WHAT IS THE BEST SETTING TO SAVE PS CS2 WORK FOR A HIGH QUALITY LARGE FORMAT PICTURE QUALITY ... ?? THANKS

Contact your printer to get their list of size and resolution requirements. I just altered a photo for my first image to be used on a billboard, and come to find out it only needed to be 9ppi!! Yep, if you scan a 4x6 as a 4x6 at 300ppi, you can make an 11'x16' billboard! And when you ask them what size they need, if they tell you "it should be 300ppi" (drives me nuts when they do this, and you'd be amazed at how often they do this!) make sure they understand that is the 3rd part of a 3 part equation. Respond with, "How many inches by how many inches, at 300ppi?" Good luck and happy Photoshopping- -Lew ;-)

There are many things to consider when it comes to printing as everyone will tell you. The resolution of 300ppi is pretty much standard as most printer's machine is set up for that. However that does not mean the actual print will have 300 dpi. All depends on how large of a poster you wanted. Bearing in mind the larger the print, the further away will the audience stand to get a full view of it. Other things to consider of course is colour matching, which is also the most difficult part to achieve in printing. You will need to talk to your printer, say offset printing, to get a PPF of the machine they intend to use. This file contains the information of that machinery regarding all complicated setting and you can download most of this PPF from Adobe site. Also ask them about the colour management settings and they should be able to advise you. Ok, may be I am boring you now. The last thing to consider is file format, PDF is most popular, then EPS, handy but make sure you have all your linked files in one folder and properly named ( keep the spot colour on a seperate channel ). Oh don't forget to use outline for your fonts if there is anyway if you are using PDF file. Hope this helps.........

Not exactly sure of what's wanted, here... I run a wide format printer, 53"x however long, and I'm the one who does the graphics... out of CS2, I simply run it through Post Script... THAT'S where everyything happens... My output size doesn't matter, unless it's TOO low, postscript will adjust accordingly... if the printer you're using is sensitive to density, then you're constrained to that, and should get that data. Are you outputting as bitmap? As TrulyMadly said, if you can get the PPF, you'll be ahead of the game, and be able to output as a finished file in the format of the printer involved. Good luck, Lou.

Yeah, dunno exactly how its going to be output, so not sure of the advice. Archdruid's right - I ran a Lambda (48" wide) and a Fuji Frontier (10" wide minilab) and when making an 8x10, I could barely tell the difference between files that were 1200x1500 (8x10@150ppi)or 2400x3000 (8x10@300ppi). Those kinds of printers fill in some blanks, smooth out stepping, etc. You go below that, though, and things start to look a little too "smoothed out". Kind of the same thing with inkjet printers (though they won't "smooth" things out) - you can get away with 150ppi at the size you'll be printing, and unless you look really close you won't be able to tell the difference. Printing for catalogs, they're gonna want his res images - I turn in CDs of 3000x4500ppi CMYK TIFs, and they just resize them as needed (apparently, they can go as low as 212dpi output, making them 14'x21' print capability so they can do a double page spread). So, again, contact whomever will be doing the printing, see if they need any special color profiles (some have their own custom profiles), find out their size requirements, and find out their format preferences (PDF, TIF, BMP, etc., as well as RGB or CMYK). Good luck and happy Photoshopping- -Lew ;-)

For my poster prints (up to 24x36) I always use a base dpi of 300 when creating the image. Most print shops want psd format, jpg seems to give lesser results. You would have to check with the print house you are using. If using your own printer, check the manual.