Can Web Images Be Used for My Sign?
Typically images taken from the web are poor quality and unusable.
Most all website images are very low resolution, as well as very small, because they are only be viewed on a small scale. If you are thinking about utilizing a website image for your sign design or on your sign design, just remember that even though they look great on the website, they may not translate well when enlarged to fit your specific sign requirements.
Typically images taken from a web site around about the size of a stamp. At that size a web image looks fine online, but if enlarged to say 24" x 36" for a digitally printed banner, will end up being fuzzy, blurry or pixelated (choppy-looking.) And though technically you can use a web image for your sign design it won't look nearly as good as it does on the internet when blown up to print size.
To produce high-quality sign prints you'll need high-quality artwork that is meant for large scale printing. The most common art files that we request for any sign design are vector files. Vector files are often created in Adobe Illustrator and tend to produce the best printed images. Photoshop is another design program that can create high-quality images for print production.
If a customer only has web images at their disposal it is suggested to check into online suppliers of high resolution stock images and logos. Companies like dreamstime.com, shutterstock.com or iclipart.com (to name a few) offer up high quality images that can be bought and used for your own print and sign production.
Another option to avoid using low quality web images on your sign design is to work in conjunction with your chosen sign company. Some sign companies employ very talented graphic designers, like we do, that can redesign your web image into a print compatible version to complete your sign order. Or, at best, use the web image as a starting point and emulate a similar recreation of your web based artwork.
Ultimately web based images for a sign design aren't usable. But we always suggest that any new, potential or returning customers send in whatever artwork they are in possession of at the moment. We provide a FREE print compatibility check to determine if the artwork in question (web based images and all others) will work for your specific sign design and sign printing needs.