Need help with large format psd files.

[LMHConcepts]

Hello everyone,

New to the forum and to vehicle wrapping, and need some advice, tutorials, and/or help.

I have a large truck that I need to design a wrap for, and would like to know the tips/tricks to creating large print files. It seems that every time I scale the image to scale, photoshop freezes. I've also done the 1/10th scale, 720ppi setup, and photoshop still freezes.

I have been doing graphic design for a long time, but never in this large of a scale. Unfortunately the files that were given to me are all in Photoshop, so I dont have any other choice but to scale them up and try to get them to layout in it.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Mosh]

Frst off do you have a good computer. An e-machine won't cut it doing big stuff.
I would guess you need a lot more memory, Be ready to spend around $3,000 for one that will work well.

 

[ashleighfiddler]

AHHHH tell that to my boss!!!!!!!!!! That exact problem is the bane of my existence as a sign shop designer.

 

[LMHConcepts]

Well, lucky me... That's pretty much all this company does. I just took the job last week, and have problems ever since.

I just added another two gigs of ram today, bringing the total to 6, but it still tends to freeze.

The old designer stomped off and left, leaving me to basically figure this out on my own. When designing in Photoshop, are there any tips? It seems the previous designer somehow managed to design everything in 1:1 scale. His files take forever to open, they slow the computer down, and 95% of the time freeze the computer.

Its one of those craptastic HP Pavilion Elite 64bit systems. I wish they would just let me build them a dual xeon system, but I know that will never happen.

 

[GAC05]

What other software is on the system?
If you have Illy or Corel you should be able to do the layout using placed low res psd comps then export it out as a pdf or eps for print.
I don't use photoshop but I would assume you could do the same in there. Do all your editing low res then render out using the original hi res files for production.

wayne k
guam usa

 

[LMHConcepts]

I have both Illustrator and Corel.

What exactly are you meaning by do all my layout in low resolution PSD? Wouldn't it pixelate when blown up due to it being rastered?

Sorry, it's been a year since I've been a graphic designer. Been doing Fiber Optics due to Indianapolis's wonderful economy... So i'm a little slow.

 

[SebastienL]

:Welcome: to :signs101:

From my experience: It's not a bad idea to restart your computer before dealing with large files. Sometimes, stuff remains in the memory and slows everything down. Open only the softeware you need, close everything that you can. Free up your harddrive, if you only have a few gigs left, you will have problem. Your file might be one or 2 gigs in size but will still require maybe up to 10 or more gigs free so you can play with it. Also, in thePs preference, check to see if you have a scratch disk assigned (plug-in and scratch disk tab).
If you have 2 harddrive, you can assign any of them as a scratch disk. Ps uses the scratch disk if you don't have enough ram, or if the percentage of the ram assigned to Ps is to low (Ps preferences, memory & image cache tab).

Hope this is helpfull...

 

[Techman]

a few speces will help.
Machine speces. memory OS and CPU
Software specs. etc..

 

[LMHConcepts]

HP Elite. Its not in front of me, so i'm gonna try and remember:
2.7 Quad Core
Windows Vista Home (64-Bit)
6 GB of Ram
x2 500GB Hds
No idea what graphics card it has.

Thanks everyone for the help.

 

[Jester1167]

How big of a truck are we talking about?

A pickup truck I would be a 100ppi full size.

If we are talking about a 24' box truck, I would be designing at full size 50ppi.

You can also merge/combine layers to reduce the size of the files.

 

[LMHConcepts]

How dumb of me to not specify. I apologize. Its a large box truck. Will 50ppi be clean enough?

 

[GAC05]

Now I am not sure I know what I am talking about.
Notes I found on linking:

Linking: placed file remains separate from the Illustrator document. A lower res. image holds its place in Illustrator while you work, but the printer follows the path to the original at print time.

-easier to work in Illustrator because of smaller file size.

- better print quality because the original is used.

