# Getting album art done. How many different image renders do I need?



## GalacticDeath (Aug 27, 2014)

If we're gonna be printing cd's, banners, shirts, and other merch. How many different renders will I need?


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## metaldoggie (Aug 27, 2014)

That will depend on the sizes of each media item.
Typically you will need a specfic file saved to the correct size and resolution of each piece.
It will also depend on the printer.....they may take photoshop files and charge you an artwork fee to do it. Or you could find out the specs first and get whoever is doing the art to save to each size.


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## GalacticDeath (Aug 27, 2014)

metaldoggie said:


> That will depend on the sizes of each media item.
> Typically you will need a specfic file saved to the correct size and resolution of each piece.
> It will also depend on the printer.....they may take photoshop files and charge you an artwork fee to do it. Or you could find out the specs first and get whoever is doing the art to save to each size.



Thanks for the response man. That makes sense.

Would you happen to know what file types I'll need for shirts and posters?


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## MFB (Aug 27, 2014)

File type you would want something that's a vector based image, which means it can be scaled to any size and not lose quality. With JPEGs, PNGs, etc... you have to know what size the file is going to be used at before hand so that you can make sure it looks good at at least that size, and then scale it down some and have it look better. But blowing it up is going to distort the image and it'll look fuzzy and bad.


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## metaldoggie (Aug 28, 2014)

While vector based graphics are ideal, they aren't always ptactical depeding.on how the artwork was created. For shirts, typically if it is getting screen printed then it will have to be vector based. If the shirts are digitally printed then raster (jpgs etc) will be fine.
TIF files are best for raster as they are not compressed (assuming they are saved that way).
Rule of thumb is 300ppi at the correct size and it will look fine.
If color is critical, it should be saved in CMYK and you should get a physical color proof before approving (your monitor is most likely not calibrated and what you see on the scteen may not come out the same when printed)


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