Best methods for scaling oversized graphics??

[WindowFilmGabe]

First off, greetings from Ontario Canada! First time poster, I looked around, and I don't think I've seen this topic yet. If there is one my apologies.

I am new to the window film industry, and I am the graphic designer here. A lot of the jobs I get are VERY large, as I'm sure most of you are familiar with. Most graphics are over 8' tall by anywhere from 8'-200' long. Sometimes our customers are looking for collages etc of stock photography. I try and get the highest quality I can find, and I have been researching a lot of the photo blow up plugins and apps like alien skin and photozoom, but I'm still not happy with the results, and some of our customers aren't either. When I'm out on the streets looking at big box stores with their huge banners that you can walk right up to, their print quality is pretty well spot on. Is this a matter of biting the bullet and buying enhanced licensed tiff files? I will continue testing, as always it seems like there are thousands of options.

If any of you fine folks have some tried and true methods I would be forever grateful!!!

 

[rjssigns]

When we do the large graphics we buy the highest resolution file available or take or own photos. Then we use OnOne Perfect Resize to get where we need to be.

 

[ashleighfiddler]

For large graphics, start with the highest quality files you can get and enlarge from there. I personally have been really, really impressed with Alien Skin Blow Up software. Another trick is to enlarge in increments, instead of going from 24" to 96", go 24" to 30" to 36"... etc until you reach the final size. This will help retain detail.

If your files look pixelated,the image you're starting with is too low quality to enlarge nicely. However, if you start with a big enough image, you can enlarge it almost indefinitely without pixelation. it might still look "blurry" when viewed from close up, but that's different than pixelated. See the attached example.

You need to explain to your customer that large format graphics are not intended to be viewed close up and expecting a very high-quality print on a graphic that is very large and intended to be viewed from a distance is not realistic. That's not to say you shouldn't expect a print that looks clean when viewed from close up. The question is, what is the customer's expectation? If they want a window graphic that looks great from the street, the close up will not be photo quality, but the print should be smooth, not pixelated, which can be achieved with a good quality image to start with.

Also, the resolution of the printer is sometimes going to be the limiting factor in the print quality on large format prints regardless of the image quality itself. This is why a super high resolution image isn't really necessary for large prints. You can have a high quality print with a pixelated image that looks crappy, or a very high-res image that looks crappy when printed on billboard mode. So there are a lot of factors that go into image and print quality. feel free to PM me if i can help with anything specific.

 

[shoresigns]

Is this a matter of biting the bullet and buying enhanced licensed tiff files? I will continue testing, as always it seems like there are thousands of options.

If you're referring to the Enhanced License TIFF option on Shutterstock, it's normally the same resolution as the Standard Resolution JPEG. A bit of JPEG compression versus lossless TIFF isn't going to make any significant difference if the resolution is the same, so in my opinion there's no point paying more for the TIFF.

Our process is quite simple for dealing with this.

1. Get the highest resolution image you can, then use your preferred tool to upscale it to the actual size @ 75ppi, which will usually be a huge file. Sometimes we go up to 150ppi if it's a smaller job that will be viewed from closer. Don't waste too much time trying different methods for upscaling - there's only so much "enhancing" they can do.
2. Print a sample or view it at 100% scale on your monitor and decide on your own, or with the help of your customer, whether the resulting quality is good enough.
3. If the result still isn't good enough, then we tell the customer the only remaining options are to live with it or get a new image (and repeat from step 1).