how much $ do you want to allocate to it? large sheets are expensive. look up tap plastics in your yellw pages if you're in or near a reasonably large city. you can get large sheets of glass too, but it would be pretty dangerous to handle if you're not used to doing so. glass is heavier too.
96" is the usual largest single dimension. larger would be custom, and a lot more $.
there are local companies in most cities that provide this service. look up mapping services. again, it's pretty expensive.
the largest i've framed is 8'x2'.
you'll also need to get it pressed onto something to keep it flat. foamcore is usual, but finding a press large enough for 10' is going to be hard, and $.
have you thought about sending a custom image to a company that makes wall sized murals? installing it in strips like wallpaper, then installing wood frame onto the wall, would be easier and a LOT cheaper.
Dr Rig wrote in news:ic6pqf$7s7$ snipped-for-privacy@news.albasani.net:
Kinko's will just farm it out to a "large format digital printing" company. You might as well go direct.
Here's a start:
These firms can not only print your image, but dry-mount it to a suitable rigid substrate. You can frame it later if you wish, or they can frame it for you.
They can also print directly to something like Sintra or Komatex, which are already rigid enough not to need mounting.
A BIG warning though, your file had better be of pretty high-resolution, or it will look really crummy when printed that big (the company will probably refuse to output a file they consider too low). You want minimum 80 dpi at the native size (5'x10'). The appropriate file will likely be on the order of 20 megabytes. Or more.
JPEGs are dangerous to print large, since they tend to have odd squiggly areas at edges between color blocks.
For mounting, you should probably use ordinary picture technology. Artists' supply stores sell edge mouldings and hardware for single canvases up to 5 ft. by 10, and can advise how many interior braces you need to avert later bending out of true. After constructing the empty frame, canvas is stretched over it (tightened by a special tool) and tacked along each outside edge. You can glue the photo to this rigid but light structure, and add an ornamental frame (using framing stock, corners cut with a 45-deg. jig.)
60x120" @ 80dpi=46,080,000 pixels At 24bit color depth, that's 138,240,000 bytes for that file. Not too terribly huge, but remember your looking to start with a 46 MegaPixel image. You would have to patch together a number of Google satellite images to get this to work. Then see if you can find a print shop that can do billboard type stuff. This usually comes like wallpaper, in strips.
"chaniarts" wrote in news:ic6s1n$2n3$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org:
There's lots of competition these days; prices have tumbled. OP can expect to pay about $200 or so, depending on his area.
A dry-mounter is normally used to bond flexible prints to a rigid substrate. These are everywhere, and are old technology. The 60" size is very common. I ran one of these (a Seal 600) as part of my previous job, eight years ago. They go up to 72", I believe. But that's the web width. Finished sizes are typically about an inch less either side for trim, so for a 60" web, figure on 59-58" finished size.
But... current technology now allows the large-format people to print directly to a rigid substrate, which is a major advance in convenience and durability. The current inks are very tough, and are even UV-stable. They do not need an over-laminate for protection.
And it's not wise to use foamcore for a print that big; it's too fragile. Sintra/Komatex is better. Sintra is foamed styrene, and it's relatively light for its rigidity; it's very popular these days for digital printing. The digital people buy the stuff by the skidload.
I didn't think of this before, but OP may wish to have the print split up into 2 or 3 sections, which would be joined up when he frames it. You'd have a seam, but its visibility would be minimized with proper joining. This way the print size will fall within the substrate size (usually 4' x 8'), and be more transportable as well. The digital print company can help him with these details.
Our supplier of such things has this brand-new machine from Europe (I wish I could remember the maker). The entire side opens up like a garage door for maintenance and human access, but stock goes in a slot at one end and goes out the other. It prints its entire 72" or so width ALL AT ONCE, but make 4 passes to lay down the full density of ink. Each pass is UV-cured as it's laid down. It's absolutely amazing how FAST this thing is.
Plexiglass 5x10 feet can be had for around 200 bucks delivered.
Frame can be anything reasonable.
Epson sells printers that print more than 5 feet wide (they're used for vehicle wraps among other things), so getting it printed should not be an issue.
H-Man wrote in news:ic6ssp$5o7$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org:
That's 132MB. But then you don't really need 24-bit pixel depth; 16 will do. That takes the file down to 87MB. Even if you go down to 8 bit, which is still quite acceptable for digital printing, it's 44MB. Still bigger than I'd guessed.
We run digital stuff all the time, but our files contain vector and transparencies in addition to raster components, so I was guessing on the OP's needed file size. Most of our files are in the 20-40MB range. Now that I think of it, I wasn't counting any linked Photoshop images, which can be
200MB or more. Add those to our usual Illustrator files, and we're /way/ up there.
| 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?
| Have any of you ever created a huge frame and/or printing of google maps?
| Can you give me some pointers to get me going in the right direction?
LOL, a 5' x 10' print for FREE ? You did post this to a freeware group!
I use a HP DesignJet T1120 and that is only 44" wide. I could split this job into two halves using PhotShop. Top: 2.5' x 10' and Bottom: 2.5' x 10'
I've done an 8x12 canvas before with 2x4's, it worked just fine. Painting with gesso tightens up the canvas but it's pretty easy to just pull tight while stapling your way around the back. I think you can paint and sand to get it nice and smooth.
Another thought for printing is those companies that do the wraps for buses. It's pretty expensive though!
I can't imagine a glass covered frame that big and plastic would eventually get nasty - I wouldn't bother covering it.
As others have said, the biggest issue you have is that when you blow up the image that either you capture off Google Maps or Google Earth you are going loose all detail. Your house you can recognize when you see it on your computer screen will only be like 6 pixels in size 6 really big pixels.
I know, I have a large format printer, its a small one onlt 30 inches, and you need images of huge size, like 300 meg.
To see what it would look like open the pic and blow it up like 3000% and you will see why you will get.
Poster apps print your pic over multiple letter-sized pages that you stitch together to form a single large picture. Best for enlarging vector graphics. I have my doubts that Google satellite images are high enough resolution for such an enlargement. However, this method will cost little to experiment.
A mosaic of adjacent sections, or a blowup of ONE map? I think you will be disappointed by the resolution in either case. USCGS (or was it NASA?) used to have an online portal for ordering hi-rez sat photos- don't remember if you could order them as a file or not, that could be printed on a industrial plotter like at Kinko's. Online map sites are geared toward looking at them on a small monitor.
I know a lot of the map sites do watermark their images, and do something so you can't save the image other than by screen-scraping.
I love aerial and satt photos- I have one on my office wall of the half-mile square surrounding my office, but it is only 10x10 or so. I wish some site had OLD satt images available, like from when they first started taking them. Some company a few years ago was selling old Russian images of CONUS.
As to the mundane framing part- any sign shop can put it on the foam backer like they use in stores and at trade shows. Surface is durable enough that you don't need plastic cover, which would cost a fortune in any case.
Try Googling 'aerial images' and your zip code- there may be more sources than you think.
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