Preparing for an Art Show: the Vertical Banner

Continuing in my series about preparing for an art show, a.k.a. "Kelley prints her artwork too dark."

• Introduction
• Part 1: the postcards
• Part 2: the booklets

I wanted a vertical banner to add some height to my table, and I wanted one of those retractable ones that rolls up like a window shade into a nice compact stand that would be easy to take on a trip. I asked Cory Godbey what company he uses for these, and he recommended TRT Banners. I knew I wanted to use this illustration of the girl riding a yak for my banner.

The problem: the girl on yak illustration is 12 inches high, but the banner is 80 inches high. To enlarge the image that much would cause serious, serious quality loss. I did not want to show a grainy, pixellated version of my art at a gigantic size.

So I did what any millennial does: I Googled "how to enlarge art in Photoshop."

Google introduced me to a program called Perfect Resize 8 whose main purpose is to enlarge images. Can you believe it? What's more, they offer a free demo. I opened my 12-inch painting in Perfect Resize, told it to enlarge it to 80 inches, and waited nervously while my computer made clicking noises for the next 30 minutes. Was it worth it?

Here's the original painting at full size:

Here's the painting when enlarged using Bicubic Smoother, Photoshop's default interpolation method:

Here's the painting when enlarged using Perfect Resize 8:

AMAZING. I cannot believe this technology exists and I didn't know about it until now. The banner arrived in about a week.

(Sorry for this dorky photo. I just took this snapshot for a friend and now I'm too lazy to lug the sign out again and take a better photo for the blog.) Anyway, the artwork printed a bit dark and desaturated, but that's my fault, as usual. Other than that, the sign looks fantastic. It's simple to set up, although it does require the assistance of a person taller than myself. Plus it came with a handy traveling case, and it's pretty lightweight too.

I highly recommend TRT Banners and I'll use them again in the future. I was not paid to say this, but if you do order from TRT Banners, use this code and I get some bonus money: TRT208

I also recommend Perfect Resize.

I also recommend Google.

Stay tuned for more of my adventures and misadventures in preparing for my first art show!