Need help with Road Sign resolution

[moshepherds]

Hey everyone!

I designed a couple signs in photoshop, and sent it to the graphic design company. This is my first time doing this, so there are going to be some glitches.

The issue I am having is tone of the signs needs to be 12 by 8 feet, the other 8 x 8 feet with 100 dpi.

When I sent the image over to the company, they said it will appear blurry up close but legible from the road due to the resolution. My understanding is resolution and dpi are the same thing, but it must be the actual size of the sign when I send it over and at 100 dpi.

The company said I can make it a vector image, but I only have access to photoshop and not a vector program.

Another option I had was to make it half the size at 200dpi, which I can do but they said it would still look blurry close up.

i need some advice, what would you do in this situation?

 

[fredfish]

You could upload it here and one of the board members may well be able to convert it to vector for you.

Alternatively you could download something like Inkscape which is an open source vector drawing program. It has some trace options - or you could redesign the image in Inkscape itself.

You can get Inkscape here https://inkscape.org/en/

Cheers

John

 

[moshepherds]

Thank you so much for getting back!

The file is huge since it is going to be a big sign, so idk how well it would upload unless I could resize it, have it vectorized. i would do it myself, but it would be my first time vectorizing, something I don't want to practice on a sign that the world would see. I know i would make some errors haha! How should I upload the file? I

 

[fredfish]

You could always upload it to a 3rd party site such as Drop box and share the link.

 

[moshepherds]

I do have the files I sent to them in my dropbox folder, though these are the gull sized images in .tiff format. What file format and size should I share them in?

 

[fredfish]

If you have them in .tiff format that should be fine. I cant guarantee that anybody here can do anything with them - but it may be possible.

You could always also upload a .jpg file directly on the site so that we have an idea of what we are looking at.

 

[moshepherds]

Here are some screenshots of the signs, Ill share the file via drop box to whomever wants to help me out. The files i have in drop box are 12ft x 8ft and 8ft x 8ft with 100dpi

 

[fredfish]

I suspect that the "photographic" images that form part of your design might make this difficult to vectorise - I am not an expert by any means - but now you have uploaded some sample then people will be able to look at solutions

 

[moshepherds]

Yes, I suspected that aswell. The lady that works at the sign place said to vectorize the text and background, but the dogs should remain as photos. though, I still feel the photos would still look incorrect and blurry

 

[fredfish]

I do get exactly where you are coming from. This is your work and you want it to be as perfect as possible.

Sometimes you have to step back and have a reality check. In reality how close are people going to be looking at these from? If it is more that a few feet you are - in reality - going to be fine.

If you can make the lettering vectorised then that will improve things.

I dont think I am telling you anything you don't already know. Sometimes you just have to go with it.

BTW they are great posters!!

Cheers

John

 

[moshepherds]

Thanks! Do you think if I re-create these images in the 12' by 8 and 8' 8' format initially, that it would help with the quality? When I first made these, they were a smaller size (probably should have mentioned this haha!) . If recreating in the large size would fix this issue, I would do that!

 

[fredfish]

Sorry - I wasn't ignoring you, I went to bed .

Certainly if your source image is larger in the first place things would improve.

I still think that we have a tendency to fixate on everything being pin sharp. Road side signs are meant to be viewed from a distance - I am sure that if you look at your full sized images from 6+ foot away you would be surprised how little a minor amount of blurring notices. Straight edges and curves may notice a bit more (but not much) which is why I suggested vectorising the text.

Next time you are out go and look really close up to a poster or billboard - I am fairly sure that the sharpness (or lack of) of the image may surprise you.

Just my 2 penneth.

Cheers

John