Illustrator scaling when saving as PDF

[Les Nemeth]

Scaling down or scaling up?
Not much of an info to go on, but some things comes to mind blind folded are:
– Do you have any masked/invisible items on the page that extends to letter size?
– Do you have your artboard/printable area set correctly?
– Do you have your crop area set correctly?
– I assume you double checked your PDF settings?

That’s all comes to mind. Otherwise you can upload the problem file for a double check.

[Gloria Serena]

Thanks for the reply… I’m sorry for the scant information, I was at work, the files at home. At home, I’m running Adobe Illustrator CS v11.0 (mac based). I tried the design at work, PC based, CS 3 and had the same results–auto-scaling to 8.5×11. There is something I’m doing in one file, that I didn’t do in the others. I’m stumped. I’ve checked and re-checked and as far as I can see, all the preferences are the same.

To reply:

I checked (in outline view) for any stray data and there was none

My document set-up is 8.5×11 but my crop marks are 5×7. When “save as” a pdf, the Adobe pdf is 8.5×11, with the artwork cropped (it’s a bleed). Note: This is the same for the first document–the invitation–which saves as a pdf with all the printer’s marks and no scaling.

Seems no matter how many times I check the “add all trim marks” it seems to discard my crop marks and scale to 8.5×11 automatically w/o the bleed.

I removed the clipping mask (used for viewing) before printing. In preview view, it shows the bleed and the crop marks. When “saved as”, it drops the bleed and crops and scales.

Thanks for your help. Nervous bride girlfriend anxious for the files! Never again.

Gloria

[Les Nemeth]

There are 2 kinds of cropmarks. One is just an effect, which you will find in the Effect menu. That will add 4 little marks to the document, but that is only for visibility reasons. Your document will not be actually cropped to those marks.

The use the “real” crop marks, you need to use Object > Crop Area > Make. That will create a crop region that will actually be recognized.

Make sure you won’t confuse the two.

[Gloria Serena]

Hello Les and thanks for the replies….

I’m sure that they are the real crops. I’m at work, but when home, I’m going to check on the layers. Perhaps the crop is in the front/top layer.

[Gloria Serena]

ARRGH! I’m getting so frustrated!

I tried relaying the RSVP. Even converted the fonts to outlines thinking perhaps it was the scaling on the text box (which was huge 250% and extended off the 8.5×11 document) and STILL when saving as a pdf it crops. Also, interestingly, it won’t print with crops directly from Illustrator unless I scale. (And yet the invitation, with text box out the wazoo, prints to pdf just fine and directly out of Illustrator just fine.)

I’ve looked high and low and can’t find any stray pieces/data that would cause it to read outside the 8.5×11. Even saved the invitation pdf, deleted everything and tried from there (it’s a very basic desgin). Still it crops.

Anyone have any ideas left?

[Les Nemeth]

You can post the file if you want to.

[Stuart Gill]

I concur with Les, it sounds like it might be better to post the file for some of us to see what the problem could be?