Large Format Illustrations in Photoshop: How High of Resolution Do You Need? 

This is was extremely helpful!

Thank you so much🙏 This video will last forever!

I started an illustration for a whole wall in a restaurant today, the first one I do for large scale printing. I’ve been working for 10+ hours today in a giant file (200+ inches wide) at 600dpi. It has been a total nightmare, moving something, copying something, pasting something, etc all takes like one to five minutes loading. This helps A LOT, THANK YOU!

this is incredibly specific and incredibly helpful! have not seen this discussion/information anywhere else although digital murals are becoming increasingly popular. thank you so much!!!

Thanks Tom..... This video was very helpful. Thanks!

Hi, Thanks for the amazing and unique video. resolved many issues and confusions.

I really appreciate this video...I've been searching for this answer for years

thank you so much!! this helped me big time ✊️

thank you, that was really helpful!

I was commissioned to design a large mural for a gym and this helped me so much to understand the conversion! Thanks so much for sharing! :D

This is very helpful!

Life saver - Extremely grateful for the detailed solution... thanks alot

Thank you so much! I'm a professional illustrator starting to get enquiries for large format work where clients would be like "we'd be wanting to print a poster or a giant point of sale or exhibition contraption" and I start sweating buckets trying to ask them how big they need a piece of work, knowing my tablet and even laptop was slowing down, screen turning black even when multiple layers where used, whilst trying to do a 7000px squared illustration at 300dpi 😅 And of course, me sounding uncomfortable about how big they might want to go can make me seem like a risky option for a client. I've heard of 150 DPI for posters, but even that sometimes still means giant pixel dimensions. Watching your procreate for large prints video and this one, where you talk about your murals at 50 DPI (seeing the murals projects you delivered in this video really cemented this for me, letting me associate a real life project to DPIs), I finally let go of the 300/150 DPI idea and realised it changes the far back you need to stand to observe the illustration as a whole and then I did more research and found recommended dpis by distance of viewing and I'm floored!. I'm also intending on getting new equipment for my business, not only am I now relieved that what I currently have can still output decent extremely large format work, but I can calm down and identify the specs for my new equipment without looking for one that can do 4m by 4m at 300 DPI 🤣. Saving me money and the effort of looking for a unicorn. God bless you!

Thank You So Much... : ) ... A great video...

Just trying to create a mural image to cut and i was at 72 DPI and it almost killed my PC, watched your video (somewhat late 2hours later doh) and saved at 25DPI and boom its perfect and took minutes. Thanks Tom super helpful

Super helpful! You have just cleared up something that I have been struggling to understand for a while now. Thank you so much!

Hi Tom! Thank you SOOO much for this video! I was trying to design a large mural at full size 300 dpi for a client project and feeling SO stressed out, watching this gave me so much more confidence and super awesome specific instructions. Just wanted to leave a comment of thanks :)

This is super helpful, thank you!!

Working on a hoarding right now... you are a life saver Tom! Your video answers all my questions about managing the file size.

Thank you! These videos are so helpful. The amount of times I spent frustrated at my computer is a little embarrassing knowing how simple this is.

your amazing, you just solved this huge issue for me I was having working on a 8 foot by 10 foot backdrop for a client THANK YOU

This was so very helpful. Thank you. Just printed a 8x4 feet banner and it turned out amazingly clean and sharp. Thank you 🤍

Very helpful video keep it up ❤️❤️❤️

Damn you just saved my life bro! Huge thanks. Keep up the good work!

Soooo helpful!

Ahhh, I got drilled into my mind early on, that Adobe Illustrator and ONLY Adobe Illustrator can do large file formats because its a vector-based software hence no matter what, it will still be sharp. I think they all were assuming that everyone would be up right close to it staring at it for some reason. 😅 So I couldn't fathom how I can bring my own art style which is only achievable in Photoshop to Illustrator and then exported out again. But now, I know for the future, thanks!

thanks tom that was really helpful 🙏 lots of love from ladakh.

Great Work Mr.ToM

Your explanation is just what I needed to know. Orange Juice metaphor works perfectly to understand, thank you!

