Large Format Digital Requirements

[PrintDriver]

It is very important to call the print vendor BEFORE starting the design if you have not worked with a specific process before.

Fonts
-Check your fonts to be sure they print correctly at large sizes.
-Outline when possible
-Don't stylize

Color Matching (critical colors)

- If selecting chip colors, spec PMS colors at 100%. Chips should be sent for match or specify date of fan book being used.
- PMS tints (screens or percentages) are considered another color. They will be matched to the nearest 10%.

Scan Resolutions
- For 'billboard' style printers such as the Vutek or the Nur the scan resolution can be as low as 35dpi at final size. Or even lower.

- For Inkjet, somewhere around 100 to 200 dpi at final size, file size permitting.

- For photo quality Lambda or Lightjet, at least 200dpi at final size, file size permitting.

- For Lambda/Lightjet scan images in RGB. For all other process scan CMYK. It is becoming increasingly popular for large format print vendors to request ALL images scanned in RGB. Most like to apply their own CMYK color profile to an image. Speak to your print vendor about images before starting your design.

[Kool]

Outstanding job PD, we appreciate the work that went into this. I learned a lot from it. It is now pinned so it won't go away.

[ImageLab]

Contact your vendor on what type of equipment they use as well. HP 5500 printers use a Pantone matching ink system and obviously CMYK builds that works really well. You then know what you should be expecting as far as color and resoloution consindering HP 5500s can output 600 DPI for digital photo quality printing.

Its nice I recommend it.

[PrintDriver]

There's a lot of nice printers out there. Many Pantone certified or under excellent color management. HP5500's are nice because they are fast. Not in 600dpi mode though and forget 1200. And BTW that 600dpi is droplets of ink, not image resolution... Most print vendors won't want to rip a large format 600dpi image file. Waste of energy.

I also like the Colorspan printers. And some of the Mutohs. Even some of the Epsons are very good.

For photo quality, cont-tone Lambda or Lightjet are faster - where application permits.

Rather than ask what the printer has for equipment, which usually won't mean anything to you unless you keep up with the trades, ask them to run a test file for you at standard production speed for their workflow. Make sure YOU create the test file from their spec sheet using imagery, fonts, bells and whistles that you use often, at the quality you use em.

[76pixels]

Great tips for printing! I knew some of them the but not all of them.

[Mitsoku]

Yeah same here. Thanks alot.

[PrintDriver]

Man, this needs to be updated.
I had to gut it once to remove data that was obsolete and never got around to redoing it. Now it should be rewritten. Or removed.
What's here is relatively accurate, just brief.

[joe_prints]

Q.1 -What's the best way to determine whether a PMS color i am supplied is beyond my inkjet printer's gamut?

Q.2 - at work I am supplied package design files that are destined for my large format inkjet printer. Usually i am given hard proofs to match my inkjet prints to but sometimes i am provided pms colors corresponding to the designs. What is the best way to be sure that I am printing the most accurate rendering of this design file? Sometimes it seems that the designers aren't using the PMS colors they specify in their designs. is this common?

-using the Color Replace tool in PS and placing the provided Pantone colors into the file sometimes results in drastically changing the design - depending on the details within. is this theoretically the right thing to do?
-using curves adjustments with trial and error?

any thoughts are appreciated!

[PrintDriver]

Sometimes it helps to do an apprenticeship at a printer before stepping off into the deep end of becoming a printer. Your questions point to a very huge gap in your knowledge of color printing and in your ability to color correct your clients' work. I cannot help you.