Exhibit Displays Designed for the Biodiversity Education and Awareness Network

Producing Large Scale Design for Print
A couple of things to keep in mind regarding the resolution and print quality when producing large print design. Minimum resolution for magazine-quality printing is 300 pixels per inch (you might be able to get away with something in the 200 range). When designing for the web your dealing with 72 ppi. This is simply because computer monitors are 72 ppi displays. But when designing for large print such as exhibit displays and billboard advertisements, it depends on the human eye, and how far away the viewer will be from the content. The further away you are from the design the lower the resolution quality the piece has to be.

Let’s say you’re designing 30″ x 80″ displays. You might want to go with around 150ppi or 200ppi, but if your audience will be standing around 8′ to 10′ away from your banners you can get away with going as low as 100ppi. For billboards you can get away with going as low as 10ppi, because it will most likely be view from around 50′ away. If you went and stood with your face right up against that same billboard, all you would see is bunches of big squares of color.

Well I hope you can take something from this, let me know if you have any more questions on the subject.