CS3 problems..

[Grunze]

Hi,

I'm a graphic designer using cs3 on my intel 24" imac with 2gb of RAM.
One of the guys who does my printing, for brochures and flyers and so on, always tells me save everything as cs2 to avoid bugs and conflicts with cs3. For illustrator, this is pretty simple, but for indesign its a headache.

I'm trying to determine whether there is any reason for me to be downsaving from a technical point of view, of whether it is because my printer doesn't feel like spending the money on cs3??

Any opinions?

 

[oscuh]

Hi,

I'm a graphic designer using cs3 on my intel 24" imac with 2gb of RAM.
One of the guys who does my printing, for brochures and flyers and so on, always tells me save everything as cs2 to avoid bugs and conflicts with cs3. For illustrator, this is pretty simple, but for indesign its a headache.

I'm trying to determine whether there is any reason for me to be downsaving from a technical point of view, of whether it is because my printer doesn't feel like spending the money on cs3??

Any opinions?

Do you have to send the native file? Any printer I deal with (and I deal with quite a few) are all PDF-based workflow. Any shop I've worked at has also been PDF-based for 5 or 6 years now.

That has been a major complaint for me is the difficulty in saving down InDesign files. Every time InDesign updates, print shops, due to typically tight margins tend to drag their feet in updating. They will eventually do it, but they'll need enough clients, like you, to tell them they need to update. Or, push them to accepting PDF X-3 or such PDFs.

I say if PDFs don't work for them, maybe you should find a new printer.

 

[Blue Velvet]

If they need the native files, file> export as an InDesign Interchange file (.inx).

However, from CS3 these will only be able to opened from InDesign CS2, not Indesign CS. To produce a file from CS3 that's InDesign CS-compatible, you have to then take it into CS2 and export once again as yet another CS-compatible InDesign Interchange file.

This is something I had to do recently on a couple of dozen files done by a freelancer; had to find a trial of CS2 to down-convert the files.

Thanks a bunch for picking up that bad habit from QuarkXpress, Adobe.

 

[Grunze]

Thanks guys...

I agree.. i feel it should all be pdf based. I'm not entirely familair with the different versions of pdf... basically, which of the presets is the highest quality for printing? ... it makes sense to me that 'high quality print' would be?

Also, often when i export pdf's, the fonts appear THICKER then they do in Illustrator or InDesign...

These and any other pdf hints would be a great help for me...

Thanks!

 

[oscuh]

Thanks guys...

I agree.. i feel it should all be pdf based. I'm not entirely familair with the different versions of pdf... basically, which of the presets is the highest quality for printing? ... it makes sense to me that 'high quality print' would be?

Also, often when i export pdf's, the fonts appear THICKER then they do in Illustrator or InDesign...

These and any other pdf hints would be a great help for me...

Thanks!

Sometimes that weight difference you see is just a function of how Acrobat/Reader displays the fonts. They should print just fine. Test this by PDFing something and shooting it out on a laserjet.

High quality print/press is just fine in most cases. PDF-X3 is a "compliance standard" ... you can read more about it here if you like.

Check and see what your printer wants. Some want just crops and bleeds, some want all the marks and other data you can provide. I even worked at a printing company where the imposition guy just wanted the PDF provided with 1/8" bleeds and no marks at all. Some shops have specialized job options they want you to download and use to "guarantee" file readiness.

At least most apps allow you to PDF natively ... back in the "old days" we had to print postscript files and then distill On a G3 ... it could take awhile ...

 

[leekohler]

I've been sending PDF-X1a files for a long time as well. I haven't sent Quark or Photoshop files in a very long time.

 

[Blue Velvet]

PDF-X3 is a "compliance standard"

I usually use a modified PDF-X3 as it also complies with Device-N colour spaces in spot colour artwork, something we do a lot of.

The modification is to downsample colour and greyscale files only to 600ppi if over 600ppi. This is because we often receive sponsor's logos as hi-res JPGs and the like, so keeping them at 600ppi keeps them relatively sharp on sheet-fed coated offset work up to about 180lpi or so.

 

[oscuh]

I usually use a modified PDF-X3 as it also complies with Device-N colour spaces in spot colour artwork, something we do a lot of.

The modification is to downsample colour and greyscale files only to 600ppi if over 600ppi. This is because we often receive sponsor's logos as hi-res JPGs and the like, so keeping them at 600ppi keeps them relatively sharp on sheet-fed coated offset work up to about 180lpi or so.

Good advice having Device N compatibility. You can even push 600 ppi to 200lpi and not see anything too significant ... unless your client is just THAT picky ... which I have yet to encounter

 

[bluetooth]

Strange that they would require the working files for one off's like flyers and the like. All the printers I work with require no more then a high res pdf or an outlined eps file as best for that type of job.