You are awesome THANK YOU! ❤❤

Thank you!!!❤

Hi Tom! Thank you for this video! I got so happy when I saw it as I were thinking about this subject for some time. Thank you for explaining it! Although I ''live'' in the metric system, so I will have to think how to adapt it to the metric system :D

Work fast and export big size printing ❤ thank you!

Thanks

tom, and toms up u are the best i have been look fro solutions to this problem u just made my day just 11:42 thanks so so much. pls i will need ur help on something if u dont mind

Thanks very much

Incredibly helpful information in this one!!!

Hi Tom. I stumbled onto your work and your youtube channel just yesterday and I'm already a really big fan! I was blown away by the extensive mural work in your portfolio and designing a mural is definitely something on my bucket list someday. I almost couldn't believe you released this video just this morning because I had wondered last night how you even build a gigantic mural without crashing whatever program you're using. Back in my graphic design days, I remember doing billboard artwork at 72 DPI so its cool to know you can even get away with 50 DPI on murals. I work more extensively in Procreate and I wonder if you feel that Procreate is even able to do push out files this large? I know the higher resolution you go, the less layers it allows you (which is really sucks) so I'm wonder if I should go the other direction (lower dpi, larger size)... Have you ever tried this in Procreate and do you think it would cause issues?

Needed to be said.

All the math went right over my head. :D Info for us Europeans and the rest of the world 12in = 1ft. It was nice to see you show how to recalculate to the the bigger size by lowering resolution (dpi). 600 - 300dpi for fine print and murals 50dpi viewing distance 2 - 7m. Nice. :)

i don't need this information now. but i'll probably return to this video at some point. it's really reassuring to know it's here, when i need it. i'm surprised how nice the mural came out with only 50dpi irl! that puts things more into perspective for me. :D

This is very helpful! I didn’t know Photoshop is workable so I worked on Illustrator (vector based) for my mural projects instead. It would be easier to add different textures on photoshop. 😀 Do you also add many texture layers to your mural design?

My PS was crashing. Problem solved! Thank you so much!

Wow, thank you so much!!! I find this very important information i was looking for something like this. When you export your file you go back to the 50 DPI and export it in a PDF and send that to the printer? Or the 600 DPI is for the printer? I just love you for this info!!!

Thank you so much! This is exactly the information I have been seeking. Do you ever need to incorporate a significant amount of text into your design? I am curious if you would suggest also making these same adjustments in InDesign. I am designing panels for an exhibition. The final design will have a lot of text (which I would like to use InDesign to create) textures and backgrounds (which I would like to use photoshop to create) and illustrations (which I plan to use Illustrator to create). I would use InDesign as the main program and place the photos and illustrations. My panels are not mural size, at print size they will be 39"w x 82"h. For the photoshop textures and backgrounds, I used your method and changed my ps file to 19.5 x 42" @ 300 dpi and then I will resize to 150dpi for printing. If you were working on a project like this would also adjust your working InDesign file to half the size of needed print size?

Just came across this video and THANK YOU!! Instant subscribe!!💯💯 Lately I've been doing lots of billboards and big scale works, and I start to panic when I have to do it in photoshop and not illustrator... May I ask about the export settings when working on Photoshop for this? In my country, the print shops always ask for the files to be pdf, because they open it in Corel and then scale it to the right size... Thank you in advance!

Hi Tom, thank you for this information! I really thought that I could not work with photoshop with such big sizes and it was easy to understand how you explain it. Question: Do these dimensions and resolution (50) works on billboards too? around 60 by 40 ft billboard? 60*12 = 720 in and 480 in for the 40*12 then set resolution to 50? Thank you Tom! really dont know who to ask. Internet gives too much info where i do not know where to start.

Hi Tom. This video was very interesting and helpful. I am brand new to photoshop and large format illustrations alike. I'm learning as I go. The wall mural you used as the example in this video is very similar to what I'm trying to do, in that it contains lots of individual images. The part I'm stuck on is, at this time I'm not looking to create the images in PS but import them from a collection of photos and drawings I have on my computer. Do you have a video explaining how to do that, and how to size them etc once on the background? I'm able to size my printable space but I can only seem to drag and drop one image and then I get stuck. Any input or pointing in the right direction would be much appreciated!

