• I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...

Need Help Saving in PS as a tiff thats over the 4gb limit

victor bogdanov

Active Member
Why not just go old school? burn the full size artwork to a DVD, or save to a thumb drive and post to the printer. Most places you can send a letter next day delivery for not too much. Let them deal with the tiling. By the time you have faffed around for a couple of days trying to sort this, they could have the file in their hands
The issue isn't getting a large file to the print company, the issue is exporting in a format that a RIP can open
 

SightLine

║▌║█║▌│║▌║▌█
If 300 dpi at 1/4 scale then it will make a final resolution of 75 dpi at full size which should be fine. I just tested myself to see using 202x78.5 inches at 300dpi. RGB mode, flattened, and saved as a tiff with LZW compression. Blank white file was only 16mb. Added a random fairly complex background so there was random image info and it made a 1.54gb file (3.99gb uncompressed). Converted to CMYK and saved again and that increased it to 3.86gb (5.32 uncompressed). So yeah, stick with RGB and I guess to an extent it will also depend on what the artwork is but with the LZW compression turned on and an RGB file you should have a file under 2gb.

Also as Colorcrest mentioned, RGB mode should be just fine for most any printer. In fact our entire workflow is based on RGB mode (we use the Adobe RGB 1998 profile) which gives us a wider gamut, smaller files, and generally more predictable results.
 

bob

It's better to have two hands than one glove.
The OP mentioned working at 1/4 scale.
Second mistake. If humanly possible always try to layout at the size and resolution of the finished product. That way there are no surprises being masked by sizes and resolutions of convenience, ready to bite you in the nalgas when produced in real life.
 

crny1

New Member
If 300 dpi at 1/4 scale then it will make a final resolution of 75 dpi at full size which should be fine. I just tested myself to see using 202x78.5 inches at 300dpi. RGB mode, flattened, and saved as a tiff with LZW compression. Blank white file was only 16mb. Added a random fairly complex background so there was random image info and it made a 1.54gb file (3.99gb uncompressed). Converted to CMYK and saved again and that increased it to 3.86gb (5.32 uncompressed). So yeah, stick with RGB and I guess to an extent it will also depend on what the artwork is but with the LZW compression turned on and an RGB file you should have a file under 2gb.

Also as Colorcrest mentioned, RGB mode should be just fine for most any printer. In fact our entire workflow is based on RGB mode (we use the Adobe RGB 1998 profile) which gives us a wider gamut, smaller files, and generally more predictable results.
Thank you for this information. Very much appreciate it. And yes my thought (math) had it at 75dpi also.
 

crny1

New Member
Second mistake. If humanly possible always try to layout at the size and resolution of the finished product. That way there are no surprises being masked by sizes and resolutions of convenience, ready to bite you in the nalgas when produced in real life.
I guess my brain was stuck in Illustrator mode with its artboard size limits is why I did it in 1/4 scale as I usually have to with Illy. Wasnt aware you could have a canvas size that large in PS. Again, this has been my first real project with PS besides the normal removing backgrounds and adjusting something here or there.
 

victor bogdanov

Active Member
I guess my brain was stuck in Illustrator mode with its artboard size limits is why I did it in 1/4 scale as I usually have to with Illy. Wasnt aware you could have a canvas size that large in PS. Again, this has been my first real project with PS besides the normal removing backgrounds and adjusting something here or there.
illustrator can now do 2300" x 2300"
 

damonCA21

New Member
The issue isn't getting a large file to the print company, the issue is exporting in a format that a RIP can open
The printers should be able to sort that out though with whatever rip they use for their printer. As long as they have the original complete artwork then they can sort out converting it
 

UpAndPrinting

New Member
It's not the most common, but in a case like this where the file size exceeds what's allowed for TIFF, saving as PSB and handing it over to them to work with and figure out would be the ideal scenario.
 

victor bogdanov

Active Member
saving as PSB and handing it over to them to work with and figure out would be the ideal scenario.
Wholesale printers aren't priced "to figure out" customer files. Wholesale printers have specific file guidelines so they don't have to "figure it out" odd files/artwork like in a retail environment
 
Top