Inspiring

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Ready to publish!

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
December 31, 2021
7 replies
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Hi! I'm new to Illustrator (been using Photoshop 20+ years). I just illustrated a children's book (62 pages @ 8.5x11") in Illustrator and am ready to publish. Each page's file is LARGE and heavy with lots of layers, gradients, etc. Any hints on prepping these files for publication? Thanks!

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Correct answer Monika Gause

got it - trying it now! It's taking a while to write the file....

Before rasterizing anything I would talk to the printer about the file specifications. They need to tell you the resolution they want as well as color profiles to use.

You don't want to redo everything after sending them the file, do you?

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

Marilyn,

A few different things with (possible) mutual influence, hence this separate post.

Now that you have been daring and thrown yourself into the arms of Illy (job description Adobe Ilustrator) and hopefully already found that she is always eager to help, you might consider

different (lacks of) daring concerning the way from artwork to print as suggested by different helpers.

But to begin with the beginning: since you have the artwork fill the pages right to the edge of the paper, have you made the necessary bleed? You can read on here, starting with the first

link,

https://helpx.adobe.com/search-results.html?q=bleed+illustrator&scope=%5B%22helpx%22%5D&subscope=%5B%5D&limit=10&start_index=0&sort_orderby=relevancy&sort_order=desc&post_facet_filters=%7B

%22applicable_products%22%3A%5B%5D%7D

You can also bookmark this empty Helpx search page and use it for searching whatever else is suggested (here or elsewhere) or you come across yourself, just insert the term you seek,

https://helpx.adobe.com/search-results.html?q=&scope=%5B%22helpx%22%5D&subscope=%5B%5D&limit=10&start_index=0&sort_orderby=relevancy&sort_order=desc&post_facet_filters=%7B

%22applicable_products%22%3A%5B%5D%7D

Without bleed, the outer parts of the artwork will be (literally) snipped off and/or you will have white nothingness here and there, owing to inaccuracies.

If there is no bleed you can still make it (it sounds better than fake it) especially because you have Illy to help you with your vector artwork: you can scale up the artwork just enough to get the needed bleed on all sides; you can just select everything on the Artboard except the text box(es) (which may need readjustment) and then add twice the bleed to the W box and the H box (just click in each box and go to the end and insert + followed by twice the bleed) in the Transform panel with the centre Reference Point ticked; this will give an (almost) invisble change of proportions; to avoid that you can choose the smaller of side length and add twice the bleed there, then hold Ctrl/Cmd and press Enter to scale up by the same proportion.

This brings me back to my suggestion about one piece of artwork for the whole spread. It started because I noticed that pages 2 and 3 had more or less continuous artwork at the bottom,

including the mushroom and some greenery, but in the upper part there are some clear differences, so I believe it is rather a suggestion to consider for the following books/other artwork.

More specifically, the suggestion is to create the artwork as a whole for both pages in the spread including the needed bleed on all four sides of the spread (which you know will be lost). This will give you (and the readers) one continuous piece of artwork to enjoy. To make it work, simply create two overlapping Artboards with normal bleed, the overlap being twice the bleed. With this, the outer bleeds will be cut off and be gone, whereas the bleed down the middle on either Artboard will be identical to the outermost part of the artwork on the other Artboard when both are cut off accurately.

To go straight to the actual printer work, presuming a certain length of the run, you might consider FM screening/stochastic screening, maybe in this connexion, maybe for later books.

To go back to the text, I am sure you adapt every text box to both the text and to the artwork round it. I agree with David about non justified text, and in that context you might consider

a more free shaping of the box; you can use another shape than a non (rounded) rectangle for the inner white part and then just Offset Path to create the path of the transparent edge (as I believe you are doing already).

This adaptation means that we are really looking at a picture book where even the text bits form fully integrated/adapted parts of the pictures (such as the texbox on page 3 is with the monkey and the mushroom), which makes me suggest your (daringly) making a go at creating the PDF just with the help of Illy, if only to have the experience before trying other ways that may be (more) obvious in other contexts and a fuller basis for your choosing your preferred way.

