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#1 2009-10-28 11:54 am
- Pithecanthropus
- Roast Master
- From: St. Cloud, MN
- Registered: 2002-12-30
- Posts: 4448
- Website
Graphic Artist Rant II
We have two poster blanks for our Bridge Over Troubled Water show on our band's web site so that any venue we play can download them for promotional purposes. It saves me having to email everybody a copy.
I was contacted today by the promotions person at our next venue requesting a larger sized version because the one she has can't be make larger without pixelating.
One of the two posted is 30 inches wide by 45 inches high at 72 dpi, the other is 4 inches by 5 inches at 100 dpi.
Rant:
How can someone work in promotions without basic Photoshop skills? How can someone work at an "Arts District" without knowing someone who has basic Photoshop skills?
I tried to make the process as simple as possible: download a copy and size it to fit your needs. Yet they still can't figure it out.
My theory is that she downloaded the thumbnail (109px by 139px), and that's why she can't make it work.
To quote Kim Jong Il in Team America: World Police, "Why are people so smurfing stupid?"
/Rant
Grandfatherly advice: You can drink 'em pretty, but you can't drink 'em smart.
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Stack it!#3 2009-10-28 12:19 pm
- dv
- Negusa Negest
- Moderator
- From: Minneapolis, MN
- Registered: 1999-08-30
- Posts: 18080
Re: Graphic Artist Rant II
Vector graphics are your friend.
OTOH, 72 dpi is pretty pixellated to start with, for the big one. In my experience with this particular issue, most people seem to start seeing breakup around 100 dpi, with the "OMG that's completely unacceptable" kicking in around 50. JPEG compression makes it worse.
So, even if they downloaded your 30x45, it would look mediocre to start with and total crap if they tried to enlarge it very much.
I can't find them on your website. Links?
"Now commences the process of cutting off the head, which generally takes from an hour to an hour and a half by an expert workman with a sharp blade." -Reuben Delano, Wanderings and Adventures
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#4 2009-10-28 12:31 pm
- iSeamas
- Captain Howdy
- From: the Sticks
- Registered: 2001-12-26
- Posts: 1423
Re: Graphic Artist Rant II
30X45 is a pretty large poster. The person probably didn't need to enlarge it to begin with, more likely they'd be bring it down without resampling.
Acceptable pixel dimensions is going to be fairly dependent on viewing distance as well. (No need for 300dpi on a bus wrap, etc)
All I wanted was a Pepsi, just one Pepsi, and she wouldn't give it to me.
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#5 2009-10-28 2:05 pm
- Pithecanthropus
- Roast Master
- From: St. Cloud, MN
- Registered: 2002-12-30
- Posts: 4448
- Website
Re: Graphic Artist Rant II
dv wrote:
Vector graphics are your friend.
OTOH, 72 dpi is pretty pixellated to start with, for the big one. In my experience with this particular issue, most people seem to start seeing breakup around 100 dpi, with the "OMG that's completely unacceptable" kicking in around 50. JPEG compression makes it worse.
So, even if they downloaded your 30x45, it would look mediocre to start with and total crap if they tried to enlarge it very much.
I can't find them on your website. Links?
It's a photo, so vector graphics is out of the question (unless you know something I don't know). Otherwise I agree with you 100%.
The large image is the same as what a digital camera does, it makes an extremely large image at 72 dpi (unless the user sets it to a higher resolution). She could make a 12x18 poster that looked just fine if she wanted to, but she wouldn't be able to blow it up to billboard sized.
She wasn't trying to enlarge it, she was trying to make a 4-up on an 8.5x11 sheet of paper. Hell, even the smaller one would have done that. No, she definitely downloaded the thumbnail. I'm going to fix that so it doesn't happen again.
The band's press page is here.
Grandfatherly advice: You can drink 'em pretty, but you can't drink 'em smart.
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#6 2009-10-28 2:10 pm
- longboy
- aka "shorty"
- From: Colorado
- Registered: 2005-03-08
- Posts: 491
Re: Graphic Artist Rant II
You'd be amazed at the number of people at my work that have Photoshop installed on their PC and have no smurfing clue what PPI means, nor do they care. Their eyes glaze over when I try to explain why they can't print a web graphic on an f'ing poster-sized print.
User.
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#8 2009-10-28 2:47 pm
- dv
- Negusa Negest
- Moderator
- From: Minneapolis, MN
- Registered: 1999-08-30
- Posts: 18080
Re: Graphic Artist Rant II
Pithecanthropus wrote:
It's a photo, so vector graphics is out of the question (unless you know something I don't know). Otherwise I agree with you 100%.
Nope, I probably don't.
No, she definitely downloaded the thumbnail. I'm going to fix that so it doesn't happen again.
Is there a way to prevent the person viewing a webpage from dragging the thumbnail image to their desktop? Because I see that a lot...
The band's press page is here.
Ah, cool, I see what you mean.
"Now commences the process of cutting off the head, which generally takes from an hour to an hour and a half by an expert workman with a sharp blade." -Reuben Delano, Wanderings and Adventures
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#9 2009-10-28 4:14 pm
- Mr. T
- Best of both worlds
- From: omnipresent
- Registered: 2002-04-02
- Posts: 4214
Re: Graphic Artist Rant II
ukimalefu wrote:
My mother once asked me if I could do this:
http://kuvaton.com/kuvei/csi.jpg
while (1) {fork();}
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#10 2009-10-28 5:17 pm
- Pithecanthropus
- Roast Master
- From: St. Cloud, MN
- Registered: 2002-12-30
- Posts: 4448
- Website
Re: Graphic Artist Rant II
dv wrote:
Is there a way to prevent the person viewing a webpage from dragging the thumbnail image to their desktop? Because I see that a lot...
