Posted on 09/07/2006 8:11:52 AM PDT by notaliberal
We conservatives in Rocklin CA (near Sacramento) are doing a 9/11 rememberance. I would like to get a poster size picture of the towers as the plane hit (gruesome, I know.) I've found it on the internet, but I do not know the technical side of how to make it into a poster. I want to take it to a print shop. Any help would be appreciated.
Take to Kinko's - they have a machine that can take any photo to poster size.
Just tell the shop where the photo is on the net and they'll do the rest..............
That's not a very technical answer.
In theory, if you know the path to the image, you could give that info to the print shop and they could go from there.
But bear in mind that if you blow it up too much, the picture will begin to get the jaggies as the pixels begin to separate.
There is software that can compensate for this to some extent. You'd have to check with the print shop.
It is not a technical question unless he actually has a poster size printer and needs to know a technical problem with downloading fonts, etc.
Use the tools out there the market has provided - I gave him a simple answer to this "simple" requirement.
Can any picture be blown up to poster size?
"Can any picture be blown up to poster size?"
Not with satisfactory picture quality. You have to start with sufficient resolution.
What is the resolution of the image? or put another way, what is the file size?
Are there copyright issues? Kinko's might not do it if they believe they are violating copyright.
What was the link where you found the image?
Okay What would that be?
Well they can. A low resolution picture will look awful grainy. A typical Internet sized picture would not look that good, but depending on its purpose it may be workable.
You have FReepmail.
Hi Notalib,
Forgive me if my answer is more basic than your request. Go to the picture that you found. Using your right-side mouse button, click on it and select SAVE AS. Save the picture to your hard drive, and then copy it to disk, or cd, or a flash drive or whatever you have. Take that to the printers and they'll be able to take it from there. FRegards - Ol' Sox
Yes, any picture can. But if it's low resolution it would be awfully grainy and "pixellated". If You have a school portrait, say 9x10, they can scan it in at a high res and blow it up to poster size without much loss of sharpness.......
"Okay What would that be?"
There's no one answer. It's a combination of DPI, number of colors, original picture size, and sharpness.
You just have to blow it up and see. Try it on screen, first.
Sometimes you can use blur to get an acceptable image at larger sizes.
A gigabyte sized flash drive should be sufficient to load it onto and take it to some place like Kinkos. I don't know if a 512 MB drive would be enough, or not.
DOH! Why didn't I think of that! Silly me.
If you're making a poster-sized sign that will be viewed from a distance, you can get away with some graininess, and with printing the picture on ordinary sheets of paper in sections and stitching it together (just trim, carefully position the pieces against each other on a posterboard, and glue down).
Re the jaggies-blowup thing, I guess it goes without saying that the jaggies aren't going to matter to those looking at it from a sufficient distance. Think the "digital camo" that up close shows obvious pixels but at distance looks just like your average camo.
Just like if you get too close to a TV you notice "imperfections" you don't notice at 6-10 feet.
I never fail to marvel at handmade roadside FOR SALE signs that look fine on the kitchen table but include critical text in 1/2 inch high letters only an eagle could read from your average car on the road.
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