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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Preparing Illustrator files for press

notatechie - Nov 8, 2006 - 12:23 pm

I have prepared docs for CMYK output for print.

Printer wants pdfs because they work on PCs.

I flattened the files, saved as Illustrator PDF, Opened in Acrobat 6.0.2 and saved as Acrobat pdf.

The pdfs are huge (larger than layered Native Illustrator files) = 46MB and 52MB

I want the .pdfs to have high res (In Illustrator, when I saved as .pdf, I saved for press with no compression because the printer recommended it)

Printer is saying the files should be around 4 -7 MB.

Can you enlighten me? I'm trying to get this out by 11/-9

Thank you very much,
Nontechie

RobertJohnston - Nov 9, 2006 - 2:00 am

Hi Nontechie,

Illustrator, as Quark makes very large PDF files if they are not processed through Distiller. To make smaller PDF files, either save as Illustrator eps and then process in Acrobat Distiller (if you have it) or create a postcript file at the point of print, then process in Distiller. You need to save out of Distiller as Press Quality or your printer will provide you with a profile to suit there press system. Make sure all your pictures are embedded in Illustrator, not linked, before converting them.
I send a lot of artwork to China like this, I also convert all the text to outline, to stop them messing with it.

Hope that helps
Rob