You could use CSS to make it a background image to a link.
Grandfatherly advice: You can drink 'em pretty, but you can't drink 'em smart.
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#11 2009-10-28 7:32 pm
Re: Graphic Artist Rant II
Ukimalefu, that's hilarious. Why does Hollywood have to always be so damned stupid, and do it in such a way that it makes people in general more stupid?
"It's better to be a pirate than to join the Navy."
--Steve Jobs
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#12 2009-10-28 8:09 pm
- dv
- Negusa Negest
- Moderator
- From: Minneapolis, MN
- Registered: 1999-08-30
- Posts: 18080
Re: Graphic Artist Rant II
Pithecanthropus wrote:
dv wrote:
Is there a way to prevent the person viewing a webpage from dragging the thumbnail image to their desktop? Because I see that a lot...
You could use CSS to make it a background image to a link.
Cool. I know less about web design than I do about... well... almost everything.
"Now commences the process of cutting off the head, which generally takes from an hour to an hour and a half by an expert workman with a sharp blade." -Reuben Delano, Wanderings and Adventures
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#14 2009-10-29 12:13 am
- dv
- Negusa Negest
- Moderator
- From: Minneapolis, MN
- Registered: 1999-08-30
- Posts: 18080
Re: Graphic Artist Rant II
Thanks to the Geocities/Yahoo switchover, I finally was motivated to actually use the page design tools.
You press a button and it's OMGIHAVEABLOG. It's kinda scary how easy it is to get started.
"Now commences the process of cutting off the head, which generally takes from an hour to an hour and a half by an expert workman with a sharp blade." -Reuben Delano, Wanderings and Adventures
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#16 2009-10-29 1:50 am
Re: Graphic Artist Rant II
Here's one that always bugged me. You all know this scene in Blade Runner: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkcU0gwZUdg
Everybody comments how implausible it is to zoom in to such a tiny spot in a photo. But I've never seen anybody point out the fact that he's looking behind an object in the photograph. Go to about 2:30. You're zoomed into a glittery garment or something. But when he pans, it moves the glittery thing out of the way so you can see the replicant lady behind it.
He's just enhancing a photograph, people! It ain't the holodeck.
[Edit] Maybe it's magic? I read in a FAQ that another one of the photos in Blade Runner (the picture of the mother and young daughter) is actually a film clip that moves.
Last edited by mackerm (2009-10-29 2:22 am)
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#17 2009-10-29 11:35 am
- user
- Your plastic pal who's fun to be with
- From: I'm not getting you down, am I
- Registered: 2001-10-15
- Posts: 16016
Re: Graphic Artist Rant II
At least you actually have something usable on your website. A fourth of the artists that we book on our folk venue only have fan snapshots or nothing at all.
One thing that's nice are folks who put up a pdf of a poster, especially when text is involved.
Last edited by user (2009-10-29 11:35 am)
Aw, he's no fun, he fell right over.
Unless you become as little children, there's no way you will believe this crap.
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#19 2009-10-29 3:38 pm
- dv
- Negusa Negest
- Moderator
- From: Minneapolis, MN
- Registered: 1999-08-30
- Posts: 18080
Re: Graphic Artist Rant II
Bren wrote:
That's because folk musicians don't know how to use computers.
"DJs" are worse. They think they know how to use computers.
"Now commences the process of cutting off the head, which generally takes from an hour to an hour and a half by an expert workman with a sharp blade." -Reuben Delano, Wanderings and Adventures
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#20 2009-10-29 4:26 pm
- Pariah
- James Carville Fan..
- From: Belly Of The Beast, Oklahoma!
- Registered: 2001-05-24
- Posts: 18394
Re: Graphic Artist Rant II
Did you tell her to click on the text link under the image thumb? That might help.
Or better yet just zip it up and email it to her.
"and it's not surprising that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
Barack Obama
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#22 2009-10-29 5:52 pm
- Pariah
- James Carville Fan..
- From: Belly Of The Beast, Oklahoma!
- Registered: 2001-05-24
- Posts: 18394
Re: Graphic Artist Rant II
I have been in the print biz on and off for over thirty years and ever since the advent of DTP the amount of incompetence and sheer stupidity you see in some graphics pros has been a continuing source of irritation and amazement to me.
I have done plenty of work for major corporations where the customer supplied layout files had to be sent back multiple times for really simple, slap your face, stupid mistakes.
"and it's not surprising that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
Barack Obama
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#23 2009-10-29 6:53 pm
- Pithecanthropus
- Roast Master
- From: St. Cloud, MN
- Registered: 2002-12-30
- Posts: 4448
- Website
Re: Graphic Artist Rant II
Pariah wrote:
Did you tell her to click on the text link under the image thumb? That might help.
Or better yet just zip it up and email it to her.
We got it all worked out. I linked her directly to the hi-res image in an email and she was able to go about her business quickly.
The other side of the coin is the friend who I mentioned in my previous rant who consistently puts 300 dpi images up on his web site.
Last edited by Pithecanthropus (2009-10-29 6:54 pm)
Grandfatherly advice: You can drink 'em pretty, but you can't drink 'em smart.
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#24 2009-10-30 10:01 am
- avkills
- demyelinated brain matter
- Registered: 2001-05-09
- Posts: 7094
Re: Graphic Artist Rant II
ukimalefu wrote:
My mother once asked me if I could do this:
http://kuvaton.com/kuvei/csi.jpg
You mean you all can't do that with CS4? 
-mark
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