downsampling pdf in Indesign & Illustrator does nothing?

[Stephen Marsh]

What you mention Stephen as the AI9 is the flatness that Michael was talking about. It was not limited to any one software but a general problem in RIPs as one tried to balance computer power with the complexity of designs.

Agreed Lukas... Do you mean flatness as mentioned by David (not Michael)?

What I was referring to was the same flatness setting. If I remember correctly, in older versions of Illustrator, this could be applied with different values to different objects. At a later point in time, this was changed to a document wide value... or perhaps it was removed and it is now left to the RIP settings? At one time in the past there was a bad bug, many folks had files output with crap flatness values, making their smooth vectors jagged.

There is no all vector or all bitmap world any more

Too true!

Stephen Marsh

[Lukas Engqvist]

Yes, meant that flatness circles to octagons. Happened in office, corel and many other programs.
The only place that you really see it popup nowadays is if you fill in clipping-path dialogue in photoshop.
I think there was the same problem in early version of preps (when it was still Scenicsoft).
There is a difference in what the old Mac IIci processors could handle

(remember when we worked in Illustrator in outline mode and only turned on the preview when we had time to go for a coffee? )

[kyle]

When you save an Illustrator file as .AI with "PDF compatibility," or as .PDF with "preserve Illustrator editing capabilities," you are actually saving all the vector data twice: once for the Illustrator native part of the file, and once for the PDF part of the file. An Illustrator file is just a PDF file with the Illustrator native data embedded in it and a .AI extension. When an Illustrator file is placed in Indesign, Indesign looks at the PDF data, which is why missing nested links are never an issue, and "PDF compatibility" is required to use the .AI file in Indesign. Even if Illustrator's links are not embedded in the native file, it will embed them in the PDF part of the data.

For an Illustrator file without unembedded links, the size of the saved file should just about be cut in half when the "PDF compatibility" or "preserve Illustrator editing capabilities" option is turned off. You won't make the artwork any more light-weight, and it won't RIP any faster, but the file size will be reduced.

[David Kunkel]

While off on this tangent, can anyone tell me why PDFs saved out of Illustrator and reopened in Illustrator are often cut into bands?

[Lukas Engqvist]

Saved as PDF without AI editing, or with and then illustrator data deleted, or the PDF edited (which it warns will destroy native data) externally? Basically it is the equation compatibility verses editability. If I am missunderstanding, please start a new thread and post a sample file

[Stephen Marsh]

While off on this tangent, can anyone tell me why PDFs saved out of Illustrator and reopened in Illustrator are often cut into bands?

David, would these PDF files have been flattened or are they at PDF version 1.3, such as PDF/X-1? If so, these are probably "atomic regions" (search for the term here or on the web).


Regards,

Stephen Marsh

[Glenn McDowall]

While off on this tangent, can anyone tell me why PDFs saved out of Illustrator and reopened in Illustrator are often cut into bands?

With placed images, different image formats split at different points (seems to be based on total number of pixels (trying to remember...if this is only when flattening?... I think EPS splits at smaller total pixel number then TIFF then PSD)) when Illustrator writes the PDF part of the file, usually if these are available links and ai compatibility is checked they shouldn't split when re-opened.
Conversely placed eps doesn't split if the saved as Illustrator EPS.