Today I will explain a topic that many times caused confusion when deciding what size to make a render when we need to cover a large surface area. Everything came up when I needed a large render «How to create a large render» for an advertising area.

We know that to print A4 folio in good quality has to be 300 or 400 dpi (2480 × 3508 px); We think that if we need to cover an area more extensive than the dpi must continue to preserve the visual quality of the Image, but not so, it all depends on the distance.

That is, the more distance there is between the area to be covered and the viewer the less dpi needed, while for an A4 sheet to be viewed at a reading distance of about 25 cms, 300 dpi is needed. For a billboard that will be at a distance of approximately 16 meters, only 5 dpi is needed.

Next I show a table that I found and that shows the dpi that is needed according to the distance to which it will be seen, keep in mind that this table is only a reference if you can ask to your printing press and that tells you to which resolution they print it already Which will depend on the machine they use and the material on which they print.

So if you have to do a photo or render of 10,94 X 3,28yd and that is going to see at a distance of 3.28 yd, according to the table you need 25 dpi, es decir:

10,94yd = 393.7in
3,28yd = 118.11in
393.7in X 25 dpi = 9842,5
118.11in X 25 dpi = 2952,7

To cover 10,93 X 3,28yd at a distance of 3,28yd you need an image of 9843 X 2953 pixels
Here the button if you want to download this table in pdf: