Scaling graphics for a box truck wrap

[Tony Rome]

Hey guys I am doing a box truck soon and was wondering how should I do the graphics?
Resolution etc...

I mean it is a high quality picture but I would imagine you would do it at a smaller size and then scale it to save processing on the CPU?

Or do people really do it actual size...probably dumb, I am sorry it's new for me.
Thanks!

 

[zmatalucci]

I do it @ full size... 75dpi-150 if your feeling sluggish

 

[dman0427]

I also do it scaled 100% to size at 75 dpi

 

[Tony Rome]

Really, that is interesting, I just thought 75 was soooo low if I wanted good quailty I would have to go 150-300.
Can someone explain why that is not right?
Is it because it is so big and needs to look good from more of a distance then right up in your face sort of like a billboard idea?

 

[luggnut]

when i print them at 72 dpi, you can hardly see the difference from higher res . even up close the only thing you can see is the edges of things like small letters are not just totally crispy sharp. but i don't think anyone but another sign guy could even see that, and its meant to be viewed from a few feet. from those couple of feet it is impossible to see the difference in 72 or much higher.

just try it and see.

 

[Wildpony]

I also print most at 72-75 dpi. Yes, it does have to do with distance. 300 is only needed when viewed from within a foot. Those big billboards are usually printed around 9dpi but they look good going down the freeway.

 

[GARY CULY]

unless you have a picture or something needs to be a bitmap just print the lettering in vector ..way smaller files very crisp edges ..it dont HAVE TO BE A JPG,TIFF OR BITMAPyou know ..scale away ,NO resolution ,perfect any size

 

[bob]

Really, that is interesting, I just thought 75 was soooo low if I wanted good quailty I would have to go 150-300.
Can someone explain why that is not right?
Is it because it is so big and needs to look good from more of a distance then right up in your face sort of like a billboard idea?

If you're printing at 720^2 then 150ppi is the absolute maximum you should use. The rule of thumb is you should always print at least four times the ppi resolution of the image. This insures a minimum acceptable color gamut per pixel of at least 2^16 possible colors.

Visually anything 75ppi and better will do. A sharp eye might catch some pixelization at 75ppi or so but there isn't a person on the planet that can do so at anything over 130ppi.

 

[rambo555]

I've printed 300 dpi on my own vehicle. I typically print 72dpi for wraps. The only person who noticed the difference was me. I no longer waste my time printing 300dpi unless the customer insists on it. If I do, I increase the cost of the printed wrap.

 

[dolce05]

your large format printer doesnt recognize anything higher than 150 dpi. You can have a file at 300 dpi but it will only print 150dpi max.

72 dpi for vans/boxes and we print buses at 50 dpi and they come out perfect. Anything higher is overkill

 

[grafixemporium]

For smaller vehicles we design full scale at 100dpi. For really large stuff like boats, trailers, murals, etc we design 1000dpi at 1/10th scale. Then print 1000% in the rip. Makes doing the math easy when you're laying stuff out... and I swear Photoshop handles the files better. In fact, we just finished printing a storefront perf job on Friday. The windows were 32' wide x 5.5' tall. Designed the whole thing at 1000dpi 1/10th scale. Blow it up 1000% in Versaworks and it looks great!

As long as you are working with good quality images to begin with, then 72 - 100 dpi is just fine. We are complimented on the crispness and clarity of our wraps all the time. We pride ourselves on it. Yet we've never printed anything large format over 100dpi.

 

[ZsVinylInc]

So I have been watching this thread for a while and wondering one thing that hasn't really been touched on and just curious about. You are printing or producing these files at 72-100dpi but at what quality are you printing them at....Billboard(360 x 720dpi), Standard(720 x 720dpi), High Quality(1080 x 1080dpi or 1440 x 1440dpi)? We currently do not do a whole lot of vehicle graphics but are looking to getting into more of it soon.

 

[iSign]

So I have been watching this thread for a while and wondering one thing that hasn't really been touched on and just curious about. You are printing or producing these files at 72-100dpi but at what quality are you printing them at...

