Illustrator CS3 printing problem

When I print something on illustrator there is always blocks which have a brighter colour on the work and it doesn't seem to be random. I have an inkjet printer, has anyone got any ideas?

Olithe,
To print (reasonably) correctly from Illy you should have a PostScript printer (driver, or at least an emulation of one). Some (older) versions simply refuse to print non PostScript.
You may Save As/Print to PDF and take it from there; You can see whether there are issues on screen.

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Viewing large Illustrator CS3 files problem

I use bridge to browse through previous work in created in Illustrator CS3.
Problem - when viewing these files in Bridge some files (whatever their dimensions) show as large thumbnails and others (with the same AI dimensions) are small and do not seem to stretch in Bridge?
Can anyone explain how to stretch the thumbnail in Bridge.

Sorted - I need to save the CS3 file with 'create pdf compatible file' checked in the options, and it then opens as a large thumbnail in bridge.

Illustrator CS3 printing to pdf as grayscale only

Hi,
I'm pulling my hair out over this one. I'm simply trying to print from Illustrator CS3 to Acrobat 8. It will print colour designs fine, as long as they contain no images. But if I try to print a design with a psd in it, or load a psd into illustrator to print, the whole thing comes out in black and white.
I've just upgraded to Windows 7 64bit but have switched to XP compatability mode for Illustrator, still no luck. I'm not sure Win7 is the issue though as I've had this problem before, in 32bit XP, but can't remember how I resolved it. All the updates are installed.
thanks for any help in advance! Kurt.

Ok the Output pane of the print dialogue pointed me in the right direction. I'd got it working for straight psds with yet another go at updating; but in additions, somehow a Pantone colour was the print output mix in addition to the other 4. I've loaded some completely different client work and it now works fine, so I just need to purge that Pantone and it should all be good.
Thanks very much for the help!

Illustrator CS3 printing to random printer under 10.5.4

Hello,
I recently upgraded to 10.5.4 and now, when I print from Adobe Illustrator CS3 (latest update), it prints to a random printer on my network. This doesn't happen EVERY time, but about every OTHER time. I select my printer (a B&W Xerox) and it prints fine. I then re-print to the same printer, but it goes to another printer on the network (a colour Xerox). This has been happening all day and I've made SURE I'm on the right printer.
I don't know if it's happening from other applications (as I'm only working in Illustrator and doing MANY prints from it right now)?
Has anyone else experience this?
I assume this is just another of the many bugs in CS3 apps as a result of 10.5.x ZERO QC this time around, IMHO.
Regards,
Kristin.

The dock!?? Strange, but makes sense. I'll give that a try -- thank you!
As for random printers... I was running the latest PPC 10.4.x about a month and a half ago with CS3 (13.x) and had occasional problems. (The software here is kept up to date in a timely way.) But since then, we've upgraded to Intel Macs now with 10.5.7, currently running CS 13.0.2, and we see the problem more & more often. I can't be sure if it's happening more because of updated software, or if more is being printed -- I probably go into the Print menu about 100 times a day so it's not easy to keep a mental tally, plus I never thought to jot it down. That and it's difficult to track all the variables... is the dock on... was the file originally created in CS2 or AI8... etc.
Anyway, thanks for your help & dock suggestion! If you or any others have any more ideas, I'll be stalking this forum thread, hoping Adobe (or Apple?) whips out some kind of patch or something!
(Since CS4 is out, would Adobe even bother with updates anymore? We can't upgrade to CS4 until dozens of our counterparts upgrade too, and their equipment isn't CS4-friendly!)

Illustrator CS3 - Print - Output - Wont allow me to select Separations

Hi there
I'm silkscreening for the first time. The prepping process should be really simple right? Separate colour layers, using Illustrator, then print each layer onto transparency sheets. Well I'm about to loose my mind.
The image is CMYK, its a single spot colour (I think) which is red and the outlines are black. Printer is a Canon ix6500.
I can't seem to separate the colours in Illustrator CS3?! Why?! When selecting Print > Output > Mode > it won't allow me to select Colour Separations.
I've tried to overcome this by selecting Printer > Adobe Postscript and PPD > Canon ix6500 series. This allows me to select Colour Separations, but then it won't print, it only saves it as a PDF, and prints it as is.
PLEASE HELP!!! Any advice would be appreciated!! I'm going out of my mind here!!

