Need help with Illustrator workflow

[mike5E6D]

Hello,

I'm working on designing supplement labels and for some reason the logo is showing extra lines around it. I've included a couple of the supplement labels with yellow arrows pointing to the extra lines so this can be seen. You don't see the lines with the .ai version of the file, but they show in PDF and when the labels actually print on the supplement. I'm pasting the logo into the label as an image.

Since you can't see these lines in the .ai version of the file, how do you even remove them? Is there a way to remove these lines or am I missing something? 

Thank you for the assistance.

[Mike_Gondek]

I dont see a logo, all I see is transparency indicated by checkerboard pattern, I there something wrong with your screenshots, or am  I not understanding your issue?

[mike5E6D]

Thanks for reply @Mike_Gondek. The circle is part of the logo. Nothing is wrong with the screenshots. I have redacted the details for privacy. 

If you notice the placement of the yellow arrows, you'll see the issue in terms of the lines on the circles. It's more clear in the other screenshot. Any thoughts on the issue?

[Monika Gause]

They are probably caused by resampling the logo when exporting the PDF.

This is just a circle - why is it even a raster image?

[mike5E6D]

Thanks for replying @Monika Gause. It wasn't my intention to create a raster image, but rather redact details for privacy. 

What do you mean by resampling the logo? Do you have any thoughts on how I can fix this and/or go about it differently? I need to include the logo as part of the label.

[Monika Gause]

Yeah sure. But the logo is a raster image placed into the file, no? You wrote you're pasting it into the file as an image. So what is it - exactly?

With all these redactions it's close to impossible to help you, because we can't see what it is.

[mike5E6D]

What I placed into the label file was a regular image of the logo (not a raster image). I've croped sections of the label for privacy. I didn't realize it would show those sections as a raster image. 

[Monika Gause]

We need to know precisely what it is that you're handling there. What kind of file? Which features used in all the files (the layout file and the logo file). Which settings for export. And in which apps exactly are you viewing the PDF.

We can't help you otherwise.

[mike5E6D]

I appreciate your assistance with that issue @Monika Gause. Good news is I figured out the problem.

I do have something else though I'm hoping you can help with. Unfortunately, I'm not very savy with Illustrator as you can tell. If you open the attached file, you'll notice the vegan and vegetarian labels have a few gaps as a result of replacing what was previously within the circles.

Can you please help in completing the circles for the vegan and vegetarian labels?

Thank you

[Jacob Bugge]

Mike,

As I (mis)understand it, I believe the best way is to:

1) Create a new circle of the same size and properties (stroked with identical Stroke Weight or filled after outlining stroke) and copy it so you have one for each replacement;

2) For each replacement select the replacement circle and the original, then Click the original once more, then in the Align panel centre align both vertically and horizontally, then delete the original.

This will give you full circles in exactly the same positions, identical to the original ones before cutting bits out of them.

[mike5E6D]

Thanks for the response @Jacob Bugge. I managed to recreate the circles, but the problem I'm facing now is if I make the vegan and vegetarian smaller, the circles are getting thicker and showing more black. I've shown this in the attached where you can see the smaller vegan and vegetarian icons.

How can I continue to keep the circles at the same thickness? 

[Jacob Bugge]

Mike,

When I look at the images, all the circles seem to get proportionally thinner in the smaller version, so I am unsure what you mean.

The usual issue is that Scale Strokes & Effects is unticked so that stroke thickness and some other properties remain, out of proportion; you can tick it in different places, such as the General preferences and the Transform panel.

[mike5E6D]

@Jacob Bugge that was the issue. Thank you for all your assistance.

[Jacob Bugge]

You are welcome, Mike, and thank you for sharing.

[mike5E6D]

@Jacob Bugge I'm having another problem I'm hoping you can help with. If you look at the icons.pdf file, the icons are showing ok and legible in PDF format.