R

rossisaacsAuthor

Inspiring

Hi Jacob - thanks so much for your help!!!

Yes, I do have a bleed area. I'm a "sloppy" designer and have parts of the image going out way past the artboard. And, I've gone back into every image to make sure that it's MINIMALLY 1/8" beyond the artboard (I did a clipping mask to "clean up" the image for me, visually).

I just started working on 2 artboards, side-by-side, for the images that span 2 pages. Wish I knew this at the beginning...but hey, part of the learning process, right?

The text I'm working on - my husband, Jay, is the author. The idea of more free-formed "boxes" around them sounds good! For some of the pages, the boxes were designed free-formed to go around images. And some parts (some of the dialog) I used a funkier font.

Gotta say - I'm very excited about this book. I've been working on it since April, learning something new in Illy every day. I look at my original files and scratch my head thinking "why on earth....?"

Again, I appreciate all your help.

Take care, Marilyn

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

For my part you are welcome, Marilyn.

I believe there is no need to say always keep a copy of the artwork before you destroy it, applying to both full documents, which ought to be backed up in different places of different kinds and preferably going back through different versions, and to artwork within the individual document/layer, which ought tp be hidden/locked when going on with a copy for irreversible changes; the latter can be discarded when you are certain enough (to rely on the possibility to fall back on an earlier version of the document).

It is often better and more efficient, rather than sloppy, to have a surplus so you can move everything more (freely) about, and sometimes obtain unforeseen advantages and/or avoid the disaster of (literal) shortcomings (even if by a few pt).

Jumpenjax

Community Expert

Can you bring into photoshop? Make sure resolution is where you need it to be. Then flatten the image and save as a tiff, or jpeg if printer allows jpegs.

Lee- Graphic Designer, Print Specialist, Photographer

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rossisaacsAuthor

Inspiring

Hi Lee, I've exported files into Photoshop as a PSD. If I do it as a JPEG the resolution defaults to 72 dpi. I wanter higher res, and exporting it to Photoshop gives me 300 dpi. Like you said, I can always create a jpeg from the psd image. Thanks - Happy New Year!

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

I would consider importing your Illustrator files into InDesign. You can build the entire 62-page book in once document and output to a press-ready PDF. (You wanted to learn another program, didn't you?)

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

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rossisaacsAuthor

Inspiring

Hi David, HAHAHAHA!!!!! Love it! Yes, I spent several months learning Illustrator. I guess ya can teach an old dog new tricks, and I'm defintely up for learning a new program like InDesign. I'll crank up the ol' YouTube tutorials (that's how I learned Illustrator!!!). Thanks for your help! Happy New Year

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Where will you publish it?

Number one should always be to get in contact with the publisher and ask for their requirements. Not all PDFs are equal, the options matter a lot.

Are there just a lot of objects? Or also transparency, masks and the like?

Many objects will lead to high file sizes and it might be over the top with no chance of compression (for vector objects).

In case you have also used opacity masks, blends, transparency and the like, you might get ridiculously high file sizes when using the highest quality setting for transparency flattening. Discuss it with the production people.

R

rossisaacsAuthor

Inspiring

My husband had a book printed at a publishing house in Totawa, NJ (we used to live in NJ) several years ago - it was a traditional book - text, no images aside from the front and back cover. They did a fabulous job. Honestly, other than that and self-publishing (I did that for a book I wrote several years back) we have no experience with publishers, and what their areas of expertise are.

My file sizes are large...lots of layers, some transparancies, many gradients, drop shadows, feathering. Ironically, I had to invest in a new desktop MAC because my older one didn't have the "oomph" to handle the files.

I see there is "flattening" in the menu - I assume that would be used when I'm 100% finished - but does that create a raster file, or will it still remain vector?

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Transparency flattening will create whatever your options are. You might actually end up with a file that is even larger than what you have now.

Considering the transparent overlays I would convert the artwork to pixels. That is: only the artwork, not the text.

You can either export pixel files out of Illustrator or import the file into Photoshop thus rasterizing it.