I'm silkscreening for the first time. The prepping process should be really simple right?
It is. But you're misunderstanding the whole principle of color separation.
Separate colour layers...
No. Forget Layers. Layers has nothing to do with color separations. Think of Layers as nothing but an organizational tool for the stack of objects in your file. Color separation is the generation of a separate print for each ink that will be printed.
...then print each layer onto transparency sheets.
No. The image for each ink is printed on its own sheet.
The image is CMYK...
For clarity, don't call it an image. That makes it difficult to figure out what you're talking about. This is Illustrator; an object-based layout program. Your design can contain any number and combination of raster images, vector paths, and text objects. The word "image" in the context of a program like Illustrator always suggests a raster image object. If you're referring to a raster image object contained in the file, call it that: a raster image. If you're talking about your whole artwork, call it the design or the document. Don't call it "the image".
...its a single spot colour (I think)
That's self-contradictory. Nothing can be CMYK and at the same time a single spot color.
Here's a simple key to understanding color separation: Don't think in terms of "colors." Think entirely in terms of inks. In your immediate context, how many inks are going to be used to print with individual silkscreens?
By definition, a CMYK color is built up by overlaying a combination of up to four specific inks: Process Cyan, Process Magenta, Process Yellow, and Process Black. (Note the word "process" here, refering to "four-color process.")
By definition, a spot color is a Swatch (in Illustrator) which represents a single ink.
So "spot color" and "process color" are antithetical. "CMYK" is germane to process color, not spot color. Although process color can be done by silkscreen printing, spot color is more common, and I'm assuming that's what you are targeting.
So it's simple, when you think like this:
Ask yourself: How many inks are going to be allowed to print this design? (Two: a black ink and a red ink.)
Therefore, create that many (2) Swatches in Illustrator. Make sure they are defined as Spot Color Swatches. Use only those two Swatches in your entire design.
You can name those two Spot Color Swatches anyway you want. It doesn't matter. There is a common misconception that Spot Color Swatches must be named like (or even selected from) Swatches in the Pantone Swatch Library. Not so. Regardless of how you name them, each color separation is going to print to its own separation "plate" and the actual image on that "plate" (or film, or vellum) is going to be black. This is true in both process and spot color. In spot color work, each Spot Color Swatch--again, regardless of how you name it-- is going to be printed to its own "plate" and the image on that plate will be black. The name of the Spot Color Swatches, therefore, is nothing more than a convention by which to convey to the printing house what inks you intend to be used for each separation "plate." Obvously, it makes the most sense to name your Spot Color Swatches according to the names of the actual silkscreen inks that will be used (ex: "Nazdar Fire Red"), if you know them. If not, simply naming them "SpotRed" and "SpotBlack" will be fine.
Which brings me to a point of common confusion with which I think you are struggling: Exactly parallel to the matter of merely naming your Spot Color Swatches is the matter of merely coloring your Spot Color Swatches for on-screen display. There is a common misconception that Spot Color Swatches must be selected from some pre-existing Swatch Library (ex: Panone). Again, not so. So long as you define a Swatch as Spot Color, you can use any "color mixer" to specify any color you want for how it is displayed on-screen. You can color your Spot Color Swatch using either the RGB color sliders, or the CMYK sliders. Again, it does not matter one whit. Using the CMYK sliders to color your Spot Color Swatches does not make it "a CMYK color" (i.e.; a process color). So long as the Swatch is designated a Spot Color Swatch it's still defining a spot color (a single ink) and will print to only one separation "plate". Obviously, it makes the most sense to try to color your Spot Color Swatches to approximate how the actual corresponding ink will look in print. But the truth is, it doesn't matter. You could, for example, use CMYK sliders to color your Spot Color Swatch named "Nazdar Fire Red" so that it looks lime green on screen. If you did, the separation plate would still be labeled "Nazdar Fire Red", and it would still have a black image on it, and the color in the final printed result would simply be a matter of what physical ink the printer loaded his silkscreen with.
Again, to summarize that: Using CMYK sliders to color a Spot Color Swatch does not make it "a CMYK color" in terms of color separation. That is, it does not make it a process color. As long as the Swatch is defined as a Spot Color Swatch, it will print to only one color separation plate.
Finally, Layers: Don't worry at all about which Swatch is used on which Layer. You can have a thousand red fills and/or strokes, and a thousand black fills and/or strokes applied to a kazillion different objects, and those objects can be arranged in any stacking order on any number of Layers, or all on one Layer. It doesn't matter. If you've only defined two Spot Color Swatches, and you've only used those two Swatches in your design, then when you print the design to color separations, you will still only get two separations: one for SpotRed, one for SpotBlack (or whatever you named your Spot Color Swatches).
Printer is a Canon ix6500.
The question regarding your desktop printer is always: Is it a PostScript printer? That is, does it contain a (firmware) PostScript interpreter, or does its driver contain a (software) PostScript interpreter? If not, it can't print color separations. If this is your problem, there is a workaround, and a particularly popular one in screen printing, sign making, and other industries: You can "print" to a PDF "virtual printer" (i.e.; software which pretends to be a printer). If you have Acrobat (that's Acrobat, not Reader) installed, and if you are on Windows, you probably have a virtual printer named Adobe PDF installed. If so, you can select that as your "printer" and "print" color separations to it. If you've built your design correctly the resulting PDF will have one page for each ink. (The image on each page will be black.) You can then print those PDF pages to your non-PostScript printer. (This workflow is quite common in small screen printing shops.)
JET

