General - Photo editing advice

rgonzruiz Written at 30 Jan 2011 on 18:08
Written at 30 Jan 2011 on 18:08
I'm trying to make a poster collage to send to a print shop and have it pasted on a wall... The print would be huge (around 100 inches tall to 150 inches wide), and so I wanted to put various poster images in one sole image to send it directly to the print shop..

Yet the problem I'm having is that when I try to create such a big image canvas, the image editor (Gimp) is telling me that such a size will consume 4.8GB of memory, that if I'm sure I want to proceed...

So I cancel and create a poster size image (around 100MB!!) and start adding large poster images and expanding the canvas size, and ideed the Gimp process starts consuming lots and lots of memory...

What I don't get is... If i'm adding 3MB to 10MB jpeg image files to the canvas, why is the size so huge? I know that jpeg is compressed, and that the image I'm working with is uncompressed and probably that's the thing... But the main question then is: how can I do this without breaking my pc? How can I create a collage of compressed JPEGs and obtain a simple (say) 30MB jpeg file??
Ardilaun Written at 17 Feb 2011 on 13:10
Written at 17 Feb 2011 on 13:10
To really control it I'd advise using photoshop - you need to be sure that 'all things are equal' in terms of resolution, sampling etc.

A very large, high-res image will be very large.
stefanos1990 Written at 23 Apr 2011 on 22:07
Written at 23 Apr 2011 on 22:07
photoshop and gimp are not meant to do this. while editing a jpg in one of these programs, it gets decompressed, which consumes gigabytes of memory.

A possible solution would be the use of a program like Adobe InDesign
jr-design Written at 24 Apr 2011 on 18:40
Written at 24 Apr 2011 on 18:40
buy a new pc ! a better one.
I'm graphist and we use photoshop to make artworks which will be print on vinyl banners ( sometimes up to 10 meters) and usually our artworks are never up to 250 MB, we send the artwork file in pdf.
vacuum Written at 14 May 2011 on 09:16
Written at 14 May 2011 on 09:16
Should be more tools
yuangenyue Written at 04 Jul 2011 on 00:54
Written at 04 Jul 2011 on 00:54
thatll really be large
Ardilaun Written at 06 Sep 2011 on 14:40
Written at 06 Sep 2011 on 14:40
Graphic designer here also - Generally in my experience of large scale print - eg billboard it is of course scaled, but you do need it to be of high quality in the first place - InDesign is a layout tool, but it does not edit graphics in any way so you will not be able to ensure all images are same size/quality - it will allow you to construct your poster however.

Photoshop is your best bet - then talk to the printer and find out what type of printing they support - what resolution they advise for scaling and also ask them for a colour profile so you can wysiwyg the whole thing