Help exporting huge size artwork!!!

Hello! I have the following problem: I have made an artwork with 215" width and 72" height dimensions, all looks nice in Xara. I worked it only with vectors --although a lot of transparencies, feathering, etc--, at 1/10th the print size. The printer guy is asking for full size, 300DPI...ie, 215x72 @ 300. But Xara can't handle that. I can export it ok to JPG, 1/10th @ 700, but nothing bigger as resolution. Opening an .eps export with Illustrator is worthless: some of the objects gets misplaced, and the nice gradient background is converted to lines, ie, "banding". So...how should I export this monster artwork!?

Thanks

Aram

Have you tried exporting as PDF/X?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sledger

Have you tried exporting as PDF/X?

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Hi Sledger...what size should I use? If I resize the artwork to 215" Xara quits unspectedly or get an Acces violation error.

Most printers require 200 - 300dpi so that they can resize via their RIP at print time and not loose too much detail or quality.
You should not need to supply the finished size.

For that size poster, all vector, I would do 1/4 size. DPI means absolutely nothing with an all vector PDF. If your printer does not understand this, find another printer. The PDF can be scaled at print time from within either Acrobat to the RIP, or from within the RIP software.

Convert all text to curves. Save this copy under another name so your original can be edited should need be.

I just produced a sample PDF of your size poster at 25% scale, pretty much everything on it has some sort of transparency. I can upload to my server if you want to examine it.

I have never worked with a printer who did not expect a scaled PDF--once PDFs became a norm for hi-res posters. Before that, I would send pure PS files at scale. Largest banners I ever made were printed 50' wide and the scaled working files were about .75 gig.

Take care, Mike

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mwenz

For that size poster, all vector, I would do 1/4 size. DPI means absolutely nothing with an all vector PDF. If your printer does not understand this, find another printer. The PDF can be scaled at print time from within either Acrobat to the RIP, or from within the RIP software.

Convert all text to curves. Save this copy under another name so your original can be edited should need be.

I just produced a sample PDF of your size poster at 25% scale, pretty much everything on it has some sort of transparency. I can upload to my server if you want to examine it.

I have never worked with a printer who did not expect a scaled PDF--once PDFs became a norm for hi-res posters. Before that, I would send pure PS files at scale. Largest banners I ever made were printed 50' wide and the scaled working files were about .75 gig.

Take care, Mike

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Ok, I tried this and have the following findings:

At 25% Xara shows an error message, Internal Error. So I try 15% and the message is gone, however I get pixelated objects if they have certain things like drop shadows, feather edges, etc. Any ideas?

Hey, I made it! This is what I found:

To avoid pixelation:
a) No feathering edges
b) Transparency type needs to be Mix
c) No drop shadows

(maybe feathering/shadows are rendered as images?)

To avoid object mislocation:
a) Reduce transparent and layered objects as possible
b) Avoid Clipview with complex objects inside

Save the file as SVG --I got a 300kb file--, "Place" it in an Illustrator document and save it --got a 500kb file if artwork is scaled, 1.5MB file if I put the artwork full size.

I also tried PDF/X export, very cute output as well :) but file size is bigger, 7.6MB scaled...

The colors seems to be somehow different between SVG and PDF output; SVG shows them more vibrant while in the PDF they are a bit pale.

Thank you all guys!!!

Aram

If it's all vector then you can supply it to the printer as a pdf at any size, vectors can scale up to any size

Replace the feathered shadows or shapes with vectors. For example you can create a blend from the shadow color to white. The blend is a vector. Same thing with a Contour which is also a vector object.

The difference that you are experiencing colour wise between SVG & PDF is that SVG is RGB and PDF/X is in CMYK and this you have to deal with as your output from the printer will be colour managed by CMYK. Start with turning on "Simulate Printing Colours" from the Window Menu and down to Show Printer Colours, this is only an approx. of what your wet copy from the printers will look like but it is a start. As you have found out after exporting all of your feathering, transparencies and shadows are rendered as a bitmap because they are RGB effects and these effects when exported in a CMYK doc have to be dealt with therefore to show them in a PDF they become bitmaps. If this banner is for print dont use SVG as an export format stick with PDF and since you have AI on your hard drive you might want to do a bit more in Illy than in Xara, like your gradient background?

Like Mike I use both vector programmes in my work but mainly stick with Xara and have no trouble scaling banners and posters so long as you remember a few things:
1. Use layers
2. Always have the Text on the top most layer. You can change the text to shapes if you want as sometimes I's & L's go astray. I don't!
3. Remember there are other ways to do things as Gary has pointed out stay away from RGB effects. You can use them if you factor in your scale ratio to DPI.
4. Use Soft Groups
5. Talk to your printer or I should say, have a conversation with them. They are going to say the file must be this and that if you let me, you must ask can they print this at 100 DPI. and still be readable without too much pixelation.
6. Use all programmes to get the output that you want.

Yes, it seems it is always needed to tweak in Illustrator...which by the way, I don't know what cosmic event made that piece of s...oftware the printers standard :(

Probably not as complicated as your file. A few types of transparencies and home-made drop shadows. There are also clipped regions, a few hundred or more elements, etc. The top line of text has a contour, but the others are "flat."

Hmm, why did AI become the so-called standard? One could postulate all sorts of reasons. Most likely many would be correct. It certainly was not due to its capabilities. I think its rise was like Excel or Word. AI became the norm in design circles proving that software does not need to be the best in class in order to sell more copies.

What Adobe did right, if anything, is to be an early bundler of related software and made sure educational systems had the suites for relatively little money.

Take care, Mike

This is the side and the back for the van wrap I was trying to export --not that complex really...seems I got it after all, but phew! what a work to make it into an .ai document! I wish all printers discover Xara soon :) It is way much better than Illy, i just compares as Xara being an Audi vs Illy being a 2105 Lada :D --no pun intended...as for the Lada, not for Illustrator!

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