Illustrator Part 3: Output from Illustrator

Illustrator can output files in numerous ways. Preparing your artwork for output is the final stage of a project in Illustrator. The type of output you choose will depend on the nature of your project and the intended use of your output files. For your Small Packages project, the two types of output you need to employ are printing directly from an Illustrator document, and creating a PDF document of your poster.

Printing from Illustrator

The print dialogue in Illustrator differs from the print interface in Photoshop. Still, some of the information in the printer’s print dialogue is similar. Your main concern is ensuring that your document is properly oriented on the paper you will be using. Make sure to click the vertical or horizontal icon as appropriate, so that your document is properly aligned. Once this is done, hit Print. This will bring up the printer’s print settings dialogue. Under Print Settings, make sure to set the media type to the appropriate type for the paper you’re using. If your poster has large bitmap images in it, use the ‘top-quality photo’ setting under ‘advanced’, if not, use the ‘text and graphics’ setting in the Print Settings dialogue. Double-check that you’ve got the settings right, then hit print.

Saving PDFs from Illustrator.

A PDF is a fairly universal document format that accommodates both text and images in a compact, read-only form that can be viewed on most computers. PDF stands for Portable Document Format. You will need to create a PDF of your box layout at a web-friendly size in order to email it to me.

Creating a PDF in Illustrator is a little more complex than simply hitting Print and then PDF (for those used to Mac PDF output). To create a PDF, go to File: Save As. When the dialogue pops up, select Adobe PDF from the drop-down menu. Name your file, and select a location to save it. Click Save.

This will bring up the PDF dialogue, which allows you to adjust the settings and size of your PDF. Under General, there are a few settings to adjust. Make sure ‘Preserve Illustrator Editing Capacities’ and ‘Embed Page Thumbnails’ are unchecked- you don’t need them for a one-page PDF, and they will increase your file size.

Click on Compression. This is the most important setting for getting your poster down to web size. Under Compression, you can set the resolution for bitmap images in your poster. Under Color Bitmap Images, select “Bicubic Downsampling To” and set the resolution to 72 dpi for images over 100 dpi. This will ensure that the images in your poster are close to 72 dpi, the standard for web viewing. Then, select JPEG under Compression.

If you have grayscale images in your poster, use the same settings under Grayscale Images. Do the same for monochrome images if you have them.

Finally, make sure the “Compress Text and Line Art” box is checked at the bottom of the dialogue. This will ensure that your text is compressed, minimizing the size of your final file.

Hit Save PDF.

This should generate a PDF that’s of a reasonable size for web viewing.

Please note that a web PDF with images in it will not give good results if printed: if you intend to print your PDF, you need to have all of the images in at 300dpi, just like printing from Photoshop. When saving the PDF, select Do Not Downsample in the Compression window- this means all your images will stay at 300 dpi.

For Next Week:

1) Print two copies of your box for critique on November 4th

2) Cut out and assemble one copy of your box layout (Use glue, not tape, please!)

3) Email me a web-friendly PDF of your box layout by Thursday the 3^rd at 8pm.

4) Bring both the flat layout of your box, and the assembled version with your object inside to critique on Friday the 4^th.