Camman · 06-06-2006, 07:02 PM

Howdy Y'All

My name is Donovan. My bud and I work close together on projects. Our skills and abilities complement each other well. I have a more technical and graphics background. I started in 89 in the T-Shirt racket. I had to learn Photoshop on the fly. I have moderate skills in photography, and photo restoration/manipulation.
My Bud aquired a used Encad Novajet 736. I have always wanted to do large format printing, but due to costs involved I have been limited to sending large images(24x36 large to me) to a local photo store for processing.
I Use PS with Genuine Fractals Print Pro plug in to enlarge my photographs for large prints. I have downloaded the correct color profiles for the media in the printer, and have printed good prints considering the media we are using (Banner).
Now we are trying to print 96"x26" banners. I used my usuall methods to do the graphics. The file sizes are huge. I have tried doing the graphics in PS and then importing them into Flexi 7.6, and I have tried importing just a high quality jpeg (10mb) into flexi and adding the graphics there. It is killing my box! My Box has a athelon 64 bit 3400 with 1 gig of mem.

Could someone point me in the right direction to get some BASIC info on the process of art prep for LFP?
I never had to rip photos before, and don't have a clue as to the process.

Any guidence would be greatly appreciated.

eye4clr · 06-06-2006, 10:10 PM

Welcome to the board.

First off, all you need is 75ppi at the print size for a banner that big.
How much of the design could be done outside of PHotoshop and be vector instead of raster? This can reduce the file size dramatically. Be careful using Photoshop as an overall design application. It reallys isn't what it is there for. Mix vector and raster in something like Illustrator or Corel to be more file efficient.

Don't do any fancy color manamement within Photoshop. Leave that to your RIP to convert the incoming file to the profile for the printer/ink/media you're printing on. This keeps the upstream workflow simple and consistent and gets the most out of your printer's potential for quality.

I'm sure others will add to my couple of things. Try not to get to frustrated with the equipment. There is a solution to almost every problem and as you get better it seems like the equipment behaves better.

mwoodson44 · 06-07-2006, 07:52 PM

eye4clr has it right. Design in Flexi, keeping everything vector that can be vector. I rarely go above 150ppi in PS and often use 72ppi for banners and large images. I have had better success saving my PS files as tifs (as opposed to jpgs), and importing into Flexi.

Camman · 06-08-2006, 03:43 AM

Thanks Y'All

infinitef · 08-27-2006, 05:16 AM

upgrade your machine? photoshop cs and cs2 need a lot of memory. if you are working with large file sizes i would upgrade to 2 gig of ram and maybe look in to one of those iram drives (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815168001) you could put ur scratch disc for photoshop on the iram drive. maybe get a dual core cpu if you do a lot of rendering. as far as printing goes why not print straight from photoshop? you can setup the a printer profile in the print preview box. if you are not printing photos then i would make your banner in a differnet program something that useses vectors.

hope that helps.

mypercom · 11-20-2006, 10:32 PM

That a nice job u got there

06-06-2006, 07:02 PM	#1
Camman Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Eastern NC Posts: 7 Printer: Mimaki JV33-160	Newbie, Green Horn, or FNG Needs A Clue Howdy Y'All My name is Donovan. My bud and I work close together on projects. Our skills and abilities complement each other well. I have a more technical and graphics background. I started in 89 in the T-Shirt racket. I had to learn Photoshop on the fly. I have moderate skills in photography, and photo restoration/manipulation. My Bud aquired a used Encad Novajet 736. I have always wanted to do large format printing, but due to costs involved I have been limited to sending large images(24x36 large to me) to a local photo store for processing. I Use PS with Genuine Fractals Print Pro plug in to enlarge my photographs for large prints. I have downloaded the correct color profiles for the media in the printer, and have printed good prints considering the media we are using (Banner). Now we are trying to print 96"x26" banners. I used my usuall methods to do the graphics. The file sizes are huge. I have tried doing the graphics in PS and then importing them into Flexi 7.6, and I have tried importing just a high quality jpeg (10mb) into flexi and adding the graphics there. It is killing my box! My Box has a athelon 64 bit 3400 with 1 gig of mem. Could someone point me in the right direction to get some BASIC info on the process of art prep for LFP? I never had to rip photos before, and don't have a clue as to the process. Any guidence would be greatly appreciated.

06-06-2006, 10:10 PM	#2
eye4clr Super Moderator Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: San Diego Posts: 1,415 Printer: HP9000, HP45500, JV3, Onyx	Welcome to the board. First off, all you need is 75ppi at the print size for a banner that big. How much of the design could be done outside of PHotoshop and be vector instead of raster? This can reduce the file size dramatically. Be careful using Photoshop as an overall design application. It reallys isn't what it is there for. Mix vector and raster in something like Illustrator or Corel to be more file efficient. Don't do any fancy color manamement within Photoshop. Leave that to your RIP to convert the incoming file to the profile for the printer/ink/media you're printing on. This keeps the upstream workflow simple and consistent and gets the most out of your printer's potential for quality. I'm sure others will add to my couple of things. Try not to get to frustrated with the equipment. There is a solution to almost every problem and as you get better it seems like the equipment behaves better. __________________ -- Pacific Print Works "For every big problem there is a simple answer, and it's wrong." - Author unknown

06-08-2006, 03:43 AM	#4
Camman Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Eastern NC Posts: 7 Printer: Mimaki JV33-160	Thanks Y'All __________________ Custom Glass Etching & Engraving "Fast is fine, accurate is final. The real trick is learning how to take your time when you're in a hurry." -- Wyatt Earp

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06-07-2006, 07:52 PM	#3
mwoodson44 Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 349 Printer: Mimaki JV3-160S	eye4clr has it right. Design in Flexi, keeping everything vector that can be vector. I rarely go above 150ppi in PS and often use 72ppi for banners and large images. I have had better success saving my PS files as tifs (as opposed to jpgs), and importing into Flexi.

08-27-2006, 05:16 AM	#5
infinitef Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Scottsbluff, NE Posts: 250 Printer: sp-300v, wanting a sp-540v!	upgrade your machine? photoshop cs and cs2 need a lot of memory. if you are working with large file sizes i would upgrade to 2 gig of ram and maybe look in to one of those iram drives (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815168001) you could put ur scratch disc for photoshop on the iram drive. maybe get a dual core cpu if you do a lot of rendering. as far as printing goes why not print straight from photoshop? you can setup the a printer profile in the print preview box. if you are not printing photos then i would make your banner in a differnet program something that useses vectors. hope that helps.

11-20-2006, 10:32 PM	#6
mypercom Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 1 Printer: versacamm sp-540v	That a nice job u got there

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