Expert: Amy - 10/29/2006

Question
Hi Amy,

I'm still having a problem printing my comic book proofs from Illustrator, and it may be because I didn't give you all the information you needed.

The files I'm lettering in Illustrator are 11 x 17, and I want the image output from the new HP desktop printer to be a scaled down (roughly by 62% for standard comic size of 6 11/16" by 10 1/4") version, printing on 8 1/2" by 11" paper.

Can I do this without transferring to another program like Photoshop and having the lettering become rasterized and/or pixelated? I'm not sure if I'm wording this right, so I put in the and/or.

Thanks again for your assistance.

Be well,
Vin Ferrante





-------------------------------------------
The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
Hi Amy,

Thanks for your help to the below question. My follow-up frustration is related to clicking the lower left of my 10 x 15 image which seems to work, in a way, because when I print on 8.5 x 11 psper the area changes, but the picture is still cut off. I can't change to larger paper because I don't have that size.

I'm trying to get an 8.5 x 11 proof of a comic book page to see how the lettering came out. To get it done yesterday, I printed it as a jpeg through Photoshop, but the lettering was pixelated. When I printed the book last time, I let the printer reset all the page tiling etc. mumbo jumbo. Computers get to be too much, and I refuse to play their games, so I let an expert fix it. I also can't get the picture box to show up where you can use the hand tool to navigate the image.

Thanks for your friendly help and patient answer. These programs are a headache. It really can put someone out of a mood to get needed work done.

Be well,
Vin


-------------------------

Followup To

Question -
Hi,

I don't know the best way to ask this question. Within the Illustrator document I'm working on, there's a solid black rectangular box within which is a dotted rectangular box, and I think this might be the print area, because I printed once and only the area within the box printed...if I remember correctly.

Is there a way to expand this box to the size of the document? I've tried to select it to stetch it, but haven't had any success.

Thank you,
vin

Answer -
Hi Vin,

You're right - that's the print area, aka Page Tiling (as found in View > Show/Hide Page Tiling.)

That print area is totally controlled by the paper size you select in Print Setup.  So go in Print Setup and pick a different size paper and you'll change the size of the print area.

To move the print area / center it on the page, click the PAGE tool.  Its icon is a small piece of paper with a cross in the lower right corner. It should be near the bottom of the tools... shares a spot with the Hand tool... so it might be hiding there.

If you select the page tool and click on your artboard, the print area moves. The spot that you click defines the lower left point of the print area.

If you double click right on the page tool in the tool window, it will automatically center the page on your artboard.

Please let me know if you need any further help with this!

-Amy

-----Answer-----
Hi again,

First, the hand tool.  Simply depress the space bar at any time and you will get the hand tool. Click and move around. The only time the space bar doesn't work is when you are in the middle of typing something.

Now, the file size. Would it work for you to "tile" your image onto two 8.5" x 11" pieces of paper for your proof?

This will allow you to view your proofs at 100% size, which sounds important for what you're doing.

If so, go into DOCUMENT SETUP.

Type in the size of your artboard (10in x 15in).
Choose Portrait orientation.
Make sure that [ ] Use Print Setup is NOT selected.
Now click the Print Setup button.
Choose Letter size paper and choose landscape orientation.
Now go back to the document and select the page tool.  Click and drag near the left middle of the artboard, just outside the artboard area and you will successfully divide the artboard into two pages, you should see 2 page numbers next to the page boundaries, actually. When you print, you may choose to print both pages or just one of them.

Thinking differently. If you don't want to divide the image as I described above, you can shrink the image when you click print.  Now the specifics will depend on your printer driver... but

Click Print.
Choose your printer at the top.
Click the PROPERTIES button (Printer Properties).
Look around in your printer props for where you can shrink the page by a percentage. Like I said, the language used depends on the printer (Epson, HP, etc). They all have different terms for these basic functions. Sometimes you'll find a "fit to page."

Make sure you're only dealing with a single page when you try this method.

GOod luck!
Amy

Answer
Hi again,

There will be no pixelation if you print it right from Illustrator. Use Print Setup to scale down to 62%. Vector artwork that is created in Illustrator will never appear bitmapped. Only Raster images that have been imported into Illustrator would be subject to distortion when you scale. Actually, the distortion you are talking about is because you saved it as a JPEG, not from shrinking it. Jpegs are raster.

Maybe this would be a better solution for you:

Create a new Illustrator document. Letter sized.
Go into print setup, Make sure the paper size is LETTER and the orientation is what you need (portrait?).

Go to original document. Copy everything.
Go to the new document and PASTE.
While everything is still selected, hit Ctrl+G (group). Now double click the scale tool on the tool bar.
In the resulting Scale dialog window, type 62% in Uniform scale, make sure "Scale strokes & effects" IS CHECKED and click okay. Position on the page if necessary and print from there.

That might be easier for you.

Good luck.