Adobe Creative Suite 4 Printing Guide
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Printing Bleed
If a bleed setting has been
established for the file, just check
the option to Use Document
Bleed Settings to include artwork
in the bleed in output . If no bleed
setting has been established, you
can also manually enter bleed
values .
Creating PDF Files
Illustrator CS4 can create Adobe PDF files directly, without the need to generate PostScript and
process it through Distiller. To create a PDF from an Illustrator file, choose File > Save As and
choose Adobe PDF for the format. The options you choose depend on the ultimate purpose of
the PDF. For example, a PDF to be used for customer reviews can contain lower-resolution image
content than a PDF intended to be submitted to a RIP. Illustrator ships with seven PDF presets,
but you can create, save, import, and export your own custom PDF presets.
Note that, while Illustrator provides options to add security to a PDF as it is created, many work-
flow components such as RIPs and imposition software will reject a PDF with security. Password
protection may be appropriate in PDFs containing sensitive content that you send to customers,
but such security settings are usually problematic in a print workflow. For more information on
PDF settings, see the “Common Resources” chapter earlier in this document, and the Acrobat 9
Pro chapter later in this document.
Illustrator default preset
The default PDF preset creates a very flexible PDF. It can be opened by Acrobat and Reader
version 6 and above and reopened in Illustrator, but it can result in large files that may not be
processed by older devices. Its options include:
•
Compatible with Acrobat 6:
May not be appropriate for some older RIPs and work-
flows that do not accept later versions of PDF. Transparency is not flattened.
•
Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities:
Includes the complete Illustrator file
within the PDF, which allows the file to be safely reopened in Illustrator for editing.
This option can substantially increase file size, and should be checked only if you
intend to allow round-tripping of the file back into Illustrator.
•
Embed Page Thumbnails:
Adds slightly to file size by creating page thumbnails
for use in Acrobat 9 Pro. If you uncheck this option, Acrobat automatically creates
thumbnails when opening a PDF.
•
Create Acrobat Layers from Top-Level Layers:
Allows you to maintain layers in the
PDF, if your workflow supports Acrobat 6-compatible files.
•
Compression:
Compresses image content using ZIP (lossless) compression but does
not downsample the image.
Other PDF creation presets
Illustrator CS4 also includes presets shared with other Creative Suite 4 components, including
High Quality Print, Press Quality, PDF/X1a, PDF/X-3, and PDF/X-4 options. For descriptions of
the features of these PDF presets, see the “Common Resources” chapter earlier in this document.
