A nice cup of rabies

G..giant prints.

Oh my lord, beautiful! So much of your work just needs to be viewed as giant hung pieces. I'd love to experience a show like that.

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giiiiiant prints are fun!

If you need any, give me a holler. While my print biz primarily serves the Bay Area photographic community, I gladly do work for anthro-artists (and other fandoms) at a very reduced rate. My goal is to help more artists be able to do fine-art and mega-sized prints within their budget, so that the overall amount of quality arttwork available increases. It's all good. :)

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That's wonderful. :D

Can I ask some nitty-gritty questions? For pieces that are not illustrator/vector based, what is the preferred dpi to print something larger then the standard? Like a digital piece of around 3200x2050 pixel height, would that translate into something large and of good quality printed? (Or to small to work printed).

This is all stuff I should know but haven't stumbled across, but I hope you don't mind me asking, since you obviously have the know-how behind the actual printing parameters. (Trying to see if I should actively work in larger digital formats in the chance I might print in the future).

Sorry for all the text! (Apologies to peggy for mussing up the comments. XD)

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The resolution depends on the effect you're going for.

"Fine Art" printing that's going to get pixel-peeped (you expect the viewer to get right up close to the piece and look at it critically) should be at 300dpi. For something at normal art-show viewing distance, 150 will do. For things that aren't going to be looked at up close or are going to be blown up to mega poster size, you can get away with 72 without too much worry.

While higher is fine, going above 720 (the max detail that will still permit the proper color screening) doesn't get you anything more. Lower than 72 is possible as well but not recommended, as even the best of upscaling can only do so much.

If you use photoshop, the best way you can check the dpi is by using the 'resize image' dialog. Turn off the "resample image" checkbox so it's only changing the measurements and not actually resizing the picture's pixels. Type in the size you want (in height and/or width boxes) and the DPI will be computed for you in the DPI box. Use the 300/150/72 guidelines above, as needed.

If you're starting with a blank canvas and want to set it for a certain print size, just fill in the DPI field at the rate you want and set the size for the final print size in the new-canvas dialog. That'll set the pixel size appropriately.

Now if you want to talk color matching, that's a whole different beast entirely... :)

As long as Peggy doesn't mind the journal-spam, I'm more than glad to type out any part of the process you want to know!

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I got no problem with it. *grin*

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ff00ff.livejournal.com

IAWTC 300DPI is always my go-to DPI for print work. If you're making raster art and not vector, then you aught to make sure to set the file's DPI *before* you begin working on it rather than after. After is possible, but your computer and hard drive will not like it.

This is the entity of collected knowledge on printing artwork that my BA in graphic design has given me. I'm so glad I'm so deep in debt for such useful little nuggets I could have just asked someone else about.

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Thank you also for the response!

And I entirely understand. I also have the incredible silly BA in Communication Arts and the only thing I can partially remember is the 300dpi rule - though we never had the chance to see actual products and consequences for lower resolutions and such.

The before thing is so important. I've been doing this all wrong for years! Sheesh.

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Much thanks to you sir!

I had some inkling about the 300dpi, but wasn't sure at its application. After reading and finagling stuff in photoshop, I realized all of my past pieces are at the 72 setting (gave me a heart attack!), so pretty unfit for anything larger then 8x11.

But! This gives me the ahead knowledge to watch my settings before I sink into coloring. I believe I will have to poke around open canvas to see how to change the dpi within that program, since I use it for the majority of my coloring (I use photoshop for the scanning, pre-color clean up, and after open canvas coloring touch-ups). I believe I'm starting at 300+ dpi with my scans, but OC is working at 72 dpi unfortunatly.

This all opens my eyes on my own methods, working 'backwards' as it is would be so much better. Making the blank canvas fit the final print size requirements (would it be better still to go larger and shrink down to the corrent size? Such as with digital works the shrinking causes some tightening up) - I will make scans fit the final size rather then the scans themselves determining the final boundaries.

It's just very nice to be able to gouge a printer with questions. A lot of the companies I've worked through aren't very open with the information for some reason (taking up too much time on a subject they assume everyone knows before printing, my own fault also).