-more complicated to keep track of multiple linked files. I recommend putting all linked files and the Illustrator document in one folder, and always moving or copying the entire folder to avoid breaking the link.

wayne k
guam usa

 

[MichaelAlmand]

That should be a decent computer although designing a large truck at full scale and probably at 300dpi won't work. I design it a half scale 50% and a resolution of 200 therefore when you blow it up to full scale it works out to be 100dpi which is nice as long as the core images that you start off with are decent; you'll have no problem. Once you get it opened scale it down through the image size and check the dpi. if it's more the 200 at half size make it 200dpi

 

[Jester1167]

Depends on how you prepare the client.

" If you want it to look good at 3 feet away, the files will be extremely large and take 3 times as long to create. And the design charge will be 3 times as much."

"Typically a vehicle this large is meant to be viewed from a minimum of 30 feet away which will allow you to take the whole design in one view. If I design at 50ppi It will save time and money on design and look good at 10 feet away."

It is hard to sell something you don't believe in, so take the design you have now, save it and creat a copy. Keep the copy the same overall size, down sample to 50ppi and print out a sample. I recommend that you print an area with small shapes or text with lots of contrast. Pixelization is most noticeable in those areas.

I always print a color proof of the whole vehicle as well as a cropped out section at final print size. I print on the material I will use and laminate for final customer approval.

I will do a typical van and small passenger car at 100ppi and 16 foot box truck at 72ppi.

 

[acothran]

For Photoshop I design at full scale, 72dpi for any box truck wrap. For reference my first wrap, a 15' box truck (7' tall) file w/ lots of layers, text effects, masks, etc... is right at 1GB file size. I designed that wrap on a consumer grade Toshiba laptop w/ 2GB RAM, running Vista and Photoshop CS (painful). Once Photoshop was open, it would take 5:06 to load the file before I could edit. Upgraded to a dual quad-core Nehalem Mac Pro w/ 12GB RAM running CS4 and the file opened in 11 seconds. Not trying to sell you on Mac, just trying to give you an idea of real world times between a consumer grade machine w/ little RAM and older software vs. a pro machine w/ new software and plenty of RAM.

Allen

 

[Mosh]

Windows Vista Home. You might need a better OS than some home OS, this is designed for well, home use! Like I said, not enough computer. You got one of them "wrapping machines" so you can do wraps now right?

 

[Letterbox Mike]

Is your scratch disk set to a different drive from your OS and Photoshop? Assuming the scratch disk is set up that way, is this an internal (or external eSATA) drive or is it an external USB drive? How much of the RAM do you have Photoshop using? What version of Photoshop are you using? Only CS4 64 bit will address all 6 gb of RAM you have in there, otherwise it'll only see 3.5gb.

While not a "pro" grade computer, that's still a fairly beefy system and should be able to handle a file like that just fine.

If I were you, I'd upgrade it to Windows 7 64 bit, put 2 more gb RAM in it, install PS CS4 64 bit, and add either a solid state or Western Digital Raptor drive (SATA or eSATA) for a scratch disk. Do all that and that box will be night and day different from what you're seeing now, and shouldn't cost more than $500.

 

[LMHConcepts]

I'd love to upgrade to Windows 7. Unfortunately this is a company computer, and they don't want to spend the money right now.

I just set the scratch to an alternate hd, so lets hope this helps a bit.

I just started this job about a week ago, so its all stop and go trying to figure this out. I'm so used to doing large scale vector cuts/prints, that this bitmap based is driving me nuts.

PS CS4 64-Bit. When did they release it? I may be able to convince them to get it. They're using CS-3 now. Is there that big of a difference?

 

[mark in tx]

I usually set the print files up in photoshop, output as a flattened tif, at 96 dpi full size.
I then tile the print in the RIP.

 

[Letterbox Mike]

PS CS4 64-Bit. When did they release it? I may be able to convince them to get it. They're using CS-3 now. Is there that big of a difference?

Not a huge difference in what they do, except CS4 64 bit will address all of your RAM where CS3 only sees about half of it. You will see a drastic increase in performance there. Without upgrading to CS4 64 bit (a $200 upgrade) those extra 2 gb of RAM you just installed aren't doing anything for you in Photoshop because it doesn't know it's there. I'd at least convince your boss to do this upgrade, it's very worthwhile.