How to print & frame a roughly 5'x10' google satellite view on a wall

[Joe]

Have you considered going the old-fashioned route and using a fairly powerful slide projector? The bottom line could prove to be less expensive over time. The many advantages are obvious. Slides are cheap, easy to replace, modify and update. You need nothing on your display wall but specialized paint, or better yet a 5' x 10', or even better yet 6' x 12', projection screen. For example, see

. Also google projection screens large OR giant OR wall OR white OR paint

The biggest advantage of all is, what if you want to display something else? Another big advantage is that you can mount the slide projector just above the elevation of anyone walking or standing in the room. Google maps, and practically all other on-line sources of maps, satellite images, etc., are updated from time to time, depending on the areas which are being mapped and imaged. No matter what mosaic of images you may grab from Google, they will become obsolete before long. So why photograph what you can show updated?

You could bypass any slideshow options and go to direct Internet feeds projected onto the screen/wall. That would be my preference, the live feed. For example, I would love to see Da Vinci's Mona Lisa projected onto my main living room wall via live HD camera + audio feed from the Louvre, live and in high definition. That should be free to the world.

[Better Info]

PhotoLine

has an excellent poster-mode built-in under printing options that is far better than any stand-alone app that I've found for that, but it's not free. It can, however, be used indefinitely in evaluation mode with nothing crippled, no watermarks, just a little nag to wait through. I've used it since the mid 1990's just for its excellent poster-printing feature before it climbed to the complex work-horse that it is today, easily outdoing anything that PhotoSlop can do for over a decade. It's not for the beginner though. You should have a solid background in using any image editor before you try to tackle all that PhotoLine can do. It's a marvel of concise and efficient programming, functions and features that you don't even know it can do, quickly available at all places on your workspace from CTRL, SHIFT, and ALT keypress and mouse-click combos. The authors of that program really should get an international award for packing so much functionality in so few bytes so efficiently. If you're new to PhotoLine don't let its lackluster GUI fool you. I prefer function to "pretty but dumb" any day when it comes to programming.

[Better Info]

There are many "hacker's apps" that will download and re-assemble Google Earth data at the highest available resolution for the region wanted. Much will depend on how much area you want to capture, and what resolution is available for that area. Urban areas are available at a higher density resolution because that satellite imagery is used for tax assessors who use the imagery to watch for building violations and improvements (its main use). There is no "one resolution only" when it comes to Google Earth data available, nor is there a limit to that resolution (up to the government allowed publicly-available limit)--the available resolution being area, finance-base, and population density dependent.

[Don Phillipson]

A US decorator projected the Sistine Chapel onto his living room wall, illustrated in C. Ray Smith's Supermannerism: New Attitudes in Post- Modern Architecture (Dutton 1977).

[gpsman]

But, you might really want an aerial photograph...

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- gpsman

[Robert Coe]

On Fri, 19 Nov 2010 21:22:24 +0000 (UTC), Dr Rig wrote: : I have a wall that I want to cover with roughly a 5 foot by 10 foot : "picture" frame of a google satellite view of the surrounding area. : : Any idea how to accomplish the various technical parts? : - For the 'frame', I'm thinking of making it out of pine : - For the 'glass', I'm wondering how big a sheet of thin plastic I can buy : - For the 'printing', I'm not sure, but maybe Kinkos can print it?

You can print it yourself if you have access to a decent inkjet plotter. We have one at work that takes four-foot rolls of paper, and they make them for rolls even wider than that. The downside is that such large pictures are very unwieldy. Framing and hanging are the hard part unless, as someone suggested, you glue it up like wallpaper.

Bob

[Sjouke Burry]

Ever seen a wet inkjet print? I would not advise to use it as walpaper. That would turn into a diaster. There is hoever doublesided tape, in quite wide rolls, that might do it.

[J. Clarke]

Uh, wide carriage inkjets are used to produce vehicle wraps, which have no problem getting wet.

[Dustin]

"David H. Lipman" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

[Jim Yanik]

"J. Clarke" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I'd use a spray adhesive like the 3M stuff available all over the place. it would take several cans to do a wall.

Tekronix made an engineering-size printer that could make large prints(like blueprints),Xerox bought that division,and still makes them,IIRC. It uses thermal wax "ink",makes really nice color prints. There are several engineering printers that can make "wallpaper" you could use for your wall photo.

You could also try a place that does billboards.

[Jeff Thies]

Just a thought. Use one of the service bureaus and print it on canvas. You can stretch that on any frame you want. The length can be very long, the widths will vary by the printer. They will ship it rolled up.

I had some very large prints done, and they wound up coming out of China. (1/4 Kinkos price) Printed on HP Dreamjet and coated. Quality is very good. No need for glazing.

Jeff

[Paul Furman]

That would be good. Just stretch it over a wood frame allowing for some edge to wrap around and it would be a very simple elegant presentation.

[pete]

Before embarking on making, or getting something made I'd check that it will be physically possible to get a 5 x 10 rigid sheet around any corners, up any stairs and through any doors. You may find that the restrictions on getting it in mean the display will have to be made or at least assembled in-situ.

[Jeff Thies]

They look good. And you can buy the stretcher bars widely.

Probably not the cheapest, but the first I ran across:

$400 for the a 60" x 120" 2 1/2" deep frame. The way that works is they stretch and staple it on the stretcher bars and ship it to you rolled up. You pop in the the side bars to the top and bottom and hang it.

The print alone there is $200 without the stretcher bars, so there is a big premium for stretching. I'd probably do it myself and save $$$.

IMHO, it is crazy to do this any other way. (ie, framed and glazed)

Just remembered where I had mine done:

They print up to 60" x 360".

Definitely assemble on site. Easy, peasy.

Jeff