Client Presentation - PDF, Other

Question

Hi, I have a couple questions regarding common practices for
presenting initial web design concepts to clients if using
Fireworks to design (especially CS3 or possibly CS4).
1) If converting a design to PDF for presentation (not sure
if this is just new to CS4), how does one ensure that the client
sees the design at 100% of size?
[The reason I ask is that we currently use Illustrator for
comps/mock-ups and when exporting to PDF and viewing in Acrobat, at
100% view it is way too big. On my computer it has to be viewed at
about 75% to be true to size.]
2) If not using PDF, would you save pages as a high-quality
JPEG?
[When we do this in Illustrator or Photoshop, we lose the
sharpness of the type as it is rasterized. It is definitely
preferable to have the type remain vector if possible.]
3) What other common workflows are used to get a quick page
mock-up to a client?
Thanks a lot. We currently use Illustrator mostly because
everyone has it and is familiar with it. If the new CS4 version of
Fireworks has improved the typographical and color control to more
closely match the rest of the suite, we may be tempted to switch
over. But the final sites will be CMS driven, so creating static
HTML pages is not really the goal here.

Answer 1

Jetro wrote:
> Hi, I have a couple questions regarding common practices
for presenting initial
> web design concepts to clients if using Fireworks to
design (especially CS3 or
> possibly CS4).
>
> 1) If converting a design to PDF for presentation (not
sure if this is just
> new to CS4), how does one ensure that the client sees
the design at 100% of
> size?
> [The reason I ask is that we currently use Illustrator
for comps/mock-ups and
> when exporting to PDF and viewing in Acrobat, at 100%
view it is way too big.
> On my computer it has to be viewed at about 75% to be
true to size.]
>
> 2) If not using PDF, would you save pages as a
high-quality JPEG?
> [When we do this in Illustrator or Photoshop, we lose
the sharpness of the
> type as it is rasterized. It is definitely preferable to
have the type remain
> vector if possible.]
>
> 3) What other common workflows are used to get a quick
page mock-up to a
> client?
>
> Thanks a lot. We currently use Illustrator mostly
because everyone has it and
> is familiar with it. If the new CS4 version of Fireworks
has improved the
> typographical and color control to more closely match
the rest of the suite, we
> may be tempted to switch over. But the final sites will
be CMS driven, so
> creating static HTML pages is not really the goal here.
>
Export to PDF is only available in CS4. I am not sure if you
can set the
default Zoom size at all, but for sure it can't be set in FW.
Perhaps
there is a setting in Acrobat Pro.
You can set text to remain editable, although for on screen
display, it
may still show up as a compressed jpeg, with the editable
type available
once it is selected. (Hope that makes sense). I just did an
export test
and I think things looked pretty decent, at Jpeg Hi, with the
Enable
Text Selection option selected.
If you use hotspots, you can make the PDF interactive which
is handy. It
will support links to other pages or even to web sites.
If not using PDF, you can try exporting your pages 24 bit
flat png
files; that should resolve some of the type quality issues
but your
files will be much larger than the jpeg counterpart.
HTH
Jim Babbage - .:Author, Community MX partner & Adobe
Community Expert:.
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