Problem with exporting PDF's from AiCS

[jigsaw_merge@adobeforums.com]

I am still in the testing phase on this one - but very concerned. I had a large half circle of lines rotated 1 degree from each other to create a "glow." The total width of the art was ~15" to 18" wide. I then masked the art to fit in a 8.5x11 page. I then Exported the file as a pdf as I have done a gazillion times in Ai9. What I ended up with is a page size of 18.5x11!!! Over and over again, trying different Acrobat headers, I got the same results. Only when I went through the print dialog box did it save as an 8.5x11 - this where you don't get to save with a new name or in a specific location. This is a potential nightmare!!! There is absolutely no excuse for changing a designated page size! Ever. If I am missing something, I look forward to hearing what it is.

merge

[Dee Holmes]

In the AI file make a rectangle the area you want on the page and go to Object/Crop marks/Make. Then save it and bring it into Acrobat.

[jigsaw_merge@adobeforums.com]

"I then masked the art to fit in a 8.5x11 page"

Yes I did that originally. Even if I hadn't created a mask, it should NEVER change the page size. Never. Plus, it never did that before - page size was sacrosanct, as it should be.

[Larry_G._Schneider@adobeforums.com]

jigsaw,

I'll bet that you saved the PDF without AI editing enabled. The PDF will have to expand the fills and since they extend beyond the page, you will get everything.

Larry

[jigsaw_merge@adobeforums.com]

Larry,

Gave that a whirl and it was a negative. New page size: 18.5x11 (again).

[Doug_Katz@adobeforums.com]

Dee did not recommend masking. She recommended Crop Marks.

[jonf@adobeforums.com]

jigsaw-- the page size may seem sacrosanct to you, but consider the problems. If all you had to do was save your AI artwork as a pdf and it would automatically crop your artwork to the print page size you would be unable to edit anything outside of your page area. This would be an enormous inconvenience, to say the least.

Saving as pdf gives you the large page size because it's keeping all your data intact, including the parts of the art that are outside of the masking area. If you don't want that data available anymore, just reset your document size to 8.5x11. Anything outside the document area should be cropping on the pdf, though it should still be available if you open from AI.

[jigsaw_merge@adobeforums.com]

Doug,

Drrr - all I read was "crop." Thanks. But yes, I had/have crop marks on. Even if I didn't, it really shouldn't matter. Page size should never, ever change - talk about the type of monkeywrench that throws into the printing process...

[jigsaw_merge@adobeforums.com]

jonf,

"...crop your artwork to the print page size you would be unable to edit anything outside of your page area."

Sorry to disagree, but I just did a lot of pdf tests with AI's 9, 10 and CS with 3 different files. All 3 had images and art larger than the 8.5x11 page size cropped to view within the page. Only CS made it's own new page size. All opened again in AI's 9 and 10 with the images, lines, art (and even a box I placed off to the side of the document to test) there to be edited to your hearts content. I even saved with "AI editing" off (1mb file went down to 400k, 270k file went down to 64k) and they all still opened in Illustrator with everything still intact (even layers without anything on them).

I make a lot of multiple page pdf presentations (logos and other single page illustrations which I stitch together in Acrobat) and I make many pages with cropped images that bleed off of the page - cropped of course - and to have the app change page sizes is simply unacceptable. It worked before, why not now?!

And to top it off, I just found a new CS "bonus" feature: I can no longer paste a new name into the file name box on a "Save As". A constant re-typing of things I used to paste, thanks Adobe.

merge

[John_Kallios@adobeforums.com]

There has been some discussion in the past regarding this.

See this link and also the link this one contains. <http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?128@@.2cd0964b>

There have been morre threads discussing this, but you will need to search them out.

[jigsaw_merge@adobeforums.com]

John,

I see... I am behind the times on this, but it nice to read that I am not alone ("nice" being debatable.) Using the verry intuitive Object>Crop Area did the trick, but how lame is that?! You would think a simple checkbox for "Retain Document Size" within the PDF dialog box would be a lot simpler and infinitely more intuitive solution.

Thanks again,
merge

ps: file sizes for pdf's made out of ai have always been "buggy" and bloated when it comes to invisible layers with objects.

[Doug_Katz@adobeforums.com]

PPS. We here (on the forum) found that to be a bug when AICS first appeared. Believe it or not, making layers invisible doesn't "drop" them from the PDF when you do a Save As PDF. You have to actually temporarily TRASH them, then make your PDF, then NOT save the AI file (so as to preserve the temporarily trashed layers). Doing it this (odd and tedious) way, appropriately shrinks the PDF to a size commensurate with only the visible AI layers.

FWIW, I've stopped doing Save As PDFs and now only Print to AdobePDF. Smaller file sizes, better controls.

[miragecarlos@adobeforums.com]

"In it is illustrator program the problem about is not reconice "bleed", is necesary to create a box area (no colors fill and stroke) and to increment document setup area. Distiller see doument setup.
Other situation is to create PS.file wth parameters (document and print setup)
Print setup 15x18 (custom)
Document setup (8.5x11+bleed) center.

[jonf@adobeforums.com]

merge-- re-read my post. I said if it cropped when you saved as pdf then it would be a problem. But it doesn't, because Ai assumes people want to be able to edit their art later. But I've found that saving the pdf with the document size (not page size) that you want gives a pdf that opens in Acrobat with the correct page size, but opens in Illustrator with all the editable data. That fixes the problem for me every time. If that isn't working for you I apologize for oversimplifying the problem. I may not be seeing the situation you describe.