Removing blank or empty area 1

[Vern44]

I have had illustrator8 for years but never got around to using it. Started to play with it today and things are going pretty well except that I cannot get rid of a lot of blank area in my saved files. I can solve the problem by saving the .ai file as a .jpg then opening it in a photo editing package and cropping the image but I can not believe there is not a way to fix it in ai. This was probably caused by starting improperly but I can not see where I went wrong.

I've attached a screen print of the problem. When you select all you see the large blue outline which is the size of the image exported. All I want is the small 400 x 100 image and graphics. Thanks for any help, I'm sure this is very basic stuff to you folks.

I'll be interested to see if my MediaFire upload worked
: < )

Vern

 

[apepp]

...you have a stray point at the top of your image, off the artboard, get rid of that (the blue square dot)...

...also your text with the green and black stroke "white rose engineering" appears to be extending off the left side of your black stroke border. You need to make sure that your text falls within that border so that all will then export to the edge of that black border...

...it appears you have spaces before the words "white rose engineering"...

...once you have fixed to all fall within the black border, you can then export fine...


andrew

============

http://www.apepp.info

============

 

[Vern44]

Andrew,

Thanks for the help, Fixing the blank spaced before the text was no problem and that did align the blue object boxes with the sides of the black outline of the graphic box. However, I have not had much success moving/erasing the little blue dot that defines the top of the blue box (I can no longer get the box outline to appear with select all but the dot still does) How did I manage to create this over sized box in the first place and how do I "get rid" of the blue dot?

Appreciate your taking the time to help me out.

Vern

 

[apepp]

...choose "view > outline", everything will turn to fine black keyline paths, the blue dot will likely turn to a black "x"...

...choose the white arrow tool (direct select tool) and drag over it to select, hit the delete key...



andrew

============

http://www.apepp.info

============

 

[apepp]

...choosing "view > preview" will return you back to color mode...

andrew

============

http://www.apepp.info

============

 

[ERIXWORX]

ver8 has 'make crop area' right? Would that help? (didn't have time to do more than skim the bk-n-forth above)

'There is no LEASH LAW for the IMAGINATION!'
myspace.com/erixworx

 

[Vern44]

I'm using 8.01 which my dimming memory tells me was purchased in the late 1990s. I do not appear to have a view-outline. I do have a view-preview selection which brought out the black outlines with the unwanted blue dot now replaced by a little black x. I selected and deleted this as instructed with your predicted result so all is well for now.

I did spend some time with the help section looking for a crop command the works like all the crop commands I'm familiar with in photo editing software but could not find one. I can place crop marks ( is this the same as mark crop area?) but they can not be edited, only deleted and re-inserted. This looked to me like something a printer would want and I could not see how it would remove or erase parts of a graphic.

Once again, thanks for the help. I should probably upgrade so that I would be working with the same commands you are.

Vern

 

[apepp]

..."object > crop area > make" is the command to define crop areas...

...same way to release crop areas...

...crop areas work for printing or exporting portions of artwork, so would work for what you need...

...you need to define a crop area using a rectangle shape, then choose command...

...this is useful for large poster work that you want to print only a portion of a very large graphic at actual size, it is also useful for exporting to bitmaps...

...you can have only one crop area at a time...

...in any case, it is good practice to keep artwork clean, and at least now you have learnt why you were getting more on export, because of the stray bits hanging around...

...when you start dealing with clipping masks you will also see the benefit of using the crop area command...

andrew

============

http://www.apepp.info

============

 

[apepp]

...for further information, removing parts of vector graphics permanently is far more complicated in vector work than bitmap work...

andrew

============

http://www.apepp.info

============

 

[Vern44]

Great, I have managed to get the various portions of the graphic and photo to individually crop with object-crop marks- make. If I want to save or export the cropped area how do I do that? Once I get to that point I should be able to accomplish most of what I need to do with this software, and get out of everyone's hair : < )

Vern

 

[apepp]

...just use the normal file > export function, the crop area you have made should be honoured on export...



andrew

============

http://www.apepp.info

============