Saving a large photoshop file
October 29, 2009 10:32 AM Subscribe
Photoshop CS3 for the graphically impaired. I'm struggling to create a banner print file. Two-by-eight foot banner. 200-300 dpi (ppi?).
Somehow I'd like to end up with a file I can take to Lazerquick and have them print me a vinyl banner to hang from an outdoor pop-up canopy (and occasionally from a banquet table). I'm guessing 2x8 feet would work. Tartan background with our club name reversed out in white text. (I'm a design dullard.)
I started with a snippet from a tartan wallpaper sample. I've tried to clone that to approximately the right aspect ratio and then resample it up to 24 x 96 inches at 300 dpi (there's a little box at the top of PS that says either dpi or ppi - also tried 200), which is what Lazerquick and FedEx/Kink's tell me they want. After grinding the hard disk for A Very Long Time, and watching the iStat graphic chip temperature climb :-) I think I might have a usable file. If I save it as psd - no go, fails with file too big. I tried saving it in Large Document Format instead, and my poor iMac ground for another eternity and then gave up with a "Can't save - not enough disk space." Oh dear, I thought maybe a spare 100GB would be sufficient. Humph. I googled reports that PS7 had problems recognizing disk space, but from what I can see, I should be successful using PSB format.
So, uh, how do people print giant colorful banners? Is my problem that I'm trying to scale up a bitmapped wallpaper graphic? Do I need to hire someone to replicate the tartan in vector format to get the file size under control?
Somehow I'd like to end up with a file I can take to Lazerquick and have them print me a vinyl banner to hang from an outdoor pop-up canopy (and occasionally from a banquet table). I'm guessing 2x8 feet would work. Tartan background with our club name reversed out in white text. (I'm a design dullard.)
I started with a snippet from a tartan wallpaper sample. I've tried to clone that to approximately the right aspect ratio and then resample it up to 24 x 96 inches at 300 dpi (there's a little box at the top of PS that says either dpi or ppi - also tried 200), which is what Lazerquick and FedEx/Kink's tell me they want. After grinding the hard disk for A Very Long Time, and watching the iStat graphic chip temperature climb :-) I think I might have a usable file. If I save it as psd - no go, fails with file too big. I tried saving it in Large Document Format instead, and my poor iMac ground for another eternity and then gave up with a "Can't save - not enough disk space." Oh dear, I thought maybe a spare 100GB would be sufficient. Humph. I googled reports that PS7 had problems recognizing disk space, but from what I can see, I should be successful using PSB format.
So, uh, how do people print giant colorful banners? Is my problem that I'm trying to scale up a bitmapped wallpaper graphic? Do I need to hire someone to replicate the tartan in vector format to get the file size under control?
Best answer: Yeah...EPS or even TIFF. Make sure the layers are flattened and I don't think you need a 300 dpi file for a banner that big. You would probably be fine at 150 dpi. Double-check with with your vendor.
posted by eatcake at 10:46 AM on October 29, 2009
posted by eatcake at 10:46 AM on October 29, 2009
24" x 96" @ 300 dpi = ~600 mb. It's definitely a large file but it should fit if you have 100 gb free. Can you export it as a PDF rather than a PSD? If EPS doesn't work the PDF ought to be fine.
posted by caution live frogs at 10:54 AM on October 29, 2009
posted by caution live frogs at 10:54 AM on October 29, 2009
Flatten your layers, save it as a uncompressed TIFF.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 10:56 AM on October 29, 2009
posted by Optimus Chyme at 10:56 AM on October 29, 2009
Response by poster: Thanks. So far I don't have any layers - it's all background as I haven't added the text yet. I thought I would save it after resampling since that took so long I didn't want to do it again if I botched something while playing with text. I found I can't even save this intermediate state as a native psd - so it's just sitting minimized on my desktop at home. I'll for sure try to export it in each of the suggested formats. Right after I set it to 150 dpi.
posted by cairnish at 11:11 AM on October 29, 2009
posted by cairnish at 11:11 AM on October 29, 2009
Tartan background? Photoshop file?
