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Activity Forums Adobe Photoshop Difficulty printing posters

  • Difficulty printing posters

    Posted by Matt Lester on August 25, 2010 at 8:42 am

    My apologies if this isn’t the right forum or if someone has asked this question, I’ve searched for quite awhile before posting.

    I’ll try to make this as short as possible since I have a habit of rambling (<— SEE!!)

    I have CS5.
    The poster is for my mother’s school (principal @ a MS (low budget))
    I made a poster from scratch.
    I made it the size of the poster itself so there would be no quality loss
    ~~ Originally 24×36 (20MB)
    ~~ Re-sized to 20×24 to fit at Walmart (12MB)
    In store Walmart has 2 machines
    ~~ Machine A can see the file, but cannot print posters
    ~~ Machine B can print posters, but cannot find file
    ~~ Walmart.com cannot upload file (or any version of a lower rez file, including 1MB files)
    Some of the answers/solutions I got:
    ~~ “You could print a 4×6 on this machine, then scan it on that machine
    ~~ “Your file is corrupt.” “No, I can see it right there.” “Oh, well, it’s half corrupt then.

    Why can I upload a 6MB jpg of a photo I took to Walmart.com for printing a poster, but not a jpg of something I created? Is there a setting I have messed up as I save? RGB/CMKY? Progressive scan? Etc.

    Thanks in advance!

    – M@

    Bianca Stillwood replied 14 years, 7 months ago 4 Members · 10 Replies
  • 10 Replies
  • Matt Lester

    August 25, 2010 at 8:51 am

    6000×7200 pixels
    20×24 inches
    300 pixels/inch

  • Paul Benson

    August 26, 2010 at 4:35 pm

    I don’t have a clue, but maybe a workaround since it seems like what you are doing should work.

    Try opening the file in another app besides photoshop. I assume it opens correctly, then save it with this app. You may get some quality loss since the second app may recompress.

    Also, what settings did you use to save the jpg in CS5? Quality level and check marks?

    Pauley

  • Matt Lester

    August 26, 2010 at 7:17 pm

    I tried every combination. Walmart.com didn’t accept any of them. Is there a hidden coding that tell the website that it’s a photo vs not? Because I even opened a photo, saved it with the same settings, and that file uploaded.

    I tried settings 1-12, with all 3 boxes of each. Yes, I tried about 36 different files 🙁

  • Terry Mikkelsen

    August 26, 2010 at 7:45 pm

    Definitely RGB color space (not my typical suggestion for print work, but what works for WalMart), but check to make sure you file is 8 bits/channel.

    Tech-T Productions
    http://www.technical-t.com

  • Matt Lester

    August 26, 2010 at 11:04 pm

    I’ve done RGB and CMKY. 8 bits too 🙁

  • Paul Benson

    August 27, 2010 at 7:17 pm

    Seems like you are following the same approach I would: try every combination. When you tried it with a photo, was it roughly the same size (both in pixel count and in file size)? I’m wondering if their machine has some sort of file size limit.

    Just to be clear, on the machine that is having problems, the file does not even show up as an option to load, correct? Or can you select the file and it does not work?

    If the file is not showing up, try a really basic file name (e.g. A.JPG) with no spaces or mixed case. I doubt this is the problem, but you never know. Also, try shrinking the file to different sizes (both pixel count and file size) to see when/if the machine starts recognizing them.

    Pauley

  • Matt Lester

    August 28, 2010 at 6:00 am

    I’ll try a new file name!

    I don’t know if it has a file size problem, but considering I shrunk the file down to 1MB for testing, I don’t think that’s my problem.

    On the machines that print posters, it doesn’t even load my file. The first time it said, “USB drive is empty.”

    On a 2nd attempt, I threw a photo on there just to make sure. Photo was useable, my created file was not.

  • Paul Benson

    October 15, 2010 at 3:39 am

    Been a while. Did you ever figure this one out?

    Pauley

  • Bianca Stillwood

    January 2, 2012 at 8:04 pm

    Didn’t try to use that machines, just printed it by myself, there are a lot of banner printing, for example – https://www.ronyasoft.com/products/proposter/
    By the way what is the price to print it using that machine?

  • Bianca Stillwood

    January 2, 2012 at 8:17 pm

    banner printing software* (sorry didn’t find how to edit the message)

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