Basically i've just gotten a phone call from a friend who needs to create a banner which will be printed to a size roughly Two feet high by four and a half feet wide. What i need help with is the DPI/resolution. As i've only ever done anything like this once before and then i was being helped by a graphics teacher i'm not sure what i need to do to take the images i'm going to be sent and make the quality high enough to print to such a huge size. Sorry if i'm not explaining this very well. Any and all help would be much appreciated i know you guys are Photoshop wizards and one of you will be able to understand my gibberish!
monitors are 72 dpi usually, print is way higher, I'd say well over 150dpi. go with 300 or 600 if almo doesn't answer.
Mr Loonylion, you are a scholar and a gentleman! thanks for getting back to me so quickly. All i need to do is make the images i'm going to be sent up to the right resolution so they don't look horrible when they get printed. Is there anything special i need to do when i bring the images i'm sent in to PS?
they need to be created at the correct DPI/dimensions, you can't increase it later unless its a vector image (photoshop images are not vector images)
It depends what your printing. Most basic photo printers will only print 300dpi. To print at the size your after I would use 600-800dpi. It will make the file bigger but it'll be worth it. If there photos then 5MP or above should be able to print to that size. When you start photoshop, new doc, make sure you set the dpi sometimes it reverts back to lower res. hope this helps
all printers will go higher than 300dpi... I have about 6-7 printers and the only one that won't is a deskjet from 1991.
Screen resolution is 72dpi, standard print/press is 300dpi which is fine for pretty much anything. Something that huge as said above probably 600-800 dpi. If possible print a test first as with a higher dpi you run a higher risk of inks bleeding into each other and colors printing differently. Also make sure if its coloured to use CMYK colour mode and not RGB since RGB is for screen, CMYK for print, some printers will have a fit. Also be aware that when you change something for a low dpi (72) for example, to a higher dpi (300) for example the physical image size will shrink unless you choose the resample image option in photoshop (which is not a good idea since photoshop will fill in pixels by itself with a similar makeup, usually pixelating the image). To change dpi in PS just open the file, go to image > Image size, then input the new dpi and make sure you uncheck the resample image box. Also on a technical point of view DPI is after its printed, PPI is which its still on screen, theres a slight difference but I wont go into it.
I really appreciate all the help i'm getting here. To explain a little bit, i was phoned and asked to do this because the person they originally asked only got back to them and told them last money that they'd had a computer problem and they wouldn't be able to do the work when it needs to be done for tomorrow. So, the images i'm working with are just what i've been sent and not all of them are up to the right resolution. If you guys could just take a quick look at this image for me and tell me if you think it's going to be good enough to print i would really appreciate it If needs be i can send the original PS file so you can look at the actual image which is going to be printed. I've checked and the people who i'm doing this for have said it's ok for me to post it up here.
Pretty impossible to tell from that image since its a jpeg, if possible upload the PSD file to somewhere and send me the link in a PM and ill take a look for you.
