Art Specs

These art and material guidelines will help explain formats and simple procedures that help us better serve you when you submit artwork to the Boulder Blimp Company Art Department:

• Photographic Reproduction: In some cases it is more feasible to have complex labels, logos, and artwork printed (on a large format printer) rather than painted. These prints require a vector* format such as an “Illustrator.eps”, “Freehand.eps”, or if you are supplying a raster* file you must have the file saved at a high resolution (250-600ppi). These formats will look crisp and will have smoother edges.
• For a high-resolution image you must have scanned or created the image at high resolution. (Rule for high resolution: save the image at 25% the final output size at 300ppi.) (Example: A label that we are going to print at 6 by 8 feet would look nice at 75ppi, so we need to receive the art at 1.5 by 2 feet at 300ppi, or 111.3 Mb) *High Resolution does not work if the image starts low then is increased. Increasing the image size will only distort or blur the image.
• Painted reproduction: In the case of art that will be painted, the art must be supplied in a vector format such as “Illustrator.eps”, “Freehand.eps”..
• General use artwork: Art used for sketches, samples, or examples can be supplied as .eps, .jpeg, .bmp, .tiff, or .pict, .psd, .ai, or .pdf

We do not have the capabilities to use Coral Draw, or Quark. (Quark.eps or Coral.eps is ok.)

ppi: Pixels Per Inch, also called “dpi” (dots per inch)

vector: this format deals with an image as geometric shapes. (If you increase the image size, the program will calculate the shapes through equations and maintain crisp edges.)

vector formats: “.ai” or “.eps”

raster: this format deals with an image as “ppi”, or “dpi”. (If you increase the image size the program will stuff more pixels into the image. The image dissipates, resulting in a blurred, or distorted image.)

raster formats: “.bmp”, “.jpeg”, “.tiff”, “.psd” or, “.pict.