Expert: Amy - 9/22/2003

Question
I created an illustration in Illustrator 9.0 with a PC and tried to bring it into QuarkExpress 5.0( PC also) but when I do it becomes rasterized. The orginal illustration appears perfect in Illustrator and when printed. However, when viewed in Quark the edges are rough and not smooth- it also prints this way! I have tried saving it many different ways but nothing seems to help. Got any suggestions?
thanks

Answer
Hi Kim,

Quark prints and displays only the 8-bit previews of any vector-based (ai or eps) artwork you import.  

It will, however, use the vector data if you print to a PostScript printer, otherwise, you will only see the 8-bit preview (72 dpi).

If your piece will be printed at a printers or on a postscript printer, your final product will print just fine.

But, if you'll only print this piece on an inkjet, vector-based artwork is not what you should be importing into Quark.

My suggestion in that case - create, by means of export, a TIFF or JPEG of suitably high resolution... 250 or higher should be fine... to produce a nice output.  

You can also use this exported artwork as a placeholder and replace it with the .ai or .eps graphic when it's ready to go to the printer. That way, your inkjet proofs will look good.

Hope this helps,
Amy Pace


PS>  You can also export a PDF file from Quark and print that instead of printing from Quark.  That WILL print your vector based artwork but some folks don't like that method because Quark still only displays a 72 dpi preview of the file.