what size is good size for large printings?

[prateekvishwa]

I worked on few exterior images. Now client want to print those images on hoardings on site. Hoarding size is 60'x100'!!!! which is roughly 18m X 30m . I dont know what size images i can maximum render & later what need to be done to make it printable on such big hoarding...... I am stuck

[joconnell]

I'd say around 6-8 thousand pixels on it's largest side. With the usual DPI thing for print, the further you have to stand from the print to be able to take it all in, the lower quality you can go. For example if you have a magazine style print, you need it to be around 300 dpi for really good quality since you hold it about 18 inches from your face. For an a2 photo print you'll have to stand back a bit further from the image to see all of it, so you can use 150 or 200 dpi and still get a perfectly sharp result. For large images on bus shelters which might be 5 feet by 8 feet you can likely use 50 dpi. For something as big as a huge poster you'll be standing a long way back from it so you'll never see any pixelation or dots in the print - around 6000 pixels is about the largest I've ever rendered an image and it's been fine!

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

In my area we usually use 10k pixels either way to go on bilboards... 7-10+ depends how big they want. They then print it at usual 70 DPI and all is well...

[glorybound]

I'm not as technical. I see a lot of my work on construction signs, and 11x17 @ 300 dpi, usually works. I have never had to render larger than that, for anything I do. If something is large, it's usually viewed from a distance.

[prateekvishwa]

I'd say around 6-8 thousand pixels on it's largest side. With the usual DPI thing for print, the further you have to stand from the print to be able to take it all in, the lower quality you can go. For example if you have a magazine style print, you need it to be around 300 dpi for really good quality since you hold it about 18 inches from your face. For an a2 photo print you'll have to stand back a bit further from the image to see all of it, so you can use 150 or 200 dpi and still get a perfectly sharp result. For large images on bus shelters which might be 5 feet by 8 feet you can likely use 50 dpi. For something as big as a huge poster you'll be standing a long way back from it so you'll never see any pixelation or dots in the print - around 6000 pixels is about the largest I've ever rendered an image and it's been fine!

And this clears all! Thanks!! I will render in 10k lets see how it looks after printing.. pretty excited, 1st time my work going to get printed

[zeronove]

Time ago I succesfully rendered a 18k wide image; just remeber to check the "Render to V-Ray raw image file" option, otherwise you will probably go out of memory.

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

All you have to do is to send job to backburner and tell it to TILE THE IMAGE. Specivy how many tiles you want and u can render even 30k image without any problems... and all passes will be there :]

[Morne]

to put another way - an A4 render at 300dpi is LARGER in pixels than an A1 render at 100dpi. It's like John said, the further away you go from the print to be able to view the entire thing, the less the dpi needs to be.
That being said, hoarding is slightly different, because people walk right by the hoarding without standing back to see the whole thing

[glyph]

yes but a hoarding is printed on a litho printing press and gets halftoned
halftone is where it breaks the image into printing dots

the halftone dot screen is measured in lpi (lines per inch) (though I guess there must be lp centimeter as well)

ok : a very high quality brochure or art print will use a screen of 400 lpi - you don't really get any higher than that
a newspaper will use 200 lpi
old black and white newsprint maybe 80 lpi
a hoarding poster will use c. 30 lpi

theory says you need 1.5 times of pixels per screen line
(actually theory says x2 - but practice shows even x1 is fine)

do the maths... but you never need 18k output for print (maybe a 100 foot wrap around building site image could use that)
and forget "dpi" it's irrelevant and a red herring

[glorybound]

So, how does MAX, or Photoshop interpret LPI?

yes but a hoarding is printed on a litho printing press and gets halftoned
halftone is where it breaks the image into printing dots

the halftone dot screen is measured in lpi (lines per inch) (though I guess there must be lp centimeter as well)

ok : a very high quality brochure or art print will use a screen of 400 lpi - you don't really get any higher than that
a newspaper will use 200 lpi
old black and white newsprint maybe 80 lpi
a hoarding poster will use c. 30 lpi

theory says you need 1.5 times of pixels per screen line
(actually theory says x2 - but practice shows even x1 is fine)

do the maths... but you never need 18k output for print (maybe a 100 foot wrap around building site image could use that)
and forget "dpi" it's irrelevant and a red herring

[AJ Jefferies]

(actually theory says x2 - but practice shows even x1 is fine)

I assume that when you say 'pixels per screen line' you are refering to PPI? I've personally never encountered PPI dropping below 1.5 x LPI, but even if a conversion of 1x was enough Prateek's dimensions of 30m x 18m would require an image of 35433 x 21260 at 30 PPI/LPI...

do the maths... but you never need 18k output for print (maybe a 100 foot wrap around building site image could use that)
and forget "dpi" it's irrelevant and a red herring

The lowest I've ever been asked to (or more accurately, been able to get away with) on large format printing is 50 PPI - a 96 sheet billboard at that size is 23'000+ wide, so I certainly qouldn't say you 'never' need 18k output.

I'll admit that more often than not you can get away with much lower resolutions than these but I've also seen some absolutely shocking billboards where pixels have been printed a couple of inches across, so it's worth checking you're working to the correct size

[prateekvishwa]

35433 X 21260!!!! thats a jaw dropping figure!

[AJ Jefferies]

Honestly, I doubt you'll need to go anywhere near that high

I'd stick to 10'000 as your absolute maximum. If the client or their printer demand a larger size, blow it up & run a median filter over it in Photoshop. You can always fall back on the argument that a top of the line Hasselblad/Phase One camera backs have a maximum resolution of 10'000 pixels (although I have had to stitch multiple shots from these to make a monster billboard ad before)

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

I had a job last year... my final render was 18k big @_@ the detail wes epic at 100% =D


pic link
http://www.andersonhopkins.com/artis...ni-Cooper-GmbH

[glorybound]

How are you guys rendering such large graphics? I mean, how many machines, and how long? If I actually printed a 24X36@300dpi, it would take a week+. I would have to render at 7200x10800.

I now trying to put one through BB at 4096X2458, on 6 workstations, and it going to take 2 days.