Hi Tom, thank you so much for this helpful video! Do you have any advice on system requirements for working with bigger photoshop files? I'm looking into buying a good futureproof MacBook and I'm (for example) not sure if 32GB RAM will be sufficient or if 64GB RAM would be a wiser option when you're working with bigger photoshop files a lot. Any advice or thoughts? (Sorry if this is a bit off topic)

HI Tom. Thanks a million for the information shared in your video, just priceless. I have a question I believe you have the answer for. My illustrations are full of very small details, all of them were created at 300DPI, does this mean there's no way to print them in a mural size? there's any way to modify them once saved?

Thanks Tom🙂, SO helpful! I was just hired for my biggest wall commission (8' x 17') and the printer/install guy said I need the final product to be in 100dpi for clarity. But I LOVE your 50dpi strategy. Now I'm not sure what to do!...IF YOU WERE ME, would you create the file as 8 inches by 17 inches at 600dpi (as your video suggested in the beginning), then switch to 50 dpi just before printing? OR.. would you create the file as 204 inches by 96 inches at 50 dpi and print at that resolution?? Would absolutely LOVE your expert opinion! Thank you 🙂

This was great, just one open question - is the output file in Pdf? (if yes, is there any particular settings?)

Thank you!!!! never knew i could work at a lower resolution. I am doing a design for vehicle branding. So do you export it as 300 dpi pdf to the client?

This video is extremely helpful. I've been asked to potentially create a 53 foot long by 10 foot high mural in a very painterly, detailed style. Does this lower dpi conversion work for really detailed, water colored, textured styles too? I'm so scared of messing this up! I've never done anything like this before.

Thank you for your video! I have a question though - since you created a vector design in Illustrator, do you always have to export the design from Illustrator and put it into Photoshop when you are resizing & getting the final file ready? Or can you do these resizing/resolution changes within Illustrator? Thanks so much!

I am also on a metric system but that is not a problem considering the auto-conversion in Photoshop, but I wonder if I am sending the final artwork of 50 resolution to the print shop at the size of 196x128cm (77x50inch), would it be a good printing quality or will it require a 300 resolution document at post-processing? Also what is the behaviour of the document if I am using an artboard of 50 resolution with embeded photos of 300 resolution?

Thanks. What about text though? Is that still clean enough at 50 dpi?

So if I need a 5ft x 10ft banner, I can size it at 120 in x 60in and 50 dpi and it will print clear? Working on this job right now

does it work the same even for photos? I work on high res images of 300dpi but obviously 2meters hight banner makes it very heavy in weight with 300dpi, but I am scared if the photo will come out bad as print with any lower dpi :( always scared and confused about how to deliver. ( online)

What if you are going to be looking at art piece close up? What dpi would you use then?

One quick question. So when you're laying out the artwork are you working at the 600dpi then once you're ready for output, are you changing the resolution to 50dpi before saving the print file? Thank you!

Client wants me to enlarge 2 images for event fabric back wall image enlarging to 144"x120" A is 5600x3733 300ppi(18.6'x12.4") image 2 is 4864x3648-240 ppi(10."2x15.2") what should i expect in terms of quality if i enlarge to 144x120". I bought images from istock and adbobe stock and i will print on fabric at tradeshow printer plant and client will have people stand in front of images on backwall for a corporate event background. Guessing printwer will be about 8-12 feet away when they take the shot. Print plant wont assess image until i pay so im trying to gauge if they will work or if i should send for interpolation etc before submitting). any help appreciated as i will need to do this again in future. Printer suggest print large images at 120-150dpi for 12x10ft walls.

How much you price for your mural sir?

hmm my only problem is they've asked for is the end result must be 300dpi and be 1800millimetres, I can't change one or the other. I don't know how this video helps me then...

No matter how much I give thanks, it will be less.

this is so helpful!!! thank you!!!!!