Large Format Printing
There is a lot of information on large format printing to be found on <a href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kLXQKH2ZqU&feature=related>Youtube</a>. Videos that show the ins and outs of the process and the methods, equipment and materials needed. For anyone who wants to understand the best way to create large format prints, these videos are good starting point.
Large format printing will first require a printer capable of handling the size media you want to use, to do it with accurate depth and color. For designers who produce print media for posters and larger displays, there are many large format printers to choose from. Getting the right machine is important, but also having knowledge of how to set up the print items is equally important. Using a quality photo editor like Photoshop can be very helpful. Saving the image file to be printed as a TIFF, or Tagged Image File Format, is best. This format will give excellent reproduction quality even at larger sizes, as TIFF files themselves are large and contain a lot of information. A TIFF file in the right format can store massive amount of color information with over 16 million colors available. These files when reproduced on a high quality printer and using the best in print papers, will give excellent results.
Many large format printer users find that saving document files as a PDF will allow for the larger formatted files to be easily saved. When saving images in this form it is easier to store the files and the dimensions can be specified by the user. PDF files can be saved as a “large format file”, and thus more easily transported on an external drive or flash memory drive. Later versions of PDF creation software also allow for tiling, where the print can carry over from one large page size like 11×14” onto another page, creating an extended printable document that can be assembled once printed. This is very handy for those with printers not capable of carrying larger than 11×14” media, and for those users who do not often require much larger prints.
Experimenting with the number of dots per inch or DPI set up in the photo editor will also produce better results. Using a scale of 75dpi or 150dpi can give strikingly better results for large prints. For smaller prints it is possible to use higher dpi, but this does not usually work for the large formats. This is why experimentation with the scale and file type can make the user much more comfortable with printing in larger formats.