background image size

[dan.beeler.II]

I've recently tried to set a powerpoint slide background to an image on
file. This image is huge, 12000x10500 jpeg. The background imports and
shows up fine, but when I try to print the slide, powerpoint chokes and
prints everything except the background. Is there a limit to the
background image that powerpoint can handle? A limit to the resolution
it can print at?

 

[Ute Simon]

I've recently tried to set a powerpoint slide background to an image on

file. This image is huge, 12000x10500 jpeg. The background imports and
shows up fine, but when I try to print the slide, powerpoint chokes and
prints everything except the background. Is there a limit to the
background image that powerpoint can handle? A limit to the resolution
it can print at?

Hi Dan,

the size you used is about a hundret times more than PowerPoint needs. I
usually use images of 8ßßx600 to 1500x1128 as background images, the former
is sufficient for pattern backgrounds, the latter gives very good quality
for pictures on office printers.

In your case I think, that not PowerPoint reached its limits, but also your
printer. Your image contains 126 Megabyte of data, in a compressed jpg
format which has to be decompressed for printing (plus the rest of the
slide). That can cause a printer to take very long for printing or quit its
job at all.

Best regards,
Ute

 

[Troy @ TLC]

Just to confirm, from PowerPoint's print dialog is it set to print color or
grayscale? If set to print black & White PPT ignores all background images.

 

[dan.beeler.II]

Well, the thing is, this is not a normal slide, it's actually a poster
48"x42" and the printer I'm using has a 4gig buffer. So I see no reason
why it would choke. Another interesting thing, if I try to export the
file as a pdf, not only does it not have the background, everything's
all screwed up.

 

[dan.beeler.II]

yes, it is in color PPT, but that's good to know

 

[Troy @ TLC]

As a side note about print output from PPT, especially for large format
posters. PPT is a multimedia application, its output is never beyond 72
DPI - which in the print world is low resolution. You can achieve good
results if sized at 100% and have images also appropriately sized (which you
do), but in general it is not the ideal application to work in for print
output.

 

[Troy @ TLC]

There are many issues with print; PPT erroring out, using a PostScript
print driver with PPT, printing .png images with transparency, etc. A good
option may to export the slide as a graphic, then print the graphic.

For this project I would suggest downloading and using PPTXtreme's
Import/Export add-in. It goes beyond PPTs native export feature and combined
with the SetDPI feature you should get a good file to print. Trial install
is full function I believe (www.pptxtreme.com).

This will also eliminate any print driver issues and help trouble shoot what
the output error is (either PPT related or print driver related).

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Well, the thing is, this is not a normal slide, it's actually a poster
48"x42" and the printer I'm using has a 4gig buffer. So I see no reason
why it would choke. Another interesting thing, if I try to export the
file as a pdf, not only does it not have the background, everything's
all screwed up.

Buffering isn't the only thing that consumes memory. The printer or driver
must also rescale the image from the original to the final print size.
Depending on how the printer handles it, that might require two or even three
times the amount of memory that that the simple image size itself would
indicate.

It could also be that you're exceeding a memory limit in PowerPoint, the
printer driver or the spooling system on your computer.

At that image size, you're sitting at about 250dpi, where for most inkjet
output the recommendation is 200dpi or so. And that's for output that'll be
examined at close range (photo prints, letters, that sort of thing). A
poster's more likely to be viewed from a greater distance, meaning you wouldn't
need as high resolution an image, but you know your needs in that department
better than we do, of course.

I'd certainly experiment with lower rez images. Depending on the image, you
might be surprised at how far you can bump down the resolution w/o harming it
visibly.