Scaled document to print - at 300 resolution.

[ljfm]

Hello there,

I want to design something that has large dimensions that are around 10 meters.

My Doubt is:
I want to print an art that measures 10 meters with the highest quality.
If I create it in a document scaled 1:10 = (1000 m)

Could you use it to export as PDF/300 res. and print at a printing press without losing quality?

Thanks!

[Alfred]

What kind of artwork is it? Most pieces whose dimensions are around 10 m aren’t normally going to be viewed from close enough that you would need anything like 300 PPI (which is just as well, since you’d have something in the region of 14 gigapixels). You probably only need 100 PPI, or perhaps as little as 75 PPI.

[joe_l]

I was never good at math. So a 300 dpi image scaled ten times has in the end 30 dpi, which is too low. In my early LFP days 72 dpi was the lowest quality "allowed". Back then I used the cheap halftone trick to make the print more crisp, if the dpi was lower. Indeed I plotted a 43 dpi image at A1 a few days ago which was quite nice in quality.

[Alfred]

5 minutes ago, joe_l said:

So a 300 dpi image scaled ten times has in the end 30 dpi, which is too low.

You’re quite right, of course. I don’t know how I managed to overlook the effect that scaling would have on the effective DPI.

[joe_l]

1 minute ago, Alfred said:

You’re quite right, of course. I don’t know how I managed to overlook the effect that scaling would have on the effective DPI.

My answer was not intended to correct you. I was writing while you already posted. I assumed anyway that you meant 75 or 100 dpi as final resolution.

[ljfm]

Hello thanks for answer,

The design is for a fair stand. The measurement is 9 x 3 meters.
The art has many objects such as texts, some photos, gradient backgrounds, etc.

So I could create a real scale 1:1 document whitout problems to move and edit, and export it at 150? Is it enough to be seen sharpen?

[joe_l]

14 minutes ago, ljfm said:

Is it enough to be seen sharpen?

Do not call the lawyers, when the fair stand looks awful. To my experience FINAL 150 dpi (the dpi the image has 1:1) would be enough. You have to keep in mind that the spectators will see the print product not in a distance like a magazine or newspaper. The quality "increases" with the distance as you move away from the print product.

To be sure, just print a sample in 1:1 to judge the quality.

[thomaso]

9 minutes ago, ljfm said:

at 150? Is it enough to be seen sharpen?

As @Alfred pointed out initially, it really depends a lot on the viewing distance.

A billboard for instance may get produced with 30 dpi and still appear 'normal', simply because/if it gets viewed from 10 or more metres.

You can easily preview the result with a print of a tiny area but in the final size, e.g. a letter or A4 sheet or 10x10 cm detail.
An alternative way to preview the final sharpness would be again with a certain detail but displayed in the final size on screen.
For both test methods it is necessary to take the according viewing distance! (especially the screen view may look different because of the lower monitor hardware resolution compared to print dots). Or even simpler: look at a postcard (photo, magazine cover, etc.) attached to your wall + look at it from a distance of 10 -> 5 -> 2 meters.

[moonheads]

I’m doing a similar project, printing an entire roll as a single image, but mine will be viewed from about a foot away, winding along the walls of an exhibit, so I’m going to use topaz to upscale it.  Luckily the original images are 35 mm slides comped together into a panorama, so there will be film grain on display and that’s perfectly fine for the context. But while I can have as much big soft bubbly round film grain as I want, jagged pixels and digital compression artifacts are unacceptable.

I think the practical limitation is actually going to be how big of a file is being sent to the printer & how far it gets before it crashes, eating rolls of fine art paper. A 300 dpi uncompressed file 24 feet long is almost certainly greater than the printers buffer will handle, even on this big large format printer.

Edited March 6 by moonheads

[Oufti]

3 hours ago, moonheads said:

A 300 dpi uncompressed file 24 feet long is almost certainly greater than the printers buffer will handle

In general, programs don't use PDF greater than 200" (i.e. 508 cm or slightly more than 16 feet).

(Complete answer by Dov Isaacs:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/maximum-width-of-a-pdf/m-p/9217378#M58160

[Oufti]

10 hours ago, Alfred said:

Most pieces whose dimensions are around 10 m aren’t normally going to be viewed from close enough that you would need anything like 300 PPI (which is just as well, since you’d have something in the region of 14 gigapixels). You probably only need 100 PPI, or perhaps as little as 75 PPI.

Here is an handy table giving the dpi needed for different viewing distances:

https://prinfab.com/blog/viewing-distance-and-dpi/

[ljfm]

Thanks to all for the info and tips.