Printing large banner from Photoshop file

[Pattie McNab]

I'm Printing 400dpi 8 ft x 10 ft. banner from a file created in Photoshop. Printer specs say"Depending on the resolution and pixel base, images in formats such as PDF, PSD, JPG, TIFF may become blurry when enlarged and are therefore not ideal for large prints like banners. If your artwork is in one of these formats, please make sure that the file(s) you upload meet these requirements:  100% scale at 125ppi 50% scale at 250ppi 25% scale at 500ppi"

Uploading a tiff should be fine right? I'm thrown by the "TIFF may become blurry when enlarged and are therefore not ideal for large prints like banners." 

Thanks for any advice.

[Test Screen Name]

What image size do you have now, in pixels? 

[Pattie McNab]

400dpi, 48000 x 38400 pixles

6.87G file

[D Fosse]

Derek is right.

Since we get this a lot, I've made an illustration that hopefully puts this into perspective:

Question: which one of these two images needs to be upsampled? Answer: none of them. They both have exactly the same optical resolution on the retina. The very same file can be used in both instances.

Printers have one overriding concern: they don't want the blame when people bring them phone photos and ask to have them blown up to wall size. But 125 ppi is massive overkill for this, and certainly 400. Derek's suggestion of 50 is much more realistic.

It's much more important that the image is of good quality such as it is: sharp, in focus, no motion blur or camera shake, good contrast with no clipping or blown out highlights, credible/accurate color. If it is, any file from a good current camera can be used as is. You don't need 48 000 pixels, you need 6000-8000.

[davescm]

Nice demonstration Dag 🙂

Dave

[Derek Cross]

For a large poster that's viewed from a distance you can have a low resolution, say 50 PPI.

So that's 50 x 96"=  4800 and 50 x 100" = 5000.

So create your artwork to 4800px x 5000px and save it as an compressed or to 10 JPG.

(Assuming you have a high res image to start with)

[Pattie McNab]

 Thank you but it's not a photo. 

[Derek Cross]

If the image is vector it's not a raster image, then there's no resolution, so what's your question?

[Pattie McNab]

Photoshop 2021 isn't letting me save it as a PDF or EPS. The project was put together in Photoshop instead of Illustrator. I always had the oprtion before to save it as a vector image so I'm just triple checking the best way to insure there is no quality loss due to uploading a file type that might have quality loss. thanks for your help and comments. 

[D Fosse]

Photoshop is a raster image editor. It can work internally with vector tools, but at some point it will always be rasterized and Photoshop can't output vector.

To produce a vector file you need to do it in Illustrator. Then you could give them a PDF with vector content.

Considering that this is not a photograph, but graphics with text and some sharp edges, you should probably end up with a file of around 12000-15000 pixels long side. 48000 is still massive overkill. That should come out at about 100-120 ppi at that size.

But in the future, don't do this in Photoshop. It's the wrong tool. Use Illustrator.

[Pattie McNab]

Thanks. I here you but I'm working from a file given to me that is a layered psd and pulled parts out to layout for a diffent shape and size banner. Not able to just save as a psd just a psb which the printer isn't listing as an option for printing. Thanks for your help and advice. 

[D Fosse]

In that case just give them an 8 bit TIFF. With a reasonably sized file (12-15K long side) there's absolutely no reason to "enlarge". It can be printed as is, and TIFF is an entirely non destructive format.

[Derek Cross]

It's a PSB because the file size is so big. Make a copy of it and reduce the dimensions and you will be then able to save it as a PSD and also as a Photoshop PDF document.

[Test Screen Name]

The file is just too big for many file types. For example, PSD is limited to 2GB (PSB is specifically PSD-Big). Thank you for quoting what the printer wants "please make sure that the file(s) you upload meet these requirements:  100% scale at 125ppi".  Your file is" 400dpi, 48000 x 38400", which is 120 x 96 inches, Indeed 10 x 8 feet. But the printer says 125 ppi, you have 400 ppi. Now, unless you have a compelling reason, you should not send a file 10 times larger than they ask for, which is causing you all this pain. Do you have any reason to think they are wrong? 400 ppi would be considered overlarge for a coffee-table book, and this isn't a coffee table book.  (NB I am NOT saying reduce the file permanently!! I am saying make a reduced copy TO SEND THEM without reducing the working file!!)

Going back to your original post you write ' I'm thrown by the "TIFF may become blurry when enlarged..."'. But it isn't singling out TIFF. It means ALL image formats including (for this purpose) PDF, PSD, JPG, TIFF . And it's right. It's saying don't use LESS then our recommended resolution (less than 125 ppi), and you're way more than that.  Is it the talk of scaling that is throwing you off? People often have to do this, but you haven't, so that's easier.

[Pattie McNab]

Thank you all for the explaination. I maybe confusing dpi vs ppi and modern printing. I have always prepped files for printing to be at least 300dpi but printing and printers are differnt from my many years ago. Yes I think the talk of scaling is different and throwing me off. Again than you all for being patient and explaining. this has been very helpful. 

[TheDigitalDog]

Thank you all for the explaination. I maybe confusing dpi vs ppi and modern printing. I have always prepped files for printing to be at least 300dpi but printing and printers are differnt from my many years ago.

Start here: https://www.digitalphotopro.com/technique/photography-workflow/the-right-resolution/

Perhaps this very old primer which still applies to this day:

http://digitaldog.net/files/Resolution.pdf

[Conrad_C]

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@Pattie McNab wrote:

Thank you all for the explaination. I maybe confusing dpi vs ppi and modern printing. I have always prepped files for printing to be at least 300dpi but printing and printers are differnt from my many years ago. Yes I think the talk of scaling is different and throwing me off.

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Your experience is probably sound, 300 ppi is still the standard today…for printed work intended to be held at arms length, around 18 inches from the eye. But that’s not the job you have now.

For a banner, it’s like the others are saying, 300 ppi is just not needed, because it will be viewed from far away. Think about a billboard you see while driving down a highway: Are you ever going to see 300 ppi on that billboard, from your car? No. So most billboards are printed at somewhere between 15 and 25 ppi. At car distance, that looks perfectly sharp.

Your printer is recommending values like 125 ppi because that’s farther than a magazine page held in your hand, but closer than a billboard. 125 ppi is reasonable for something on the wall a few feet away. If you added more resolution, your eye wouldn’t be able to tell the difference at that distance.

[Pattie McNab]

Totally makes sense! Thanks for helping me think it through. I'm sure it will be fine. Cheers!