Question for designers!

[walterg74]

Hi, I have a questions for designers illustrators that I have been wondering about...

I have been desperately trying to get a specific side art for my upcoming cabinet.

The problem is that while the specific one I want is offered by many builderS like mameroom, or Gameongafix,which leads me to believe it's ot an original creation of theirs (plus I have seen it mentioned in lots of places),  i have not been able to find a full size version of it anywhere!

So 2 questions:

1) what resolution/size must an image be, and in what format, in order to have a big plot/printout come out good?

2) being that I can only get so far small/lowres versions... What would the results be of either a)taking a high res picture of *that* and using the picture, or b) printing that image out in a small size and then scanning it at high dpi?

Thanks for your insight!!!

[knohbody]

Ideally, you'd have a full size (physical size) image with at least 300 dpi for a color print. Black and white can be 150 dpi.

Scanning it in small, then re-sizing it will result in pixelation. The smaller size you scan it in at, and the larger the enlargement, the more pixelation you'll have. Taking a hi-res picture of a small picture will net you the same results.

This is the reason vectors are so popular around here. You can take them and enlarge them as much as you want with no pixelation.

If you can provide a link to the sideart you want, perhaps someone can point you to a higher res image, a vector of the art, or if the file is exclusive to a vendor, something similar for you.

[drventure]

There's also some raster to vector conversion services out there that actually work pretty good.

I used one to convert our family coat of arms to vector. I had to tweak the result a bit but it turned out great.

[walterg74]

Ideally, you'd have a full size (physical size) image with at least 300 dpi for a color print. Black and white can be 150 dpi.

Scanning it in small, then re-sizing it will result in pixelation. The smaller size you scan it in at, and the larger the enlargement, the more pixelation you'll have. Taking a hi-res picture of a small picture will net you the same results.

This is the reason vectors are so popular around here. You can take them and enlarge them as much as you want with no pixelation.

If you can provide a link to the sideart you want, perhaps someone can point you to a higher res image, a vector of the art, or if the file is exclusive to a vendor, something similar for you.

Hmm.. Now I'm confused... I thought that was the process done for enlargement.  Let me rephrase just in case:

What I meant was scanning an image at a very high dpi setting, producing a larger image, that can be printed out bigger at lower dpi?

In any case, the one I want is this:

http://www.gameongrafix.com/products/dk-pac-grid-side-art

Or this:

http://www.gameongrafix.com/products/dk-pac-grid-side-art-1265

For the first one, I did manage to get the .psd of a similar one which is this design:

http://www.gameongrafix.com/products/dk-collage-side-art

But it's not exactly the same and I can't find a ll the extra art (or know how to modify it).

The psd I have can be found right here, Emdkay posted it for me:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=98344.msg1079035#msg1079035

[walterg74]

There's also some raster to vector conversion services out there that actually work pretty good.

I used one to convert our family coat of arms to vector. I had to tweak the result a bit but it turned out great.

I guess I could try that too if there are no alternatives... :S