Basic graphic design question for a print work

[berkoWitZ]

Im going to make a 185 cm x 60 cm banner for my work, but I want to know if Im doing things okay...

the guy in the print shop told me to make the banner in the original size with a 170 dpi, ok then....I open PS choose new file and now I want to add a picture....this picture has a resolution of 300 dpi and is 1536x2048 in its pixel dimensions..so...I put the pic inside the banner canvas and of course is tiny in the whole canvas...I make the image bigger to fit the size of the banner, and it appears to look good so far, expect if I zoom the banner to 100% which looks bad...

I want to know how Im doing so far if Im missing a step in this process...?? or something I should know

Thanks! berk

[simplistik]

Never enlarge an image for print. If u enlarge it never go over at least 2-5%. When you enlarge things like that it has to interporlate the image and make up pixels that don't exist... making it crappy and pixelated. If anything you should always be reducing imagery. Your base image isn't even close to the size of your canvas... time to look for another image.

For banners though I will say that sometimes some printers can enlarge them to make it look good... but you still need to keep the image size it's original size.

[Bodneydoink]

Mate that image's gonna come out all pixelated and nasty your 100% zoom is showing the true quality. You'll have to find yourself anther image or can i recomened maybe a vector of the image. Depends on how quick you are with the old beize curve tool. Or choose yourself another image with a higher res.

Note. Make sure that all work is in cmyk if that's what you plan to print to.

[DDD]

If the image is not super duper complex and you are using or have illustrator CS2. Look into the trace feature. I just used this this morning for a similar situation and it came out great in the proofs. cs2 can vector your image and keep it near photo quality.

[DHDesign]

also keep in mind the bleeds and cutoffs...

i dont know about banners, but i know flyers for example need a 0.1 to 0.25 inch margin so that when they are cutting it there is a little room for error...in which case it is also recommended not to have writing or important pictures too close to the borders, in case they get cut off.

not sure if this applies to banners or not...i guess it depends on what size banner and how its getting printed.

just a thought.

[berkoWitZ]

thanks for the info...this is the image Im using: http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=view&id=320154

I open it, edited the pixel dimensions and changed the resolution to 170 dpi...it doesnt look bad as I thought and also is not going to be something to look up close....but u guys I know what ur talking about, but where Im gonna find an image the size of the canvas they asked me for? :-/

DDD, Im not using CS2 but I can get work in a friends comp to make a te4st of waht ur saying...it looks like a good choice

DH, I just have to get the design made, the make the aproppiate changes it they need to :)