Printer Requirements -

khole

12-01-2004, 05:21 PM

Hey everyone, Sorry but it's been a while sine I've been on here but I've been so busy with work.
Anyways, I was just wondering a few things about preparing file for print. The reason is someone asked me to design a flyer
for them & I want to make sure I send the printer the right file format.

I designed the backgrounds all in Photoshop & then imported it into Illustrator to add the text & was told I should send the file in .EPS format @ 300 dpi. The problem is that when I select save as .EPS in Illustrator I get warnings like "The document contains artwork that requires flattening" & "Overprints will not be preserved in areas that interact with transparency". Does this mean I can't use transparency's?
The final warning is "The document raster effects resolution is set to 72 ppi or less"

Can anyone help me out with this? I'm really stuck. I guess I'm fairly new to the design world so I don't really know the proper way of doing things. I would really appreciate any help.

Thanks,

khole :)

freakyclean

12-01-2004, 08:01 PM

Go into the flatten transparency dialog (object or edit menu I think) and set the slider all the way to the right (vector) and then set the dpi for rasterizing to 400DPI. Basically this will keep as much of the transparency vector as possible and the remaining it will rasterize at 400dpi. It is better to use a little higher dpi than needed especially if text is involved. If the text you have used doesn't have any transparency effects applied to it, but objects underneath or beside do, you could more the text onto it's own layer and then turn that layer off untill after you flatten the transparency, this will ensure all the text stays vector.

Always save a copy before flattening the transparency as you may lose editability afterwards.

Hope this helps

:)

If in doubt you can always ask the printer what they prefer that you do with the file, some like to be able to flatten the transparency themselves and would prefer an ai file.