InDesign or Illustrator

[Freddo]

Hi,

I'm doing a first-time project consisting of a set of 40 trading cards for commercial publication.

I have both Adobe InDesign CS2 and Adobe Illustrator CS2 which, although both are not the latest software, should be able to save the necessary files to PDF and thus ready for pre-press and ultimately publication.

Would Illustrator do the job by itself or would I need to import the AI files into InDesign so that it would be of suffiicent pre-press quality for the printer?

Thanks for your time.

 

[buckeye]

Your pre-press people will love you dearly if you give them one 40 page InDesign file as opposed to 40 separate Illy files.

-Erik

 

[Freddo]

Thank you Erik.

Always looking for love so I'll follow your advice.

 

[Lammy]

Illustrator is capable of saving a proper PDF for prepress. Placing the AI files into one Indesign file will make it easier to deal with in Prepress for most shops. As with everything you should consult with your printer before you get to deep into the project to be sure your setting up your files properly for them. You may even want to do one and run it buy them before you do all the others.

99% of the time quality issues are not the programs being used for design but are issues of the way the files are built in the first place. Lo res images will always be lo res, no matter what you do to them. A pdf supplied without bleed will most certainly make most prepress monkey furious, etc, etc, etc.

I can't say it enough, ask your printer before you get to far.

 

[Freddo]

And thank you Lammy!

 

[4stateprint]

I am assuming that you are not printing them yourself. From an old prepress position, in my old department we would have preferred you send them individually. Just make sure if they request this that your name correlate (i.e. front1.pdf, back1.pdf.) Our reasoning was based on our imposition software. At the time I worked with several designers (and no offense as I am one myself) they had absolute no clue how to lay something out. So rather than tear their files apart we had them send separate. I agree 100% with the above, call first they will appreciate the effort, trust me.

 

[Al Ferrari]

Which imposition software were you using?

Al

 

[LoganBlade]

Use data merge in Indesign.

 

[MacTwidget]

IIRC, Illustrator CS2 does not allow for multiple artboards so placing them in a 40-pg InDesign document would really help the sanity of prepress.
Now that Illustrator does support multiple artboards, I don't mind designers supplying those either.

 

[Tpyo]

If you're using CS3 or later, it really shouldn't matter which program as far as your print provider is concerned, but I would advise that if the cards are two-sided with common components, I'd personally tend towards InDesign for the final output to pdf.
That way you could use master pages and merely output in 2-page sets (Front + Back) and uniquely name the final pdfs as you go. Any common changes in the future would be a snap, then. Illustrator files could be used as links to the ID file if you need editable vector images and/or layers you want to get ahold of later on.

 

[Freddo]

Thanks everyone.

All the above info is a real help to a beginner like me.

 

[Visualaid]

Illustrator is capable of saving a proper PDF for prepress. Placing the AI files into one Indesign file will make it easier to deal with in Prepress for most shops. As with everything you should consult with your printer before you get to deep into the project to be sure your setting up your files properly for them. You may even want to do one and run it buy them before you do all the others.

99% of the time quality issues are not the programs being used for design but are issues of the way the files are built in the first place. Lo res images will always be lo res, no matter what you do to them. A pdf supplied without bleed will most certainly make most prepress monkey furious, etc, etc, etc.

I can't say it enough, ask your printer before you get to far.

You could also combine your 40 ai files in acrobat, making it 1 pdf.

 

[Stephen Marsh]

You could also combine your 40 ai files in acrobat, making it 1 pdf.

Further to this suggestion, the AI files need to be saved with the "Create PDF compatible file" option (at least in CS5).


Stephen Marsh

 

[Freddo]

More useful information.

Thanks again!

 

[pdboddy]

As long as it is clear how they are to be printed, it doesn't matter in the end.

 

[Visualaid]

we've been having problems with the rendering intent of vector, transparencies and shadows. i'd say rasterize all of your ai files before giving them to a printer. remember to add bleeds.

 

[Sherbert]

i'd say rasterize all of your ai files before giving them to a printer.

Whoa, seriously?

 

[buckeye]

Whoa, seriously?

My sentiments exactly. Nothing worse than getting files from customers that might need some small change made to and can't because it's not editable from it being rasterized.

-Erik

 

[Visualaid]

My sentiments exactly. Nothing worse than getting files from customers that might need some small change made to and can't because it's not editable from it being rasterized.

-Erik

um,, yeeeeeeaaaaahhh.., thats when you kick the file back to the customer.
my meaning was if the file is solidified. do you charge your customer to make changes?

 

[buckeye]

Of course we charge for customer changes. I'd rather do the changes myself on account of if we have to have the customer make the changes, it slows the whole process down to get a new file, AND when we do get a new file from the customer, chances are the new file is still screwed up. I'm all for educating the customers, but some of them just don't "get it" and some don't take constructive criticism well. If we keep kicking files back to them, we get the "well, that's how I've provided my files to XYZ printer before and they never have any problems with them."

Also, if I feel like I see a potential printing problem in the file, I like to have the flexibility to adjust/fix certain things in the file that will help it print/look better before it even gets to the pressroom. It's just nice to have that flexibility instead of having your hands tied.

-Erik