Stupid Question . . . .?????

[dabob]

I was just wondering if there was a reason to save Illustrator files with the make pdf compatible unchecked . . . I can't see a reason for it . .. the reason I ask is that an agency just sent me 60 illustrator files with the front and back of a card on one oversize page . . . imho the simplest way to work this job is to place them in InDesign and print from there but now I am having to open each illustrator file and resave it with that checked so you can see what your doing . . .

Any Insight???? - or is it just designers doing what they do best - making us pre-press nerds scratch our heads and scream and shout.

 

[Visualaid]

Looks like if you uncheck it, it doesn't embed fonts.
and wow , 60 cards on one artboard, wtf? ad agency must have done that on purpose.
id kick the file back to them and make them put each card on its own artboard. what a dbag.

 

[buckeye]

I was just wondering if there was a reason to save Illustrator files with the make pdf compatible unchecked . . . I can't see a reason for it . ..

It can make a huge difference in file size sometimes.

-Erik

 

[dabob]

It was 60 files 2 cards, one front and one back per file . . .

and Buckeye . . . that might be a reason . . . but in this case the file size difference is unchecked 700 K and checked its 16.9 meg . . . so imho 10 years ago that might have been an issue but I regularly get files between 1 and 2 gigs over our ftp . . and with disks being so expensive (lol) I wouldn't consider that an issue . . . but having to open and resave 60 files for that reason is BS!

 

[buckeye]

You're preaching to the choir brother. I agree it's BS that they'd give you 60 files with the front and back on one oversized page. I can hear myself now if it was me working on a job like that. How did you receive the job? On disk, email, FTP? Was just wondering if they were trying to get the file sizes down as small as possible in order to send them across the internet.

Or am I giving the customer too much credit here?

-Erik

 

[dabob]

Got it on disk . . . and have asked them in the past to please make them pdf compliant . . . but I don't think their hearing works . . . but what else is new I have several design companies that don't need to learn anything - but then again all their work is done is illustrator . . .

And yes I know that I am preaching to the choir - imho we should all be able to gather at the pearly gates and make the incoming "designers" run a gauntlet of pre press nerds before they get in!!!

But I did learn something from this thread . . . I didn't have any idea that the file size would change that drastically

Thanks All!!!

 

[Gordony]

Size is obviously an issue, I think they are kind enough to make it smaller to send across the internet.

And I don't see any problem saving in AI format all the way. 60 cards 120 sides will take ~10-15 minutes to impose with crop mark just using AI alone.

 

[dabob]

Size is obviously an issue, I think they are kind enough to make it smaller to send across the internet.

And I don't see any problem saving in AI format all the way. 60 cards 120 sides will take ~10-15 minutes to impose with crop mark just using AI alone.

Gordony . . . internet transmission speed isn't an issue in my opinion I just did a quick check sending us a 1 gig file takes about 10 minutes

Opening, saving, and closing 60 files at best will take an hour and I don't know how you would impose using the bounding box idea see attached image to understand the issues in illustrator the page size is 8.5 x 11 and the job size is about 3 wide and 5 tall . . . .

 

[buckeye]

I just did a quick check sending us a 1 gig file takes about 10 minutes

Holy cow!! What kind of pipeline do you have? We have cable modem bandwidth and our ftp site which is hosted by someone else is horrible. We have a 500 meg per file limit and our customer's are lucky if they can get more than 300 megs uploaded before it times out. I downloaded Rumpus to try it out but didn't have time to set it all up before the demo expired.

-Erik

 

[Gordony]

Well, illustrator page size can be anything? just set it as your printing paper size would do.

Also, just to be fair, how can you speak for everyone's internet speed? Your client don't necessary have your internet, or your computer.

If I were you, I will open up 20 files at a time, copy everything over to a new one. Repeat 3 times for 60 files just in case out of memory.
Then I will clip each side regardless of what it looks like so I will have a corner to align. Then the rest is just piece of cake.

Believe it or not, with 120 side on one AI file will take about 10 minutes to impose with only AI. There are always more than one way to do things, and there are always more efficient ways that you might not know.

 

[dabob]

I'm not speaking for everyone's speed but I know mine and I know my clients and thats not an issue since we receive files from 1 gig to 5 gigs every day - also in the San Francisco Bay area pretty much everybody has really good speed -

I just don't see opening, adjusting, and saving 60 files at an average speed of less that 30 seconds - and that would be 30 minutes right there . . . I could maybe get it done on an average time of 40 - 50 seconds per file at a minimum

I know I'm getting older and not as fast as some of you young pups but 5 seconds a file is how long it takes my old intel mac to open one file . . . .

just sayin . . .

 

[DCurry]

Write an action. I don't think Illustrator is quite as robust as Photoshop, where you could dump them all in one folder and have Photoshop open each, run an action, then close and put in a different folder, but you can certainly record the Save As command. Also include Close in the action. Assign it an F key, then all you have to do is open a bunch of them, hit the F key and it will do it lickety-split (of course, you'll have to hit the F key 60 times, but so what?)

 

[dabob]

as a side note - this weekend i looked at the files my customers send me .. . and the last six files averaged 1.989 gigs per file . . . and frequently they get up to 5 an 10 gigs but then their "artists" tend to use one product shot that is 42 inches x 32 inches at 300 dpi and they shrink them down and use 3 or 4 of them on a 5 x 7 postcard and then rather than make 4 postcards in a 4 page file with copy changes they make 4 indivudual files and collect them all for out put . . so go figure the files size from that kind of duplication . . . .Yes we do need a BFP and the people that send the files obviously need one too . . ..and no they won't listent about "suggestions" to reduce the image in Photoshop to slightly larger than needed since they will be using the same image on Point of Sale . . . . and my boss is wondering why I am getting balder by the day . . ..

 

[Shawn]

Write an action. I don't think Illustrator is quite as robust as Photoshop, where you could dump them all in one folder and have Photoshop open each, run an action, then close and put in a different folder, but you can certainly record the Save As command. Also include Close in the action. Assign it an F key, then all you have to do is open a bunch of them, hit the F key and it will do it lickety-split (of course, you'll have to hit the F key 60 times, but so what?)

I like Dan's idea of using Actions. There is also a "batch" option at the bottom of the Illustrator Action panel submenu. Just choose that and point it to the folder in question and it should open and auto save all the files with the "save as" settings you've chosen.

Shawn