Maximum resolution to a 5 meters panel print

[IzabelaWilson]

Hi!

I'm having some struggles here. I need to print a 5 meters wide photo to a panel. I know the size of the photo can be seen in pixels just below it, but there's nothing said about the minimum ppi/dpi. I understand that I can have an image of 7000 x 4000px, yes, but it can be in 72 dpi, or in 150 or 300 dpi. Really don't know. So, we do not have much information about the photo to be acquired until it is actually purchased and downloaded.

My supplier that will print this work is asking for images with 500dpi resolution, and this is becoming a real problem for me - I have seen images here sold as 'high resolution' here less than 4000px wide with unknown dpi info and, I suppose, an image this size with just 300dpi no longer fits into a 5 meters panel.

My question is: when we acquire an image here, can we ask for a higher resolution for specific cases like this? Vectors are not allowed. If you guys can help me, I'll be truly grateful. I'm really confused and feeling discouraged to buy the needed pictures here.

Thanks in advance. Best regards to all.

[Abambo · Accepted solution]

Hi Izabela,

The dpi value of the images is really of no use with photos. What is important for you, is the size in pixels. A 7000x4000px image is the same 7000x4000px in 72, 150, 300 or 500dpi. What changes is the physical size of the picture in inch/m. Also what you are looking for in images is a ppi value (pixels per inch) and that does not necessarily translate 1:1 to dpi (which is a printers measure). The service provider should be able to give you the optimal PPI value for the image. But for a 5m print I doubt that it will be more than 150ppi (which is very high resolution). I would guess that 100ppi or even lower would be ok.

So let's that get right for you:

500ppi @ 5m = 98,425 pixels. Good luck to find pictures like that somewhere near by... 😉 My camera, which is in the high end region has a resolution of 6,720x4,480 pixels (30Mp). A 400Mp Hasselblad digital back (probably the best of the best) produces pictures of 23,200 x 17,400px, still short of your 500ppi-resolution.

Your to do list:

1. Get the needed (best quality) ppi value for a 5m poster (probably something between 50ppi to 150ppi).
2. Get a good quality picture. This is tricky from the small previews, so you need to trust your guts. A picture that does not look good as a preview will not be better in full resolution. You can seletct a picture based on resolution if I'm correct via the filter function (a resolution of 6000px or higher is quite high)
3. Use an upscaler and image sharpener (Photoshop for example) to blow-up the image to the required size/recommended size OR let the printer do that for you. Upscaling images is not a trivial task, the print would eventually look better if the printer does that, if you are inexperienced.
4. Print.

Design considerations: Text and vector graphics should all stay vector. Printers get that crisp sharp. Photographs (anything like faces, trees etc) normally look good even if not at best resolution, text and vector don't. So when I'm doing posters of that size, I send a PDF file to the service provider where I have typesetted text and inserted vector logos and combined that with images. 

Please let me know if this is too confusing or if anything is unclear.

[IzabelaWilson]

Dear Abambo,

Thank you very much for your support, clear as water. Now I can definetly prove my supplier that 500dpi pictures does not exists - I'm a Graphic Designer and for a moment thought I could be outdated about this, lol. I really never heard about such thing and this job is driving me nuts.  

If you're saying a 4000px/300dpi picture (like this one I attached to the first post) can be magnified to a 5m panel without significant visual losses, I believe in you and this makes me more confident about the results. 

Best regards and Happy Holidays!

Izabela