After Exporting Image Gets Pixelated

[Tfruas]

Hello guys, I've been doing the same thing for years, but for some weird reason after the latest update everytime I expert a business card with a 300-350 dpi all logos of any business cards I create is pixelated.

I thought "well, it's just my new macbook pro's amazing resolution that is making it pixelated when I view the exported image"

It turns out after being printed it was a little pixelated. I don't know what the heck I'm doing wrong since I've been doing the same for years.

You might say to export as a PDF, I really can't because the company printing the cards only accepts JPEGs with 300-350dpi resolution.

The way I export it is FILE > EXPORT > EXPORT AS

Here's an example of the latest card after being exported:

My client send me a picture of how it looks after printing:

And the .AI file open without any pixels since the logo was designed inside Illustrator, as you can see, there's no pixelated images:

Please, I hope someone can help.

Thank you all!!

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

The print doesn't show pixels, but the result of halftone screening.

So probably the company is now using different processes than they used to.

[Tfruas]

I feel it looks just like the exported image, if you look closely at the bottom of the logo

[barbara_a]

That type of artwork should be submitted to the vendor as vector, not a bitmap jpg. If it must be jpg, the resolution should be much higher, probably minimum 800 ppi. I would suggest hiring a different printing company that will accept native AI files or PDF.

[Monika Gause]

There will still be halftone screening in the printed result.

[barbara_a]

True, the halftoning that the vendor is using is too coarse.

[Tfruas]

But the thing is, the final result looks exactly like the exported version in JPG.

So I don't think it's a problem with the printing.

[John Mensinger]

Tfruas  wrote

But the thing is, the final result looks exactly like the exported version in JPG.

So I don't think it's a problem with the printing.

Could be true, confirming the old sentiment, "garbage in, garbage out."

the company printing the cards only accepts JPEGs

That's the real problem here. You should never have to rasterize vector graphics to submit them for for print. They should stay vector until they are sent to RIP. Otherwise, there is no point designing in vectors.

[Ton Frederiks]

I wonder if halftoning is causing the bad result, or is it just bad paper/printing.

You will get halftoning on anti-aliased edges, but I wonder why there is such a big difference in sharpnes in comparable areas.

[Tfruas]

By the way, I forgot to mention on the post when I export something and send it to them on photoshop with the same settings, it works like a charm, I have no problem at all. Do you think it's something I'm doing wrong or a default setting that is weird or something ?

[sirenicity]

Did you find a solution? I'm having the same problem - if I export to a jpg, then it prints pixelated and I can't understand why.

I'm also scaling to multiple sizes... but what I have is an original Illustrator image all vector so I don't understand what I'm doing incorrectly.

[Doug A Roberts]

A JPEG is made of pixels. If you export a JPEG, you are 'pixellating' your vector image.

[sirenicity]

Yes, I understand that. Let me be more clear. I'm exporting at 300 DPI. There's absolutely no cause for it to print with easily visible step-blocks (which look like pixellation) instead of smooth lines.

[Doug A Roberts]

Is it only pixellated after printing? What software are you printing from?

[Ton Frederiks]

300 ppi is good for images. For lineart you want a higher resolution.

Did you turn ant-aliasing on when exporting?

[Sravanthi24698753mtzy]

Yes even I am also facing a same issue. But I am facing a lot of problem could one one answer for my question

[Monika Gause]

Yes even I am also facing a same issue. But I am facing a lot of problem could one one answer for my question

By @Sravanthi24698753mtzy

And the answers in this thread didn't answer your problems?

[sirenicity]

I did turn on anti-aliasing, and also Scale Strokes and Effects. I created outlines of the text. Put everything together on one layer and scaled it, then exported as a jpg. I placed those into an InDesign Document to run a test print and they looked very pixelated.

I think what happened is that when I scaled it I may have shifted the dimensions by a tiny margin since I didn't have the width and height locked. The original is ever so slightly out of square.

I redid all the files last night, exporting each size as a pdf and a jpg, then ran another test print through InDesign this morning, and they are printing fine now.

[Ton Frederiks]

sirenicity  wrote

I redid all the files last night, exporting each size as a pdf and a jpg, then ran another test print through InDesign this morning, and they are printing fine now.

PDF should be your choice, it keeps the scalable vector information instead of turning it into fixed pixels as jpeg.