Illustrator CS3 Prints Grayscale to Roland Versa Works Rip

Ok something must be set-up wrong in Illustrator CS3. When I go to print a color graphic to the Roland VersaWorks software Rip it turn the color graphic into a grayscale image. This happens whether its a .ai file or .eps file. But if I take the same .eps file and add it to the queue under file add to queue in the Versaworks Software RIP it shows up in color. I'm on a Windows XP operating system. The operating system is pretty current and the rip software is up to date.
Maybe its a preference issue does anybody know how to delete your preferences in Windows?
Need help badly

I did change it to display and print colors as rich black in appearance of black in Illustrators preferences.
But that should have nothing to do with it. There has be some other answer for this. What section are u talking about.

CS3 print problems - can anyone help?

A year ago I replaced my G4 with a MacMini - since then I have been unable to print from InDesign or Acrobat (CS3).
My printer was an Epson RX560 - I called Epson after ensuring that I had all the very latest software, they said it must be a problem with Adobe or with the Mac. I called Apple who talked me through various methods to try to resolve the problem. Finally they concluded that it must be a problem with Creative Suite. I called Adobe only to be told that they do not provide support for CS3 anymore!!!
I have struggled on in a very long winded manner (create in InDesign, convert to PDF then convert PDF to Photoshop being the only CS program that I can print from).
I have no problem printing from other software.
Today I bought a new printer and foolishly hoped that this would resolve the problem but sadly not.
Can anyone offer any advice as to how I can resolve this issue. I certainly cannot afford to upgrade to the latest CS version and am very unhappy that Adobe can't or won't offer any advice, after all I paid a LOT of money for this software and shouldn't be hostage to having to upgrade every couple of years.
PLEASE HELP IF YOU CAN.
Much appreciated.
Mac Mini OS X (10.6.8)

Thank you so much. I am midway through a project with a tight deadline so I'll have to wait a few days before trying this but I really appreciate your advice. I will let you know how things go. CHEERS

