Which would be better...

[michael_affeld@adobeforums.com]

I created a business card in illustrator cs to get the initial "vector" quality, but... My printshop does not want it in illustrator. instead, either pdf (I have acrobat 6 professional), or photoshop (I have photoshop 7). Which would be better quality? If it goes to photoshop, should I leave it cymk, or convert to rgb? Again, should I even go to photoshop- would pdf be better. My printer left it to me as a 50/50, so I am just curious. thanks

[Phosphor@adobeforums.com]

"...My printshop does not want it in illustrator. instead, either pdf...or
photoshop..."




I'd begin to question the customer service practices of the print shop, and maybe start looking for another shop that will accomodate this very common type of file submission.

[michael_affeld@adobeforums.com]

True, but either way, I am now just curious.
thanks

[Just_A_Mac_Guy@adobeforums.com]

Does your Printer not want Illustrator AI format or Illustrator CS.

Either way it is unprofessional. Some printers don't output directly from Illustrator, in which case saving as an EPS should pose no problems to output.

If they have just not moved to support CS, that is another thing entirely. Unprofessional, but not all that uncommon.

Pdf sould give you better high resolution quality in the type. Photoshop being a fixed resolution file means a much bigger file than is needed.

However, if they can't handle Illustrator files, I would worry about how they handle PDFs.

[John_Kallios@adobeforums.com]

Without knowing how they will reproduce the job and what devices used to print, the questions cannot be answered.

I will go on the asumption that you are supplying artwork to on the the Internet Business Card print sources. Where they accept submitted artwork and gang run them with many other business cards. The cards will be printed in cmyk off a press. If I am wrong in this, then what I post may not apply.

Supply a pdf to their specifications. (amount of bleed, crop and/or reg marks, pdf version and so on) Most likely it will be a 1.3 pdf (Acrobat 4) and make sure to embed fonts. Also, optimize any raster images to 300 ppi in the pdf. (bitmap images to at least 1200 ppi) Leave the color space cmyk.

[michael_affeld@adobeforums.com]

Thanks for your response. I changed the fonts to outlines just to save any hassle there, and also all of the artwork I kept vector. Now I am just deciding- should I go somewhere else, leaving my question as how much quality will be lost. (I know that all depends on the printer and their equipment- but in general, going from ai all vector to pdf?)

[John_Kallios@adobeforums.com]

If you are asking whether the pdf degrades the image, that depends on your compression settings.

PDF retains vector. Open the pdf in Acrobat and zoom in quite a bit. You will see that it is still vector.

[michael_affeld@adobeforums.com]

Thanks for the help.