You can do almost whatever you want (within reason) with digital signage - which I take to mean electronic LED or digital ink ‘video’ displays/billboards, where Targa format is a viable thing.
The OP was asking about printed/fabricated signage and low resolution raster files in png format for large format signage. That, and Targa, would be a very bad idea in that instance.
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Yes, PNGs are raster-based, In professional print design, vector based formats like PDF or EPS are preferred for crispness and scalability. However given the constraints, using a high resolution PNG at its native size or slightly smaller for that you can use online application such as JpegCompressor it can help to mitigate blurriness.
All those rez-up engines, even the ones that are AI enabled, don’t always do a good job.
Garbage In, Garbage Out.
And I sure as heck wouldn’t use something that Compresses JPGs to try to enlarge something. That’s not logical (or the product you’re selling is poorly named.)
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PNG’s, JPG’s and such are worthless if the dpi is too low.
Regardless of what type of signage, I always keep all components as vector and save as such for my own records.
Everything I send out to clients are raster proofs.
The printer will get the vector files once the job is approved.
TIFF, BMP, PSD, GIF, RAW, WEBp, EXr, PCX, TGA, DDS, HDR are worthless if the dpi is too low - too.
How do you do a vector of a photograph for a banner?
The original OP question involved a logo. Which should be kept vector. I think that’s what Danny D is referring to.
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Yes I’m referring to logos, objects and such.
Photos are another issue…
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the only relevant option is to recreate the logo. that decision should be based on the how large the print will be, as far as A-Frames are concern they are normally 2 x 3 ft, for this size it might not matter that much, yes but to be safer recreation is recommended!
the best way to get a proof done by the sign printing company, they can tell if it will be acceptable for the print size or not.
The original post is over 4 years old…
Why bother the print vendor for a proof for resolution. Color yes, but resolution, print a chunk of it out on your own desktop printer. If it sucks there, it will suck for real too.
Welll…I might backtrack that a bit. We do occasionally do camera resolution checks on backdrops going into video studios. HD cameras do really stupid things sometimes if your backdrop is TOO sharp. In fact we usually blur them Gaussian 5-8 - and still do a test.
Some backdrop elements will appear to float in space on camera. Very weird. We call it a “pop-forward” and I wish I knew how to make it happen on purpose. I kinda do, but not consistently.