Getting my file ready for a big print!

[rustyair]

Hi all,

I'm thinking of sending the file off to online printer such as americanframe.com and get it framed too.
I have a file (v700 scanned 4x5 film) that's a little more than 1GB and I want to print big 28"x35".
The resolution was 2400 and I changed it to 300 dpi, I also changed the RGB mode 16bit to 8bit. And saved it as a tiff file.

1. I'm not sure If i need to change the dpi to 300, and 16bit to 8bit.

2. Do I need to set the document size to the actual size? (28"x35")

3. The file size is 250MB with 300 dpi,8bit, 28"x35" document size and americanframe's online file uploader is limited to 50MB.
Should I do something to lower the file size or send them a cd to get the best quality?

Thanks,

[Frank Petronio]

That's probably fine but shouldn't the printer have some specifications?

[rustyair]

That's probably fine but shouldn't the printer have some specifications?

They are using Epson Stylus 9800 & 9900 Pro wide-format printers with 8-color ink technology. I sent an email to them about the dpi etc...

Please let me know if there are any good online frame & printers for exhibition quality.

[Frank Petronio]

Usually an online place like that will have a page or some info about what they want for a file, they are usually buttoned up about it. If it is a Walmart/Costco type place (large print for $20 or something) then they are probably just expecting a DSLR jpg.

You might ask if they have a color profile or just want it in Adobe RGB or sRGB, etc.

[Lenny Eiger]

Hi all,

I'm thinking of sending the file off to online printer such as americanframe.com and get it framed too.
I have a file (v700 scanned 4x5 film) that's a little more than 1GB and I want to print big 28"x35".
The resolution was 2400 and I changed it to 300 dpi, I also changed the RGB mode 16bit to 8bit. And saved it as a tiff file.

1. I'm not sure If i need to change the dpi to 300, and 16bit to 8bit.

No need to change to a lower dpi. I wouldn't.... The print driver will handle the 16 to 8bit conversion automatically.


2. Do I need to set the document size to the actual size? (28"x35")

This is a good idea. Just so they don't print it at the wrong size.


3. The file size is 250MB with 300 dpi,8bit, 28"x35" document size and americanframe's online file uploader is limited to 50MB.
Should I do something to lower the file size or send them a cd to get the best quality?

These kinds of places don't like seeing a large file.

Not everyone needs a museum quality print, I acknowledge that, however they aren't going to give you the best quality. You don't get that for this price. You get low quality for low price, medium quality for medium price, etc. What most professional custom printers will tell you is that a lot of the quality depends on the paper that is used. The rest is the person printing the job and how well they understand what you are looking for. The cost of the top papers alone for a print this size would exceed the price you are paying.

You are going to "get what you get". This kind of place is usually not even color managed and they are not going to make any changes to the file you send if the print is all cyan, for example. They don't have the margins to do anything other than open your file and hit print. if you must use a place like this, I would send them a file and have them print an 8x10 to see what that looks like before doing anything else. This will give you an idea of what changes you might want to make to your file before printing a large one.

Lenny

[aluncrockford]

If you save the file as an EPS in photoshop it should reduce enough to send

[EOTS]

That's because AFAIK the raster image content embedded in the EPS is essentially a JPEG!
EPS is more of a vector file format.
I never understood the use of EPS for raster images...

Nevermind, guess it must not always be that way...
Tried exporting, the raster image part containing the real data may also contain ASCII, Binary, or JPEG encoding,
preview can be TIFF or JPEG...
However, if it shrinks significantly compared to the standalone 8-bit TIFF, it must be a JPEG encoding...

Best,

[EOTS]

Here you can see the file sizes of different exports...

Real TIFF will smaller than an EPS with embedded TIFF-like-data (Binary, Ascii85).
Standalone JPEG will be smaller than an EPS with embedded JPEG data.

80404

[Frank Petronio]

We saved image files as .eps back in the 90s to preserve Duotone information, that was the only reason. Hardly anyone does Duotones anymore, a lost art.

Certainly not this poster printer ;-p

[Jim Andrada]

Honestly speaking I've never seen any noticeable difference between 300 dpi and 360 dpi sent to my Epson 4880. Maybe my eyes are no good but I've tried 360 dpi, 720 dpi and 300 dpi and 600 dpi and could never tell which was which by looking at the print. Granted I didn't use a loupe to "pixel peep", just my naked (nude?) eyes.

[Brian Ellis]

If you could go with a somewhat smaller but still large size print Costco does excellent 20x30 inch prints for about $8. Or you might have one made in that size just to see how you like it, then go larger later with another printer. Here's some information about using Costco. http://photsy.com/blog/?p=457 I was very pleased with the several I've had made.