However, when I paste the icons into the .ai file that I'm working on and save that file as a PDF, 2 of the icons are no longer legible and it gets grainy (I've attached a screenshot to show the poor quality).

Can you please assist in addressing this issue?

Thank you

[Jacob Bugge]

Mike,

There can be no doubt that the two ailing ones have been rasterized somewhere along the way, and I believe it is crucial to establish where and how that has happened.

Can you outline the unfortunate course of events, and have a look at the states of the artwork at the different stages to the degree that those are still available?

Hopefully, it is a simple matter of getting back to before the rasterization and then avoiding it.

[mike5E6D]

Thanks for followimg up @Jacob Bugge. I may have not explained it well. The icons are showing ok in the icons.pdf file. You can change the icon sizes in this file and save it and the quality will be fine. Maybe you can try opening the file in .ai format and it might make better sense.

The issue is when you take the icons from the icons.pdf file, put it in another file in .ai format, make the icons smaller and save as PDF. When you open that file then in PDF, you'll see the poor quality of the icons.

I need to put the icons in the icons.pdf file in other files. It cannot be the other way around. 

Hopefully this explanation helps and you can still assist in resolving this issue.

[Ton Frederiks]

I think Jacob explained it very well. Only the middle icon is vector, the others left and right are images (look at the links panel in Illustrator).

[mike5E6D]

Yes, the ones to the left and right are images. My goal is to paste the icons in the icons.pdf file in other files without a quality drop. The format you see in the icons.pdf file is the only format I have access to. 

My question is the following....why is it these icons regardless of their size show fine in PDF format in the icons.pdf file, but the quality drops when you paste them in another file, change their size and save it in PDF? Should I not copy/paste to avoid the quality drop? Is there a better way to go about it?

[Ton Frederiks]

If you zoom in they don't look that good. In Illustrator they have a 372ppi resolution.

While the vector version has no resolution.

[mike5E6D]

You would really have to zoom in for it to become an issue. Reduce the size, save it and look at it in PDF and you'll find that the quality is still fine so it's not that big of an issue in the icons.pdf file.

The issue is when putting them into another file and making them smaller. That's when the quality is noticeably different. 

[Jacob Bugge]

Mike,

In addition to what Ton said, I believe they is a resampling = downsampling of the two images somewhere along the way.

Edit: Ton, are we posting rather late or rather early?

[mike5E6D]

Outside of the fact that the icons to the left and right are not vectors, I'm not sure I'm following the responses to be honest. Opening the icons.pdf file doesn't show the icons in poor quality even though the ones to the left and right are in image format. Yes, I understand if you zoom in, it will be in poor quality, but you have to really zoom in for that to happen. If you change the size of the icons in the icons.pdf file, the quality still stays the same.

I would assume if there's an issue with the icons to the left and right, it would show in poor quality when opening the icons.pdf file as well (not just the other file I uploaded which is what happened when I pasted the icons into that file).

The issue comes in to play when you paste them into another file. Something is happening in the transfer, but I don't know what I'm doing wrong or how to avoid the quality loss. Can someone please help with this part?

[Jacob Bugge]

Mike,

I still believe there is a downsampling as I said.

This statement in your earlier post,

"The issue is when you take the icons from the icons.pdf file, put it in another file in .ai format, make the icons smaller and save as PDF. When you open that file then in PDF, you'll see the poor quality of the icons."

may hold the clue.

Exactly how do you save those smaller icons as PDF?

I believe you may limit the resolution/quality in that step, thereby downscaling the icons to a lower resolution and thereby a smaller size in pixels x pixels.

[mike5E6D]

I copy the icons from the icons.pdf file (where the icons show fine regardless of the size) in .ai format, paste them in the file I'm working on in .ai format, make the icons smaller and save the file in pdf format (I click on file, save as and save it as a PDF). 

In the icons.pdf file, you can make the icons smaller, save the file as a PDF and the quality will be just fine. For some reason, when you make them smaller in the other file though and save as a PDF, the quality goes bad.

How can I avoid this?