Hi Friends,
I am working in a desiging & printing company mostly we deal with big signages. I prefer to work in Corel Draw rather than AI, but there are couple of things which can't be done as good as in AI, anyways my problem is if i use add show effect for anykind of text or object it makes file size much heavier and sometimes it's impossible for me to export is as a pdf or eps for large format printing.
Is there any solution?
Thanks
You can decrease the "Rendering Resolution"; which will definitely decrease the size of the PDF at the expense of appearance.
Notes
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Thank you very much Ahmad Ajlouny, i reduced rendering resolution to 72dpi and file size is much lighter now but still it's way heavier as compare to regular file, do u think 72dpi will do for big formats like 10' by 20'.
When it comes to signage, I always do it in Photoshop. PS is much more powerful in graphical effect imo.
I only use CorelDraw for designs with small text (smaller than 24pts) and require complicated layout design.
If you want to do it in CD anyway, you may try to do the shadow design in PS then import it as object. I've not tried that before so I don't whether it'll give a smaller file size.
For a 10x20' sign, I normally do it in PS with scaled down size at 800-1000dpi and have a file size less than 200MB, and export to my printer in JPEG with around 150dpi, 1 MB file size. That is the optimal setting I always use. Higher resolutions do not give much better printing accordingly. Also, if it happens that there are some areas that may be lower in resolution, the printer can adjust the dpi for those particular areas accordingly when he is printing it.
llvlludassar:but still it's way heavier as compare to regular file
A file that contains a 10' x 20' Bitmap (even at 72 dpi) should be much heavier than a file that contains small or no bitmaps.
llvlludassar:do u think 72dpi will do for big formats like 10' by 20'
Sorry I can't help with the appropriate signage resolution.
If you use the "Publish To PDF…", you can decrease file size by using the lossy JPEG compression, which is a kind of file compression that results in noticeable degradation of image quality; see image below.
Hi Micheal,
Thank you very much for your kind information. As per my information big format inkjet printer such like Roland and UV are based on post script method , in that case to achieve best quailty CYMK file either eps or pdf (not jpg) is best opition. I don't think so you could achieve really good quality by printing jpg. I have tried several times to print big format files designed in photoshop but it makes ur file way too heavy. Anyways i will try what u have mentioned in ur post.
Thanks Again
Hey Ahmad,
Now i understand that shadow effect is on the based of bitmap that's why file's size is bigger, thank you very much for ur guidness.
I have another question if u don't mind to answer, As u know in photoshop we can make such a nice feather effects all around the pic , is it possible do somethingn like that in corel draw, what i am looking for feathering around the pic on each side.
Ilvlludassar, so far I've never received any complaint from any customer on hundreds of signages we have produced. I'm not sure what kind of machine my printer is using, but all the while we provided him the artwork in JPEG format (minimum compression), partly because it's more convenient to send via email.
When you talk about quality, of course you cannot compare the printing quality for large signage with the kind of offset printing for business card, flyers and posters, etc.. I'm not sure what is the quality demand for your customers, but let's not forget that signages are to be viewed from far, not close, like banners. So, the resolution can be as low as your customer can accept. Of course we know the resolution is the higher the better, but only if it's necessary. Although hard disk and server are very cheap nowaday, but we always avoid having large artwork file.
Cheers.
Hi Michael,
You are right mate for big signages quality does not matter bcos u have to see them on distance but sometimes you have to satisfy coustmer before you install ur sign , anyways so if i have to print 8'x4' sign, shall i reduce size to 10" by 5" when desiging in photoshop with 800 to 1000 pixels and export as jpg with 150 pixel resolution?
Generally, when I start working on a signage, I started the blank document with scaled down size e.g. 8'x4' to 8"x4" at 800dpi. The blank document shall not exceed 100 MB in size. That's the general consideration on what scaled down size and dpi to choose.
If your design is going to have a lot of heavy elements, then you may want to reduce the dpi a bit and/or increase the artwork size.
The opposite applies if your customers require high quality printing.
As for the final export in JPEG, it depends on the method you use to send the file to your printer. If you use email, then you may have to keep the small artwork size and play reduce the dpi to the maximum your email provider can process. Otherwise if you submit it by hand e.g. in a CD, then there shall not be any problem if you resize the artwork to it's actual dimension and reduce the DPI to 200-400.
I did follow your instructions for a sign in photoshop, i scalled down 8'x4' to 8"x4" but on 800pixel page size was upto 500mb, i reduce resolution to 400 and file blank document size decreased to 1.2 mb, after desiging sign i tried to export it as a jpg with different qualities High, Mediume & Smal and low only one low resolution my file size was 2 mb it did not look great when it come to printing pixels were broken badly , i saved file with high and mediume sizes as well but it only increased to size of file but no improvement in quality pixels are still broken. I have big printer attached with my computer , i dont send it out for printing.
When you say you have a document size of 1.2MB, is that the document size shown on PS (pixel dimension) or the saved file size in Explorer?
I tested and created a blank document of 8"x4", 400pixel/inch, CMYK mode, the document size is 19.5MB, and the saved psd file is 354KB.
I wonder how would you get 1.2MB, which is waaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy too low.
We use the same approach when designing large poster, and print from our in-house Canon printer, and it's not pixelate at all.
llvlludassar:for big signages quality does not matter bcos u have to see them on distance
To be accurate; quality does matter. You should choose the appropriate resolution for "good quality signs", so they look good from a distance.
You should get this appropriate resolution from one who knows the meaning of DPI, and knows the appropriate DPI for an 8' x 4' sign.
Whether you are using a bitmap based application or a vector based, I think you should set your image to the actual size in the appropriate DPI.
llvlludassar:sometimes you have to satisfy coustmer before you install ur sign
You must ALWAYS satisfy your customer, before and after you install the sign ;)
Ahmad Ajlouny:Whether you are using a bitmap based application or a vector based, I think you should set your image to the actual size in the appropriate DPI.
Ideally, yes.
A blank document of 8'x4' at 72 pixel/inch is 91.1MB in size, which means the same (if not exact) as the scaled down document at high dpi.
But if you have a lot of heavy elements in the design and not so powerful machine, you'll get back to the initial issue of this thread - heavy file.
MichaelTadashi:Generally, when I start working on a signage, I started the blank document with scaled down size e.g. 8'x4' to 8"x4" at 800dpi. The blank document shall not exceed 100 MB in size. That's the general consideration on what scaled down size and dpi to choose.
You never need to do a job with 800 dpi at real size. One of the advantadges of CorelDRAW is to work at real size, no matter if you want meters or millimeters. If you work with vectors, you can enlarge or reduce without problem. But, if you use bitmaps, the resolution must be in direct proportion with the size. For example, 300 dpi for print to offset, is a standard value, with a old Linotronic imagesetters and 150 lines per line. With the new CTP you can use up to 400 dpi. No more, because the device cant' reproduce more than this, and only increase size and time to process. For Vinyl and Plotter, 150 is the standard resolution for a medium size (one or two meters), and less to 96 dpi for big jobs.
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