http://www.aaa3.net/how-to-scale-in-illustrator/
GRAPHIC DESIGNERS – large scale printing of images – stretching images – losing integrity/definition of image?
I am making a banner at work. I am used to working on a small scale, under 12 x 12 inches max. This banner is 36 x 60 inches. It is a vector background which I have no problem with but it’s also full color with 300 dpi images placed on top of the vector background. Theses images, when placed on the template (I’m using Adobe Illustrator) these images are very very tiny when I place them in. So, I stretch them out, and they LOOK fine. How is that? Why is it that when I stretch images out in other programs, they lose their integrity? They look blurry/fuzzy? We are having this digitally printed, will it look OK when printed if it looks ok @ 100% on screen? I just don’t understand why when I stretch images out in other programs they look messed up so I feel like some how they won’t look good when printed? I am so confused! Also, we’re having it digitally printed. What other types of ways could it be printed & what’s the difference? Like laser? Any info would be great. Thank you so much!
Illustrator doesn’t have a magic wand. qwertz88 is right. PC monitors scan at 96 DPI so when you look at a 300 dpi image, you are actually looking at a 96 dpi image. (Ninety nine percent of all web images are 72 dpi which I think is the Mac standard.) As qwertz88 says, you can enlarge part of the any the image 3 times and it will still look okay. I’ll try to put this into perspective. Let’s assume your picture is 300 dpi and 12 inches wide. You can safely stretch it out to 3 feet wide because the human eye is very comfortable looking at images printed at 100 dpi. (that’s just a tad over the dpi of your computer screen and I’m sure you’ll agree that the pictures you view on that are okay. Also, it’s about the same dpi used in magazines.) Take a walk around town and look at a few billboards the same size as your banner. You may be surprised to see just how big the dots are when you get up close. Maybe 40 to 50 dpi. The photo will look shocking of course, but the further you move away, the better it will become. As an ex printer, here’s the advice I’d like to offer. Design your banner in illustrator and use 300 dpi photos throughout If you set Illustrator’s rulers to feet and inches, you can then blow up a small section of the banner to full size. Illustrator can handle banners a mile wide so that’s no problem. You probably won’t see much of the photo unless it was very small, but if you can only see a bit, stand up, walk back three feet and then look. The average punter will view your banner from between 3 and 6 feet. I’m sure you will be delighted with the results. To get the best printed result, go to poster printing service. They mostly use inkjet printers that can print on continuous paper or plastic (film) up to 4 feet wide. You must select a printing service first because you must find out how they want you to supply the image. A 300 dpi banner to be printed out at 100 dpi is 12 inches wide by 20 inches long. That’s a very big JPG or GIF file. They may want a PNG or TIFF which will be a few hundred megabytes. If you need any more help, feel free to contact me.
0012 Illustrator (document scale trick)