Illustrator CS3 saving problems

We have recently integrated our MAC's with a new mini MAC sever. Still authenticating on a windows domain and all home areas are network locations on a win2k3 server.
All my Adobe CS3 programs work as you would expect with the exception of Illustrator. I can make a new file under any user name and save it. However if I load that same file up or any other saved file I get errors - some of the errors are on loading the file, ie, plugin's and Parm errors. These all allow me to continue if they show up (not all the time), but no matter what I cannot save the file if I edit it or not. I just get 'UNEXPECTED ERROR SAVING'. I can't save anywhere not to a USB pen, network drive or local HDD. I can save as an eps file but when I go to the location to see what has saved ther is no file there.
I have tried loosing the parameters files and saving as an admin but still the same problem 'Unexpected error saving'. Installed Illustrator and re-installed still the same problem.
Can anyone give me any clues at all please??
Dave S

I am also having problems with a new trial version of Illustrator CS5. Been working fine for several days of trial version, but got a message to run Application Manager today, and had to update/install a new 30 day trial. I cannot save anything, new work, previous work. Am on a PC, window XP, plenty of memory, power,etc Not a great introduction to someone thinking of buying the new program.

CS3 printing problem

Working in CS3 on my Mac, I routinely export PDFs from InDesign for printing at Kinko's or Office Depot or anywhere else I can find a laser printer.
Although I can take the native InDesign file to print, I prefer the more conservative approach and export the PDF.
This system has worked flawlessly until the last month or so. The top margins, while set precisely in InDesign and exported precisely to Acrobat, are printing off by about an eighth of an inch. I've tried printing PDFs at Kinko's and Office Depot and have gotten the same results. At Kinko's I printed the native InDesign files perfectly.
As I have changed none of my output settings, the only thing I can think of is that the discrepancy results from my using Acrobat 8 and the printing folks using Acrobat 9.
Any input? Is this a known problem? Is there a work-around that eliminates my having to update my software?
Thanks for any help.

Ah, yes. I neglected to say that those choices are set in the print dialogue: No scale, and do not center content.

Photoshop CS3 printing problem

Hello all,
One of my client is having problems printing Contact sheets on his color printer.
Here is the scenario;
User opens CS3
File - Automated - Contact Sheet II
Browse to folder where pictures are and selects folder
Contact sheets get created
At this point, the user must select each sheet one by one and change his printer selection to the color printer because each sheet defaults to his B&W laser printer
Collegue uses Photoshop CS and only needs to change printer selection for the first Contact Sheet then switches to the other sheets and presses CTRL-P to print them. If my client does this, the second sheet up to the last sheet would print blank!
Is there a reason why CS3 forces you to change printers for every sheet?
Is there a fix for this?
My client is quadriplegic but has 20% upper body movement. The less manual modifications the better for him.
I know that he can change his default printer to the color before creating the Contact Sheets then change it back but he wanted to see if there was a fix to the problem first.
Thanks in advanced.

Two things:
- Printer settings are "system settings" in the far and wide sense. If the user does not have sufficient privileges, he may not be allowed to change such settings persistently. This might affect sequential printing like in the Contact Sheet automation, where each file is sent separately to the printer.
- The printer driver overrides specific settings. This could e.g. be things like "print first page in a different format", automatic paper selection and a few others. Some of that could even hinge on you choosing a unsuitable paper size and layout in the first place which makes the print engine try to make "smart" decisions about these things. Carefully look through the drivers and take out conflicting settings. also, if your printer allows to store custom settings profiles, maybe use a factory preset instead.
If that doesn't work, you can often install the same printer multiple times with different settings by tying it to a different virtual port or using a different driver, like e.g. one time a winPrint driver and the other a PostScript Driver. This will entail some additional manual work, of course, but might solve the problem.
Mylenium

ILLUSTRATOR CS3 EXPORTING PROBLEM

HELLO, I WAS WONDERING IF ANYONE COULD TELL ME WHAT IM DOING WRONG. IM TRYING TO EXPORT A SELECTED GRAPHIC FROM A CS3 ILLUSTRATOR FILE TO PHOTOSHOP. WHATS HAPPENING IS, INSTEAD OF EXPORTING JUST THE SELECTED ITEM, ITS EXPORTING THE WHOLE PAGE.? I CANT WORK OUT WHAT IM DOING WRONG.

