Need Help Printing Design with Many Hi-Res Photos

[lolfailure]

I've got a problem! My client has a design they want us to print at 7ft x 4ft and it's made up of many different raster flower images layered to look like a bouquet. As expected, the file size is enormous. We have a Roland VG-640 that we use with Versaworks and VW gives me the out of memory error right away.

So my question: is there anything I can do to reduce the file size to something printable without significantly altering the design? Or do I need to tell them it just won't work?

 

[CanuckSigns]

what format is the file?

If possible, try opening up the file and resave it as a 300 dpi tiff file.

 

[Solventinkjet]

The quickest and simplest fix would be to re-save the file as a PDF and then in the compression settings make it so any image above 300dpi gets down-sampled to 300dpi. As long as the file is already at a 1:1 ratio, this should have no affect on the output quality but reduce the file size dramatically if the image files are super high resolution to begin with. Also, if you use Illustrator, linking the files rather than embedding them will reduce your file size considerably. You link files by using the "Place" function rather than copy and paste. This makes your design file more like a web page that relies on outside resources rather than saving everything in one file.

You could also rasterize the entire image into 1 - 300dpi tiff file but that will rasterize all of the vectors too which isn't considered professional and will make curves look jagged but it will get you through in a bind.

 

[AKwrapguy]

Like the others said before, it depends on the file type. if you can try saving it to a flattened .PDF. This might help with size and still preserve quality. Also something that big should be able to get away with maybe 150dpi at full size.

 

[T_K]

How large is the file? I regularly print 48x72 prints from raster images saved at 300 dpi. Some are up to 2 GB. Takes forever to load and rip in VW, but it does it.

Also, does it have to be saved at 300 dpi? The only reason I print those large files are b/c anything lower isn't good enough for the viewing distance (12-18 inches).

 

[Emd2kick]

You can also try exporting as PDFX1A1, 50% of the time it works 100% of the time

 

[WrapYourCar]

I save as a jpeg file size becomes tiny.. quality loss maybe.. but I've always done it.. kept it at 300dpi

 

[CL Visual]

whatever it is, bring into photoshop, flatten the image, change resolution to 150, save as tif with LZW compression. Size will be fine for versaworks. No quality loss without using a loop.

 

[myront]

You're overthinking this. 300dpi is overkill. We design large wraps at 1:1 scale all the time with various images sometimes at or even below 72dpi. On output for print we export as rgb tif (NOT JPG) at 150dpi. Same for banners or any other large format.

No raw camera photo file is 300dpi to start with. If you have 300dpi images they've either been scaled down from the original or someone "resampled" them. We're given images all the time and the customer swears they're good for print but they look puzzled when we tell them that they're not. They just took a "thumbnail" from the internet and used there "photoshop skills" and resampled them.

p.s. Corel allows for linked images too but we don't do it.

 

[lolfailure]

Thanks for the tips, everyone! I'll report back with what works. Original file is 87mb .AI file, for the record.

How large is the file? I regularly print 48x72 prints from raster images saved at 300 dpi. Some are up to 2 GB. Takes forever to load and rip in VW, but it does it.

2GB?? What are your computer specs? I have a fairly beefy computer with 16gb ram and I get Out of Memory errors on anything approaching 1gb.

I save as a jpeg file size becomes tiny.. quality loss maybe.. but I've always done it.. kept it at 300dpi

I'm probably not going to go with jpeg anyway but... how?? Illustrator gives me the error "Unable to Export at this Resolution" for anything close to this size.

 

[Oroscoe]

We have loaded files that were 600 to 800MB without any issues other than taking a little time to load. Empty all your file that you don't need from VW. Shut the computer down and restart. That will refresh all memory. Also VW prefers the EPS file format. That is what we were told by Roland and has been our experience over the past 10 years.

 

[SIGNTIME]

Flatten in PS scale it to 50% or even 25% then scale 200% or 400% in VW.

 

[myront]

Also VW prefers the EPS file format....

EPS for raster images! Are you nuts? Talk about a huge file. How about 5 times the size of a tif!
p.s. with CorelDRAW there's no need for photoshop or PhotoPaint to flatten, just marquee select what you want to print then hit export. Choose your resolution, choose rgb or cmyk AND choose "export selected" and go.

 

[Grizzly]

Thanks for the tips, everyone! I'll report back with what works. Original file is 87mb .AI file, for the record.
2GB?? What are your computer specs? I have a fairly beefy computer with 16gb ram and I get Out of Memory errors on anything approaching 1gb.
I'm probably not going to go with jpeg anyway but... how?? Illustrator gives me the error "Unable to Export at this Resolution" for anything close to this size.

I wouldn't consider 87mb enormous. We regularly run 500mb plus files with no problem. Granted, we run Onyx Thrive but I could rip 6 files at the same time at the size with no problem and i have a 6 year old computer with only 6gb of ram. Something is up with the file. Do what the others have side. Open in photoshop and flatten at 150ppi and it should work fine.

 

[lolfailure]

I wouldn't consider 87mb enormous. We regularly run 500mb plus files with no problem. Granted, we run Onyx Thrive but I could rip 6 files at the same time at the size with no problem and i have a 6 year old computer with only 6gb of ram. Something is up with the file. Do what the others have side. Open in photoshop and flatten at 150ppi and it should work fine.

It wasn't the original filesize that was the problem, it grows to several hundred MB when saved to a format that VersaWorks can understand and VW won't rip.

I unfortunately haven't really had time to try any of this out today. I tried saving as a PDF with downsampled images and it crashed Illustrator. :/

 

[Grizzly]

It wasn't the original filesize that was the problem, it grows to several hundred MB when saved to a format that VersaWorks can understand and VW won't rip.

I unfortunately haven't really had time to try any of this out today. I tried saving as a PDF with downsampled images and it crashed Illustrator. :/

Interesting.
Here is what onyx is ripping to at about the 4'x7' size.

 

[Pat Whatley]

Thanks for the tips, everyone! I'll report back with what works. Original file is 87mb .AI file, for the record.
.

If you're getting OUT OF MEMORY messages for an 87mb file your rip computer is the problem, not the file. That's not a large file. Our eight year old system $300 system will handle 1GB files without any problems.

 

[lolfailure]

If you're getting OUT OF MEMORY messages for an 87mb file your rip computer is the problem, not the file. That's not a large file. Our eight year old system $300 system will handle 1GB files without any problems.

I've suspected this was the case since I began working here but I'm new to roland products and don't know enough about versaworks to troubleshoot. Latest VW Dual with empty queue, Win10, 16gb ram, 3.3Ghz AMD processor, 4GB GeForce 1050Ti and it still chokes every time on anything nearing 1gb.

Again only the AI file is 87mb, it's the output files around 800-900mb where the problems begin.

 

[ColorCrest]

It wasn't the original filesize that was the problem, it grows to several hundred MB when saved to a format that VersaWorks can understand and VW won't rip.

What exactly, is the format that VersaWorks understands, that you're trying to work with? Is the original file just raster images or does the Ai file also have vector elements?

 

[lolfailure]

What exactly, is the format that VersaWorks understands, that you're trying to work with? Is the original file just raster images or does the Ai file also have vector elements?

It's a flat vector logo, just outlined text, wreathed in placed raster images, about 25-30 of them. We use PDF for pretty much everything else with no problems but anytime raster is involved Versa has a hard time.