Web Layout methods

[Tom Underhill]

I have been trying to find a good balance across the suite of tools for preparing web design visuals/flats for client approval before build. Illustrator is my tool of choice as much of my work is vector reliant, however when combining raster content in illustrator, the files begin to grind to a halt when saving and I experience the very familiar Crash upon Save instruction that so many seem to be having trouble with. The size of the illustrator files range from 2 megs to 80 and there doesn't seem to be a pattern to the rate of file size increase.

Perhaps someone may have found a better method/hybrid approach to combining the vector and raster components whilst maintaining the ability to adjust and customize the elements further.

I have been embedding linked images in order to generate symbols in illustrator to limit file size however this doesn't seem to assist greatly and you loose the ability to switch between applications.

Any thoughts, views and suggestions would be much appreciated.

Many Thanks

Underpants

[Dee Holmes]

Any thoughts...that would be me I guess.

I don't have CS yet or OSX, but I've found that linking files print to our rips so much easier than embedded for some reason.

But I'm sure you've tried that. The thing that is confusing me is that you're saying you're doing web design. Are you saving to Web and encoutering these problems? It looks to me like (and I just started to save to web) it just saves a low res raster anyway. Is'nt that what you want for web graphics?

[Mordy_Golding@adobeforums.com]

Illustrator is a great tool to use for designing web graphics -- I've always used it for that purpose as well. But I'll admit there are some things you have to know about -- and I would suggest you take a look at "The Hidden Power of Illustrator CS Web Graphic Techniques" by Steve Kurth -- which goes through it all in detail.

:) Mordy

[Scott_Weichert@adobeforums.com]

I prefer to start with Illustrator to get the basic frame work, then export to Photoshop to add any textures or raster effects if needed. I find Illustrator is great and most sites built with flat colors or gradients work wondfully. I'm old-school I can't really see adding any mroe than one raster effect to an Illustrator file. To me, that's what Photoshop is for.

[Tom Underhill]

Thanks for your suggestions, I'll dig out that book and try and establish a better balance between illustrator and photoshop - not embedding the linked files certainly seems to be helping saving tim.

Cheers

Tom

[jonf@adobeforums.com]

Hmm... 80 megs for a file that's going to be a Web page seems awfully high, and might have something to do with the crashes when trying to save for Web. Are you working with low resolution raster images? If the ultimate location is a 72 dpi monitor, there's no need for 300 dpi image data in the original file.