Label Design Software that supports .eps?

[Thermal_transfer_printing]

Hi all together,

i am evaluating a new label printing software in our company. We use it for black and white printing on thermal transfer printers.
Our label design department uses .eps files intensively.

Do you know any label design software that really supports .eps files?
My actual search result till today:

Zebra Designer: no support
NiceLabel: no support
Bartender: "supports" .eps but only the integrateds tiff and not the real vector graphic.

Would be great if you have an eye-opener for me.

Best regards.
Alexander

 

[wonderings]

no answer for you but curious why it needs to be eps? no support for .ai or .pdf?

 

[Thermal_transfer_printing]

no answer for you but curious why it needs to be eps? no support for .ai or .pdf?

Hi, our label design Department says that all graphics they have are in .eps.
Furthermore they say that .eps files are "the Standard" in printing industry. I can hardly believe that. (perhaps it was the Standard ~15 years ago?)

The design is made with Adobe Illustrator - so .ai or .PDF files are no problem. But i think it will be hard to convice them to change the format.
Perhaps anybody knows something about common standards in printing industry?

 

[wonderings]

Hi, our label design Department says that all graphics they have are in .eps.
Furthermore they say that .eps files are "the Standard" in printing industry. I can hardly believe that. (perhaps it was the Standard ~15 years ago?)

The design is made with Adobe Illustrator - so .ai or .PDF files are no problem. But i think it will be hard to convice them to change the format.
Perhaps anybody knows something about common standards in printing industry?

Again not sure about labels but I ask for everything in PDF format. PDF format can retain all colours, cmyk, spot, pantone, etc. It can also be editable and retains the vector images. I think the reason the software you are looking for do not support .eps is that they might have all moved on to PDF. I am sure someone can give a more technical and correct answer. We recently had some 2 colour label rolls printed (we outsource that) and the file we supplied to the printer was PDF and there was no issue with that. PDF is far simpler, you can preview it quickly without Illustrator and is very versatile.

 

[Thermal_transfer_printing]

Thank you for your experience. I asked them for a vector PDF and Bartender can use it correctly!
Perhaps i can influence them to use PDF in future - with Adobe Illustrator you can even save PDF that is fully editable by Illustrator afterwards.

 

[namelessentity]

You can open an EPS in Acrobat Pro and re-save as a PDF if they're actually as stubborn as they sound.

 

[Tim-Ellis]

OMG. I feel your pain brother. I have been exactly where you are now. Even that crap about EPS being the standard. I bet all those EPS files are outlined aren't they? They are aren't they.

Most readers might be confused by this post. Thermal Transfer Printers have no RIPs and no understanding of Postscript. There are machines driven by Windows drivers and PCL. They have tiny onboard processors so the artwork is just simple text and simple vectors. There is no transparency and only a greyscale colourspace. Want to print red? You buy red transfer foil. (it is more similar to a receipt printer than any other print device. They are often used to print the washing instructions sewn into your clothes so you can imagine how basic these EPS files are)

So for almost everyone else reading this PDF is a natural choice but as you have discovered the software (and hardware) does not always support this. I think Nice Label 6 onwards supports PDF. Chances you have a license for Nice Label 5

But you are in luck as ancient tech will come to your rescue. Acrobat Distiller will convert all your EPS files to PDF. You can define the settings you want (even outline all the fonts as you go if they insist). You can also create a hot folder and process all the files overnight and keep the successful conversions seperate from the failures.

You can set up an action in illustrator to do the same but Distiller can be left unwatched to do the job. Use illustrator and you might get the odd error.

Tell your team that EPS is a dead file format and we have reached the point where no software renders it consistently. The longer you use it the greater the risk of you getting different results on different machines. You have survived this long with EPS due to the simplicity of the artwork you handle. Any commercial printer would be dead in the water with your workflow. The time to move to PDF is now.

Good luck... Your cause is just so keep on fighting.

Here is a previous thread for you. It includes Dov Isaacs - Principle Scientist for Adobe

https://printplanet.com/forum/prepre...t-the-eps-file

(OK... If you are using variable image files called from a database then your EPS files might contain empty bounding boxes (boxes with no stroke or fill) around the edge of the artwork so that the position of the artwork on the output is always correct. If so you will need to get the PDF page boxes to match the bounding boxes. That might take a few attempts to get right. It will all depend on how bartender handles the file)

 

[Thermal_transfer_printing]

Thank you so much Tim-Ellis! really helpful to have someone who was in same situation. i will study your tips!

 

[AndrewJ]

I know this is an old thread, but what is a viable alternative to an eps file? 2 critical elements for our workflow are Spot Colours and true Black...

In my workplace often create sequentially numbered files that may have graphical elements such as corporate logos using NiceLabel (and previously a 10 year old BarTender), these would be output to PDF and then print through a 6-colour digital/flexo system with die-cut... Not by any means the only jobs it prints, but a viable solution for many customer requirements.

BarTender could work with EPS files, NiceLabel does not.

BarTender with an EPS file would keep black graphical elements crisp at 100% black and no other colour in the output PDF, NiceLabel using PDF, SVG or EMF creates a Rich Black using a total of 276%.

BarTender would output spot colours, Pantone etc or custom, if in the EPS file, NiceLabel with the PDF, SVG etc does not, well only the PDF supports spot colours and the others output RGB files...

BarTender using PDF graphical elements suffers the same as NiceLabel leading me to think the issue is the graphical element's file format.

I think the EPS file is far from dead as there isn't support for possible alternatives... We're having to use Acrobat Pro to pre-flight the output PDFs to get back to 'black' on many jobs or replace RGB back to spots... ... or use our old BarTender for single pass...

Yes, the EPS file has its limitations (like all the other formats in a workflow), but it seems there are still many jobs that nothing else is stepping into its shoes for... ... or am I missing something?