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Is this resolution good enough for posters?

d4mo

d4mo

Senior member
I'm looking at a CD of various images that I wanted to make posters out of. I emailed the distributor asking for the resolution and they told me they are 72dpi(not really the answer I was looking for). Is 72dpi good enough for printing posters. I'm thinking the posters will be at least 24" maybe more.
 
When I used to do lots of freelance graphic design work, Kinko recommended 200 dpi minimum for printing. I even got away doing 150-180dpi.

72dpi will be pixellated as hell.
 
If its 72 dpi and 24 inches that means your JPG had better be 1,728 pixels long.

Honestly, thats not huge. I would recommend at least 192 dpi.
 
300dpi is industry standard for print. Some posters should you can get away with 150-200dpi. Depends on the size of the poster and what it's for. I'd want 300dpi if their RIPs and printers can handle it. Talk to the printer people.
 
Originally posted by: funkymatt
72 dpi is industry standard for newsprint. As mentioned above, go with 300 and CMYK if you can.
Click to expand...

That's not really true. Newsprint looks that way mostly due to a low LPI. It may be 160 dpi but the LPI is about 80 about half of what a typical magazine print looks like.
 
72 dpi doesn't tell us anything, because we don't know how many inches tall/wide the picture is - I doubt it's 24.

The answer to your question is yes, no, and maybe. You could print the poster at just about any resolution, and it'd probably look alright at some distance, but with insufficient resolution it would look like crap up close.
 
Originally posted by: mugs
72 dpi doesn't tell us anything, because we don't know how many inches tall/wide the picture is - I doubt it's 24.

The answer to your question is yes, no, and maybe. You could print the poster at just about any resolution, and it'd probably look alright at some distance, but with insufficient resolution it would look like crap up close.
Click to expand...

Actually, DPI tells you everything. A picture can be 1" or 100" but if it is 300 DPI, you know that every square inch of that picture will be represented by 300 pixels.
 
Originally posted by: Modelworks
It can get confusing. DPI really needs to die but its kicking and screaming 🙂 It does not translate well with digital images.
This page explains it better than I ever could:
http://www.rideau-info.com/photos/mythdpi.html
Click to expand...

I don't have time now to read the entire article but be careful with that statement. That first photo example alone is horribly misleading. You can ignore DPI all you want in monitor/web/camera and just go by pixel count but viewing in print, if you sent the 10dpi image to a press, you'd end up with a horrible image or one that's 10 feet wide and you have to stand 30feet away to see it clearly.

DPI in printing is how dense the dot pattern is to construct an image. The more dots the finer the detail, the better the image clarity. Desktop publishing programs refer to dimension and pixel density in DPI. Change your DPI and it will not affect the dimensions in print. Only the resolution. DPI can also be interpolated as well (artificially increased) without affecting dimensions of the print.

DPI has everything to do with image quality (resolution clarity) in the world of print.
 
Originally posted by: DayLaPaul
Originally posted by: mugs
72 dpi doesn't tell us anything, because we don't know how many inches tall/wide the picture is - I doubt it's 24.

The answer to your question is yes, no, and maybe. You could print the poster at just about any resolution, and it'd probably look alright at some distance, but with insufficient resolution it would look like crap up close.
Click to expand...

Actually, DPI tells you everything. A picture can be 1" or 100" but if it is 300 DPI, you know that every square inch of that picture will be represented by 300 pixels.
Click to expand...

But what if it was a digital image that was 72dpi for for a 100" print. Then it'll be fine for his 24" print.
 
Originally posted by: dakels
Originally posted by: Modelworks
It can get confusing. DPI really needs to die but its kicking and screaming 🙂 It does not translate well with digital images.
This page explains it better than I ever could:
http://www.rideau-info.com/photos/mythdpi.html
Click to expand...

I don't have time now to read the entire article but be careful with that statement. That first photo example alone is horribly misleading.
Click to expand...

It isn't misleading at all, read the article before commenting. If you don't have time to then don't comment on it.
 
Originally posted by: Clair de Lune
When I used to do lots of freelance graphic design work, Kinko recommended 200 dpi minimum for printing. I even got away doing 150-180dpi.

