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Exporting .PDF’s for the RIP Software
Hi Everyone!
I was just wondering what .PDF Settings everyone uses for exporting files from the design software into the rip software?
We use Corel Draw for 99% of our design work and will usually export the file at 20% with a slightly modified PDFX3 setting which changes the downsampling from 300dpi to 1200dpi [so by the time it’s been scaled back up to 100% it’s 240dpi].The .PDF then gets dropped into the shared RIP folder and goes upstairs for ripping and printing… As the designer I pretty much lose sight of it at that point but I know that as long as the .PDF looks ok down here then it will rip just fine.
The problem is these files are huge and often take 15+ minutes to save [And thats before they even reach the RIP software] So we’re currently having talks about changing the way we export files entirely. So I thought I’d ask for the general consensus around here?..
-Dan
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6 Replies
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100% @ 300dpi, PDF 2001, fogra 39 colour space – very rarely resize unless workspace issue for illustrator.
Dedicated RIP – onyx v12, i5 3.6mhz PC, SSD drive, 16GB ram (32GB virtual memory).Eats files :smiles: just sent a 1GB wall graphic, RIP’d in under 5minutes
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quote Colin Crabb:just sent a 1GB wall graphic, RIP’d in under 5minutes:shocked: Was that entirely vector graphics? I should have mentioned in my original post that we rarely have an issue unless there are some bitmap elements involved [which is becoming more and more common lately]
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Mainly raster image background with vector overlay. Image flattened as much as possible at the design stage, therefore reducing calculations required when in RIP.
How big are the files? & what kind of network structure are you using? If it taking time to send files across the network, have a look for bottlenecks (firewall / Switches).
Never really had a time issue with the RIP, no other work is done on the PC (standalone RIP) freeing up hard drive space & background process load on the CPU etc for processing postscript files.
Pretty sure Onyx have a whitepaper on maximising RIP speeds.
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quote Colin Crabb:Mainly raster image background with vector overlay. Image flattened as much as possible at the design stage, therefore reducing calculations required when in RIP.
How big are the files? & what kind of network structure are you using? If it taking time to send files across the network, have a look for bottlenecks (firewall / Switches).
Never really had a time issue with the RIP, no other work is done on the PC (standalone RIP) freeing up hard drive space & background process load on the CPU etc for processing postscript files.
Pretty sure Onyx have a whitepaper on maximising RIP speeds.
The main issue with speed is actually as we save the .PDF… once it’s saved everything is fine. [Like most people here it goes off to a standalone RIP computer… which is running Caldera… but like I said, no issues there]
Looking at the file sizes in our RIP hotfolder I can see that out of nearly 1500 files only 5 are above 1GB :awkward:. So given how often we come across this problem, I would suggest file size doesn’t have much to do with it.
Is it faux-pas to ask what your .PDF settings are?
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Is your corel installed on hdd or solid state?
I noticed that after installing corel (for faster opeing etc.) on my 1gb solid state, that it saves things really slowly, I’m sure this is because it uses disc space to ‘work’, I’ll move it when I get a minute.
Sometimes I get the odd file that is a total nightmare and can take ages, usually then crashing. I find this is normally files that are supplied, saved as pdf but the entire working page / view is still in there!
You may already do this but just in case… when saving to a pdf, ( I save from Cdr18 to pdf x1a, ), I ensure all fonts are curves, etc. I don’t bother flattening etc. ensure your page size is set correctly – usually just smaller than the media as required. put your printables in there, delete EVERYTHING else on the page and save it as a fresh cdr file, then convert to pdf for the rip. It makes a huge difference when there’s stuff in the background that you can’t see!
may not be the answer but worth checking
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We save everything to PDFx 1a also, I did read up on the various PDF versions, and x1a seemed to be the one for print, it flattens transparencies (sometimes an issue with rips) converts all objects to CMYK (a discussion for another day RGB vs CMYK)
300dpi is the optimum for litho print, but when printing digitally 150dpi minimum seems to print OK… we did an 8×4 sign yesterday, customer artwork was around 40dpi, looks fine from 6ft away.
I don’t know about Corel but illustrator gives you the option to override the downsampling of images.
Are the images in the document embedded or linked (if that’s a thing in corel) in illustrator you can embed the image, of place it like a link. Embedded seems to work quicker for us.
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