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Blurry Unclear Images – Illustrator
Sorry for such a basic question but I haven’t been able to find an answer to this.
I am mainly a photoshop guy and I have never really got into Illustrator much. However, when I create brochures for clients I use Illustrator and I just use vector art through out. However, I need to add some images to this brochure I am doing but I can’t get it to be clear when I place it in the Illustrator document.
I am using CS3 for this project. I do the image editing that I have to do in photoshop and then save it as a PSD. I go to Illustrator and place the PSD in the document. It looks really unclear and is even worse if I have to scale it.
Can someone help or does someone know a URL where I can get information on how to put high quality JPEG images or PSDs into a Illustrator document without loosing quality even when the PDF is zoomed in (200-500%)? I am thinking it may be because I am not creating the image correctly in photoshop (resolution) could that be it?
Again, sorry for the basic question. Thanks for the help!
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6 Replies
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In general 300dpi at the actual size you want it to be will be pretty good.
Realize though, as a raster image when it is scaled up- whether in PS, Illustrator or Adobe Acrobat – It will start to get blurrier and lose some detail.
Cheers,
Joe
L.O.A.
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Thank you Joe. I will try the 300DPI image. Is there a quick way to bridge between illustrator and PS. For example: can I create a place holder in illustrator and then edit the placeholder in PS. Basically so it will automatically create the correct size canvas in PS and then I can save it? Does that make sense?
Also, what is the best compression settings for JPEG images when exporting to PDF? (Zip, JPEG or automatic JPEG)
Thanks again!
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To create a ‘place holder’ in PS, first create a box in Illustrator that is the size you want. Then, paint it white or whatever, but have no stroke. Select all the points of the box and copy to the clipboard.
Switch to PS and create a new file. The dialog box should come up with the size of the ‘place holder’ box in clipboard. Set your resolution and you done!
Hope that makes sense and that I understood your question right.
As for JPEG compression, even ‘maximum’ will provide a significant decrease in filesize. At the ‘maximum’ level the artifacts created by the ‘lossy’ JPEG compression will be little to none.
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Thanks Tony! That worked great.
Lastly, I am running into a problem with my fonts. I used verdana throught the presentation so that I didn’t have to outline it. (I did this so it is clear at any zoom, when I outline it, it seems the “l’s” merge together?) However, I needed to use a font that wasn’t a windows standard font and when I outline it, it is blurry and doesn’t have crisp smooth edges when I export it to a PDF. It looks good in Illustrator when I zoom in and out but when I save it as a PDF, it gets all weird looking and jaggy? Any suggestions?
Thanks everyone for your help!
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It’s hard to tell without seeing it, but I’d guess that the text is being rasterized during the PDF creation and the resolution is set too low.
A couple of things:
1) Outlined text or text turned to curves will generally print a little ‘heavier’ than still-a-good-old-font text… especially at smaller sizes. However it should still be sharp and crisp as it is vector data and not dependent on resolution. Headlines will be fine; legal fine print not so much.
2) I forget what number two was going to be… Uhm… Oh! The text will still look sharp in Illustrator, because Illustrator is displaying native art objects. But when you convert to PDF, the text can get beat up. Make sure that your ‘Document Raster Effects Settings’ and, if applicable, your transparency flattening settings are approriate for your output.
Good luck!
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I am having a similar problem exporting a jpeg from illustrator and inserting it in MS Word. The images are blurry. I am saving the file at the maximum quality but nothing changes.
Any help is appreciated.
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