By signcraft
Posted on Tuesday, December 26th, 2023
The short answer is no, according to Doug Downey [The Image Factory, Stratford, Ontario, Canada]. Doug says that many sign designers are working with files that are much larger than they need. Printing at 150dpi will deliver an image that is hard to tell from a 300dpi version—and the file sizes are smaller.
“At 150dpi your files are much smaller,” says Doug, “and they tend to print much more smoothly. File size is the big benefit for us. The output looks almost identical to 300dpi and keeping the file sizes manageable makes it worthwhile.
“I’ve never had a client mention the resolution of our prints. To the naked eye, there’s no difference between a 300dpi print and a 150dpi version. We did a test once, printing the same file at 300dpi, then 150, 100, 80 and 72. At 100dpi, you could see the loss of resolution. The image got a little fuzzy. Below 100dpi it was even more obvious.
“What’s most important,” Doug says, “is starting with files that are high enough in resolution to be able to print acceptably.
“The old saying ‘Garbage in, garbage out’ is very true for digital printing. If the client gives you a low resolution image to work with, it’s going to look much worse when you print it at a large size. We design at full size using 300dpi images. Then we export our print files at 150dpi and never have to worry about the final resolution of the prints.”
Take a look at these photos of actual output at both 300dpi and 150dpi:
This 9-by-48-in. image was output at 300dpi. The print file was 168MB.
Here’s a closer look…
…and an even closer look.
Here’s the same design file output at 150dpi. The print file was only 31MB—about 5 times smaller than at 300dpi.
A closer look shows no degradation in the output.
Even very close, the image is clean and sharp.
Doug uses 150dpi output for his everyday projects like those you see here.
This client wanted trailer graphics that matched the graphics on his new motor home.
