A0 size (33x46 in )poster - images in size 14x9 in- 300dpi

Visualdesign

New Member
I am working on A0 size posters. the client gave me the image of size 59x39 in (72dpi). i changed it to 300dpi and therefore the size came down to 14x9 in. According to my design the image covers 85% of the poster space. My question is: Is it ok to scale up the image from 14x9 in to 6 times its size. is it ok to do that or is there anything else that I should be doing?
 
Without knowing why the clients said 72dpi we can only give you 'general advice'.. I'm also going to assume this is photoshop because you didn't mention a program.

In general terms you scaled it wrong.... all you did was adjust the dpi but forgot to change the dimensions to the original 59x39 inches, your 300dpi is literally no different to the 72dpi in terms of the total pixels being used.

What you needed to do was set the page size AND the dpi... you would need a page set at 59x39in at 300dpi.

Scaling your smaller page size up 6 times will make it no different to the original 72dpi image, adjusting the dpi won't make any difference to the 'crispness' of the image either as it's still working from the smaller image, it may make it a 'little' smoother but generally it just makes it blocky unless it's a vector type image.
 
The Graphic part with all effects etc, I'll be doing that in photoshop and then placing this graphic in Illustator to do the text, logo etc. This poster is for print.
 
Wait and see what others would do but personally I would set up an a0 page (59x39 in) at 288 dpi (it's a whole number multiplication 72dpi) and match this with all documents that you intend to work with (ie illustrator and photoshop). It can then be easily 'scaled down' to 72dpi by dividing by 4, at 300dpi it's 4.166667 which could cause issues with smoothness and scaling etc.
 
Personally id have asked for a higher resolution image.

You basically have a image that is 1.5m x 1m (approx) at 72dpi which would suggest that someones scaled the image up originally.

As you don't just have a photo that large in such a low res, and you don't buy a photo of such scale with such poor quality.
 
I thought he was producing the imagery from scratch... just the 'print settings' were supplied
 
Honestly if you have already got an image at 72dpi, unlike I assumed, then there is no real way of using that on anything print worthy... except maybe a5 size.
It's very low resolution, it's the equivalent of taking a screenshot of your screen and having it printed. You need to go ask the client for a larger source image.
 
It's worth mentioning that you don't really need to go as high as 300dpi on an A1 poster. That's because anybody viewing the finished poster would be looking at it from a much further distance than somebody who was looking at, for example, a leaflet or booklet. So any pixelation would be less apparent. In fact if you did produce it at 300 dpi your printer might be a bit miffed as the file size would probably be huge - making it difficult for him to process. As previously stated 72dpi is almost always no good but you can sometimes get away with as low as 150dpi if it's not a particularly prestigious item.
 
Ask the client if they have a higher quality image available for you to work with. Some clients are simply not aware that screen-resolution images aren't suitable for high quality printing. 300dpi is the ideal but for large jobs 150dpi at the correct size will do just fine.
 
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