advice please on how to choose a printing service

E

ealteacher

New Member
Please could I get advice - I am very uninformed about printing.
I need to know how to select a good printing service in UK so that I can get the best job done.
The job is a banner which will be displayed for a week at a time outdoors suspended in some way from church railings and will be used over a number of years. It is for a charity and to keep costs down I was asked to get the job done.
I do not know how to assess whether a printing service has the appropriate equipment/software/materials etcetera.
The job is a banner roughly 1.5m by 70cm (very approx).
the design I have made myself using photoshop.
I need to have a photographic image on the design and it is this aspect which is giving me bother as I know that resolution and dpi are important. Also I know that you need to be careful to supply the photographic image in the right way in order to produce a pleasing clear crisp result.
I have decided on an image from megapixl which I can buy and download from them at varying resolutions ranging from 2738x1825px through to 4242x28289x and through to TIFF 5498x3866px.
But please help me as I do not know if such a downloaded image would produce a good result. Whether it would produce a good result if incorporated in a photoshop document (CS4) How to save and send the completed photoshop file so that it would maintain the photographic image optimally to get the best result.
And after all that, how to know if the commercial printers I select have the necessary equipment etcetera.
Help please. I did choose one printer from their blurb online but when I tried to raise these issues over the telephone, the person kept repeating only 'you need 300 dpi'. that scared me off as I think it is more complicated than that. I will be grateful for any advice Pat
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So they wanted to keep costs down.
Then you did it without knowing what you're doing.
Then come to a professional design forum to ask how to do it.
So you want us to work for free?

You know what you do - you ring them and you ask them if they can do it.
It's a contract at the end of the day - if it falls to pieces and doesn't last you can get it reprinted or your money back.

Get the largest image you can possibly get.

Keep the text layers as text layers in Photoshop (as long as you can edit text it's fine).
The rest will be depending on the output specs - which only your printer can answer.

When saving the file save it as PDF hi quality from Photoshop.

That's the best you're going to get.
 
We get it all the time - no scolding intended.

Sorry if it came across as tetchy - but it was very ironic.

There's very little I can do to teach you how this is done properly.
I've given you the basic instructions that I think you can follow with no formal training.

Hopefully, it helps. Best of luck.
 
Seen as it's for Amnesty International - I will be willing to do this for you free of charge.

Let me know if you want that help.
 
bless every little bit of you! (as the Irish say or did so in my childhood). It is how to choose someone online that will do the printing. Even if I produce (or you produce:love:) an appropriate file, how do you know if they have the appropriate inks/printer to do the job.
 
ealteacher said:
bless every little bit of you! (as the Irish say or did so in my childhood). It is how to choose someone online that will do the printing. Even if I produce (or you produce:love:) an appropriate file, how do you know if they have the appropriate inks/printer to do the job.
Click to expand...
You need to trust your printers. They shouldn't take on a job without being able to do it.

The site is actually run by a printing company - https://www.stationery-direct.co.uk/
@Stationery Direct might be able to point you in the right direction.
 
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