Photoshop Guidelines
Photoshop Guidelines | Scan Guidelines
Example A
Dots Per Inch (dpi) vs. Pixels Per Inch (ppi) - Dots Per Inch refers to the number of dots of ink per inch (if you're printing) or Pixels Per Inch (if you're looking at the computer screen) an image has. Dots per inch are very important because the resolution determines the quality of the output of the image. Since you will be creating a printed image, it is important to work in Dots Per Inch.
Raster Images
PhotoShop images—Color (CMYK) and Grayscale Images
- Color images must be scanned as CMYK.
- Grayscale Images must be scanned as Grayscale.
Resolution Requirements for Britten - At Britten, our ColorJazz printing system requires Photoshop images to be created full-size at 72 dpi. The digital printers will interpolate your image to 200 dpi, resulting in a crisp and color correct image. If your file is too large for Photoshop (over 400" in length), you can work on it half-size at 144 dpi or even one-quarter size at 288 dpi. Both of these sizes, when increased to full size, will be 50 dpi (see Example B).
| Example B |
| Full Size: |
60"h x 480"w @ 50 dpi |
| 50% Size: |
30"h x 240"w @ 100 dpi |
| 25% Size: |
15"h x 120"w @ 200 dpi |
When creating files in Photoshop, it is important to start with the correct resolution for your image. Please do not use Photoshop to take a low resolution image and interpolate it to 72 dpi at full-size. You cannot add detail to an image by doing this. All you will do is divide the large dots into smaller dots with no added sharpness or detail. Unless you have specialized software to interpolate low quality images, please create your art full-size at 72 dpi.
Common "Challenges" with Large Photoshop Images (250mb and up) -
The file is too large for your computer to manipulate. If you find the image you created is too large for your computer to manipulate you can size it down. We recommend sizing down to 50 or 36 dpi. If it is an unusually large file (500mb and up), you can downsize the file to 25 dpi. Britten has software to interpolate your image back up to 50 dpi and the computer power to manipulate almost any size file.
The file is too large to fit on a zip disk. If you can, please send large files on a CD or DVD rather than making the file small enough to fit on a Zip. If you choose to reduce the size of your image, we ask that you keep any copy or images on the banner in separate layers and save the file as an unflattened Photoshop file (.psd). Please do not flatten the image into one layer. This allows us the greatest flexibility for printing you a high quality banner.
Acceptable Disk Formats - Britten can accept files on Zip disks, CD and DVD. NOTE: if your Photoshop file fits on a floppy, the resolution is too low!
Any questions can be addressed to the Art Department
at 800-426-9496.
We are more than happy to help you get the image quality you need.
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“We used to pay over $1000 for every day we rented a lift at our mall. Now, thanks to BannerDrop we don’t need lifts and we can easily adjust the height of our banners.”
— Shopping mall development company,
Laurel, MD
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