Print resolution has everything to do with viewing distance. The further away the banner is, the lower resolution your print can be, and no one will be the wiser.
You can read all the gory details here: https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/q/487
Here’s the summary:
Distance Present Study
20 feet / 6 meters greater than 10 LPI
18 feet / 5.5 m 18.75 LPI or greater
16 feet / 4.9 m 18.75 LPI or greater
14 feet / 4.3 m 37.5 LPI or greater
12 feet / 3.7 m 37.5 LPI or greater
10 feet / 3 meters 50 LPI or greater
8 feet / 2.4 m 65 LPI or greater
6 feet / 1.8 m 85 LPI or greater
4 feet / 1.2 m 100 LPI or greater
2 feet / 0.6 m 133 LPI or greater
1 foot / 0.3 m 150 LPI or greater
6 inches / 15 cm 150 LPI or greater
Billboard printers must know that, how do you think they print photos on billboards without them looking “pixelated”?
EDIT:Looks like most billboards are printed at anywhere from 9-30 dpi. 🙂
Looks like anywhere from 120-75 dpi will work with a viewing distance of 10-14 feet. (Double the LPI to get the needed DPI.) Of course, whoever prints your banner for you will likely be able to tell you what resolutions they need to be able to print a certain size of graphic.
My printer can print up to 13×19 inches, which is well above my camera’s 16 “megapixels”. (13×19 @300dpi = 22 MP) You can look as closely as you want, but you can’t see any pixelation. I just printed some wedding photos at 13×19 with ~250 dpi, and the detail is simply amazing! And that’s at a 1 foot viewing distance. If you back off to 6 feet, you could get away with much less dpi.
Think about it, most computer screens are 72-96 ppi, and our pictures look just fine on them… (Of course with modern screens and FHD and UHD technology, I’m sure the ppi is going up) Some phones/tablets have ppi in the 200s.
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