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Hanschrs
Known Participant
October 3, 2024
Answered

Maximum file size for large format printing

  • October 3, 2024
  • 1 reply
  • 860 views

Hi team,

I'm in the sports sublimation printing business and use Illustrator.  I need to print 170 vector designs onto sports shirts. I've prepared 1 file to be copied 20 times, and 2 others to be copied 5 times, adding up to approximately 98 meters of printing. The printing service I'm using is asking me to combine all these designs into a single file. I'm not sure how to create such a long file and I'm worried about losing print quality. Can anyone provide some guidance?

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Bobby Henderson

If the company's staff can't get things straight when making a specific number of copies from a piece of artwork it makes me wonder if they're even bothering to type up a basic work order. It should not be on you to solve their organizational problems. Frankly, I'd be kind of alarmed by the situation and worried about ordering shirts from them.

 

If this shirt company has problems dealing with quantity numbers it would make me even more worried about them handling a non-standard, large canvas mode Adobe Illustrator file. 47 meters is a little over 1850 inches. The max art board size in a normal Illustrator file goes no larger than 227" x 227". The large canvas mode bumps the maximum to 2275" X 2275". But not every third party shop or industry specific piece of software can handle those kinds of files or PDF files generated from them. The sizes may get dropped to 10% of their normal size when imported into another application (if the artwork imports at all).

 

Regarding what file format to use, it depends on this shirt company's setup. Are they using Creative Cloud applications like Adobe Illustrator? Or are they trying to import customer provided art into apps not made by Adobe? If they're taking customer provided PDF files as is direct to print does their print software have an Adobe certified PDF print engine? They may not know right off hand, but if they tell you the name of the application they use then it would be easy enough to find out online.

1 reply

B
Community Expert
Bobby HendersonCommunity Expert
Community Expert
October 3, 2024

If it's ultimately just 3 artwork designs (20 copies of one design and 5 copies of the 2 other designs) it seems very strange they can't accept 3 separate art files. If the designs are for shirts shouldn't the design files be kept separate anyway? 30 copies of designs stacked together at full size is liable to go beyond the normal 227" X 227" art board limits in Illustrator.

 

Most specialty printing systems can set up multiple copies to output. In the case of large format printing it's possible to set up the copies and even "nest" them using the RIP application.

H
HanschrsAuthor
Known Participant
October 3, 2024

As they explained, the problem is that when they have to duplicate files, mistakes are very common. Either they make a mistake or the client does and then denies it, so they want to have the fewest files possible. I'm creating 2 files of 47 meters, but I'm not sure if the print quality will be affected by having such large files. In what format should I save them?

B
Community Expert
Bobby HendersonCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
October 4, 2024

If the company's staff can't get things straight when making a specific number of copies from a piece of artwork it makes me wonder if they're even bothering to type up a basic work order. It should not be on you to solve their organizational problems. Frankly, I'd be kind of alarmed by the situation and worried about ordering shirts from them.

 

If this shirt company has problems dealing with quantity numbers it would make me even more worried about them handling a non-standard, large canvas mode Adobe Illustrator file. 47 meters is a little over 1850 inches. The max art board size in a normal Illustrator file goes no larger than 227" x 227". The large canvas mode bumps the maximum to 2275" X 2275". But not every third party shop or industry specific piece of software can handle those kinds of files or PDF files generated from them. The sizes may get dropped to 10% of their normal size when imported into another application (if the artwork imports at all).

 

Regarding what file format to use, it depends on this shirt company's setup. Are they using Creative Cloud applications like Adobe Illustrator? Or are they trying to import customer provided art into apps not made by Adobe? If they're taking customer provided PDF files as is direct to print does their print software have an Adobe certified PDF print engine? They may not know right off hand, but if they tell you the name of the application they use then it would be easy enough to find out online.

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