Adobe Illustrator CS5 One-on-One

435

PRINTING AND EXPORTING

Figure 12-1.

NO APPLICATION is an island, and Illustrator users

probably understand this better than most. Graphic artists who

painstakingly craft artwork inside Illustrator usually have

a destination beyond their computers in mind from the

outset.

This lesson will help you safely get your artwork where

it needs to go—to set it free if you will—like our long-

suffering friend in Figure 12-1. Whether you are sending

your illustration off to a commercial printer, printing it on your

local device, posting it to the Web, or using it in projects involving

other applications, Illustrator has the tools and commands you’ll

need to make sure it arrives at its destination the way you intended

it to be seen.

Illustrator has always offered a highly sophisticated set of printing

options. Starting with the familiar File→Print command, you enter

a world where you can set up virtual bleeds, define crop boundar-

ies, output an array of printer marks, print color separations for

commercial reproduction, overprint black, define the flatness of

curved paths, tweak color management settings, and adjust how

your transparency effects get flattened, all from inside a single Print

dialog box.

In addition to Illustrator’s printing capabilities, we’ll be exploring

other means of output, like saving your vector artwork for the Web,

exporting it as layered Photoshop images, and creating files for

other applications.

This lesson is designed to help you ask the important questions,

make the educated decisions, and find the right answers so that

your particular document can shine in its life beyond your computer.

ABOUT THIS LESSON

you’ve downloaded the lesson fi les from

www.oreilly.com/go/Deke-IllustratorCS5,

as directed in Step 2 on page xiv of the

Preface. This means you should have a

folder called Lesson Files-AIcs5 1on1 on

your desktop (or whatever location you

chose). We’ll be working with the fi les in-

side the Lesson 12 subfolder.

In this lesson, I’ll show you how to prepare your fi le for a life outside of

Illustrator, whether that be in print or on the web. You’ll learn how to:

• Prepare your fi le for handing off to a commercial

print shop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 437

• Get good results from your local inkjet

or laser printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 439

• Optimize your artwork for posting on the Web.. . . page 450

• Export your artwork for rasterization

in Photoshop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 459

If you are sending your Illustrator fi les off to a custom

commercial printer, you’ll want to ensure you’ve done

everything you can to get the results you desire. In this

video lesson, I’ll show you how to prepare your artwork

for commercial print, including changing your type to

outlines, checking your spot colors, and generally making

sure there are no surpises.

To review my pre-printer preparations, visit www.oreilly.

com/go/deke-IllustratorCS5. Click the Watch button to

view the lesson online or click the Download button to

save it to your computer. During the video, you’ll learn

these shortcuts:

Operation Windows shortcut Macintosh shortcut

Create Outlines Ctrl+Shift+O -Option-O

Hide selection outlines Ctrl+H -H

Zoom tool Ctrl-spacebar -spacebar

Open Preferences Ctrl+K -K

Document Setup Ctrl+Alt+P -Option-P

Print Ctrl+P -P

Video Lesson 12: Commercial Printing

436

Lesson 12: Printing and Exporting