Printing problems in 9.02 1

[Huckleberry]

I created a new Doc, I change the Document size to 19x13 custom, I change the print setup to the same. Although, the print outline does not cover the entire artbaord. The paper feed to the center of the paper and starts printing.
See print-problem jpg

What am I doing wrong?

 

[Huckleberry]

After reading the help files I found how to adjusted this.
Imagine that, reading help actual works! ;-) LOL

Thanks Any way

 

[Flatmon]

Illustrator has features in the 'Filters' and 'Effects' that i find very useful. For instances, the 'Drop Shadow' and 'Glow' effects are way cool (Can Freehand do that?). The 'Transparency' command is very neat, too. BUT, when it goes out for colour separation, it creates HAVOC! I tested it by creating a PDF file of the artwork and the problem area shows up clearly: Vector graphics become rasterized and 'coarse' looking. Logos become 'broken up', colours go haywire and clients are not paying!

What use are these wonderful features if they cannot be achieved on print? Are there anymore hidden 'trapdoors' we should know about?

Or perhaps i am too dumb to read the "Help" file and the answers are in there. If so, please point me to it.

It's very unnerving to spend good money on a software, spend many hours creating stuffs with it and find that it doesn't really work at all!

Please help!!!

PS: Also, the memory management of an Illustrator file is very irritatingly slow: It takes forever to RIP or print. A similar file done with Freehand or Pagemaker takes only a fraction of the time to print. Eh, why is that?

Thanks for listening to my frustrations.

 

[askIllustrator]

First, please post new topics as new threads.
Next, graphics for print is not rocket science, but it does require you know a little bit about printing standards in order to avoid unexpected results. As "neat" as these typewriter-TV's are its still just a bunch of electronic impulses that merely do what we tell them to do, not what we want them to do. That being said, it is important to recognize the lengths certain developers have gone too in order to make that communication less pourous. As far as being able to convey the ideas in your head to the screen, the entire graphics industry owes a huge debt of gratitude to Steve Jobs and his invention, the personal computer, more specifically the Macintosh. In fact, the only acheivment more note worthy was the invention of postscript (a language for comunicating with a printer in terms of math, not dots.) brought to us by none other than Adobe. The reason I say all this is to iterate the point that Adobe does not simply compete in the graphics industry... they invented it. Adobe may take their time with new features that other apps have had for a version or two, but the reason they do so is to assure these new features will meet the standards of the rest of the industry. Thats why AI didnt see transparency till version 9.
So when I read things like another of adobes standards (.pdf - portable document format or ebook) damaging art created by yet another of Adobes standards, I have to think there is an end user error.

So, fear not. Rest assured that if its built in illustrator, you can only go down in quality and unless your printer doesnt have the same version of AI you do, you wont have to. This is where a good knowledge of the industry comes in handy so you can simulate any effect you want on the press. A drop shadow built in ai should print fine, even from a .pdf, but in case it doesnt, you can rasterize certain elements in your file (at a high enough resolution of course) so that you dont have to include data that could confuse and old RIP. Which leads me to my next point, old RIPS. The industry changes quickly and data comes in many forms and with a little effort and smart shopping, everyone can stay up to speed. There is no excuse for a printer who hasnt bothered to crack open a book for a couple of years and turns around and tells his artist that its their fault that thier state of art graphic turned to sh*t on an old RIP.