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