When preparing your file for high resolution printing, there are a few things that you need to consider in order to get what you want.

First of all, saving or exporting your file using the right software won’t help you to produce a high resolution graphic image. This is both applicable to photos and vector files or line drawing.

If your file is a photo image with a resolution of 72dpi, it won’t do you any good if you simply save your file, especially if you try to enlarge it to say, 300dpi. (300dpi by the way, is the ideal resolution for images for poster printing.) This is because when you enlarge a file, you’re interrupting the normal flow of the pixels in the picture. Instead of spreading the pixels to accommodate the much larger size, your software program will create automatically its own pixels to fill the gaps produced during enlargement.

On the other hand, if you’re working on a vector file or a line drawing, it may seem that there’s no problem when you try to enlarge your image just because vector files are more scalable. However, even without the issue of interpolation, you still won’t have a very clear image that is true to the original because the lines become fuzzy and soft instead of them being crisp.

To get the high resolution you need for your image, you need to have the right software to do the job. Photoshop and Photoshop Elements are the most suited for the activity.

When resizing your image using your Photoshop, look for the commands for resizing under the Image pull down menu, which can be found on the submenu Image Size. A dialog box would teach you step by step how to effectively resize your photo to the ideal size you need.

It is however, advisable not to enlarge your photos in your posters for the simple fact that you won’t have the best resolution when you do it. It just doesn’t work. If you really want to make an image bigger, try taking a large image instead and then resizing it down to the size you need for your promotional posters.

Let me reiterate that making the image bigger is not a good decision to make for your promotional posters.

You can try another option, which is changing the actual resolution to something bigger. This you can do in the Document Size portion. Click on the Resample Image and you’ll be able to increase the pixels found in your image and not the actual physical size.

Finally, for better results, you can always ask your poster printing company for the best way to achieve high quality resolution in your posters. They know better and can help you decide on the most suitable process according to your needs.

BlueWaterArticles.com: - Guidelines for High Resolution Printing

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