Vinyl sign 'printing' doesn't work that way: vinyl printing is all line-art, with the different colored regions (including letterforms) actually cut out of adhesive vinyl and then glued onto another piece of blank sign. The artwork file is more like a dressmaker's pattern of shapes to cut out. There's no actual printing of images onto anything involved.
Have you talked to the print shop you're planning to take this to? I'm having trouble imagining what they could possibly do with a giant raster tartan, unless you are talking about a different kind of 'vinyl sign' than I am thinking of.
Different point: whether it's required or not, a vector drawing of the tartan will definitely look better. A giant scaled-up bitmap will only look good from far away, while vector art will work from any distance/scale.
posted by rokusan at 11:16 AM on October 29, 2009
Vinyl sign 'printing' doesn't work that way: vinyl printing is all line-art, with the different colored regions (including letterforms) actually cut out of adhesive vinyl and then glued onto another piece of blank sign. The artwork file is more like a dressmaker's pattern of shapes to cut out. There's no actual printing of images onto anything involved.
Have you talked to the print shop you're planning to take this to? I'm having trouble imagining what they could possibly do with a giant raster tartan, unless you are talking about a different kind of 'vinyl sign' than I am thinking of.
Different point: whether it's required or not, a vector drawing of the tartan will definitely look better. A giant scaled-up bitmap will only look good from far away, while vector art will work from any distance/scale.
posted by rokusan at 11:16 AM on October 29, 2009
Response by poster: I hear you rokusan. Maybe a poor description on my part. Not a cut vinyl sign - it's full-color digital printing onto one of several weather-resistant materials available - one is similar to (if not actually) Tyvek, another is what the shop describes as vinyl, etc. Price goes up with sturdiness, grommeting, etc. Would love to have the tartan rendered as vector for a variety of reasons, but can barely afford the printing of this item as is. Actually, the longer I think about it, the less happy I am with the half-assed way we're approaching it. May be better to simply go without.
posted by cairnish at 11:37 AM on October 29, 2009
posted by cairnish at 11:37 AM on October 29, 2009
Two suggestions:
1. If your skills are up to it, recreate the banner using only vector art. That means recreating your sample from scratch. Vector are saves at a much smaller file size and scales much nicer. EPS should be fine for this.
2. Consider talking to the print vendor and ask them if they have the capability to resample it at the higher resolution if you provide them with a lower res file (they should be able to do this, especially if it is vector art). Might cost a little extra but could save headaches.
posted by Elminster24 at 12:41 PM on October 29, 2009
1. If your skills are up to it, recreate the banner using only vector art. That means recreating your sample from scratch. Vector are saves at a much smaller file size and scales much nicer. EPS should be fine for this.
2. Consider talking to the print vendor and ask them if they have the capability to resample it at the higher resolution if you provide them with a lower res file (they should be able to do this, especially if it is vector art). Might cost a little extra but could save headaches.
posted by Elminster24 at 12:41 PM on October 29, 2009
If it's like most banners, it'll be seen from ten or twenty feet most of the time, maybe five at closest. 300 dpi is much too much for something like that. It's ridiculously huge, in fact. I'd flatten the layers, resize it to 100 dpi (or less), and save it as a level 8 JPEG.
Obviously you'd follow a different process for a gallery-quality art print meant to viewed from three inches away, but for a banner you can get away with murder. If you've ever looked a billboard closeup, you know what I'm talking about.
You should really check with the print shop, though. They can tell you what will look good and still be a reasonable file size for the print size you want.
posted by echo target at 12:46 PM on October 29, 2009
Obviously you'd follow a different process for a gallery-quality art print meant to viewed from three inches away, but for a banner you can get away with murder. If you've ever looked a billboard closeup, you know what I'm talking about.
You should really check with the print shop, though. They can tell you what will look good and still be a reasonable file size for the print size you want.
posted by echo target at 12:46 PM on October 29, 2009
We once created a raster image to be tiled as an archive of letter-size PDFs that, when printed out, could be taped together to create a life-size photographic profile shot of a particular car. We found going all the way down to 10 dpi (yep 10, not 100) looked fine from any distance greater than 2 or 3 feet. The entire set was under 3 megs, as I recall.
