**Illustrator help**

[HughJ]

got a slight problem with a file im attempting to print through our large format printer.

the file has a Pantone 292c background with a few lines of text on it, the text has a drop shadow with an X & Y value of 0, opacity of 100% and a blur of 5mm (so its more like a glow than a drop shadow albeit a black one)

now when i print it, around the text are rectangles and blocks, contained inside these blocks appear to be a percentage of the BG colour (PMS292) of approx 50%, so as you can image its sticking out like a sore thumb

I have flattened the artwork & expanded the appearance and its still doing exactly the same thing, its getting right on my Jacobs has anyone got a solution?????

Im using CS2


Haylppp

 

[chaosbunny]

Sounds like the document raster effect settings are set to 72 dpi. You can find that under Effect/Document Raster Effect Settings. Change them to 300 dpi and it should print fine.

 

[HughJ]

thanks for the speedy reply

but that has done nothing, the print is exactly the same
as shown:

the lighter erea around the text shoudl be teh same blue seen elsewhere on the image

 

[digitalrebelxt]

Illustrator Question

About the box being around the shadow, most likely means your printer has problems printing drop shadows.

One of our printers at work has that problem and the other one doesn't, I talked to both reps and he says the one that doesn't its not made to do graphics really from those type of programs. Its a huge bummer all printers should be able to print drop shadows.

Another workaround is that there are two drop shadows one in filter / stylize and the other one in effect / stylize.

Also covert your spot color to CMYK, filters / colors / that might help with the problem.


Hope that helped.

Matt

 

[i.Feature]

About the box being around the shadow, most likely means your printer has problems printing drop shadows.

What he said. Have you tried printing out a proof on another printer to see if it is the printer. At the very least its good for your peace of mind.

Also save the illustrator file as a .pdf and try printing from there. You may get better results.

 

[HughJ]

What he said. Have you tried printing out a proof on another printer to see if it is the printer. At the very least its good for your peace of mind.

Also save the illustrator file as a .pdf and try printing from there. You may get better results.

again thanks for the replies, this image (or certainly type of image) has been printed many many times before, ive kinda narrowed it down to transparency settings (seeting towards raster as opposed to vector) BUT its still not entirely perfect

 

[ecwyatt]

Transparency and Pantone inks do not go together well at all. Convert your pantone to CMYK it will show up how you want it, and if your final destination is an in-house oversize printer then converting it won't hurt since it doesn't actually print Pantone inks. What is happening is Illustrator is turning the area around your drop shadow into CMYK inks, if you read the Transparency flattener dialog box it informs you of this.

I suggest the following from Adobe:

http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/pdfs/transparency_quick_start.pdf

http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/pdfs/dgt.pdf

http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/pdfs/txpguidecs2.pdf

 

[HughJ]

Transparency and Pantone inks do not go together well at all. Convert your pantone to CMYK it will show up how you want it, and if your final destination is an in-house oversize printer then converting it won't hurt since it doesn't actually print Pantone inks. What is happening is Illustrator is turning the area around your drop shadow into CMYK inks, if you read the Transparency flattener dialog box it informs you of this.

I suggest the following from Adobe:

http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/pdfs/transparency_quick_start.pdf

http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/pdfs/dgt.pdf

http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/pdfs/txpguidecs2.pdf

the RIP we use supports Pantone refrences, or at least attempts to duplicate the correct colour, as mentioned this has been done in the past with no colour issues at all, im just confused why all of a sudden it won't work

 

[digitalrebelxt]

Also covert your spot color to CMYK, filters / colors / that might help with the problem.

Like what I said Its happened to me at work, I designed a brochure with a pantone color and then added a drop shadow and then printed it and it came with a box, converted to CMYK it was gone

 

[HughJ]

okey dokey, ill have a look at CMYK tomorrow, as a matter of interest, after creating another image, i went to flatten transparency and set the slider over to raster wwhich actually improve the image massively but it was still just visible.

thanks for the replies