Switching to Illustrator…

[sgu]

Hello,
i'm currently working in a printing company with the latest Artpro, doing mostly wine labels, and my boss is talking about switching to Illustrator.
My question is : is there an alternative to the Artpro stepper in Illustrator ? I did a lot of research, but i didn't find anything. And i really don't know how to work without the stepper stuff ; i don't see myself doing all this manually…

Thanks for your help (and sorry, i'm not sure my english is that good)

 

[PrepressDan]

It depends on what kind of stepping you are doing. Esko has Powerlayout for Illustrator that allows you to do tabular step and repeat via plug in. Power layout will eventually do all of the Cad based and nested but this is not going to be in until Drupa 2012. So, yes tabular. No nested or cad based.

 

[michaelejahn]

PaSharp

PaSharp

Hello,
i'm currently working in a printing company with the latest Artpro, doing mostly wine labels, and my boss is talking about switching to Illustrator.
My question is : is there an alternative to the Artpro stepper in Illustrator ? I did a lot of research, but i didn't find anything. And i really don't know how to work without the stepper stuff ; i don't see myself doing all this manually…

Thanks for your help (and sorry, i'm not sure my english is that good)

We are a reseller of PaSharp - it offers Nested S&R with station numbers and quite a few other things (trapping), and is an Illustrator Plug-in

Compose Color Blog: PaSharp Nested Step & Repeat

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

@ Michael: Oh no you opened a PDF in illy

 

[michaelejahn]

it was a PDF file that was created in Illustrator, never a problem when you do that.

 

[John W]

Imposing in Illustrator

Imposing in Illustrator

There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing it manually, and its super fast if you know how!

Once you have the step distances and a one-up positioned; x and y from say a CAD machine or even just measuring in Illustrator or by a written layout, the step and repeat process is nearly instant using the command K (Mac) to set the cursor distance. Then hold down the option key and click the move arrow repeatedly to the number of steps over. Then reset the cursor to the other direction, marquee all the just stepped positions and option click the arrow to go the other way. Takes all of 45 seconds! We place the station number on the one up file to be stepped, then move the first position station number to another Illy layer and simply reset the station numbers after the stepping to suit our scheme. Since we work from a Cad layout which gives us the x and y distances, we can beat the time it takes with an auto-template program such as Pandora or ArtPro when combo layouts are always new ones. Now if you are stepping 128 up or using a previously made template, well that is slower, manually but not by much!

John W

 

[bprint_tampabay]

Why not just do the layout in InDesign?

Isn't that what it's intended for?

Just asking....

 

[danprtr]

Why not just do the layout in InDesign?

Isn't that what it's intended for?

Just asking....

See your point and we have gone that way on some jobs. As screen graphic printers (plastic, decals) printing mostly spot color, it is nice to be able to step&repeat right in Illy. Especially true when there is no trapping or you can manually trap simple objects on 2 to 10up impositions.

Will experiment with John W's suggestion and Pasharp. Our experience was Esko's option was expensive (~$8k if I remember). Another more economical plugin is Flexostep.

 

[bprint_tampabay]

I understand that you want to work straight out of Illustrator.

I also believe that the basic design of the program was not intended to do what you want.

Just my opinion, but that's why we have different programs.

When we have Creative Suite, why do you want to step and repeat out of Illustrator?

 

[circa_bc]

Ive been using PowerLayout by Esko in illustrator and it works great, a few things i've like to change but i believe i have a 'modified/dummed down' version for my HP IN100 SmartStream RIP. Either way, fairly simple plug-in to use.

 

[CHM]

it was a PDF file that was created in Illustrator, never a problem when you do that.

Not really true, even when the pdf was made out off Illustrator you can/may not reopen it in Illustrator to edit it. Illustrator is no pdf editor.
The only save way to do this is if you have a pdf with Illustrator compatibility in it, but than your not editing the pdf but the Illustrator native file.

 

[padrao]

Heidelberg Package Designer Suite

Heidelberg Package Designer Suite

Hi .
You should check with your local Heidelberg agency, ask for a demo with Package Designer Suite .
It´s very good and simple way, you can import cff2, dxf and much more .

 

[PDL]

SGU - PowerLayout DeskPack module for Illustrator works great for labels within Illustrator. With the 'SmartMarks' all your barer bars, colour patches, text marks, etc. will be automatically created and placed. Get in touch with EskoArtwork and they can arrange a demo for you.

 

[JohnHolland]

Why not just do the layout in InDesign?

Isn't that what it's intended for?

Just asking....

InDesign is NOT intended for laying out multi-up designs of any kind of art. In InDesign's case (just as in Quark/Ragemaker/Framemaker), page layout refers to laying out single pages in a multi-page document, like a book or magazine or brochure.

The tools in InDesign SUCK at creating precise and accurate multi-up layouts for printing. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. I can drive nails into wood all day with a 2 foot crescent wrench, and maybe even get reasonable results, but carpenters use hammers for a reason.

Nothing says amateur faster than the shop that uses InDesign to step and output. Find a pro, or wreck the art yourself. <end rant>

 

[michaelejahn]

I use my 2 foot crescent wrench to drive nails all the time...

I use my 2 foot crescent wrench to drive nails all the time...

InDesign is NOT intended for laying out multi-up designs of any kind of art. <---snip--->

Nothing says amateur faster than the shop that uses InDesign to step and output. Find a pro, or wreck the art yourself. <end rant>

Funny, but nothing says "I have no idea as how to do it myself" than suggesting that you can't create precision alignment within an InDesign application - many developers use InDesign Server, XMP Toolkit SDK and IDML resources to build documents automatically - back in 2004, Chuck Weger created a product named RoboCatalog - now extinct manly because normal mortals can do such things with scripting.

Sorry, there is nothing in the application that would prevent precision placement.

 

[michaelejahn]

Having siad that, no one does much label work in InDesign, we do see more of this sort of thing in the world of digital label printing on pre-die sticky back stock.

 

[riky]

But not always you have this option, there are lot more modifications post layout.. and also, most of the clients want the demo version of the label.



Printed Labels

 

[michaels]

As previously mentioned, I guess InDesign would do a better job here than Illustrator!

 

[M&M Displays]

You guys are making a mountain out of a mole hill. AI is great for doing one up to dozens if not hundreds up. We have been using Esko PowerTrapper in AI 4 for over two years now. The Esko product is great.

 

[Polyprintgirl]

Agreed, M&M. We've been using Esko for over 2 yrs. as well, the PowerLayout and Stepping Program work well.