Pixelation and Billboards

[Bombo]

Hi, I'm working for the first time in a huge billboard for the roof of a company. Let's say it's about 20 ft.x 17 ft. I only have a 1000 pixelsx 500 pixels picture. How do I manage to include the pic in the billboard. Is it enough for that kind of big design?. Which size is the minimum in pixels for a picture to be included in my design?

Please help me....I need the job!!!

George.

[morea]

I'm sure PD will be in to help you before long.

Just to clarify, when you say 'picture' you mean a photo, not a vector illustration, right?

I haven't lost my mind... it's backed up on disk somewhere.

[Bombo]

Yep it's a photo....

[morea]

have patience, young Jedi. PD will be along soon enough to guide you. Wise in these things, is he.

I haven't lost my mind... it's backed up on disk somewhere.

[Bombo]

Is there any trick to convert this photo to a vector or something, I mean in order to resize the photo and have the least pixelation over?.

I hope I don't have to draw it to have a similar design!!!

[D-Frag]

1000X500 pixels is roughly a 3.33x 1.6' image at 300dpi. I took it down to 3 pixels per inch, which is more then you need, and the final size is 333.33X166.66'

20 feet in inches is 240, so with this calculation I would say you are ok. I am not 100% sure on the pixels per inch for a billboard, but if I remember correctly, they ended up being huge, like 1 pixel per inch....i guess when PD gets here you will have a def answer.

http://img15.exs.cx/img15/7863/nufrag2nk6zq.jpg

digitalcamwhore (http://digitalcamwhore.deviantart.com/gallery/)

Thanks to vend3r (http://www.graphicdesignforum.com/profile.aspx?f=35&m=97279&p=4762) for the sig

[PrintDriver]

Are you telling me this is a 3.5 INCH x 1.5 INCH picture at 300dpi? Is this a 1.5 mb image???

A billboard usually runs at 18 to 35 dpi final size. (35 is high)

At 18dpi you can make that image 55 INCHES wide by 27 INCHES high.
That's it.

For an image to be the size of your roof, it needs to be at least 46mb for an 18dpi final. An NO you cannot interpolate your little image that far up. You need to find an image that has suitable resolution.

Sorry.

Edit: large format is a bitch when it comes to image resolution. Work not usually done in pixels for obvious size reasons. Inches or centimeters and in some scale determined by the printer. Sorry if I sound harsh. Bad week.

PD is a grande format digital print dude. His advice/opinions may not apply to the 4color/offset/web world of printing

Post Edited (PD) : 1/14/2005 2:51:20 AM GMT

[PrintDriver]

Usually you have to scan or buy an image with suitable res. Most Stock art and digital cams just don't cut it in large format.

You also NEED TO TALK to the guy who is going to be printing this billboard. They have resolution formulas for you to follow. Some have layout templates or specific file requirements.
But if the res isn't there to begin with, yer kinda outta luck.

PD is a grande format digital print dude. His advice/opinions may not apply to the 4color/offset/web world of printing

Post Edited (PD) : 1/14/2005 12:10:56 AM GMT

[Bombo]

Thank you very much!!!
I've found AlgoLab - raster to vector changer. It's awesome and NO, I can't work with the photo I have but YES, I've changed the photo to a vector design...it looks like a painting of the original but my client liked it a lot. You all were very helpful...thx

[west4me]

You can do the same thing with Flash using trace bitmap, it may be a better conversion then the AlgoLab software. From what they show on their site Flash does a better more detailed conversion. The only problem with Flash is that it;s slow and can lockup when tracing the bitmap.