Yo kev, I found the crop area comand in the object menu, on your menu bar at top of screen. I've worked out a crude way of using the "crop area " command to localise objects for exporting.
1. draw a rectangle roughly the size of graphic you want to export.
2. go to, object menu, crop area, make. this should make crop marks over the rectangle youv'e just created.
3. move your graphic ontop of the rectangular area, with crop marks youve just created.
4. file, export.
so far i havent had any problems with this method.
give it a go.

Has Adobe fixed the cs3 print problem yet?

Please don't beat me up for failing to look for answers. I'm far from lazy. I've spent the last two days and nights trying to print out some portraits that came out too vertically elongated any way I printed.
I emailed nasty letters to Epson, feverishly searched the internet, only to discover on the internet that ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CS3 was the problem. Something about not being able to print non-square images proportionately. Squares print out perfectly.
I went back and studied the program. The problem? If you measure the rulers on the screen (thaaaat's right! Physically hold a ruler to the screen!) the side ruler comes up short, so compensates through the printer.
What did I do in the short time I had left? I calculated the fake measures and the real measures, resized the images so they are proportionatly squished and they printed out perfect.
Am I going to have to do squish my work every time I want to print something not square? And please don't tell me that upgrading to cs4 (or whatever) is the answer. I paid money for cs3 and should get what I paid for.
Thanks!

Apparently, your notebook has an option for the type of screen.
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3188
"The E1705 has two options for the screen, a 1440x900 WXGA+ matte screen or a 1920x1200 WUXGA glossy screen."
This is probably why you were able to use the 1920 x 1200 resolution setting.
Joel

ID CS3 Printing Problem

I have a multi-page ID CS 3 document that is set to print in Landscape mode on legal paper. Page 1 prints fine, but pages 2-x rotate the image so they print in Portrait mode. Obviously something is set incorrectly, but I can't figure out what.
The document prints correctly from Acrobat Pro or Preview

Sorry that it was not quite readable. Yes, I have started with a completely different computer and install of windows and adobe products since I originally had the problem.
These problem files are stored on the local hard drive. I'm able to create new files once it opens (takes a long time to open just indesign) and save them, reopening isn't a problem it seems, with a tiny empty file.
This morning I was working on a larger file as it opened overnight. Another bit to add to the information here, once it was open, everything seems to be working well. When I hit save however, things freeze up again and I apparently have to wait.
Thanks for your help!
Krystle

InDesign CS3 + Printing Problem

I have a very simple problem, but am not sure how to solve it. If I ever print more than one copy than anything, InDesign flattens the document that many times before it prints. If I want 100 copies, I must wait for InDesign to flatten and process my brochure 100 times, and THEN it will print. I know there must be something I'm overlooking. Any advice?

You could try creating a PDF and printing that. Might be a bit faster
especially if you flatten the PDF.
Bob

Trust tablet + illustrator CS3 + pressure problem

Hi guys,
I've get recently trust slimline tablet for mac. Using Mac OS X 10.6.2 with adobe cs3. I've installed the tablet, and it works ok with photoshop and does recognize brush pressure and everything. But illustrator doesn't seem to see it - I still can draw and use the pen, but when I'm trying to change calligraphic (or any other) brushes settings to pressure sensitive it's impossible: the only variables working are fixed and random. the pen icon in right bottom corner is crossed. Have contacted trust - and there is no special drivers for illustrator, anyway have installed the newest drivers, have installed illustrator update. restarted everything and so on - and still no result. and photoshop still perfect. Any advice? Maybe I should turn on something different than just brushes settings? Have been trying to find any solutions on forums, but no luck there
Thanks in advance

I got the one for mac. [Slimline design tablet for Mac, 15908, 'Fully compatible with Mac OS tablet']. If it was to be working with windows only would expect it to not work with photoshop and other things as well....

Illustrator CS3 printing problem

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