Question about artwork layout for Van.

[Tony Rome]

Would someone be kind enough to explain the proper method of creating artwork for a wrap?

I use Corel/AI, and Photoshop then save to .eps to open in Versaworks.
I have an SP-540V

I have the template for the van I am doing, do I just create the design at 300dpi and then bring it into Versaworks and use the correct ratio to achieve the correct size?

I am thinking you lose quality that way and something designed in 300dpi probbaly ends up being more like 75-100 (if lucky)once blown up to actual size. That just seems so low to me.

Is this the right way to do it or am I missing something?

I do realize for vectors I would not lose quality but what about photos?

It is for a Ford Econoline.

Thanks in advance.
Sort of new to wraps.

 

[GAC05]

Hi,
75 to 100 dpi for the final artwork at full production size is fine for a wrap.
Nice part of working in Draw is that you can work at full scale with both bitmaps and vectors and will have an idea of the final quality early on.

If you have pretty good bitmaps to start out with you can drop them into an image enlarging app and bring them up to production size, place them back in Draw and go from there.
CorelDraw X5 comes bundled with a plug-in for this that works with Photopaint. Results are generally good.
I've had spotty results when launching PP directly from within Draw (edit bitmap), works sometimes and locks up others.
I get consistent results opening the bitmaps in PP saving them out to the new size and then loading them into Draw.
Once you have everything set and you map out your panels - export them out as flattened tiffs full sized at around 100dpi.
Should get nice clean graphics out of the printer.

wayne k
guam usa

 

[4R Graphics]

What Wayne said should be all you need.

72dpi is the smallest you want to go. We do all of our wraps around 75dpi at full scale and we print at 720X720. If you print an image at 720 with a 75 dpi and the same image with a 300dpi on our type of printers you will not really see much of a difference but your file sizes will be HUGE.

 

[grafixemporium]

We design elements for a wrap in Illustrator, Corel or Photoshop... but the final wrap design is always done in Photoshop on photo templates that we create. We never use vector templates. Our files are set up at 1000dpi at 1/10 scale and printed at 1000%. For some reason, in my experience, Photoshop understands 10 inches at 1000dpi better than it does 100 inches at 100 dpi. So, essentially we design at 100dpi. Sure, 72 would be sufficient for most things, but 100 just makes the math so much easier when you are scaling things up.

Here's a screen shot of a production file and the final product. We do it this way every time. The only thing is doesn't work well on is boats and big trailers, Rv's, etc. We usually draw guides on the photos so we can see the actual measurements while still looking at the real life obstacle of the photo. The photo method also doesn't work on really curvy vehicles like VW bugs. You have to pull paper patterns for that and make your own templates.

Once your layer file is finished and approved, flatten the art layers and crop up your own panels for the best possible install. These Sprinters are impossible to do seamless, but we don't panel them like wallpaper either. That would be ugly. There's one horizontal seam running above eye level. The rest is seamless.

Hope that makes sense.

Andrew

 

[Kentucky Wraps]

No.