Expert: Ken Black - 6/2/2010

Question
Hi,
I'm designing a banner, 3000x6000mm, which InDesign tells me is too big, 5486,4mm is the limit. How do I get around this? Or do I make it 300x600mm and then tell the printshop to scale it up? Won't be a problem since it's all vector. However it would be nice to make it in the real format from the start.
Thank you / Joakim

Answer
Hi Joakim,

Indesign does not have a way to create a page size beyond the limit. While there may be a plug-in or script that would allow a size limit override, I am not aware of any.

You might try splitting the size in half and building and then outputting this as a spread.

Indesign CS 4 will allow you to rotate the view of spreads so you can work on this in portrait instead of the default landscape view.

Photoshop CS 4 will allow you to create documents of this size, but, any document created that has an area larger than 30,000 pixels will not be compatible with previous versions.

There are other layout programs out there that large format printers and sign makers use to create the large displays they output. One such program is Flexisign Pro and I have seen other titles available as well.

You might want to check with the service provider that will be doing the output for you, to see if they have any suggestions or requests regarding your overall set-up, output and file type.

Thanks,

Ken Black