I also noticed that besides the first people with their vague references to how they "do it" ...the rest of the thread seems to say "printing at" ...when I'm sure they mean "designing at"... or "almost" sure i should say, because it's hard to second guess people, when there is still so much for me to learn... but at this point, I would say that 72 to 100 dpi or ppi would be the range I like to set up large format files for distance viewing. However, I would still print them at 360x540, or 720x720 depending on the images, the client & the end use.

 

[javila]

Pretty much stick to 75 or 80 ppi when designing anything bigger than a legal size print. If there's gonna be alot of small details bump it up to 100-125 ppi.

A 1" x 1" print at 100 ppi is identical to a 10" x 10" print at 10ppi. Exact bit by bit information. So designing at a scale is pointless.

There's alot of mention in this thread about image resolution and printing resolution being mixed up.

Your image resolution will not affect your color gamut, your printing resolution will.

Remember kids
ppi=pixels per inch = measurement of your digital file
dpi=dots per inch=number of dots your print head puts on substrate

Not interchangeable and they really have zero to do with each other when creating a file to print.

 

[ZsVinylInc]

Remember kids
ppi=pixels per inch = measurement of your digital file
dpi=dots per inch=number of dots your print head puts on substrate

Not interchangeable and they really have zero to do with each other when creating a file to print.

Javila I do not understand this statement because I have laid out things at 72 PPI and printed at 720 x 720 DPI as well as laid things out at 150 PPI and printed at 720 x 720 DPI.....There is a noticeable difference in quality so one (in my eyes) obviously has something to do with the other when creating a file to print.

 

[bob]

Javila I do not understand this statement because I have laid out things at 72 PPI and printed at 720 x 720 DPI as well as laid things out at 150 PPI and printed at 720 x 720 DPI.....There is a noticeable difference in quality so one (in my eyes) obviously has something to do with the other when creating a file to print.

That's because a 150ppi image is more than twice as sharp as a 72ppi image.

Printer resolution does nothing for image acuity as long as it it as least as large as the image resolution.

The combination of image resolution and printer resolution determines the possible color gamut per image pixel. Merely divide the printer resolution by the image resolution, square it, and then take the number of colors your printer is ruining plus 1 to that power.

Dividing the printer resolution by the image resolution and then squaring that number yields the number of printer pixels per image pixel. Taking the number of inks plus 1 [for the color of the media] to that power yields the number of possible colors per image pixel.

Tradition wisdom says that you should try for at least a 4:1 printer to image resolution ratio. Anything much less than this will severely limit the possible color gamut per image pixel.

 

[Wildpony]

I also noticed that besides the first people with their vague references to how they "do it" ...the rest of the thread seems to say "printing at" ...when I'm sure they mean "designing at"... or "almost" sure i should say, because it's hard to second guess people, when there is still so much for me to learn... but at this point, I would say that 72 to 100 dpi or ppi would be the range I like to set up large format files for distance viewing. However, I would still print them at 360x540, or 720x720 depending on the images, the client & the end use.

Oops, I just realized I fell into the trap of saying printing when I meant designing.
I usually design at full scale at 72-75 ppi, and almost always print at 720 x 720 dpi.

 

[iSign]

Oops, I just realized I fell into the trap of saying printing when I meant designing.
I usually design at full scale at 72-75 ppi, and almost always print at 720 x 720 dpi.

me too.

 

[grafixemporium]

To be clear, design at 72-100ppi and print at 720x720dpi in standard mode. Only rip lossless formats like TIFFs and PDFs. If you guys are ripping JPGs, you're shooting yourself in the foot.

 

[ProWraps™]

we design every thing at 720 dpi at 10% scale. printed at 72dpi at 100% scale at 720x720.

works perfect.

 

[luggnut]

If you guys are ripping JPGs, you're shooting yourself in the foot.

not true... if you save a jpeg from the original PSD file and print it will work fine. the problem with jpegs is if you keep resaving from the jpeg the quality keeps dropping. if you only save from the PSD to jpeg to print it will work fine. i save all my originals as PSD.. or whatever program i'm using, but export out to print as jpegs a lot.