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

Marilyn,

As a different subject, my guess is that yous have considered (and maybe reconsidered) the use/avoidance of hyphens/separations within words.

Have you also considered/tried to adapt with small adjustments of the width of the paths (used for the Area Type), such as a wee widening or narrowing of the one on page 3? Sometimes it is amazing how little it takes to obtain much.

R

rossisaacsAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks - I'll work on it!

J E L

Community Expert

Hi @rossisaacs, that's great. Congratulations, how nice to end the year with this accomplishment! You will certainly want to have a PDF file for print versions. Typically, you'll need a separate front cover/spine/back cover file, which has a different trim size as these three elements are all in one file output. The printer or platform you use will have some specifications on how to prepare your files, making sure the trim size and bleeds are set properly. Most publishers allow very large-size files to be uploaded, even up to 1GB files are not a problem, the files will just take a long time to transfer. How big is the .ai file?

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rossisaacsAuthor

Inspiring

Hi Jain - thanks...I'm literally new at this. You're suggestions are right on target. Funny - I've been using Photoshop since the late 1990's. I've always shied away from Illustrator, since I wasn't able to really understand the program. During Covid, we moved to Sacramento (from NJ) and we had a LOT of time in our new apartment, since nothing was open and there was literally nothing exciting to do. So, I made it my mission to learn Illustrator. I did tutorials for about 6 months. During our down time in Sacramento, my husband Jay wrote a children's book and asked if I'd like to illustrate it. Hey - why not???? So I did it in Illustrator. BIG learning curve, but I think I have it down after designing 62 pages. I did make a cover/spine/back cover under seperate files. I've attached my first 2 pages! Thanks for your help- Happy New Year, Marilyn

J E L

Community Expert

It looks darling, Marilyn! You have a lot of helpful hints and suggestions. I recommend a small print run or print-on-demand copies to see how it turns out. Also, text spacing in print looks better when there is only one space between sentences, and it looks as though you have two?

Depending on the printer and binding, you may end up with extra blank pages inserted at the end (64 pages would be 4 full signatures). InDesign is the best program for book layouts. You may find it easier to use Illustrator for the illustrations and import those to InDesign, where you can add text and finesse the page layout. Especially since there will be more books in the future, right?! Best of luck and let us know how it turns out.

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

Ross,

You can start here, especially with the first search result,

https://helpx.adobe.com/search-results.html?q=save+as+pdf+illustrator&scope=%5B%22helpx%22%5D&subscope=%5B%5D&limit=10&start_index=0&sort_orderby=relevancy&sort_order=desc&post_facet_filters=%7B%22applicable_products%22%3A%5B%5D%7D

It is always safer to Save a Copy as PDF: Save As PDF can lead to the destruction of your document if done wrongly.

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rossisaacsAuthor

Inspiring

Thank you!!! I'm OCD when it comes to saving files. Sometimes a bit of overkill, but I'm paranoid about losing images! I assume the publisher will want a PDF - is there a way I can get a high definition PDF directly from Illustrator with just the artboard? I appreciate your help - Happy New Year - Marilyn

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rossisaacsAuthor

Inspiring

For my part you are welcome, Marilyn, and Happy New Year.

You can answer the "just the artboard" part by saving a PDF copy of any artwork that extends past the Artboard.

With regard to the (other) properties, always ask the printer, as Jain already said.

Particular care (and advice) will be needed with the bleed, because you have to create the pages with surplus artwork to be cut off at all sides (allowing for a certain inaccuracy).

You can create the artwork for each spread (like your pages 2 - 3) as one whole and then use two overlapping Artboards so that the bleed on each page down the middle of the spread is identical to the actual/duplicate artwork on the other page, and you only have to add discardable/surplus bleed at the (outer) sides, top and bottom. This way you can get the best possible fit, the pressure of doing it right being on the printer.

Hi Jacob - please forgive my ignorance... all my artboards are on their own files - how do I combine two existing artboards to make a 2-artboard spread? I appreciate your suggestions - thanks! Happy New Year!

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