Jagged lines in Illustrator

[AndreeaCi]

Hello everyone.

I seem to have a problem with Illustrator. I made a "logo" ( imported a photo in Illustrator selected Template and started tracing with the line tool around the design in the photo, it's basically a kitchen photo and I traced the cabinets to make a logo). Now the problem is that my lines are jagged/ blurred and it prints like that. This is intended to be printed, I have to make a business card for a friend. 

At first I did not noticed the lines untill I exported it ( as SVG) and imported it in InDesign, because there is where I designed the business card.

I tried pretty much a lot of thing to see if I can fix the lines but with no succes. 

GPU Performance does not help, is currently on ( and it was on when I was drawing) and if I turn it off it's even worse, I think. 

Anti-aliased Artwork is also on, but also makes no difference. 

My  Preview mode is Default and High 300 ppi.

I also tried to redo everything, open a new document and start tracing again, but the lines are still the same. 

Does anyone know what is causing this? How could I fix it?

I am attaching here photos ( of the printed card) and screenshots ( from the file in Illustrator). 

Thank you in advance. 

[Ton Frederiks]

I would first try to skip the SVG export and just place the .ai Illustrator file in InDesign (or create the entire card in Illustrator).

[AndreeaCi]

Thank you for your answer.

Yes I tried that also, to just place the .ai file directly in InDesign but it still looks like the lines are jagged. 

If I were to create the entire card in Illustrator would I not have the same problem? Because the lines are already jagged in Illustrator.

Thank you.

[Ton Frederiks]

If your first Jagged lines.png show the Illustrator file, it looks good to me. Visible jaggies are caused by your screen resolution.

[AndreeaCi]

I understand. But if it's caused by my screen, why does is also prints on paper? It shouldn't print if tht would be a screen problem.

[Ton Frederiks]

No but your print looks pixelated, unlike your screendump.

[Ton Frederiks]

These lines look very thin (how thin?). What is the resolution of your printer?

[AndreeaCi]

The lines are 0,75 pt and my printers resolution is up to 4800 x 2400 dpi ( it's a Canon Pixma Pro 100).

[Ton Frederiks]

These are very thin lines (0,75 pt) and they will become even thinner if you scale them down in InDesign.

I think you have hit the limits of your printer.

[AndreeaCi]

I understand. How thick should they be so I won't have this problem?

[AndreeaCi]

I chose 1 point as the thickness of the lines and maybe here you can see it better. I exported it from .indd as a Pdf print and the lines are still pretty jagged, I hope it will show better now in the screenshoot.

[Ton Frederiks]

I think you are expecting too much. Monitor screens and desktop printers are relatively low resolution devices, especially when displaying thin lines that have a slight angle.

But maybe someone on this forum has other ideas...

[AndreeaCi]

I understand. Thank you very much for your answers.

[Jacob Bugge]

Andreea,

The first (Jagged lines) image looks fine to me as it does to Ton.

If the second image (with all the digits) shows a photo of a business card of normal size printed (on an inkjet printer, I presume) it also looks fine to me. What if you print/save (a copy) as PDF and look at that on your monitor (hopefully just like the first image), and what if you print it on a (high resolution) laser printer?

[AndreeaCi]

Hi Jacob

Thank you for your answer. 

I just saw that in the images that I uploaded you can't see it so good, specially in the first image (png) wich is a screenshoot of the .ai file, apparently it does not look as bad as it looks in the original .ai file.

The pdf exported version still looks the same to me, I will attacht a screenshoot. 

I don't have a laser printer, but an inkjet one. 

[Taylor5C60]

The problem is you are using regular paper if you use gloss paper it may work better. What type of paper are you using?

[Taylor5C60]

Look at the issues that may occur when you use auto scale vs shrinking it down yourself in illustrator. printing from illustrator after you scale it down to the biz card size.

[Taylor5C60]

It sort of looks like what happens when you dont hold shift when scaling

[AndreeaCi]

I don't think I understand this completely. 

I did not scale it down in Illustrator at all. I exported it as svg and the scaled it down in InDesign using Cmmd+Shift, then exported the .indd file as Pdf print.

[AndreeaCi]

Hello Taylor

Thank you for your answer.

I printed on thick cardstock, 280gsm, matte. But I also printed on a thinner carstock and glossier and still got the same result. 

[AndreeaCi · Accepted solution]

Hello everyone. I just wanted to give an update on  this. So I figure it out ( with the help of dutchly_designs on instagram) why the lines were jagged. This happend because the lines were at an angle, not straight, because I draw the design on perspective.  The moment I changed the angle they went back to being straight, no ofc that was not the intention for my design but at least now I know why they were jagged. 

It seems a little wrong that Illustrator does that to the oblique lines but I guess there is not much to do.

Thank you again everyone for the answers.

[Anubhav M]

Hello @AndreeaCi,

Glad to hear that the problem was resolved. Feel free to reach out if you need further assistance in the future. We'd be happy to help.

Thanks,

Anubhav

[Met1]

Illustrator isn't doing it, your monitor is.

[Jacob Bugge]

Andreea,

"It seems a little wrong that Illustrator does that to the oblique lines but I guess there is not much to do."

It is the screen/monitor that does it, and raster images, because they all work in pixels.

When you zoom in on a straight slanting line still as vector artwork, even to 64000%, the jaggedness remains the same, only occurring because of the screen resolution.

And when you print it, deviation from a straight and smooth line is caused by (limitations in) the printer/print settings/paper or other substrate.

Edit: And what Met said 3 hours ago.

I only saw that reply after I had posted mine just now.

Some rift in the space time continuum may have been involved, because I saw the one from Anubhav.

[Ton Frederiks]

That is more or less what I said on 31 july (with the exception of blaming Illustrator):

"I think you are expecting too much. Monitor screens and desktop printers are relatively low resolution devices, especially when displaying thin lines that have a slight angle."