Can you work with full bleeds? (I noticed the AC poster [omg omg] and peggys work both have borders)

I also poked around in your journal and saw the mentioning of car vinyl stickers? This really...really strikes my interest. :D (Something I've always wanted to do!)

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If you take a look at the two different pics on this post, the first one is full bleed (no borders) on a perl-surface poster paper. The 2nd one is matte with a border.

I can do full-bleed on most gloss-coating type of papers from semimatte to perl to full photogloss. Most matte papers and 'fine art' papers have edge soak issues and as such cannot be done full bleed. You have to print them with a border, let them dry for 10 minutes and then cut them manually, otherwise the edges soak things up and cause streaking and marring. I'm working on getting my cutting equipment together so I can do large-scale full bleed work on any media.

While I've not done it yet (it's a little pricey, so I'm waiting for the first at-least-partially-paid excuse!), yes, this printer can handle the laser-perf style vehicle wrap vinyl, including the one-way material like you see on bus windows. I can't wait to experiment with it!

As far as other questions, sure, ask away. I've a lot to learn yet and I'm in full research-and-experiment mode. I'll start a thread for it over in my own journal soon. :)

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FYI, the smaller print has a roughly 1/4" border; the big one is full bleed.

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Someday I want something of mine printed out in tens of feet!

If you can make it to Boston sometime in August, there'll be stuff up to 2x3 feet. And hopefully the next show will be even bigger...

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dagoski.livejournal.com

If we're still on the East Coast when your show open it would be a good excuse for a roadtrip. I thought this show had already happened and I'd missed it. .

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Nah, the show is why I've got this tight schedule of one card every three days! I'll be posting about it more when it comes up, so there's ample opportunities for people to say 'hey, I'll be there around then' and push their plans around...

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In august I'll still be in Toronto sadly, I did a double check on googlemaps (can you believe I honestly didn't know exactly where Boston stands?)...and whew, it's like the trip back home to Virginia, except straight east!

You will very much have to take photos at the opening, as much as I'd love to go I doubt I could make it. And it's definitly something I'm sad to miss. Seeing things not on a computer screen just changes the flavor of so much.

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ff00ff.livejournal.com

I am moving heaven and earth... uh, or shuffling my bank accounts and long term savings around, and fast talking my parents into letting me borrow a credit card so I can reserve a plain ticket, and cut them a check to pay them back, so I can be there to see your 2x3' prints. I've seen my own stuff go from an image floating on a computer screen to printed up all propa' and hanging in a gallery like setting (my college's non-juried art salon at least) and the effect of seeing a work in the physical world on glossy paper at the dimentions you imagined it at can be quite an experience. I hope I don't go into some kind of fanboy overload when I see your show.

Digressing into a reminiscence of that Non-Juried art salon at my Alma Mater, there was a clear furry submitting stuff to that as well. She was pretty great, and I reversed her school e-mail address from her full name as printed on a placard underneath her art. Told her she was obviously the best artist in the show, because that's how I felt. We met in the school's cafe, and talked a while because she was excited to have a fan. I didn't bring up furry at all, but I'd seen her in the commons browsing yerf, so I knew. Found out she was like super evangelical christian and ended up getting "witnessed" to what an awkward time that was!

Oh, also I referred to my university as my Alma Mater, which means Nourishing Mother in Latin, but clearly, now that I'm several years an alumnus, I'm sure that my Alma Mater must have been of some sot of insect species that devours it's young, because my loan debt is unreasonably enormous. Maybe I'll be able to afford a car by the time I'm 40.

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Printed on matte paper is even better, IMHO. At least I think my stuff looks a lot better on that than glossy stuff, the few times I've managed to get it out onto physical substrate.

I was lucky enough to not rack up giant student loans, but I still can't afford a car and I'm nearly 40.

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dustmeat.livejournal.com

I would SO buy that print.

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pseudomanitou.livejournal.com

Haha. I received no less than 8 of those same exact monster rolls myself a week ago. I recognized it from the very first photo :)

...the mind boggles at how he will ship a 14-foot long banner to you...

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