How to save printable large format files with gradients and textures?

[michaela58530444]

Hi, I work for a vehicle wrap shop and we recently purchased our own large-format vinyl printer. I've been having trouble saving large format files that can be opened in our printing software (Flexi12) and exported for print.

I'm in the middle of trying to print an art file that is approximately 110" wide by 35" tall. The art has a lot of gradients, text, clippings masks, and some large rasterized textures.

I cannot save as PDF because the gradients do not hold up in Flexi at all.

I was told by a colleague to save the art as a raster image. He recommended saving as a TIFF at 10% the actual size at 720ppi, and then when I go to print the file enlarge it by 1000% which makes it print at the accurate 100% size. However, this results in a very poor quality print with lots of pixelation. It's essentially printing at 72ppi - Not acceptable.

I have tried saving a TIFF at 100% size at 150ppi, but I get an error notice that there is not enough memory to complete the action. I turn off anti-alias and still get the error. I have tried as both RGB and CMYK just to see what happens. Won't work in either color mode.

I have had some luck saving as PNG and JPG, but I can only manage to save at only 150ppi. It would be ideal if I could save at 200ppi or higher.

Any advice on how to save these large format files in a way that will hold up as best as possible when I go to print? Thank you kindly in advance

(Eventually I will need to print wall wraps at an even greater size that exceeds the 200 inch workable area of Illustrator. How should I go about saving these?)

[Kenneth Kawamoto]

Can you paste the artwork in Photoshop (just a thought...)?

[John Mensinger]

The answer has already been presented:

michaela58530444  wrote

I get an error notice that there is not enough memory to complete the action.

Your hardware is not up to the task. Normally I'd say going to PDF would help make the file more manageable (and print-able), but if Flexi does not reliably interpret the contents of a PDF, as you seem to indicate, I'm not sure what benefit(s) Flexi adds to the operation. Is it not an option to print (PDF) to your wide-format machine directly  from Acrobat?

[Mike_Gondek]

72 ppi is low for vehicle graphics, your friend may have been printing trade show banner that hang up high.

The gradients should hold up, what PDF preset are you using? Try High Quality , Pre press or PDF/X. Please post a screenshot of your pdf settings.

How much Ram do you have, and what are your computer specs?

[Doug A Roberts]

MikeGondek  wrote

72 ppi is low for vehicle graphics

Really? My instinct would have been to go for that. What would you use?

[John Mensinger]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Doug+A+Roberts  wrote

MikeGondek   wrote

72 ppi is low for vehicle graphics

Really? My instinct would have been to go for that. What would you use?

I reacted the same way initially, but then "vehicle graphics" is a pretty broad term. Sure, 72 ppi is likely plenty for a city bus or a utility van, etc., but a wrap that's heavy on gradients and textures is probably going to more of a "custom finish" application, which would be subject to much closer scrutiny than those examples.

[Mike_Gondek]

Have never printed onto vinyl (except sending out files for trade show graphics) , but assume resolution is same as paper.  You are right vehicles graphics is broad, and was thinking auto with gradient and textures, not plane.

Is there an LPI setting. What settings did you use, would pay close attention to these settings?

[Srishti Bali]

Hi Michael,

I would like to know if the suggestions shared above worked for you, or the issue still persists.

Kindly update the discussion if you need further assistance with it.

Thanks,

Srishti

[michaela58530444 · Accepted solution]

Very sorry for going MIA and thank you for all the input! We've just continued printing from 150dpi JPGs which has been working fine for our needs. The printer and Flexi has been a huge learning curve for everyone in the shop but we're getting the hang of it. The particular file in question was exceptionally complex, but more recent files have been printing without issue.

[torrence_4192]

I've found that turning off the Compression options when I "Save As" (Acrobat 8 PDF 1.7 Compatibility).

Under "Compression," I Select "Do Not Downsample under: Color Bitmap Images/Grayscale Bitmap Images, and Monochrome Bitmap Images.

This Solves my print quality issues.
I just wish there was a way for it to appear at actual size that RIP—instead of enlarging 1000%