flattening artwork and maintaining transparency 2

[juliams]

hey again, i have a live paint graphic i'm using...when i flatten it in
illustrator i lose the transparency...i've tried flattening in photoshop but
the edges come out all weird...any ideas
thanks
julia

 

[apepp]

...without seeing the art and requirement in question might be a bit tricky to answer, if you can post a screen image link that would help...

...not entirely clear why you need to flatten, but anyway, the only thing that comes to mind is that you can't flatten only the live paint object, you have to flatten the live paint object AND the object it is interacting with that sits underneath...

andrew

 

[apepp]

...my above post is in assumption you are flattening by way of object > flattening transparency?

...or are you flattening by way of the layers palette sub menu?

andrew

 

[apepp]

...worth adding that object > flatten transparency by nature will remove transparency settings anyway...

...but to maintain the "appearance" you have to flatten the target object with the object(s) it interacts with underneath...

andrew

 

[juliams]

i'm so frustrated, i thought i had to flatten image for the printer..
have tried rasterizing but that made the strokes weird and
shaky looking...when i >object flatten transparency, i can use the
image but still have that long dialog box in the layers palette
for every single element in the graphic....
this will be printed straight onto the stock so i'm unclear what you
mean when you say i have to flatten it to the object it's interacting with...
many thanks..julia

 

[apepp]

...ok, trying to clear things up here, from the beginning before too much confusion builds up...

...you trying to "flatten" transparency to be able to print the file, and flattening from within illustrator...

>>> "i thought i had to flatten image for the printer" <<<

...is this a commercial print provider or your own desktop printer?

...either way, flattening typically occurs in the print stream (i.e. behind the scenes) when printing to postscript or saving to EPS format and is not required to be performed from within illustrator itself (unless in very particular circumstances)...

...flattening also occurs when saving to PDF (Acrobat 1.3) (file > save as), any version higher than 1.3 maintains the transparency inside the PDF...

...so in other words, flattening does not takes place in PDF versions 1.4 and higher. However, with a PDF of version 1.4 or higher your commercial print provider needs to support this format in their workflow, so that flattening takes place much later down the line (in their RIP before final output occurs)...

...this is why i'm unclear as to why you are having to flatten transparency from within illustrator itself...

>>> "i'm unclear what you mean when you say i have to flatten it to the object it's interacting with" <<<

...in your initial post, you mention that you lose transparency when trying to flatten a live paint graphic, i took the view you had a transparent effect applied to the live paint object and in turn it was on top of something else...

...when directly trying to flatten that selected live paint graphic the transparent "appearance" disappeared, which it will do, unless you select both the transparent object and the object underneath, so it knows what to flatten to, and maintain the "appearance"...

...anyway, with all that aside, trying to flatten transparency inside of illustrator is rarely required. This brings me back to my question above...

...is this artwork for a commercial print provider or to print to your own desktop printer?

andrew

 

[apepp]

...so, really my two questions are:

...is this artwork for a commercial print provider or to print to your own desktop printer?

...and is somebody else telling you that you need to flatten this artwork "inside" illustrator for some reason?

andrew

 

[apepp]

...to clear this point up:

>>> "when i object > flatten transparency, i can use the image but still have that long dialog box in the layers palette for every single element in the graphic" <<<

...this is normal, as when flattening transparency in illustrator, all the parts get broken up into more sub-layers, so you end up with more layers than you began with...

...in illustrator, you can't "flatten" everything into a "single" object because illustrator is a vector layer based program, much different to photoshop...

...the term "flattening layers" in photoshop "flattens" pixels to a single layer, illustrator just doesn't work that way...

andrew

 

[apepp]

...my other question is:

...is this project something you are trying to get into photoshop because you have to for some reason?

andrew

 

[apepp]

...last question i have is:

...what transparent effect are we talking about here, drop shadow on white, or something other like a mixture of transparent effects?

andrew

 

[eugenetyson]

Give the illustrator files to the printers and let them handle the file for print.

Give them all the fonts you've used and give them all the images you've used. And give them the finished file in Illustrator.

It will cost you a bit more - not much, but you'll get better results.

If you don't know how to do it you need to figure it out. You can buy books like Real World Illustrator for very little.

Like andrew said, it's very hard to tell you how to do it without seeing the artwork.

http://www.doozler.blogspot.com/

 

[apepp]

...one area not to be overlooked in illustrator is the "document raster effects settings" found under the "effect" menu...

...for commercial print, you need to ensure that the color model is CMYK...

...resolution set to high (300dpi), or a custom value set in the "other" field...

...background set to transparent...

...anti-alias turned on...

...preserve spot colors turned on...

...the clipping mask setting isn't required when the transparent option above is turned on...

...the "add space around object" refers to the bounding box required to hold the effect, such as a large drop shadow or large glow value, this prevents the "fade" from clipping to a straight edge (stopping abruptly)...

andrew

 

[juliams]

sorry to be so confusing about such a simple thing...
i need to supply ai files and pdf's to a commercial printer for
a cd cover...my personal flag was raised because when printing
out of my ai file onto my own printer, i got a warning that
said i had artwork that needed to be flattened...
that's where the question came from...
the graphic itself is simple simple simple...
so maybe i don't need to flatten at all, just send it as is to
commercial printing...
i would post the graphic for you to see, but i don't how to do that..
oh embarrassed...thank you all for your time and suggestions..
julia

 

[apepp]

>>> "my personal flag was raised because when printing
out of my ai file onto my own printer, i got a warning that
said i had artwork that needed to be flattened " <<<

...absolutely, this warning appears in the summary section of the print dialog, it merely indicates that flattening will occur on the print stream from illustrator to your printer (or printing to a postscript file)...

...this warning prompts you to ensure that you set the correct flattening preset in the "advanced" section of the print dialog when available (it doesn't specifically say that, but that is what it means), you should always set this to "high resolution" or you can create your own custom preset if printing problems occur...

...so, all in all, the main areas where transparency requires flattening on output are:

> printing from illustrator

> saving to eps format

> saving to PDF 1.3 (acrobat 4)

andrew

 

[apepp]

>>> "so maybe i don't need to flatten at all, just send it as is to
commercial printing" <<<

...yes, sort of, but as mentioned above, ensure your illustrator "document raster effects settings" are set up correctly as this directly affects quality of transparency effects...

...as does setting the correct flattener preset when saving to EPS or PDF 1.3 (Acrobat 4)...

andrew

 

[apepp]

...and as it goes, Adobe could make that flattening warning a bit more descriptive, but once you know the background workings of "transparency flattening" you come to understand that it all occurs behind the scenes, when going from illustrator and out to another format...

...in short, postscript doesn't support transparency, so a intermediate process needs to take place between source and image onto paper...

...further on from this are now new advancements in commercial print workflows, whereby transparency can now be dealt with very late in the workflow using Adobes APPE technology, without flattening taking place, resulting in quicker processing times...

...with such a system, PDF 1.4 and higher can be processed by a commercial printer that supports this workflow...

...the other advantage of "non-flattened" PDF versions is that they are easier to edit later in the workflow, as elements in the artwork are left pretty well intact and not broken up into hard, non-editable regions...

andrew