Designing a Banner

[jmarsh24]

I'm trying to create a banner for our robotics team, 10 x 3 ft. And I was told that in photo shop to create a 600 dpi 10ft by 3 ft pixel image. This image becomes 3.62 gb in size, so I was wondering if there is an easier way to do this. Maybe making a smaller pixel image to work with so it doesnt bog down my computer. I have never made a banner and am looking for any suggestions.

[Rohith Surampudi]

while i prefer to make the files in the required size, if you are working with a competent/skilled print shop to print your banner they should be able to scale it up for you as long as you use vector images.


Also, try opening it up and designing it... then saving it as a jpeg, should take the file size right down to something more manageable

Originally Posted by Rohith Surampudi

while i prefer to make the files in the required size, if you are working with a competent/skilled print shop to print your banner they should be able to scale it up for you as long as you use vector images.


Also, try opening it up and designing it... then saving it as a jpeg, should take the file size right down to something more manageable

Ick, don't save it as .JPG. jpg's cut quality of text down. I suggest PNG, much better for this use.

Also, that size is kinda normal for big image... Welcome to the world of image editing.

[EricVicenti]

600 DPI is extremely high, especially for a banner. I highly doubt you would need any more than 100 DPI for this application.

[jmarsh24]

I was thinking you could design this without 600 dpi... I am running a quad core and everything and it bogs down my computer like crazy to make a background with the paint tool.

[R.C.]

Originally Posted by jmarsh24

I was thinking you could design this without 600 dpi... I am running a quad core and everything and it bogs down my computer like crazy to make a background with the paint tool.

That happens, are you only running paint and having more ram helps. Recommended 6GB with 3ds Max and Solidworks. But thatz me. It looks like you have the resources. Let me know and i can help you find cheap ram if you need it. Have fun with the banner.

[artdutra04]

Don't use Photoshop. Use Illustrator, and do everything using vector graphics, as vector graphics are infinitely resizeable.

[jmarsh24]

What size should I make it in illustrator?

[IndySam]

Originally Posted by EricVicenti

600 DPI is extremely high, especially for a banner. I highly doubt you would need any more than 100 DPI for this application.

Yup 600' DPI is way to much. 100 DPI will be fine, but if that makes you nervous then step up to 150. Anything over that is just a waste.

[BandChick]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

Don't use Photoshop. Use Illustrator, and do everything using vector graphics, as vector graphics are infinitely resizeable.

I agree with Art on this one.
Use Illustrator with VECTORS. Then save your image as an EPS file, and any t-shirt place should be able to import it to WHATEVER size.

It'll significantly cut down on your loading time.

If you HAVE to use Photoshop (though I don't know why) 300dpi is actually print resolution, but you could get away with 100dpi if you're going to make it 10x3.

[lukevanoort]

Originally Posted by jmarsh24

What size should I make it in illustrator?

It shouldn't really matter. As long as your aspect ratio matches that of the flag, the print shop can scale it up/down and print it (some large printing devices actually use a vector format natively, so the print shop will have to transform it to vector anyway).

If you have to use raster graphics (including a photograph on your flag or something like that), then definitely use png. jpg artifacting is really ugly and nasty, especially at large sizes. As a rule of thumb, anything that has blocks of solid colour (Craig's example of text is a good one) is something you _never_ want to use jpg for. png handles blocks of colour much better and also works well for photos.

[Dancin103]

Originally Posted by jmarsh24

I'm trying to create a banner for our robotics team, 10 x 3 ft. And I was told that in photo shop to create a 600 dpi 10ft by 3 ft pixel image. This image becomes 3.62 gb in size, so I was wondering if there is an easier way to do this. Maybe making a smaller pixel image to work with so it doesnt bog down my computer. I have never made a banner and am looking for any suggestions.

We had to do this last year for our HOF booth in Atlanta, and we used Adobe InDesign and the file size was managable, I don't remember exactly how big but it worked and our sign printer had not problems with it.

Cass