Image withing AI good enough quality to go to print and how to prepare in Acrobat DC?

[James5C0F]

Hello, as the title says, is the following high enough quality to go to print and how do I handle the image and transparency settings once saved from .ai > .pdf

There are two components to the final file: the opacity and layer effects (the connecting data lines which are expanded and united) and the actual photo of planet earth.

The Artboard/final print size is 5838mm x 2583mm.  If I flatten the layer effects onto the planet and export to PhotoShop, the image dimensions will be 16,549 x 7,329 px.

My questions are: is the flattening in photoshop and reimporting back to Illustrator the best/safest way to achieve a high quality printed image? And  if the opacity effects are handled in Acrobat how to I best import this so everything remains in high quailty.

Thanks for looking, appreciate any help

[James5C0F]

Attached is a screenshot of the file information

[Monika Gause]

You need to inquire the file specifications from the print shop. Only they can tell you if they can deal with transparent PDFs and which resolution for the image to use.

[James5C0F]

Thank you Monika, I will check with the printers. But I'll still need to know how to prepare the PDF with opacity and layer effects, as that's what I'm having issues with. Do you know how this is done? Thank you

[Monika Gause]

Talk to the printer about the file. Tell them about your file.

Without knowing your file in detail, it's rather difficult to even guess.

There is a whitepaper availabvle about how Adobe applications handle transparency: https://help.autodesk.com/sfdcarticles/attachments/Adobe_Whitepaper_on_Transparency.pdf

[Ton Frederiks]

The dimensions are quite a large, so I suppose the print will not be viewed as close as a magazine.

The resolution is dependend on the viewing distance.

Can you check the scale % and PPI in the Links panel?

Rasterizing in Photoshop should not be nessecary it will convert your crisp vectors to pixels.

A pdf from Illustrator should be good, but first talk to your printer about what they expect.

[James5C0F]

Hi Ton. Thank you for the advice, the viewing distance will be approx exactly 5M, so quite far and it will be a ceiling (fo what it's worth).

The PPI in the Links panel is only 10 PPI which is what's concerning me - however the original image is 300 DPI.

I would rather go with the advice to keep the vectors crisp and not rasterize the file. However the opacity and layer affects is an issue when I use the "Flattener Preview" tool in Acrobat DC. DO you know how to get around this? Thanks!

[Ton Frederiks]

10 ppi is indeed low. Maybe you can use the new Super Resolution feature of Camera Raw to double that.

The Flattener Preview only show affected  areas. The settings determine which areas are rasterized, which can mean that a lot of vector info is kept as vector.

Flattening is best done during print time.

[James5C0F]

Thank you. I have managed to obtain a higher quality image, please see the first attached screenshot "question-2.png".... The image now has been increased to 31 PPI... I believe with viewing distance taken into account it should be high enough quality?

However in the second screenshot it shos the opacity issues when I use the flattener previewer in Acrobat DC... It completely ruins the image. Do you have any advice on how to fix that? Thanks again

[Ton Frederiks]

The lines you see on screen do not nessecarely need to be visible in print. They look like anti-aliasing artefacts.

Check if they become larger when you zoom in, normally they would appear and disappear.

You can also try if they disappear when you turn off the smoothing in Acrobat preferences for page display.

Raterizing in Illustrator is another option. In that case, check with the printer at what resolution they want the file.

[jdanek]

"My questions are: is the flattening in photoshop and reimporting back to Illustrator the best/safest way to achieve a high quality printed image?"

There really are no set rules that you need to follow.  However, your question's answer really depends on how the file will be output ( ultimately, printed ).  It sounds like your file is going to be printed grand format ( ceiling ) or at a minimum, large format.  Like Monika suggested, you should be working with your print vendor on file specs.  It also sounds like you are concerned about flattening and what a conversion to PDF will do.  There is another option ( which you may have already hinted at ) that you could consider.  Because the file will be ( or seems to be ) printed inkjet, large format, you could Export the file as a PSD using RGB.  I sense you may have to scale the file.  I typically use 25% file size to be output at 400%, so 300ppi @25% will output at 400% 75ppi.  When you Export out of Illustrator, your transparency and other raster effects remain intact in a PSD.  You will also have the advantage of assigning a ProPHOTO RGB tag to the file which will improve color.  You could try my approach as an experiment ( on a copy of the original Ai file ).  When you do, you should see that everything is intact as it is meant to be.  The PSD can then be Saved As > Photoshop PDF ( if necessary, but the vendor should be able to receive both the original Ai file and the PSD ).  You original question regarding conversion to PDF destroying your transparency and raster effects should not happen and could be linked to your PDF settings.  Adobe publishes a great resource titled Print Publishing Guide.  I recommend you buy it and study up on print requirements.

[jdanek]

I also meant to suggest setting your file's Raster Effects to "High" or 300ppi before Exporting ( although having them at default 72ppi will just mean coarse effects vs. smooth effects ).

[jdanek]

"There really are no set rules that you need to follow."  Well, there are, but instead of "rules", there ar standards in place that practicianers follow.  In your case, you can think outside the box and see if there is a way to get what you want.  With printing, all files that come into the print vendor's prepress department will have to be RIP'd ( raster image processing ).  So, if you encounter a problem converting to PDF, odds are the RIP will encounter the same problem.  The problem may be caught before it goes to press ( in the proof stage ).  The fear is your file will go direct to the printer without a proof.  You simply have to ask if the print vendor will require a proof before printing.  If no, then I suggest you get one before the print vendor RIP's and then prints.

[James5C0F]

Thank you jdanek, having not dealt with this type of large/grand printing before I'm reading through the Adobe white paper's on transparency to make sure I haven't missed anything.

I would ideally not want to go down the path of rasterizing the image in photoshop as I want to keep the file CMYK and I want to keep the crisp vectors on the layer affects and not flatten them into a bitmap.

As mentioned earlier in the the thread Acrobat is destructing the file where someof the transparency affects are used (please see screenshot question-5.png) the settings I'm currently using on the Flattener preview are also attached on question-4.jpg)

Do you have any suggestions on this please?

[jdanek]

I really cannot see the destruction, just really low res text.  Rasterizing really is not what you think it is.  Just print a miniature version of my procedures at 75ppi ( crop or size the file down to a printable size ).  You will see non-destructive, smooth and crisp elements.