You may not be able to go all the way down to 10, but I bet even 150 is more file size than you need, depending on how this banner will be viewed.
posted by jalexei at 2:37 PM on October 29, 2009
You may not be able to go all the way down to 10, but I bet even 150 is more file size than you need, depending on how this banner will be viewed.
posted by jalexei at 2:37 PM on October 29, 2009
EPS file is the way wrong way to go. Frankly that format should be buried, and we should never speak of it again.
PSB files are worthless. Most sign printers have very old equipment because they're margins are to thin to upgrade to the latest greatest.
100 to 150 dpi should suffice for banners unless there is complex artwork being used.
Humph. I googled reports that PS7 had problems recognizing disk space, but from what I can see, I should be successful using PSB format.
Photoshop CS3 for the graphically impaired.
That's confusing. Are you using PS 7 or PS CS3 (10)?
Note that either version needs 3 times the file size of scratch disk space. You can find the current file size in Image Size. If you have multiple drives make sure Photoshop's settings can use them all for scratch disk. Maybe an external HD would solve your VM problems.
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 4:23 PM on October 29, 2009
PSB files are worthless. Most sign printers have very old equipment because they're margins are to thin to upgrade to the latest greatest.
100 to 150 dpi should suffice for banners unless there is complex artwork being used.
Humph. I googled reports that PS7 had problems recognizing disk space, but from what I can see, I should be successful using PSB format.
Photoshop CS3 for the graphically impaired.
That's confusing. Are you using PS 7 or PS CS3 (10)?
Note that either version needs 3 times the file size of scratch disk space. You can find the current file size in Image Size. If you have multiple drives make sure Photoshop's settings can use them all for scratch disk. Maybe an external HD would solve your VM problems.
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 4:23 PM on October 29, 2009
For the indoor one, it might be easier/cheaper to just get the tartan cloth and have the signmaker mount cut vinyl letters to it.
posted by MegoSteve at 4:41 PM on October 29, 2009
posted by MegoSteve at 4:41 PM on October 29, 2009
Nthing using vector art. You can make it at a smaller size (as long as it's the same aspect ratio), it'll take up less space, DPI isn't an issue, and it'll be easier for everybody to deal with.
If you import your tartan image into Illustrator you can use the 'Live Trace' function to trace it as a vector, then clone that out to flesh out the background. You may need to fiddle with the sliders for a while, but can get some really nice mapping if you spend enough time, generally.
I found a vector tartan illustration on Shutterstock that you could Live Trace then change the colors of, and found a tartan maker online that might suit your purpose whether you use AI or stick with Photoshop.
Hope that helps a little. Good luck.
posted by Pecinpah at 5:05 PM on October 29, 2009
If you import your tartan image into Illustrator you can use the 'Live Trace' function to trace it as a vector, then clone that out to flesh out the background. You may need to fiddle with the sliders for a while, but can get some really nice mapping if you spend enough time, generally.
I found a vector tartan illustration on Shutterstock that you could Live Trace then change the colors of, and found a tartan maker online that might suit your purpose whether you use AI or stick with Photoshop.
Hope that helps a little. Good luck.
posted by Pecinpah at 5:05 PM on October 29, 2009
Response by poster: Thanks all! It seems to be sorted - I think there had to be something else going on. I was able to export to EPS (sorry MiltonRandKalman it was the first thing I tried when I got home) in a reasonable amount of time by cutting back to 150dpi. Having got that far safely I felt brave enough to shut down photoshop and go install a new mouse I picked up at lunch, which required a restart. After restarting I was able to open the file easily and resave it again as PSD, in a trivial amount of time compared to last night. Whuh? The file is now not even a gigabyte. Also, actions are taking a lot less time. I suspect I must have had some combination of memory or swap or something that was bonkers. In any event, I feel I can move forward. Thanks again.
posted by cairnish at 7:16 PM on October 29, 2009
posted by cairnish at 7:16 PM on October 29, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Mayor Curley at 10:42 AM on October 29, 2009