x900mhz

Hello everyone,

I created an full color cmyk ad in photoshop including 2 pics. Before flattening the pic, I rasterized the type. The file was saved as a 200 resolution .EPS file according to the editors specs.

The ad was then inserted into Indesign and PDF's created for print.

Problem is the ad's print quality is poor. It looks like a very low resolution ad both in text & photo.

Any suggestions?

Thanks for any and your help.

Tod

ronmatt

first, why on earth did they want the text rasterized. That goes against every principle of quality printing.

x900mhz

Hey ronmatt - thanks for the comment. Could have used your expetise/advice at the same time.

I was just following information sent to me. Usually in Corel, I change text to curves for printing. Would you "convert to shape"?

Thanks,

Tod

ronmatt

Sorry, I don't work in Corel. I'm all Adobe. Actually you can produce Photoshop work and save as .eps. Just place your text in it's own layer and save as .eps. In the save dialog be sure to check 'on' to save vector data. Then distill to pdf. Your text will be saved as vector ( PS 7 and later ) For print, create your piece at print size and no less than 250 ppi. the printed piece should look fine.

x900mhz

Hey ronmatt, thanks for the info. Do you flatten the image first?

retired_paddza

If you have InDesign... why aren't you using that to do your typesetting since that's what it's designed for. Type should always stay in vector format as long as possible. This means fonts if possible, or outline the fonts to create vector shapes if need be... or if you really really know what you're doing... you can create non anti-aliased (that's right, no anti-aliasing), rasterized versions at the exact LPI of the final output.

I'm thinking your printshop has some issues.

x900mhz

Thanks mindbender, appreciate your comments muchly, but I could really use some advice & suggestions based on the information given to me as follows:

I created an full color cmyk ad in photoshop including 2 pics. Before flattening the pic, I rasterized the type. The file was saved as a 200 resolution .EPS file according to the editors specs.

The ad was then inserted into Indesign and PDF's created for print.

Problem is the ad's print quality is poor. It looks like a very low resolution ad both in text & photo.

The editor just places the ads into indesign to pagenate the paper. I only use PageMaker 7 as I created majority of my work in photoshop or corel for digital output.

If anyone has any suggestions on how I may be able to correct this problem, I would greatly appreciate it as I kinda know already what I have done wrong.

Thank you for all your input as always.

ronmatt

A page layout program is vector. Not bitmap. It is resolution free, save for the bitmaps imported or placed into it.
So the questions I'd have in this case would be, What was the resolution of the 'original' image? Did you change the resolution in PS properly? And why rasterize the type. Was it because your printer wanted to assure that the type was embedded? If this is the case, outlining the text or saving as an .eps and distilling would have assured this. Supplying an embedded PDF from distiller is the most common form of print document today. If, for some reason, the printer can't handle a PDF. Start shopping for a new printer, these people are stuck in the stone age...As for your workflow, consider getting In Design or Quark. Pagemaker just ain't up to speed.

retired_paddza

Well... since you said that what you did wasn't turning out right... then the advice is don't do it that way again.

I'm not sure what you're trying to "fix" since this has already gone to press it sounds. Once you have a flat rasterized version of a file... you can't fix blurriness problems without starting over and doing it right... which is what my advice related to. Basically I laid out the three options you have for type no matter what application you use. As for the blurriness of the photo... it sounds like they didn't print it right. You could try printing your own seps and color ref to send them and see if that works better... if they can handle seps. I think the real problem lies with the printshop... and when that is the case... there isn't much you can do but try to find another shop or work within whatever weird guidelines they have. When I was dealing with a horrible newspaper I had to run ads in (no choice of printers), the only way I got my artwork printed even legibly was to print my own seps and color ref. They were taking my nice vector files and rasterizing them in an ollllld copy of photoshop then printing them and making plates from that. Stuff came out horribly. At least if you hand them seps you have some control... but that's only if they are able to deal with seps and mainly if the problem lies in how they handle digital files.

For a photo to come out blurry... it was either too low resolution to begin with or they messed up the digital file when they went to print it. As ronmatt said... what is the resolution of the original photo?

Oh yeah, because Quark is an unbearable joy to work with.

x900mhz

Thanks guys for all your replies. I guess what I should have just stated a little clearer "I need your expertise" as I already know that the print quality for the ad is poor and did not turn out as expected. I have stated what was done in this situation - which did not produce a good print - so I am simply trying to correct it as best as I can.

I have the original psd file as I created it. It is at 300 resolution, CMYK. I would have prefered to just send it as a .PDF file BUT I was asked to send it as an .EPS file at 200 resolution.

Seeing as the ad will run for several issues, I can go back to the orginal .PSD file, convert the text layers to shapes and save as an .EPS file. Or I can flatten the image before saving it as an .EPS file. What would you do in this situation?

Seeing as I am only creating the one ad for the newspaper on contract, I have no say nor am I comfortable in telling them to get another printer.

I do agree that the .PDF file is the way to go but when I suggested that, I was asked for the .EPS file instead. Is there a better way of making a good .EPS from the original layered .PSD file?

Thank you once again for your valuable advice.

Tod