I use Photoshop CS primarily for Web design projects. However, from time to time, I need to put something together for print.
Whenever I use Photoshop for print stuff, the printer always tells me he is going to have re-do it in Illustrator in order to make the fonts clear (the raster vs. bitmap thing).
Anyway, this is a real pain. Is is really true that I have to purchase Illustrator in order to produce clear text when I print? Is there no way in Photoshop to get around this and produce a clean PDF that has text that will look professional when printed?
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A file with text layers, saved as an .EPS with "Include Vector Data" will embed the font’s vector imformation, and will print as sharp as anything from Illustrator – provided your printer isn’t stuck in the 80s. The same holds true of shape layers and any other vector elements in your files.
If you have any doubt, send a test file or two to a reputable service bureau in your town – something of absurdly low resolution (one or two DPI would be grand, to illustrate the point) with some vector type and shapes included – saved as an .EPS. with Vector Data included. Your pixels will likely (if their RIP tried to interpolate as many do) be nice & blurry while your vector elements will be razor sharp. If you don’t get the same results at your printer, you might have a chat with him about who should be making purchses.
PDF works, too, and it’ll automatically make the decision to include the vector data. The caveat to that is that if your printer’s old school enough to think that type has to come from Illustrator to be crisp (vector) then he’s probably still a little scared of PDFs.
Also, what Buko probably meant about not letting him open your files is keep him from opening them with Photoshop, as this will present your printer with a dialog box asking him to pick a resolution at which to rasterise your image – in essense destroying the vector data we’ve been working so hard to include. This holds true for both my EPS and Buko’s PDF. Opening (and printing) a PDF from Reader is perfectly acceptable.
Another question…I was not aware you could save as EPS from Photoshop. When I do a ‘save as’, EPS is not an option. Is there a special place I have to go to save as a EPS?
Now another problem…I am trying to save a file with text layers as an EPS BUT the ‘Include Vector Data’ option is unchecked and greyed out where I can’t check it.
Hate to be a pest but I just discovered another thing…
When I take a file in Photoshop and print it to a PDF (using Mac OS X’s built in capability to print PDFs) and then view it in Acrobat Reader, The text is definitly coming across as a bitmap (I can zoon in and the text is fuzzy around the edges).
I opened one of the PDFs supplied by a designer that was created using Illustrator, and the text is solid when you zoom in.
It is not appearing that PDF is working as I have it. Any ideas?
When I take a file in Photoshop and print it to a PDF (using Mac OS X’s built in capability to print PDFs) and then view it in Acrobat Reader, The text is definitly coming across as a bitmap
make the PDF using photoshop not OSX. save as Photoshop PDF.
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