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Scaling down images to RIP/print, advice please?
Hey folks,
As per the title I’ve always (in my limited time on this job) exported all files at full size from Corel draw as a EPS and then imported into versaworks. This has always worked ok, sometimes they take a few minutes to rip or exports but nothing drastic, on the other hand I think our biggest sign with fair detail is 10m x 2.5m so not massive.
However today I am having a nightmare with a very complex print for the side of the van. It’s only 3.6m x 1330mm.
Tried scaling it down to 10% then blowing up to full size in versaworks. Result was dreadful. Tried 50% pretty much the same/took ages.Just wondering what am doing wrong. Clearly something. As I know others have and must do unless you all have NASA sized computers.
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12 Replies
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Try as a high quality pdf file, or if all else fails, jpeg or tiff at quarter scale
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Try those already, although not at 25%. Will give them a bash.
Wondered if there was perhaps a setting on versaworks that keeps the quality low..Thankfully it will be a one off as it came from a graphic designer and I have no idea what they have done but it must be made up of at least 200 layers. It’s insane.
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Tiff and jpg files tend to rip faster than eps files in versaworks.
What size is the file?
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Well at full size with the graphic saved as a Bitmap with a cut line over the top and exported as EPS we are… 1,708,854KB.. wish me luck haha.
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As a pdf the file size would be much smaller but if it has any transparency effects then versaworks won’t like it.
You could rasterise the image and then place the cutline over the top then save as a pdf.
The file size will be dramatically smaller, and you won’t have any transparency effects.
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I’d remove the cut layer, then save it as a JPG in Photoshop, full size at 175dpi. That should give good results. Then just
open the cut file on it’s own for plotting. -
Here’s what all the fuss was about.
Finally got it printed midday on Saturday. End up saving at as JPEG at full size, adding the cutline on top and exporting as a PDF.Interestingly enough the PDF was only 500,000 KB smaller than the EPS but imported and ripped in less than 5mins. Where as I left the EPS for over an hour and it made it to 20% on the rip.
However I only got half the cut line with the PDF.. and had to do the rest by hand.
Jamie- can you do that? We only have a Roland vs 540 so print and cut, we don’t have a stand alone plotter, so we work off the print file. If I was to add the cut line on separately in future would versaworks marry the two of them up?
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When you say ‘export as a pdf’ do you mean on the export menu or on the publish to pdf menu?
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Were using Corel draw so was exported.. never come across a publish button, doesn’t mean am not doing it without realising though.
It’s mainly down to the graphic designer. 10 million layers and even old layers underneath that had been hidden when showing there customer, but not when they came to us. Never understood that, if we are every designing something and the customer changes a font we don’t type it out on top and hide the old one.. odd way of working personally.
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In there you have lots more control of how the pdf saves ( and file size )
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quote Alex Crosbie:
In there you have lots more control of how the pdf saves ( and file size )
Nice one. Will check it out. Cheers.
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quote Chris Wilson:Jamie- can you do that? We only have a Roland vs 540 so print and cut, we don’t have a stand alone plotter, so we work off the print file. If I was to add the cut line on separately in future would versaworks marry the two of them up?
We do our printing and cutting on separate machines, so as long as the marks for the OPOS are on the print, it works fine. I would have thought that you could load it back in, and run the cut file afterwards, but I’m not familiar with a print & cut workflow.
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