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kellyjaye1
kellyjaye1
Known Participant
February 20, 2013
Answered

Can document size be extended past 216 inches?

  • February 20, 2013
  • 5 replies
  • 48398 views

We just started getting more into banner and sign printing.  I have since learned that InDesign has a max size limit of 216 inches.  I prefer Indesign over Illustrator but I tried with that also and that gives me a limit of 227 inches.  I need to go bigger than this and it will probably be a regular problem.  Is there a way to trick ID or AI to go larger?

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer BobLevine

Scale it down. If you need 800 inches set the document up as 200 and

make sure any graphics have 4x the resolution.

Bob

5 replies

Martin Dedron
Martin Dedron
Inspiring
June 1, 2023

What about high quality prints on a whole roll of plotter printer?

rob day
Community Expert
rob dayCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 1, 2023

Hi @Martin Dedron , The original post is 10 years old, so you might want to start a new thread, but nothing has changed—InDesign has a 216" limit and PDF has a 200" limit.

 

Bob’s answer is still correct—if you need to output an 800" print, the setup would be a 200" ID doc with the effective Resolution of the placed images’ Effective Resolutions at 4x the desired output resolution, and the Print>Setup>Scale options set to 400%. If you want an output resolution of 200ppi the image Effective Resolution needs to be 800ppi—see Link Info with the image selected.

Martin Dedron
Martin Dedron
Inspiring
June 6, 2023

In the end it was just easier to split the document for me.

However, regarding the computer capacities nowadays, I wonder about the point of keeping those limits instead of permitting a 1:1 scaling.

 

Another thing to consider is the printer's capacities (for a Canon 4100s Pro, about three meters, so definitly not the whole paper roll...), and to adjust from that.

    J
    James A.25933203c6ho
    Participant
    September 7, 2022

    if one dimension is still okay, you can set your pages up as a spread.

    P
    plojscherEinsatz
    Inspiring
    September 29, 2021

    ppl at adobe must be joking. just remove those restrictions. it is in their hands to adjust that lousy variable in code... ridiculous 

      E
      Community Expert
      Eugene TysonCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      September 29, 2021

      The reason is quite simple. 

      Computer resources. The larger the file and the images the larger the file and larger the resources the computer needs.

       

      Working at 10% size has worked since the 1990s or even before that. That's over 30 years ago of industry standard practice.

      Why fix it if it's not broken?

       

      If you're working at 10% of the size - and your image is 3000 ppi - then you will have 300 ppi in output - which is still way too large for a banner of large sizes. 

       

      You could work at 10% of the size with an image at 300ppi giving output of 30ppi - which would would be absolutely fine for banners.

       

      However, you should always check with your print provider, and confirm specs/sizes and resoltuion requirements before beginning.

       

       

        J
        joshuah16262624
        Participant
        February 9, 2024

        It worked for QuarkXPress to require exact dimensions at exact resolution in the proper color mode. However, InDesign doesn't require any of that anymore. Industry standard practice changed. It's freed up effort for more creative endeavors. Similarly, why not make adjustments to the software to allow for larger document sizes? 

        BobLevine
        Community Expert
        BobLevineCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
        Community Expert
        February 20, 2013

        Scale it down. If you need 800 inches set the document up as 200 and

        make sure any graphics have 4x the resolution.

        Bob

        W
        walkerdesigngroup
        Participant
        February 24, 2014

        @ Bob Levine This does not work if you are required to send to the service bureau or printer a file at 100% scale. There is also not an option in Illustrator to save/export the document at a larger scale. Nor is there any way to scale a .pdf in Acrobat to a larger size (unless I am mistaken). Very frustrating as I have a 260" banner to create with vector art that I will have to rasterize in Photoshop and downsample due to file size - resulting in a loss of quality.

        James Gifford—NitroPress
        James Gifford—NitroPress
        Legend
        September 7, 2022

        Even 100 ppi is more than required for many large prints designed to be viewed from more than a few feet -- the eye simply casnnot resolve the details over a long distance. A billboard menat to be viewed at 1000 feet or more problably needs less than 10 ppi. (I used to work in a large format service bureau so I have some experience with what is really necessary).

        See Distance-Resolution Formula for how to calculate the required resoultion based on the intended vieing distance.


        Oh, sure. I was accommodating moderate-sized poster and vinyl output, but for really big stuff, very low effective rez can be used.

         

        —

        N
        nkgillett
        Inspiring
        February 20, 2013

        Having done artwork for many banners over the years, the usual way of working is to do them at 25% or 50% of the actual size, not 100%. Sign and banner printers here in the UK are well used to receiving artwork at a quarter or half size. Try to keep to 25% or 50%, or even 10%. It's easier to do the calculations then when printing them.

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