Adobe Illustrator

You may want to save your art as a native Illustrator file if you're using a working application which supports the import of these, or if you want to use the Illustrator file as your working file. Saving in this format as opposed to EPS can preserve editability and conserve file space.

Making a PDF compatible file may help with import into some applications.

Use compression.

The document color mode should be CMYK, not RGB.

If you convert the color mode of your placed photos to CMYK in Illustrator, make sure you have your color settings correct. See the Color Management section for instructions on how to do this. We have had instances where Illustrator's separations of raster images did not have any gray component in the shadows and the image appeared flat and dull. This can happen if you do not use the correct CMYK working space profile, so it is very important to do so. When placing images into Illustrator files, it is best to maintain a link to the external file and perform any color adjustments (including separation) in Photoshop or another image editing program, then update the link in Illustrator.

If you have linked images, be sure to include them in the .ai or .eps file when you save the files you are sending to us.

Save with application version compatibility as high as possible. We generally save with the most recent version.

Rather than embed the fonts, just be sure to include the font files with the supplied artwork. You may also outline all text in your document, however this will increase your file size and complexity, which may be problematic for the RIP; if you have a full page of text, please do not outline it- just include the fonts.

We do not use ICC profiles when we output, so there is no need to embed them. See the Color Management section for more information.

You should preserve appearance rather than paths when working with transparency.

If you use any effects in your Illustrator file, be sure to set the Document Raster Effects Settings in accordance with the resolution requirements outlined in the Raster section. Usually 300 dpi is sufficient.

When establishing the positions of guides or position and size of other placement-critical objects (such as bleed or edge objects or objects which lie along folds) use the Transform palette to check your measurements. Illustrator's rulers do not measure accurately, and it is common for mistakes to be indistinguishable on screen, but apparent when the file is output to a higher-resolution device.