Expert: Amy - 2/26/2005

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Followup To
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Followup To
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Amy:

I have an iMac 450, 384mb ram, OS 10.3.8, Illustrator 10, Firefox browser

I designed a number of logos in Illustrator and I want to send a friend a sample page of these logos by e-mail.  What is the best way to save the files so that when I send them they can be printed out by him and the quality would be excellent.  I also have the same logos saved as photoshop 7 files.

Thanks for your help

Ron
Answer -
Hi Ron,

My first choice would definitely be PDF.

Do this by using FILE > SAVE AS then choose PDF.

Since you and I do not use the same version of Illustrator, I don't know exactly where the next options lie, but in version 9, they are accessed from the Save dialog box.

- choose version of Acrobat to save as.  Either 4 or 5 is fine.
- No need to maintain Illustrator Editing Capabilities, just makes a larger file.  Just remember not to save over your original file.
- Make sure to embed all fonts.  Subset if not 100%
- Compression should not really be an issue since you're dealing with postscript artwork here, not raster. Compression mainly affects raster artwork.  You can experiment with it, though, since I don't know the content of your files.

Save as filename.pdf so that your friend, if on a PC, can open the files without any trouble.

Hope this works for you.

-Amy

Amy:

Everything worked great except for one page where some of the logos that had circles or ovals came out with clipped  shapes and not smooth when I printed them.  They all look okay on the screen in illustrator and as a pdf file.  

Ron


Answer -
Hi Ron,

Let me think.  Round paths become jagged... circles look like stop signs?

ew.  This might be complicated because you're in v10.  

It's the output resolution of the circles, which in previous versions of Illustrator could be changed (per object) in the Attributes Window.  But I hear they've taken away in v10 and that you have to set it globally in Document Setup > Printing and Export.  

If you change the document setup output resolution to 800, then resave as AIv10, it should supercede any individual object settings that are too low.  But it you save down to version 8, I read that the objects' output goes back to low res.

So do that and then try saving it as a PDF and see what happens.

-Amy Pace
Let me know what happens, too.

Amy:

Further to my last message I think the problem is Acrobat.  I printed the PDF file as an image and everything came out okay.  Do I have to tell me friend at the other end to print the file as an image?

Ron

Answer
Very possible.

I print so very few things nowadays...

I guess this shortcoming is made up for with the fact that your friend can zoom in on the logos in Acrobat to examine details without losing resolution.  That's one good thing.

I'd still like to see the file, or at least one of the logos that's misbehaving, if you feel like sending it.

Thanks
Amy