What program to use for a billboard sized design?

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PaperCut
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What program to use for a billboard sized design?

Post by PaperCut »

Sup guys,

It's been a while...

I wanna know something. What program is best for designing something (for print) that's gonna be roughly 5 x 4.40m?

Obviously it's gonna be @ 300dpi. But which is the best program to do this in?

Bear in mind that this isn't just a picture and a few words. It's basically a graphic design with all the bells and whistles which just happens to be intended for a large scale printout.

Another question, does it have to be designed at full scale or can it be smaller than the final product and just be blown up (and tweaked) at the end?

Help??
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Re: What program to use for a billboard sized design?

Post by Tribble »

CorelDraw is what my clients use that design billboard adds. There may be other apps but I know that CD is able to print to the size you want without losing the quality. You do have to work high res though.
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Re: What program to use for a billboard sized design?

Post by rustypup »

anything handling SVG i would imagine?

or one of the adobe products...
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Re: What program to use for a billboard sized design?

Post by PaperCut »

I'm pretty sure AI would work best if it were just a basic picture + text. So I'm thinking, if I were to start the design part (the photo manipulation and other effects) first in PS then exporting it over to AI for the finishing touches it would yield great results.

Working at full res seems like the only option...

I don't have CD. Only Adobe stuff.
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Re: What program to use for a billboard sized design?

Post by Tribble »

Adobe should do it - just never used it for that.
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Re: What program to use for a billboard sized design?

Post by rustypup »

PaperCut wrote:I'm thinking, if I were to start the design part (the photo manipulation and other effects) first in PS then exporting it over to AI for the finishing touches
your scratch disc is about to get a workout... :twisted:
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Re: What program to use for a billboard sized design?

Post by GreyWolf »

Tribble wrote:CorelDraw is what my clients use that design billboard adds. There may be other apps but I know that CD is able to print to the size you want without losing the quality. You do have to work high res though.
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Paper cut, you will need 2 programs.

You will do the layout in either Freehand or Illustrator, any photos will need to be edited in Photoshop, and the final artwork should be supplied as a PDF.

Now... you do NOT design a billboard at 300dpi... unless of-course you are using a Cray supercomputer to design. :) 30dpi is plenty for a billboards.
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PaperCut
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Re: What program to use for a billboard sized design?

Post by PaperCut »

Great stuff.

So it's:

1. No need for 300dpi. Rather use 30dpi.
2. Use AI for the layout
3. Use PS for the fancy whatnots.
4. Say no to CD.

more??
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Re: What program to use for a billboard sized design?

Post by GreyWolf »

PaperCut wrote:Great stuff.

So it's:

1. No need for 300dpi. Rather use 30dpi.
2. Use AI for the layout
3. Use PS for the fancy whatnots.
4. Say no to CD.

more??
remember to set your colour to CMYK and not RGB as used for web design...and that should be it. good luck
"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist that black flag, and begin slitting throats."
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PaperCut
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Re: What program to use for a billboard sized design?

Post by PaperCut »

GreyWolf wrote:
PaperCut wrote:Great stuff.

So it's:

1. No need for 300dpi. Rather use 30dpi.
2. Use AI for the layout
3. Use PS for the fancy whatnots.
4. Say no to CD.

more??
remember to set your colour to CMYK and not RGB as used for web design...and that should be it. good luck
Yeah. And that too...

Thanks.
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