Getting prepared for a large vehicle wrap

[cmykodi]

Hey,

Well I'm getting ready to start designing our first big vehicle wrap. It will be fairly simple with the logo placed over a slightly "faded" background. The background will be a picture of a local farm. I know that I should set the digital camera to the highest res. possible for the pic but are there other things that I need to consider as well? My worst fear is get the design set up and approved and then it print pixelated or blurry. Unfortunately with wraps this large any mistake hurts our profit so I want to be as prepared as possible.


cmykodi

[PrintDriver]

You may not want to be using a digital camera for this if mistakes are costly.
First figure out how big you are going to be printing your image. Then do a calculation figuring 100dpi at final size. Is your camera resolution going to cut it? Or do you need to go pro with larger chrome sizes and scan?

I hate digital cameras for large format. No one ever does the math.
A 22mb image is only about 24" square at 100dpi.

[Exodus]

Didn't Kool post a table one time that showed how large digital pics at different mega pixels can print?

[PrintDriver]

The table no longer exists on the forum.
Read this:
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/framed.htm?parent=digital-camera.htm&url=http://www.microscope-microscope.org/imaging/image-resolution.htm

[cmykodi]

The side of the truck is 84" tall and 216" wide. The only good luck so far is that I don't have cut the size because it fits into Illustrator's workspace!

[Loopy]

We did a bus wrap a couple years back... We needed a picture for the side of a bus, which we ended up taking to a professional photographer to shoot.

Make sure you do a test print of the photograph at the size you'll need... this way you know what the image will look like when you print the full thing.

[PrintDriver]

You gotta be kidding me. :eek:
If you are using an image that large, you better be shooting at least 4" chrome and scanning. Even for the side of a truck.
Or, doing some kind of collage or filtery thing to the image.

[cmykodi]

So it'll be pretty pixelated? What's the other options for the picture? Also what is this "4" chrome and scanning", I've never heard that. ????

Thanks

[PrintDriver]

4" color transparency. It's like a 35mm slide but larger. Then get it drum scanned.
Call a pro.

[cmykodi]

Ok I did a test print by only printing a small section of the full size wrap. I got to admit the barn is pretty pixelated but at 3-4 feet it's fine, and you can tell what it is. I know that the owner took the pic at the highest possible res. and I would do what PrintDriver is talking about if I could do it myself but what do you all think? The image is in the background and is faded out. Our HQ office said that it would be ok b/c it's on a moving vehicle and all that "it'll be fine" crap but I dunno..any thoughts?

>cmykodi

[PrintDriver]

What is the purpose of the wrap?
- Is it only to be seen while the vehicle is in motion or while it is parked where people can walk right up to it?
- What will a pixellated image say about quality of the product of the owner of the vehicle or the design firm who designed it?

There are 'things' you can do to an image in Photoshop that will decrease the pixellization. It all depends on the look you are going for. If the image is being used as a backdrop and faded, there is nothing that says you can't interpolate up while applying blur, a little noise, or any number of other filter effects. If it is your main focal image, you may want to reconsider.

Up to you.

Get a full resolution strip print of a section before you proceed with the full order.

[Alan G]

Unless the original is awfully small, you may not have anything to worry about.

To give a comparative, a 14 foot x 48 foot billboard would typically be set up at 1/8" to the foot at 450 to 600 ppi (max). The 3.75" x 12.25" image at 600 ppi in Photoshop, giving you about 6.25 dpi at final output to be viewed from say 100 to 500 feet away. That's a pretty standard spec for billboard advertising.

Design viewing distance for a truck that size has to be minimally 10-15 feet. Any closer, and the viewer's only going to see a tiny fraction of the image anyway. So you won't have a problem with a final dpi of 25 to 50, especially if it's faded.

Put it another way: the visual equivalent of 300 ppi at 16 inches is 40 ppi at 10 feet, 15 ppi at 20 feet. You should be able to work the math backwards to figure out if your image is large enough.

[PrintDriver]

A vehicle wrap isn't a billboard.
But depending on the print vendor, 35 to 50 dpi may be enough. It depends on the machine doing the printing and the experience of the vendor using that machine.

I coulda sworn I posted to contact the printer and discuss it with them. So many posts, so little brain left. In wide format, especially if you are new to it, it helps to actually call the tech before you begin the design. All of us on the forum can all tell you here what has worked in our print experience but it could still be wrong.

I personally think 15ppi is too low for anything other than a billboard. Certainly nothing stationary viewed at 20 feet.

Talk to your printer.