tradeshow. At full size the piece was 72 dpi and looked great. For something that big its almost impossible to work in raster at fullsize, 300 dpi.
what i did was create the doc fullsize, 144 x 144 at 72 dpi. Then unchecked resample, and bumped up the res to 600. That cut my image size down so i could actually work without exhausting my system resources.
Ameeee said about 1 month ago
I work at a joint that prints banners and other signage. Often clients don’t provide stuff at the right size - but it doesn’t seem to be too much of an issue. One of our printers requires a min 90 dpi and another works great at 72 dpi. It really depends on the printer - so ignore the advice from a few that it must be 150-300 dpi. (just because in this case, 72 is what your printer says)
As others have said, the best thing to do would be to ask the printer - but in my job I resize a lot of photos for Auction and For Sale signs and there isn’t too much loss of quality.
jayeMOSH said about 1 month ago
Umm...
to everyone...
Thanks alot for all the tips, seriously.
I’ll probably go through and do the banner a few different ways, the one that looks best w/ the best method i’ll let you know.
Also a little update...
the size ended up being smaller than I had though. It’s 7' x 6'
soo...
that makes it a tad bit easier.
But again, thanks, i’ll update once I try some things.