# glass floor tile mural printing



## selzler (Apr 4, 2007)

Hi:
I need a little help. I have done some 4x4 and 6x6 ceramic tiles. I now have a customer that wants a 8'x10' glass floor mural. His photo was shot with a 4mp camera. Will I be able to make the photo that big and make it look good. What would be the best way to do the job. I have corel 12 and adobe 7. I have never done anything over the the size of a serving tray.


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## JaeAmera (Dec 25, 2006)

Your outcome largely depends on the total DPI of the original picture.

If your client took the picture at the highest setting, you may be able to get what you need out of it, 4MP is a little low for a BIG wall mural.

If the image is a nice size say 11x17 with 500 dpi(not achievable with a 4mp camera) you have a better chance than say a 24 x 36, 100 dpi image.

You need tons of pixels in the ORIGINAL to make a 8ft by 10 ft mural, and let me add a darn good PC with a top processor,plenty of RAM and large amounts of hard drive space.

You have to remember, for every 100 DPI you can successfully double the image size with no loss of pixel shape (pixelization). Doing big murals you can get away with some pixelization because it will be printed and pressed for view from a far. Have you ever seen a billboard being printed, one of the ugliest things you will ever see up close, from a far....it's a thing of beauty.

Getting into murals this big you definitely need to know what you are doing not to mention having all the equipment to achieve it consistently from start to finish.

I have an associate that did a 10 x 10 mural with his Epson 4000 and during the printing process the magenta started to subtly fall out.......needless to say, he (and the client) didn't notice it until it was on the clients wall!!

That will eat the profits out of an 8K job really quick 

SO...start with a large, more so, a huge image and you will be moving in the right direction.

Heads-up: An image that should work will have a size somewhere in the ballpark of a GIG or more. It may get bigger if you need to up-size the pixels.

Hope this helps

Jae'


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## jberte (Mar 25, 2007)

yep, what jae' said....also i'd recommend a program called photo-zoom pro - it can help immensely for jobs of this nature!

the good news about this kind of job is that you're using glass tiles so the image is viewed from the bottom of the glass anyway so you can get by with a LITTLE more pixelation that if you were printing on the top of the tiles. a 4mp camera was not the best choice for large output but we've all been in the position of having to work with what the customer provided


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## rrc62 (Jun 2, 2007)

JaeAmera said:


> you can get away with some pixelization because it will be printed and pressed for view from a far.


This is not necessarily true for tile jobs. A floor, regardless of how big, will be viewed from about 5.5 feet by a 6' person. Wall tiles tend to be on back splashes, shower walls and tub enclosures, all of which are viewed from just a couple feet most of the time.

The rest, I totally agree with and I wouldn't even try to print that 4mp image. To put it in perspective, an 8'x10' image printed at 150dpi would be around 250mp. You could drop to 100dpi because the texture in floor tile will hide some pixelation.

Do the math to figure out what size image you need for your desired print dpi.

96 * 150 = 14400
120 * 150 = 18000
Required pixel dimensions = 14400 x 18000
Equivalent mega-pixel = 259.2mp

96 * 100 = 9600
120 * 100 = 12000
Required pixel dimensions = 9600 x 12000
Equivalent mega-pixel = 115.2mp

If you don't have a large format digital camera then the only other way to do it is to create the image as a composite. Once you know the pixel dimensions you need and your cameras pixel dimensions, you can figure out how many composite images you need to make up the total image. You'll need a multi-row panoramic tripod head for this.

If you're working with a 10mp camera you'll have a sensor width of about 3800px...call it 3500. Lets say you're shooting the 8x10 image in landscape orientation. You need 18000 pixels and you have 3500.

18000\3500 = 5.14 (call it 6)
6 * 1.3 (call it 8, accounting for overlap)

Find a good shooting location and set your zoom so that you get at least 8 full frame shots with 30% overlap. Shoot the top row, then drop down allowing 30% overlap and shoot the next row. Keep doing that until you shoot the bottom row. You'll end up with 50-60 images.

Next, you'll need lots of computing power. and a way to stitch all the photos together. There are a few options out there. I like Realviz Stitcher. 

The end result will be a razor sharp 8 foot x 10 foot image.


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## jberte (Mar 25, 2007)

all true ross and in the best of all worlds we'd all get this quality artwork with which to work. however.....the poster is in the position of having to use customer-provided material - usually NOT an enviable position, but one in which i'm sure we've all found ourselves. sometimes we all just need the tools to make a silk purse from the proverbial sow's ear!


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## selzler (Apr 4, 2007)

Thanks for the info. I think I'll stay with smaller items. It sounds like a big hassel because I don't know of to many customer that will understand what you have just told me.


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## rrc62 (Jun 2, 2007)

jberte said:


> sometimes we all just need the tools to make a silk purse from the proverbial sow's ear!


I wish there were such a tool, but then I probably couldn't afford it.  Wise decision to pass on that one. There is just no way to get a decent print and the customer wouldn't be happy with the end result.


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## joeshaul (Mar 1, 2008)

I always love when a customer reaches into their wallet and unfold a picture that may have been taken before my birth and ask me to put it on one of the wide variety of personalized items we offer... Sadly I have taken such jobs on occasion too


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## sublimeimprints (Jan 4, 2008)

I have used Genuine Fractals, a Photoshop add on. I use it on tile murals although not the size you have specified. I have been very satisfied with the results.


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## jberte (Mar 25, 2007)

genuine fractals ain't bad but.......photozoom pro is a LOT better and i've used both!


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## D.Evo. (Mar 31, 2006)

Where does one get good quality glass floor tiles?


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## rrc62 (Jun 2, 2007)

Tiles from either Conde or Coastal Business have been working out fine.


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## milabix (Apr 18, 2008)

D.Evo. said:


> Where does one get good quality glass floor tiles?


Bison Coatings (Bison Coating and Supply - TILE!) is also a great source, they have test data on their products. 

One thing I noticed is missing from this discussion is the fact that glass tiles will fade at a much faster rate than ceramic tiles. The image on glass is gone after 3 months of outdoor exposure versus almost 2 years for ceramic tiles. If your customer is planning to install this permanently make sure that it will not be in an area that receives lots of direct sunlight.

Milabix


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## ra10 (Jul 4, 2007)

A bit late but if anybody' s interested, a good way to make an extra large wall-size picture from a small original are softwares like rasterbator (most of them are free, check google).
They process your images from pixels to vector dots, and give it a "trame aspect" black&white or color.
A good plus (for your tile purpose) is that you can select the number of square/tile divisions of your image it will output and their sizes. then giving you a .pdf file with one page/tile.
The final result is a lot better looking than what must be a small original extended to the size of any wall


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## needaprint (Aug 30, 2008)

I have seen some people take photograph's of prints...it then allows things to be blown up with no poor outcome...works well.


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## charles95405 (Feb 1, 2007)

To do the large mural easy and quickly...you need a software program called NoveltyPro 8... you take a normal jpg photo..300dpi...and using this program..you import the program..tell it how many tiles wide and deep and it will automatically break the photo into panes to print... I have done up to 6'8' and there is no distortion...If you can import a photo, click a mouse...you can do this..catch is the program is pricey..about$500 but it has long since paid it own way...also the program has templates for just about any item that is out there for sublimation...


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## Dingbat (Jun 12, 2007)

Photoshop has an unusual ability to enlarge standard pictures to poster size. The trick involves enlarging the photo several times by a factor of 10. For some unknow reason, this seems to perform the enlargement without distortion. Google Scott Kelby or check for his books to describe how to accomplish this task.


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