I am redoing my room and I have a picture that I like, I want to make it a mural for the main wall in my room. The mural would be 72 inches (6 feet) wide, and after keeping the aspect ratio it would be 48 inches (4 feet) tall.
What I need to know is:
-What is the sturdiest and cheapest material to use for the back board? My dad recommended something called Gator Board (or something of that nature) that was a very thick foam that did not give in as easily as regular foam
-Should I get some interpoliating software to double the pixels from their original size? I do not want them to be massively stretched and pixelated.
[b] Here is a list of the proportions of the source image:
W: 1600 pixels / 16.667 inches
H: 1067 pixels / 11.115 inches
Resolution: 96 DPI [/b]
-Would it be possible to stretch this out to such a large poster? Is there any sort of software to double the pixels without (much) distortion?
-I am going to have the picture cut up into smaller images and then paste them to the backboard using some 3M poster glue. I was wondering what the easiest and cheapest way to make the prints would be? My dad has a very large Epson printer in his office that he uses to print out his wedding / portrait photos, but he tends to go to Wal Mart for prints a lot of the time because they actually turn out very nice. Are there any other suggestions?
Alright, I know that's a lot, but thank you guys!
P.S. I do NOT plan on framing this or putting it behind glass, just mounting it on the wall.
Stretch it out and smooth out the edges in GIMP/Photoshop. That'll work for something simple. You might want to consider paying the extra few bucks to get it printed at a printing works. Then again that can be pretty expensive. You'll need to get it printed digitally at a work where they do soft screen printing. I have a poster of a pic I shopped with Chris Hansen popping out of a shark's mouth. The original image was a lot smaller than your specification, it turned out great- printed it at work (digital print room at a large British printing press). As those jobs don't need print plates to be engraved for a print, it should be pretty cheap. Well, it was cheap enough for me to run off a few copies of my poster without harming the books. :)
(if you want to know more about the print industry in regards to getting work done- just ask)
Thanks for the info, do you have an estimate of how much such a task would cost? I live in the US so if you could give me an estimate in pounds then I can convert to USD. I was hoping for under $200.
This is the photo:
[url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/stocksphotography/2267667934/sizes/o/[/url]
I don't want to post it because it's massive.
Also, do you mean a local printing works, or international.
The printing works I got ties to is a local one, but it does nationwide printing and a lot of stuff goes to a worldwide audience- the thing here is that a client comes to the works with what they want printed, they get a quote on the price. If all is agreed, it goes through processing. A guy has to assign each job to a specific time schedule. Then the .pdf of the print job is processed and laser etched onto multiple metal plates- one for each of the four colors used in four color printing. Thats the most expensive thing y'see. The plates cost a lot of money. They then get loaded onto a huge printing press and are coated with a thin layer of ink (which is fed through the press from a big trough at the top). There are four stages in the press, a piece of paper goes through all the different colors, with a thin layer of each color applied in the relevant areas. Then theres sometimes a gloss coat. This method is for mass printing of magazines, leaflets, posters, the works.
Thats probably not commercially viable for you, unless you intend on making many more of the print. Some print presses offer digital printing, which basically is a extremely high quality version of what you'd do at home, and using superior materials. You can get a nice quality mural done easy, as the process is very fast and simple. The printers are huge, like as wide as 12ft.
Your best bet is to find a local printing press that does digital and ask for a quote on a one off commission. Specify the exact size you want (to smoothen the process look up paper sizes- they don't use A4 etc much, as they cut everything to size from larger pieces of paper, AB1 is a paper size I recall), whether you want matte or gloss finish, the paper thickness (approximate). Find out what they'll charge you for the job- if you can pick it up yourself you don't have to pay the lucrative shipping.
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