72dpi will be pixellated as hell.
Click to expand...

my dad runs a wholesale printing business, and he wants a minimum of 100dpi actual size, or 300dpi @ 1/4 size to print most (most of what he prints is something like 3' x 6' or so, usually banners and the like but he does some canvas print and wall art)
 
Originally posted by: TuxDave
Originally posted by: DayLaPaul
Originally posted by: mugs
72 dpi doesn't tell us anything, because we don't know how many inches tall/wide the picture is - I doubt it's 24.

The answer to your question is yes, no, and maybe. You could print the poster at just about any resolution, and it'd probably look alright at some distance, but with insufficient resolution it would look like crap up close.
Click to expand...

Actually, DPI tells you everything. A picture can be 1" or 100" but if it is 300 DPI, you know that every square inch of that picture will be represented by 300 pixels.
Click to expand...

But what if it was a digital image that was 72dpi for for a 100" print. Then it'll be fine for his 24" print.
Click to expand...


A digital image does not have dpi, it can't since computers don't work with images that way. What they do have is pixels. You need to know what the size of what the print will be and what it is printed at to determine if you have a large enough digital image.

If I want to print a picture that is 8" x 10 " @ 300 dpi then what I need in a digital image is a picture measuring 8" x 300 dpi = 2400 pixels , so a image of 2400 x 3000 pixels. It doesn't matter if the setting on the image reads 72dpi or 300dpi , the size of the image is what counts.

 
Originally posted by: TuxDave
Originally posted by: DayLaPaul
Originally posted by: mugs
72 dpi doesn't tell us anything, because we don't know how many inches tall/wide the picture is - I doubt it's 24.

The answer to your question is yes, no, and maybe. You could print the poster at just about any resolution, and it'd probably look alright at some distance, but with insufficient resolution it would look like crap up close.
Click to expand...

Actually, DPI tells you everything. A picture can be 1" or 100" but if it is 300 DPI, you know that every square inch of that picture will be represented by 300 pixels.
Click to expand...

But what if it was a digital image that was 72dpi for for a 100" print. Then it'll be fine for his 24" print.
Click to expand...

It will look fine on the computer, but printed out will most likely look like ass, depending on what the picture is of, and how much detail it shows.

One of the most common printing mistakes is thinking that just because a file looks fine on your computer or on the web that it will look fine once printed out. As a rule of thumb, stick to 300 dpi and above and you should be fine for almost all print jobs.
 
Originally posted by: DayLaPaul
Originally posted by: mugs
72 dpi doesn't tell us anything, because we don't know how many inches tall/wide the picture is - I doubt it's 24.

The answer to your question is yes, no, and maybe. You could print the poster at just about any resolution, and it'd probably look alright at some distance, but with insufficient resolution it would look like crap up close.
Click to expand...

Actually, DPI tells you everything. A picture can be 1" or 100" but if it is 300 DPI, you know that every square inch of that picture will be represented by 300 pixels.
Click to expand...

DPI tells you nothing that would be worthwhile to the OP. Read the article that Modelworks posted, it explains it perfectly.
 
Ok well I guess we should back up and ask you what format those WW2 posters are in. And what is final size you are trying to print? 24" by what?
 
Originally posted by: DayLaPaul
Ok well I guess we should back up and ask you what format those WW2 posters are in. And what is final size you are trying to print? 24" by what?
Click to expand...


I don't know what format. 24" tall. So I don't know how wide that would be. 18" maybe? Not sure?

 
Originally posted by: Flipped Gazelle
Ask the distributor about the dimensions, in pixels, of the photos on the CD.
Click to expand...

Just got a reply. 400x 600 probably not gonna cut it huh?

 
Originally posted by: d4mo
Originally posted by: Flipped Gazelle
Ask the distributor about the dimensions, in pixels, of the photos on the CD.
Click to expand...

Just got a reply. 400x 600 probably not gonna cut it huh?
Click to expand...

LOL, that's not even good REMOTELY close for printing 4" x 6" photos, nevermind POSTERS.
 
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