Large Format Printing Tips: Go Big or Go Home! | Doggett Print

Large Format Printing Tips: Go Big or Go Home!

Need some large format printing tips? We’ve got you covered.


After all, sometimes there’s nothing more frightening than a blank page. Within that small sheet you have to make a design that pops and communicate a message exactly as your client needs. It can provoke a lot of pressure and the stress only gets worse the bigger you go. Think a badly spaced line break looks bad on an A5 leaflet? Try seeing it on the side of a truck!


The worst thing you can do is let the stress get to you. Take a deep breath and read through our top three design tips for large format printing. By the end you’ll be happy to plaster your work over the side of any building!


Our top 3 large format printing tips

1. Shout To Be Heard

Billboards are big for a very simple reason: The people you’re directing them at are far away. Whether it’s somebody sitting in traffic or a pedestrian wandering around the city, they’re not going to climb up the rafters of a fire escape to read the small print on an advertisement. Use large, solid fonts that scale up well and can be discerned from a distance. If you have the space, stand behind a desk on the other side of your office and see what you can read from there.


2. Vectors Are Your Friend

The client you’re designing for has sent you a fuzzy bitmap and asked you to stick it on the side of a bus. Maybe on a lazy day in print, you’d have squinted your eyes and convinced yourself that it would look alright on a leaflet. But there’s no hiding those pixels when you scale it up. Take the time to make sure as many of your assets as possible are vector based. That way, no matter where the final image is placed, you’ll know it’s quality will be assured.


3. Have Fun With Scale

The medium is the message. Photo stock of a man looking down at the caption of your design on a small brochure might not seem all that interesting, but when you size it up for an enormous city poster, all of a sudden he becomes a giant winking down at the people below. There’s a lot of extra fun and creativity to be had when you tackle a large format print job. Don’t think of the task as just a matter of logistics. It’s an opportunity to explore ideas you won’t get a chance to use elsewhere.


Just remember, particular colours and inks come out better than others.


If you liked our large format printing tips, make sure you consult the experts to make your work look its best or read more about our large format printing services.